Food Roots

- "Food Roots" was made possibl by the support of the Rossin Foundation, empowering potential.

Asian Real Estate Association of America helping to change lives through real estate.

The WK Kellogg Company, Melinda McMullen, & Duncan Kime.

[tribal music] [upbeat music] [upbeat music] - After such long travels, all the way up this incredibly remote mountain, there's definitely nothing around This doesn't happen to people.

Doesn't happen to me.

It's kind of like a dream But this is sort of going back in time.

- We're on film.

[background sounds] - Chillin' in in the Philippines - We are so noisy.

- We've ate so much, chicken, barbecue, pig, different Filipino dishes, really, really like.

- I remember living in the Philippines for, for a while, a lot of good and a lot of bad since that time.

But at this moment, I was at a major turning point.

[gentle music] - We're just chilling out here.

So I wanted to get it on tape.

[upbeat music] - My name is Billy Dec.

I'm Filipino-American I am a restaurateur, nightclub owner, entrepreneur.

born and raised in the city of Chicago - Here's the real mayor of Chicago.

Billy Dec, what's up brother?

- Thank you, thank you, thank you, this goes to Chicago.

Currently living in Nashville.

I became a lawyer I like to share recipes and stories on TV.

- Please welcome the fabulous, Billy Dec, hey Billy.

- Oh yes, hi!

[audience applause] - Billy Dec, we love you!

- I mean, I was growing up and he was always like popping up in TV shows.

My mom would be very excited.

- Oh my God!

[laughing] - We'd save like every like magazine he'd pop up on.

[upbeat music] - Cheese!

[laughing] - And I can't believe he was part of the White House.

- I was appointed to the President's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders - I want to thank Billy Dec, we are so grateful to him that we've got young entrepreneurs who are making it happen like this.

Thank you, Billy.

[upbeat music] - All right, so hit me.

- I've been working with Billy for almost five years now.

- Whatever... - You know, he's a powerhouse and he's an amazing boss.

And every day I'm learning something new, and it's been a great journey so far.

So much is going on, you know, the restaurants and new restaurants.

- Yea!

Whoo!

- How ya'll doing?

- TV shows.

- We're making drinks again!

[shouting] - So yeah, there's things.

[laughs] [mellow music] - So it's ah, Thursday.

We got 214 on the books.

Our pop is going to happen about 6.30, go until about 8:00.

[mellow music] - Billy's my big kuya.

- Ya'll know Pancit Canton?

Some people call it, Pancit.

It's called, Pancit.

- I actually met him working at Sunda.

What?

14 years ago when we started together.

Filipino food was not cool back then.

Filipino food never had the light of day because it was always made like, very humble.

And Sunda was like one of those places where the Filipino aspect is, like, intricate and it's all over the menu.

So Chicken Inasal has been on the menu for a really long time.

It's a great introduction to Filipino food.

Filipino food has so many influences.

There's Spanish, Chinese influences, Indian, and the list just keeps going on.

- I want to know more about this dish, Chicken Inasal."

I've never heard of it before, what is it?

- Cooking on national food shows many times has made it very hard to bring Filipino food to the forefront.

For instance, if I was trying to make my Lumpia, instead of calling it Lumpia Sariwa, they asked me to call it, vegetables rolls.

But this was one of the first items I was able to say, Chicken Inasal.

You know, I was able to give it its proper Filipino name, and now the doors are really open because Filipino food has become super intriguing.

[music fades] - When we first opened it was outwardly a product of the really great reputation we'd created for edgy, fun, highly designed, upscale, cool, delicious places to eat.

And I strategically approached it where it was one-third Japanese, one-third Chinese, and then the last one-third was Southeast Asian countries that the Philippines was slipped into, because sadly, Filipino restaurants would fail.

[upbeat, edgy music] - Most of the time, Filipino food is mom-and-pop shops.

Nothing was, like, fancy or anything and now all these chefs have elevated it.

You're getting all the flavor profiles.

You get the sweet, salty, acidic, sour.

People are actually liking it and like wanting it now.

It's good for us, it's great for our culture.

