Promoting Filipino food

SASKATOON—Festivals and other outdoor events are back in Saskatchewan after the provincial government rescinded the health restrictions that were put in place during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. And last August 7 and 8, the inaugural Filipino Music and Food Street Festival was held in downtown Saskatoon where the local Filipino community came out and celebrated the weekend.

Even non-Pinoys joined the festivities and can be seen falling in line with several food vendors to sample our local dish. Food items such as Lechon (roasted pig), pancit (noodles), grilled pork belly, crispy fried chicken skin, Filipino-style dumplings, lumpia (spring rolls), taho (soy milk with caramelized sugar), and banana cue (sweetened fried bananas) were some of those sold.

There were also booths to entertain the kids with balloon animal-making and face painting while a Filipino dance group under the Filipino-Canadian Association of Saskatchewan performed Philippine folk dances and another group showed their Zumba fitness moves to the delight of the crowd.

Chris Rodriguez, known in the local Filipino community as Chris Rod, said he and his business partner Ferdinand Mendoza organized the event in three weeks since they were waiting for the provincial government’s announcement on its plans to slowly ease the COVID-19 restrictions and reopen Saskatchewan. Reopening the province means the return of all outdoor events and large gatherings

“When the provincial government announced that restrictions will be lifted, my partner [Mendoza} and I talked it over. We said let’s do a festival since we want everybody to come out and have fun. That’s what happened, but there’s some uncertainty after the restrictions were lifted,” said Rodriguez.

“We applied for a permit and the other festivals also announced they are going to do outdoor events, so we decided to do it. This is just three weeks of planning and we only got a few supporters from the private sector, but the turnout was overwhelming for us.”

Even Philippine Consul General Zaldy Patron made the trip from Calgary to join in the festivities. He said that it was surprising to see that not only Filipinos showed their support. “I’m happy that this event took place since this showed to the people of Saskatoon our culture through our music and food.”

“I have seen a large turnout of people watching the event and I'm very happy to see even the non-Filipinos lining up to taste and try our Filipino food and other dishes. We also saw a lot of Filipino performers so it's surprising that even here in Saskatoon, we have a lot of talented Filipinos. I hope that this becomes become an annual event because we can see that this is well supported by the community.”

There’s a significant number of Filipinos in the province. Based on the 2016 Canadian census, an estimated 32,000 Filipinos are currently living in Saskatchewan with more than 12,000 in Saskatoon and another 9,000 in Regina.

Expect the food and music festival to be an annual thing that would feature tasty Filipino dishes. The Filipino community also celebrates the Filipino-Canadian Heritage Month every June 12 and has been joining a heritage festival that features the various communities—Ukrainian, Indian, Filipino, Vietnamese, Chinese, etc.—that make Saskatoon a melting pot of cultures.