One of the delights of Chicago’s Northwest Side is the preponderance of Filipino restaurants. Drive through Albany Park, and you’ll find a bounty of mom-and-pop businesses serving up lechon, pancit and silog plates.
The food of the Phillippines is a bit like that of Cuba — rice-based, pork and tropical fruit-centric, a bit sweeter, a bit more vinegary, not so much emphasis on spiciness. In terms of cooking that’s unfamiliar to the masses, Filipino cuisine is one of the more accessible to the uninitiated.
This weekend’s festival in Logan Square will serve as a good Pinoy cuisine primer. Kultura, a Filipino-American food and arts festival, will take place Sunday, Oct. 4, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Emporium Arcade Bar (2363 N. Milwaukee Ave.). Tickets are $10 ($5 for students and seniors).
Several recognizable names will be serving food, including Kristine Subido, the chef behind the late Pecking Order (now Pecking Order Catering); Rodelio Aglibot of E+O Restaurant in Mount Prospect; and Bryan Collante of Untitled Supper Club in River North. More information can be found here.
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