Now we're like a thing, which is crazy, but actually I, I got cheated.

I thought my aunt made the best pineapple cheesecake in the world.

And then I grew up then I'm like, "Hey Tita what did you put in that?

She goes, "Oh, just looking at the back of the Philadelphia Cream Cheese box."

I'm like, wait, what?

[laughing] - We've always been very food-focused.

- Who are a big foodie family.

I'm sure that's where Billy gets a lot of that from.

- I love food, and food for us was Filipino food or things my dad would bring from outside.

Food was an obsessive part of his life and then ours.

Dinner conversation was about food and more food and business.

It was food and business, food and business.

- My dad started with nothing.

My mom came here with nothing.

Right around 5th grade he started a Chinese restaurant with my mom.

It's called "Suzy Wong's" That's where I worked in the coat check.

[chuckles] Oh my gosh.

This is when I was a coat check kid.

This is Lola, me, and Anthony at Suzy Wong's.

My Lola would come with me.

My Lola, I remember the first couple of times, would sit in the coat check with me, like we would hang up coats.

- I think a lot of caring for family comes from us growing up with my Lola.

Like, my Lola was all about family.

She was everything to me growing up.

I mean, she did everything.

She was like a mom, alongside my mom.

But my mom also worked a lot.

- And so I was raised by my Lola, which means grandmother in Tagalog.

- So Lola, she always feeds me too much.

[laughing] She was celebrated by everyone as this amazing cook but an amazing spirit.

She was always smiling, always bright, always giving always feeding, [chuckles] and she raised us.

- She's the good cook.

[laughing] - Everyone knew her for her cooking.

- I always say my first restaurant job was as a coat check kid in this Chinese restaurant, Suzy Wong's.

But Anthony, my brother, created a restaurant in our house called, Anthony's and I worked there [chuckles] and I served.

And Anthony kind of owned it and he charged, but like coffee was like $8.

Cause we had no idea how to make coffee.

[laughing] Finally, mom and dad shut us down because they were tired of us charging them every morning.

So my brother and I looked like brothers.

We looked the same.

We just didn't look like anyone else.

So we really didn't look like the white side, the 6 foot and over blonde hair, blue eye side, and we didn't look like the very dark, Bumanglag side.

We didn't look like anyone.

So it was kind of like we were these two ambiguously brown kids.

For us, it was always like, well, what are you?

Where, where, where are you from?

Even when I was bullied in school, the names I was being called were every derogatory name you could imagine, but never anything related to Filipino, which was very confusing.

- My Lola raised me on Filipino food, which I loved and adored until I was extremely bullied for the way it smelled and looked.

And I used to be really upset.

I'd be like, "Why can't we have what I see when I go to their house?

They have pizza bagels and, you know, pop tarts, and we have shrimp with the heads on it, and fish that has been out there all day.

[chuckles] It's just different.

That's when I started becoming really self-conscious about it and ashamed.

- So Billy is 11 years older than me.

- Growing up, he was very protective, always trying to lead me in the right path.

Really like a father figure.

- When I'd carpool Leilani to school, I would show... I'd like make a muscle and make the kids say, "If anyone bullies my sister, show them this is how big his brother's muscle is, [chuckles] and it'll be wrapped around their neck."

- I mean, my parents got divorced when I was, like, in 4th grade.

So when we talk about Billy and Billy's role on the family, he really was kind of like that father figure because my brother and my father battled with manic depression.

So lots of times he would have to step in and take care of everyone.

- This was like probably the last formal portrait in the house that we grew up in.

- Um-hmm.

- And then I think after this it will.

[sighs] My senior year of high school, family all sort of fell apart.

My dad would be kind of gone for months in a hospital.

As I look back on it, there were many ups and downs, similar to the way in which he was feeling.

[TV sounds] He was quite smart, magnetic, a savant almost in the world of real estate.

- This is the day before the think tank.

We're all gonna go out there, think.

And then we're gonna figure out what we're gonna do.

- But those peaks came with valleys.

We would be well off one year, live in a gigantic house, like the perfect family, and he would lose it all the next year.

It was really hard, and I didn't know what it was back then.

