LASA: Filipino Essays on Hunger, Power, and Who Gets Fed

LASA: Filipino Essays on Hunger, Power, and Who Gets Fed LASA is where Filipino food, taste, and memory stay in one place. I’m Chef Rob, a Filipino food writer and chef. I read dishes like documents. It records power.

Essays, field notes, and kitchen stories from real kitchens, family arguments, and quiet tables, for anyone who knows rice, sabaw, and sawsawan hold the stories we refuse to let fade. I ask who profits, whose work disappears, and what we have been trained to swallow without noticing the cost. My kitchen work informs the page. Heat, timing, and labor shape how I write about taste. I learned from Filipino scholars who treated taste as method. They followed Lasa to class, to colonial rule, to the gatekeepers of “authentic.” Their work set my path. Food is never neutral. My essays trace those records in markets, in dining rooms, and in the small math of a family table.

Sambong And Lagundi In A Childs Herbal EducationInside the barangay health center it smells mostly of rubbing alcohol. B...
05/01/2026

Sambong And Lagundi In A Childs Herbal Education

Inside the barangay health center it smells mostly of rubbing alcohol. Boiled leaves leave a fainter smell behind it. Under the open window, a low table holds a plastic basin. Fresh herbs lie on old newspaper beside it. A row of small plastic chairs stands near the basin. Children fill each seat and lean forward.

A community health worker in a faded green vest lifts a stem of sambong. The leaves look soft from a distance. Seen up close, the edges show tiny teeth while the surface holds a faint fuzz. She crushes one leaf between her fingers. A sharp smell escapes, like camphor with a hint of wet ground...

https://www.walanglasa.ph/sambong-lagundi-childs-herbal-education/

Pinggang Pinoy on The WallSteam from the rice pot clouds the plastic menu taped to the glass. Inside the carinderia, sun...
21/12/2025

Pinggang Pinoy on The Wall

Steam from the rice pot clouds the plastic menu taped to the glass. Inside the carinderia, sunlight lands on the metal trays and leaves the corners dim. A fan turns above the calendar with its pale saints. The air holds the sharp edge of patis.

A poster hangs on one nail beside the price list. The paper curls where grease has touched it. The poster prints a plate at the center. A glass of water sits near the rim.

Below it, two small saucers wait for sawsawan. One holds patis. Another holds toyo. The rims carry old scratches from spoons that have scraped for years. A damp rag hangs from a hook. It smells of soap and yesterday’s heat.

https://www.walanglasa.ph/pinggang-pinoy-carinderia/

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