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Tucson is home to less Filipino restaurants than the fingers on my hand, but it’s not because our Filipino community members aren’t here. Kei Ann Mandanas can prove it.
For the second year in a row, Kei Ann — who owns home bakery Ate Kei’s Filipino Treats — is throwing Sabor ng Bayan, a celebration of Filipino culture. Kei Ann looks at it as a big Filipino house party, a space that’s both safe and supportive.
“When I was starting my business, in the beginning it was because I wanted to promote Filipino culture to say we’re here,” Kei Ann says. “But the more I did it, I was like, there’s a lot more of us here than I thought there were. I want us all to come together. We’re supporting each other, we’re promoting our culture and our food and there’s more to us than just adobo and lumpia.”
Sabor ng Bayan — which translates to “flavor of the nation” in Tagalog — will take place 5-9 p.m. Friday, Nov. 7 at the Fourth Avenue Coalition Space, 311 E. Seventh St. Expect two food trucks, eight vendors, performances, a lumpia-eating contest, a clothing swap and karaoke to close out the night.
“Last year was more of a, ‘Hey, let’s do a trial and see who would come.’ What’s really awesome — and we weren’t expecting much, we just wanted to get together — is that people came, more people than we thought,” Kei Ann says. “I think that got us really excited. Like, ‘Hey, this could be a real thing.’”
On the list of vendors:
- Nick’s Sari-Sari Store — Filipino food truck with a brick-and-mortar on the east side
- Rice for Breakfast — New-ish Filipino street food vendor
- Ate Kei’s Filipino Treats — the organizer of the event and the baker behind Filipino-inspired sweet treats
- Momotin Studio — kawaii stickers, bookmarks, phone grips, keychains and more
- Kubuli Crafts — freeze-dried candy in Filipino flavors
- Pamilihan Pinoy Asian Store — Filipino snacks
- The Hiding Ghost — adorable bags, stickers, pins and apparel
- Earth’s Freckles Ceramics — small-batch ceramics
- Hot Street Cheese — drawings and illustrations
- Bite — ice cream and sourdough, possibly in flavors like ube
Really, Truly will not only emcee the event but will take the stage to sing. Other performances include a traditional Filipino dance and a singing performance from Kei Ann’s dad. Near the end of the event, the stage will open up for karaoke.
“There’s also the bayanihan event which is the clothing swap, which is us helping each other and taking care of each other. We’re doing a clothing swap for people who want to participate but anything leftover is going to Community On Wheels and Community Care Tucson for our houseless neighbors,” Kei Ann says. “I’m really excited about that — yes, it’s the holidays but it’s in the spirit of taking care of each other and you don’t have to do it just that one time (during the holiday season).”
Until she was 12 years old, Kei Ann lived in the Philippines and was raised in Cagayan, a province on the northern side of the country. She spent hours in the kitchen alongside her grandparents, learning how to make the food she loves. Nanay, her paternal grandma, loves to cook.
“That’s the way she shows us she loves us and cares about us is through her food and I’ve always been intrigued,” Kei Ann says. “A lot of it (comes from) the women in my family, but my dad and my grandpa — they can cook too.”
Kei Ann’s dad was a nurse in the Philippines but left the island around 2000 to better provide for his family. He initially landed a nursing job in the UK but fell in love with Tucson and never looked back. Kei Ann came with in 2010.
By 2023, she found herself wanting to be a bigger part of the community. She started her bakery to feel a slice of home while sharing her culture with Tucsonans. She’s known for her treats inspired by Filipino flavors — ube brownies, buko pandan cookies and other base pastries that people not as familiar with Filipino cuisine are comfortable with.
“I initially started with cookies because I wanted people to get curious and then from there, promote more traditional desserts, which I’m starting to do now because people are like, ‘I tried the cookies and they’re really good. I bet the putos are really good,’” Kei Ann says. “I’m starting to see more and more people open to that. So part of it is, I want to promote the culture, the flavors and the foods. But depending where you’re from, the Philippines has different dishes as well. I’m trying to show we’re not just a one-flavor profile — there’s more. I’m just trying to hopefully broaden people’s perspective and hopefully they’re more willing to try new things.”
Things came full circle in June when Kei Ann’s mom moved to Tucson. Not only does her mom live with her, the two now get to cook alongside one another. In fact, Kei Ann’s puto (steamed rice cake) recipe comes from her maternal grandpa. Kei Ann’s mom used to sell it in the Philippines and now she’s bringing it to life in Tucson.
“I do this because I love baking and it makes me happy. I love giving you food — that’s every Filipino’s love language,” Kei Ann says. “Food is part of any celebration and, in essence, it feels like I’m still home.”
Kei Ann’s favorite Filipino food at the moment is sisig, a dish often made with pork and sometimes chicken liver. While you can order sisig atop fries at J’s Kitchen in Sierra Vista, you might only find it on Saturdays at Tucson’s sole Filipino brick-and-mortar restaurant, Nick’s Sari-Sari Store, 2001 S. Craycroft Rd.
“Realistically, if you think about how we came about in the U.S. to begin with — from Philippine farmers in Hawaii to the culture of overseas Filipino workers — we come here to become nurses and caregivers, that kind of line of work. I think when you get here, you don’t really have a lot of money to start. It’s just, ‘I gotta figure this out because I have family to feed back home that’s depending on me.’ I think that’s one of the contributing factors in why you don’t see (Filipino restaurants in Tucson) prominently.
“But Filipino food is still here. It’s in gatherings, you bring the food to work. There are a lot of Filipinos that cater, a lot of Filipinos that sell food to family friends. It doesn’t seem as visible on the surface, but it’s going on. It’s not necessarily that the want isn’t there. It’s, ‘How do I get to the want?’”
Although traveling to the Philippines has been too costly in the past, Kei Ann is now able to visit the Philippines once a year to spend time with her grandparents and indulge in the food. Filipinos are innovative, she says, and she loves trying the new flavor combinations that people have come up with. She often uses her trips to the Philippines as inspiration for her own bakery.
“My favorite thing about the Philippines is probably that there’s that sense of community and care for each other. You know the people within your neighborhood. When somebody needs help, you help each other out,” Kei Ann says. “It’s the fact that people are always so happy and that’s not to say we don’t go through anything challenging, but we always find a way to persist through it because we laugh. That’s kind of our way of coping, but we laugh because we know it will pass because we know we’re strong and we will get through it, especially because we know we can rely on each other.
“Every time I go (to the Philippines), I laugh a year’s worth of laughs. It’s not necessarily that I don’t see any struggles there or that I turn a blind eye, but we’re going through all this stuff and we still manage to laugh and be grateful for the things we do have. That’s strength to me,” she says.
🇵🇭 Sabor ng Bayan will take place 5-9 p.m. Friday, Nov. 7 at the Fourth Avenue Coalition Space, 311 E. Seventh St. Find more information here. To see where Ate Kei’s Filipino Treats will be next, visit Kei Ann’s website or Instagram. 🇵🇭
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