People just said your dad's crazy or he's nuts.

But nowadays, when you learn about bipolar disorders, mental illnesses, and different challenges, you're like, "Damn."

None of us knew what was going on.

My mom was taking care of Leilani and doing an amazing job.

I mean, she was amazing.

And she, of course, unconditionally loved Anthony, my brother.

She even took care of my dad, even though they had divorced.

But I think it's in our culture and our DNA.

She took care of everyone.

But financially, and I think if something bad happens or someone is in a very bad place, it was on me.

There's no one else.

[mellow music] - In college, I really started to understand how much I missed my Lola and Filipino food.

Lola what's in that?

And she, during that time, sadly died of cancer quite quickly.

And she never wrote her recipes down.

But I always felt guilty that I never learned these things, especially being a restaurateur who serves Filipino food.

I know a good handful of items.

But where are the family recipes?

The best cook shared with the world.

And in my mind, I always thought, well, she grew up in a family of a handful of sisters they were all amazing cooks.

- Hi... bye.

- One more minute.

- Time had been going by.

One day, two of my last three elders died on the same day.

We only have one elder left of that generation, Lola Pilar.

And in my mind, I was like, "What am I doing?"

So I literally dropped everything.

I booked a flight to the Philippines, and I was just going to learn as much as possible.

And hopefully learn some things that my Lola cooked that were passed down to other folks in the family, but not me.

[airport sounds] [playing "Bebot" by the Black Eyed Peas] [playing "Bebot" by the Black Eyed Peas] - Throughout our life, we would always go back and forth to the Philippines.

At the end of college, I ended up going to this island.

It was Boracay.

It was there that I really processed everything that was happening.

Here I was in the exact same spot on that beach.

I think about this quote that I put in my senior year yearbook, a quote in Tagalog from my Lolo Monico, my grandfather.

It means you don't know where you're going unless you know where you're from.

- Sister.

- Yeah.

- Oh!

[laughing] [mellow music] - And here I was really grateful, but still missing something that I needed to get back.

[mellow piano music] - When you're doing large volumes of people in a restaurant, there becomes these steps of service.

Eye contact, smile, say, "Hi."

The way in which that meal is prepared, the way in which the server approaches the table, all of those are an orchestration of 1,000 pieces, and then the steps of service go all the way until you are out.

To me, it's all embodied in my Lola.

It all goes to that core of real care.

- What, Lola?

- [inaudible] [crowd cheering] - We actually do a whole pig for brunch.

- Wow.

- Whoa, that was literally the whole pig.

- Yeah.

- Most people cut a turkey on special occasions, but in our Filipino culture, we definitely have a stuffed pig like that whenever possible.

[upbeat music] When I first got there, we did the family reunion.

My mom came and Tita Charito - Billy is my nephew.

- Oh, there's my favorite, Tita Charito.

[cheering and music] - Even if we live in the Philippines, we've been very close to each other, the whole family.

- You guys gotta see these pictures.

That's me, look at Lola.

- Billy wants to learn about our family.

He's so interested about us.

- Glorie, then Lola Corazon, Lola Pani, Lola Piani.

- Where's Lola Pilar?

Oh, here she is, she's going to be here, she's pretty.

- Oh my, yeah, she's the prettiest.

- She's the prettiest Lola?

- Yeah.

- Who's that?

[laughing] - We don't forget our old families because of our family tradition and food that we always eat.

Oh, a lot of food, Lechon.

[laughing] - You can tell how crispy the skin is.

Steal some.

[upbeat music] - Oh man.

[claps hands] This is the sauce that you dip the pig in.

It's a mixture of liver, lemongrass, onions, garlic, and a little bit of sugar, salt, and pepper.

[upbeat music] Uhm, there's nothing like it.

[upbeat music] Chop, Jun...Jun.

[laughing] - The food is in the banana leaf.

Fish, different kinds of seafood, of course rice.

[chuckles] That's the Filipino main.

[chuckles] And then we all eat standing eating and we use our hands.

So that's why it's called, "Kamayan."

[crowd cheering] [gentle music] - So I've been invited by my family in the Philippines to play a role in this special wedding.

