For our Filipino food episode [E7], we asked our listeners to call in to our Google voice number to talk to us about their relationships with Filipino food. And y'all really rose to the occasion! We got a lot of voicemails, so we put our favorite ones together. The messages form a really beautiful narrative about the cuisine and the place it has in people's hearts; one that we think everyone can relate to in some way.

For years, we've been hearing from the food media that Filipino cuisine is the "next big thing;" that it would only be a matter of time before it "arrived." To hash that all out, we talked to a bunch of Pinoys! First, our producer, Alan Montecillo; then we patched in Sarahlynn Pablo & Natalia Roxas of the website, Filipino Kitchen. They all walked us through the history of Filipino cuisine and the meaning it holds for Filipino Americans today. And of course, we went back and forth on the question of whether or not validation from Western society matters all that much, in the end.

We start with a brief conversation about Pokemon Go, #BlackLivesMatter, and the place of politics in food media. Then we interview Emiko Badillo, one of the owners of Food Fight, the first vegan grocery store in Portland. She also started Vegans of Color and is a COOL LADY DRUMMER! She talks to us about lifestyle veganism vs. political veganism, the "double trouble" of being a racial as well as a political minority, and how human-centered social justice can have a place within veganism, too.