Filipino Cuisine in Toronto

 

Filipino immigration to Canada in large numbers began in the 1950s and 1960s, though less than 5% of the total number of Filipino immigrants arrived prior to 1970 (Damasco, 2012). Immigration grew steadily throughout the decades, and "by 2010, the Philippines had become Canada's largest source of short-and long-term migrants, surpassing China and India, both of whose populations vastly exceed that of the Philippines" (Coloma, McElhinny, Tungohan, Catungal, and Davidson, 2012, p. i). The 2006 census found that 5,068,100 individuals identified as visible minorities (Statistics Canada 2006), and 8.1% of this number are Filipina/os (McElhinny, Davidson, Catungal, Tungohan, and Coloma, 2012).

 

Today, Filipinos are the fourth-largest visible minority group in the country (Angeles, 2012) and 43.4% of Filipinos in Canada reside in Toronto (McElhinny et al., 2012).

 

The influx of emigration from the Philippines has brought Filipinos to other parts of the world, and with them, their cuisine. I have decided to explore the cuisine, and try to answer the questions how does Filipino food fit within multicultural Toronto, and how is it represented and received?

 

Although Filipinos make up a large portion of the immigrant population of Toronto, their cuisine has flown under the radar in comparison to other ethnic cuisines. Nonetheless, Filipino restaurants can be found all around Toronto, most of which serve home style Filipino food. Instead of comparing several of these, I decided to look at three restaurants of different types: Remely's - an "authentic" restaurant serving home style Filipino food; Max's - another "authentic" restaurant that is also part of a chain originating from the Philippines; and Lamesa - a "modern" Filipino restaurant. I will analyze and compare the three, in addition to exploring the communities in which they are found, to see how they may help us answer the questions posed earlier.