The Bumanglag side was not really part of my side that I was always able to visit.

So it felt great that I could actually do that with the family.

[mellow music] - This is our parents' wedding, there's Lolo Monico, and Lolo Monico is the only one to be on my mom's side.

And so this whole album is really on my dad's side.

And then two Filipinos, my mom and my Lolo Monico.

My mom left the Philippines at an early age to escape the implementation of martial law by President Marcos.

- She said she would come here in America.

She met Bill.

We like him right away because, he's, he's easy to go along with.

- My mom is the first one who came from the Philippines.

I listen to Billy tell these stories about when he was growing up, and he felt very different and awkward, like, and out of place, because he was around more Caucasians and not on the Filipino side.

I bugged my mom, why didn't you speak to me in Tagalog?

My mom said she didn't want to speak that at home because she was trying to get rid of her heavy accent.

She wanted to speak English well, so she would avoid that.

And same with Billy, it sounds like a similar type of circumstance because of who he was surrounded by.

[mellow music] - My Tita Charito has always been a super important person in my life, and her grandson was getting married.

[mellow music] - After the wedding, there were people in line for two gigantic pigs that were roasted.

[upbeat music] And a whole cow.

I've never seen a whole cow on a spit before.

[upbeat music] And they hand me a knife and they have me just slicing cow.

And I thought it was the most amazing meal ever, but then [chuckles] they informed me that those are just the welcome appetizers.

Of course it was, in my family.

Of course we had two whole pigs, but that's not enough.

Let's have a whole cow.

- Please, now welcome, Mr.

and Mrs.

Santa Anna.

[crowd cheering] - Hello.

My name is Billy Dec, and I'm from Chicago.

Being so far, this wedding is just such an amazing reminder that I have such deep roots here and such a beautiful family that just doubled in size.

And just thank you for letting me be a part of it.

All the best.

[crowd applause] I was really nervous to speak because I just wanted to be accepted.

But this moment, it was so beautiful, and it really felt meaningful.

[music and dancing] [upbeat string music] - This is right.

What's happening?

Love it.

- How are you?

- Kalel Demetrio is this incredible mixologist.

Everything he wanted to do was to recapture pre-colonized Philippines.

[shaker rattles] What would Filipinos be doing, cooking, eating, drinking, if they were never colonized?

He would go to the provinces, to the mountains, beaches, and gather amazing herbs, plants, fruit, things that weren't popular but indigenous to the Philippines and create these unbelievable cocktails.

So I wanted to revisit them.

[upbeat string music] - Do you just sit here all day and make amazing drinks?

In your laboratory, right?

Is that from Vigan?

That's where my family's from.

- Yeah.

- He knew that my roots go back to Ilocos Sur and he literally pulled ingredients out that he had picked off the side of the road in Ilocos, and it blew my mind.

- So, this is tobacco from Ilocos.

So, you picked that tobacco?

- So you picked that tobacco off the roadside?

- Yeah.

- So that's chocolate all from Ilocos.

- Yeah.

[light exotic music] - Come on.

- So my people are the people of revolt.

[light exotic music] [upbeat exotic music] [cheering and applause] - Billy Dec has made big impacts in the hospitality and entertainment industry.

And now he's taking on the small screen.

- Tanner, you have a partner or is this some sort of copycat?

- Billy's gone all Hollywood on us.

- Yeah.

- No.

- I think I had to create an image so I could create money to take care of family.

["Rap Tap"] - In order to make money and figure out the world.

I had to leave and go and be the things that the world said you needed to do.

That is how I started opening another nightclub every year.

I was living this crazy life, and I wouldn't stop working, and being this person, trying to project to be this person.

I mean, people back then didn't know I was Filipino, I don't think.

I began to push away and keep Filipino food and culture.

Only within my home, and when I left it, I became someone totally different.

And I feel like as I grew up, I really went after what the world was telling me was successful for an American to pursue.

[gentle piano music] - Things got so bad with having to take care of family, I really felt like I had a gun to my head, and I had to win.

And I was gonna figure out how to get smarter, and work harder, and make as much money as possible, so I could fix the family.

