Bad Saint: The Nation's Capital Endorses My Mom's Filipino Food

I think that Filipino food,

to someone who's never had it before,

is going to feel new and yet familiar.

Because there's so many culinary influences

in Filipino food that lots of people have had before,

like Mexican food or Spanish food or Mediterranean food.

Malaysian food, even, maybe.

It's a little bit like a lot of things.

Kind of weaving them together

into something that's, itself, totally different.

Bad Saint was inspired by this

coastal fishing village in Louisiana

that's called Saint Malo.

It was the first permanent settlement

of Filipinos in the United States

and, even though our chef, Tom, was born in the Philippines,

I think that Tom and I would say that

we're Filipino-Americans.

There was something we liked about our name

being Filipino-American, too.

We try to highlight dishes that are

from all different parts of the country.

We have this dish on the menu called cande maranao

and it's from the Maranao ethnic group

and it's really spicy.

It's made with burnt coconut,

which is a very common condiment

that this ethnic group uses.

Really full of flavor.

But it's also not a dish any of us grew up eating.

And that's what we are trying to do with the menu, as well,

is have some dishes that are

familiar to Filipino-Americans,

but also have dishes that would be new to almost everyone,

including us, because that's part of

the fun experience for us in this restaurant

is that we don't know everything about it.

So, then, for us it becomes just as much of a discovery

as for guests who are coming in

and have never had Filipino food before.