How tweeting about Filipino food turned into a trip to Los Angeles

When I first signed up for a twitter account a few years ago, never did I imagine i’d be having an ube cupcake from a Filipino food truck 400 miles away. Filipino food trucks didn’t even exist back then.

I also didn’t think i’d be meeting Filipino food lovers in my local area either. I met @joanneisafoodie, @mrfredbriones, @phatpanda650, @inuyaki, @the_jenius, and @junbelen in just one weekend. Thanks to their tweets to each other at a Filipino food event we all happened to attend.

That was May 15, 2010. Since then we’ve been tweeting and retweeting each other. And in doing so they introduced me to another group of Filipino food lovers on twitter, based out of Southern California. Back then, even after meeting this Bay Area group, I still couldn’t imagine i’d be making a trip to Los Angeles to meet the Southern California group too!

White Champorado. From the White Rabbit Cafe in Los Angeles.

Before the trip…

Two special tweat-ups came out of a Filipino food tweat-up by @joanneisafoodie:

1) Filipino Dishcrawls held by @joanneisafoodie and @ladyleet.
2) Longganisa Summits, named after the Filipino word for “swordfest” & “sausage factory.”

During one of these tweat-ups @mrfredbriones asked, “wouldn’t it be cool if we met the twitter folks in LA?”. @joanneisafoodie mentioned it would be her birthday in about a month. So after some tweets and some emails the “Bay to LA” trip was born.

Here are just a few photos and links from that awesome trip we took this past March. Almost a whole year after we all met on twitter.

The Bay to LA trip!

On our 1st night, we attended the San Gabriel Valley Food truck fest, set in the middle of a huge go-cart race track. About a dozen or more food trucks were there. Including LA’s first Filipino food truck: The Manila Machine (@manilamachine). It was at this truck that we met @limer35 for the first time in person, who introduced us to the rest of the great LA food trucks there.

Another LA Filipino food truck: Tapa Boy LA! (@tapaboyla) Huge helpings of classic Filipino silogs.

I still owe @limer35 a beer. He gave up all social networking for Lent so i’ll have to email him lol.

We also got to meet the Mario Brothers. Here they are with the Filipino brothers, @mrfredbriones and @phatpanda650 from the Bay Area.

Day 2 involved a huge, meaty picnic catered by The Park’s Finest BBQ (@theparksfinest). It was here where we got to meet @carolineadobo, @nuts4pilinuts, and @pleasurepalate, who put this all together.

The Park’s Finest cornbread bibingka was addicting. If given the chance, I would have eaten the whole tray.

@carolineadobo blessed us with an opportunity to try her “Halo Halo Tres Leches Cake with Ube Creme” along with her leche flan. We decided to merge both by placing one on top of the other. Be sure to check out her post on “Ube Coconut Rice Balls“.

There’s more…

The rest of my photos didn’t come out too well, but luckily @joanneisafoodie covered it all below. An extensive post about the trip, complete with photos of the dishes we tried from Friday to Sunday:

http://jobostonisafoodie.blogspot.com/2011/03/bay2la-when-nor-cal-met-so-cal.html

Manila Machine’s Longanisa Slider and Manila Dip Adobo Slider. Photo by Jo of Jobostonisafoodie.blogspot.com.

For a closer look at our picnic with The Park’s Finest BBQ, read @pleasurepalate’s post of each of the fixins’ provided for us that day below:

http://pleasurepalate.blogspot.com/2011/03/norcal-and-socal-filipino-tweatup-with.html

At The Park’s Finest BBQ tweat-up. Photo by Abby of Pleasurepalate.blogspot.com.

Did I mention @mrfredbriones and I drove all the way down to LA? It was definitely worth the drive, even after getting lost inside the belly of California’s central valley. Check out @mrfredbriones’ post for photos and more:

http://ilovesisig.blogspot.com/2011/03/bay2la-foodie-roadtrip-2011.html

The Bay twitter folks with LA’s Grill ‘Em All Truck! Photo by Fred from Ilovesisig.blogspot.com.

And last but certainly not least @nuts4pilinuts’ post about our tweet-ups that weekend. It greatly summarizes the trip, and how twitter and food brought us together:

“I connected voices to faces to tweets. I now read tweets with that person’s voice & inflections in my head. The camaraderie was easy, relaxed and familial. Banter bouncing back and forth much like what occurs in twitterverse. It feels like a grand reunion of the cousins and I’m glad I’m part of it.”

http://cogitationproject.wordpress.com/2011/03/15/bay2la/

Photo collage by Emilie from Cogitationproject.wordpress.com.

In the end, I highly recommend you eat and tweet about the Filipino food you have. Side effects may vary, but instead of hypertension you’ll get a nice dosage of Filipino hospitality.

LA twitterers we met:
Abby – @pleasurepalate
Caroline – @carolineadobo
Emilie – @nuts4pilinuts
Malou – @malou_nievera
Reese – @nerissas
Remil – @LIMER35
Wasima – @wasima1

Bay Area twitterers:
Fred – @mrfredbriones
Joanne – @joanneisafoodie
Keaton – @phatpanda650
Tina – @CeeEsBee

The Bay/LA hybrid twitterers =):
Arnold – @inuyaki (An LA native who lives in the Bay)
Steve – @asianclarkkent (A Bay native who lives in LA)

The men of the Longganisa Summit:
Ron – @uncleclemsfood
Chris – @angcolette
Leroid – @leroid
Dean – @jediDMA
Rich – @r1chsy

Be sure to follow @filipinofood on twitter!