[mellow music] Here I am in Quezon City.

I was really ready to just be with family, and somehow convince them to teach me the family recipes.

And I knew certain cousins that I'd stayed with.

I knew their kitchens, I knew... but I never cooked with them.

So going to Jun Jun's house first was quite an awakening.

Hey... how are you?

What's happening?

[light conversation] Oh, thank you.

What's up, bro?

- It's the 1980s.

- That's me, right there.

Oh, my brother.

That's amazing.

There's a big picture on the wall.

And I think right away, he points out my brother.

It just made me stop again.

So my brother and I, we were 18 months apart.

Very different, though.

He was a really amazing artist.

He actually, unbeknownst to any of us when we were in the Philippines, somehow went off and got an entire traditional, Filipino tattoo of an eagle on his back.

Yeah, he's the coolest, most talented artist around.

- You like that picture?

- Yeah, that was my best, my best buddy.

- Yeah!

- My best cos'.

You want to make some food?

- Yeah.

- What's happening?

- I'll show you how to cook uh, the snails.

- Snail?

Snails.

- Yeah, snails.

- Let's do it.

I mean, even in a fancy restaurant with escargots, and other celebrated-type snail situations, I'm not a snail person, and there they were.

- Literally, in rice fields, you're picking up... - So the kids pick it up?

And his lovely wife was so nice to kind of walk me through it and explain that these were things that the kids would pick up in the rice fields.

So this is something our family's been cooking for a long time.

- Yes.

- Yeah?

- Bye, buddy.

[laughs] - Let all that coconut milk seep into these snails.

- Okay, here comes the kangkong.

- It's a beautiful dish.

Just so simple.

Man, it's like I can smell every single ingredient still.

This is one of my mom's favorites, and I've actually never tried it.

You just kind of stick it in here.

Oh, yeah.

One, two, three!

All right, let's go.

- Yay!

[cheering] Again, we had always gone back and forth to the Philippines my whole life.

[mellow music] In '95, I went.

- I just had nowhere to go.

My life was just like a roller coaster because it was like I was on the highs of the high.

But at the end of the day, something was wrong with my family.

The times that my dad was not there was not normal.

And then my sidekick brother started going away too.

- Anthony, on the couch.

- So my brother suffered from something very similar.

He had a really rough, rough road.

And my Lola, who raised us, she was, at the time uh, in the Philippines.

And she just sort of made arrangements for me to go, and I just went.

Lisa got the last of the ingredients.

This looks amazing.

This is Kare-Kare.

This is one of Lola's favorite things that she cooked for everyone, so I'm really excited to learn this.

So this is crushed peanuts, red onions, garlic.

- Garlic, atsuete.

- Atsuete.

Fish sauce, vinegar, shrimp paste, toasted rice, petchay, it's like a bok choy, green beans, eggplant... I don't think I've ever cooked with banana heart.

My Lola worked in a boarding house and cooked for these students.

One happened to be my Lolo Monico when he was in law school.

And they fell in love over her food, and a dish I finally got to learn how to make.

- Put the ground peanut.

- Is this just regular peanut butter, or this is... - No, that's real peanut.

- Real peanuts.

- Lola's tradition.

- Atsuete, and what's this for?

- Coloring.

The last one, you can put the vegetables.

- Look at that.

That's beautiful.

- It's Lola's plate.

- These are Lola's plates?

- Yeah.

- Wow.

I'm gonna have some rice with mine, of course.

Ooh.

The beef looks really amazing.

Look at that.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my favorite.

Okay, all the guys drinking, get over here.

Let's get in this.

This thing's gonna be gone in like two seconds.

- Wow!

- How'd I do?

- Wow.

It's good!

- Lola Pilar is the youngest among the sisters, and she is the only one alive now.

- Lola Pilar was kind of the reason I was going.

The whole reason I was going was to find this last remaining Lola of the generation.

And I knew where Lola Pilar lived, because as a kid, I remember being in a jeepney, and I remember being hunched over, and it would be cold, bumpy, and about a day or two long.

[world music] - There was all this anxiousness and anticipation getting to her.

And when I walked up to her house, it was perfect.

Hi.

[dogs barking] It's Billy.

- Hi!

Yeah!

- Hi.

- Nice to see you.

- She came out of her gate, and she was super bright, completely radiant.

I was kind of feeling like I was with my Lola.

- I saw you when you were seven or eight years old.

- I don't think I've been back here since.

- Yes, we miss your dad.

- Really?

- Yeah.

- I didn't think you were going to say that.

[chuckles] - And your daddy, we used to buy the tilapia fish.

He can finish two.

- I can finish two.

[laughs] I can finish three.

First of all, it's this beautiful kitchen that's like, overlooking the mountains of Baguio.

It couldn't have been better.

What are you making?

- Lumpia.

- She said we're going to cook Lumpia, and I was like, "Oh, man."

Because I already know how to cook lumpia.

We serve Lumpia.

When she cooked it, it was completely different than how we cook it.

[mellow music] My Lola, she would start cutting the vegetables in the morning, and by the time I was done with school, the Lumpia would be done.

- Cooked already.

- Cooked already, but we did fried Lumpia.

I want to do it your way, because you said this is a secret recipe?

- Mm-hmm.

- You don't show your friends this recipe?

- No, no.

Okay, garlic, little brown.

- You wanna get it toasted brown, right?

- Yes, then... - Then it's the ground pork?

- Ground pork.

That's patis.

- Oh, this is... Your patis is in a fancy bottle.

Do you add anything to your fish sauce, or straight fish sauce?

- Just straight, yes.

Smells good now.

- Sure enough, she's cooking... and it was a unique process, different ingredients, different format, and I found out why through that.

- Okay, that's too much.

- Too much.

Her family taught her that way.

Apparently, she was missing from the pictures because she was sort of raised by another family.

So through this journey to learn recipes, I learned family stories that no one would've ever told me that.

I think it's perfect, but I think you're gonna say, "More patis."

- I can hold this without the pot holder.

Not so hot, huh?

- Me too.

- You?

- Me too.

[laughs] Okay, so it's like a tablespoon.

Two tablespoons.

Three tablespoons.

She's just throwing these things in the pot, and there's no measurements, and I don't have any idea how I'm gonna remember this, which is totally reminiscent of every other cooking experience I've had with my family, which requires you to be present.

- Soy.

- I'm never gonna be able to duplicate this.

[laughs] How is it?

Good?

Okay, so I got my wrap, and then some lettuce, and then the sauce on the top.

- No, on the side.

- Uh... Well, yeah.

[laughs] Your side is my top.

[laughing] And then the filling.

And then you roll it over one time.

Then you fold the right edge to create the little burrito.

[mellow music] - Mmm.

Thank you for teaching me.

- The secret.

- The secret.

- The secret.

I felt super connected to her.

I completely love her.

- Okay?

Okay pa?

[laughs] Because I'm going to put another... [laughter] - Okay, perfect.

- They are hungry already.

- Okay, eat now, everybody.

- Teka, I will... - Teka, teka.

Hold up.

- Okay?

[laughs] - Yeah, yeah, it was great.

- Is it okay?

- Yeah.

- Okay!

[laughs] [upbeat music] So we make it to Vigan, and that's where my Lolo Monico is from, in Ilocos Sur.

I was literally on the same grounds that my Lolo was born and raised on.

Wow, this is unbelievable.

[upbeat music] - Is this Zumba?

What about you guys?

[upbeat music] [cheering] [laughing] - Yo, that was good.

That was great.

That was great.

[upbeat music] - We had just heard through Tita Trina, that my family was gonna put together a reunion if we came up that far.

- This is Nora, [unintelligible] - Hi, Billy.

[people talking] Remember me?

[people talking and shouting] [vibrant music] - They cooked a goat for us.

The story goes, my Lolo Monico, he was a community leader, and people would come to him for help.

Because he wouldn't charge, they would give him things that he couldn't reject, and it would be food.

You know, a chicken or a goat, and he would turn around and cook it for them.

Lolo Monico and his father, they had lots of goats.

- Oh, yes.

- And you're gonna make Goat Kaldereta.

It's made with carrots, pineapple, peppers, liver spread, and potatoes.

And what do you do with the skin?

- They will cut it into small pieces, and they will make that into a kilawin.

- The nice thing is they use all parts of the goat.

- Yes.

- So this is the specialty?

[chuckling] - Yeah.

- Yeah.

[mellow music] - All right, let's eat, everybody.

[mellow music] - Ooh.

[mellow music] - My grandfather has been this hero to me forever as someone who was an incredibly smart attorney that took care of the family and the community, and inspired me to go to law school and become as active as I try to be.

- Well, my English is better when I drink.

[laughs] - Good.

Cheers.

Tito Oscar wanted to talk to me, and when he started talking about my Lolo, who was this great man that I never got to know, he connected me with him.

- Your grandfather Monico, is a very good man, very loyal to his job, to his people, or to his co-workers.

He's got seven children, and the family of the Bumanglag is always closer than other family.

Like now.

-Yeah.

- You are now seeing the hospitality.

That is Bumanglag.

And I'm very proud you carry his name, William Monico Bumanglag Dec.

- I didn't have money, I wasn't smart, but I had to figure it all out.

And so many times I wanted to quit, but something pushed me through.

Or maybe he pushed me through.

I don't... Really don't know.

We were thrown to the other side of the world, and I was living in this really tough situation.

It seemed like a very dark, empty world in the hospital, in the psychiatric ward, in the doctor's office, or on the streets.

And I would run from class to go to a hospital.

I would ask my law professor to get my brother out of jail.

I would do these things constantly.

[sniffles] That was kind of the way life was.

I got this call from the Chicago police.

And this captain just kind of broke it down to me.

He's like, "Listen, your brother passed."

"We think it's your brother."

The police said that there were reports of some people chasing him on a train, and he ended up somehow falling off the train and getting run over.

[quiet sad music] And I just stoically got through the motions, and did all the things you're supposed to do.

My dad, he left and went back to the Philippines.

One day, he suffered from a cardiac arrest, and I was sent a bag in a FedEx envelope of his ashes.

And that was right after my brother passed.

And that was it.

[quiet sad music] When you look back, you wonder if you made mistakes.

In one sense, I was able to take care of my mom and my sister, and create businesses and do things in the community that were really great.

But in another sense, I lost my dad and my brother.

So perhaps my mission to fix... that didn't happen.

[tears up] You know, we lost them in a lot of different ways.

I mean, mental illness wasn't really understood back then.

We had no means, and every door was a shut door.

[quiet sad music] - I'm very proud that your name is Monico.

- Me too.

- I'm very proud.

I love you.

- I think what he was saying to me was, your Lolo Monico, whose name you have, would be very proud.

Because you did what he wanted you to do, and you did the best you could.

Just hearing from some adult figure like a Lolo, or a Lola was... important.

[mellow music] [mellow music] - The whole trip was about trying to understand where I fit in, and I felt like my story was blurred.

There was something really painful that I didn't realize til later.

When the Spanish colonized the Philippines, they called it, La Isla de Los Pintados, the Island of the Painted People.

And I learned that they would tattoo a story on them and pass it down verbally.

That story was whitewashed away when the Spanish made it illegal to do that anymore.

[upbeat world music] - I was super fascinated by all of this because of how some folks ran into the mountains to protect certain traditions like this form of tattooing.

I'd heard this folklore about this 103 year old tattoo master, Mambabatok named Whang-od, and she was teaching her nieces how to do the tattoos to carry the tradition forward.

They would tattoo your lineage and your story, what your Filipino heritage was.

You know, of course, if I could ever get a tattoo like that, I've never had one, but I think I would do it.

As I got further along on the journey, I started to understand my lineage a lot more.

I could at least tell her where I was from, and tell her about the stories that, maybe she would bless me with a tattoo.

[upbeat world music] - We started driving there, and it turned out to be a much harder trip because of the mountains and valleys, and these off dirt roads.

And there was a mountain to climb to get up to this village.

[upbeat tribal music] - We get up there, it's this amazing, perfectly preserved village in the sky.

[mellow music] - We bought a pig and gave the pig to the village to make and we all shared and next morning, got to meet Whang-od.

[rooster crowing] We're about to get a tattoo from one of the last tattooers here in Kalinga.

She uses a thorn from a pomelo, ah, on a stick, and then takes another stick to hammer it.

I'm actually pretty scared, but excited.

In America where you walk into a shop and you pick whatever design you want.

Here, they traditionally choose what it is and where it's going.

She's plucking the hairs off my chest where she's about to... stick me with this pomelo thorn.

They take the soot off the cauldron and kind of drew this out, and she just started pounding hard.

[tapping sound] [tranquil music] [tranquil music] I guess I'm bleeding.

[tranquil music] - We were practicing a very ancient ritual that predates any sort of influences from outside.

[tapping sound] [tranquil music] It was so amazing to be blessed with her time and her tattoo, and her gift.

- I just want to tell her it's an honor.

Thank you.

I'll remember you forever.

With all of my heart.

- You'll remember me too?

- Same as you.

Same as you.

- It's kind of like a dream.

Although it was really painful at times.

Whenever it hurt, I just thought about my sweet little Lola, Lola Pilar's face.

All, all the pain went away and it was just an honor to have it ingrained into my heart.

Like you wonder your whole life where you're from to hear the story about how I fit in, makes you feel more complete because you just go through life not knowing and I feel really blessed.

It was after that I learned the story around this particular one.

It's about two brothers and one brother dies, and he turns into the serpent eagle to fly over his brother.

And protect him.

And it's on my heart.

[mellow music] [gentle guitar music] I grew up in a foreign land Never felt a home like that Till you pull me off my path That moment I both lost and found myself [gentle guitar music] This world is a maze - You think it's ready?

- Yeah, let's do it.

- Okay!

This is called Lumpia Sariwa.

Okay, Tito Robin's gonna give you each your own wrapper.

- You have to eat it, so you will grow tall.

- We're gonna do a specific way that Lola Pilar taught us.

Thank you for teaching me the secret.

- The secret.

- You're gonna take the side that's closest to your tummy, flip the whole thing over into the sauce.

Okay, and if you have to roll it one more time, you can roll it again.

This is called Lola Pilar's Lumpia Sariwa.

- I definitely think it's really important to know your culture, and know your history, and preserve it for the next generation.

- Okay, guys, okay we're going to put this out.

Good?

That's good, right?

Good job.

I didn't even realize my entire life that Lola Kalinga, my Lola, literally her name is spelled, caring and I'm searching for Lola Pillar, this last Pillar of our family.

Also during the trip, that's when I learned that my Tito Boy's name was Bienvenidos.

Welcome.

The other elder that died was Lola Corazon, which is heart.

Here are these names, which are these sort of cornerstones of our DNA with respect to hospitality.

These were living beings in my family who have informed me how to approach life.

All right, here comes the pig and the other things.

- Why are you laughing?

[giggles] - Whoa.

All right.

- So yummy!

- Do you like rice?

- Yeah!

- I love rice.

- Lola, what do you have?

- Whoa!

What is that?

- Whoa!

- That's a fish!

- This is called snapper.

- I touched the fish!

I touched it!

[family talking] - Here, guys.

[family talking] - Thank you for food and our family.

And please help people that don't have food or that might be sick.

Amen.

- Amen.

- Amen.

[clapping] - I never realized it until this search.

My family was always doing what I'm doing, whether it's hospitality, cooking, feeding, comforting.

Hospitality before was a word that meant business.

After this trip, it really sort of focused me on hospitality being a way of caring.

Everyone has a story.

Everyone has a unique perspective and history.

If everyone could go back and learn more about their unique differences and carry them forward, you become a little bit more whole.

That transformation has fundamentally changed and rejuvenated me for you know, these next chapters.

- "Food Roots" was made possible by, the support of the Rossin Foundation, empowering potential.

Asian Real Estate Association of America, helping to change lives through real estate.

The WK Kellogg Company, Melinda McMullen & Duncan Kime.

[tribal music]