Sometimes when I cook for myself, I tend to go simple with what I’m going to make. After all, I’m only cooking for myself. A simple fried tofu or sauteed mushrooms with side of rice and soy dipping will do just fine. But when I cook for other people, I become more inspired to cook elaborate dishes. I love to make people happy through my cooking. That’s probably why I like to organize or go to potlucks.
Just few weeks ago, my friends and I held a vegan Filipino potluck called “Kain Vegan, Kaibigan“. It’s Tagalog for “Let’s eat vegan food, friends”. The potluck is open to everyone, vegan or not, Filipino or not. The only thing strictly enforced is that the food has to be vegan and ideally, vegan Filipino. I half-jokingly suggested to those not sure what to bring that they can always bring rice. But as it turns out, they brought creative vegan Filipino dishes that wowed everyone.
Some of the dishes include vegan pandesal bread rolls, Filipino tamales, mung bean stew, Filipino macaroni salad, and many more. I brought vegan fried lumpia and vegan mango ice cream.
People also got creative with their drinks. They brought kalamansi juice, iced flower tea, mango juice, melon juice, coconut jelly drink, and many more. Needless to say, we got full pretty quickly. Good thing we were able to walk it off a bit by visiting a nearby Filipino bookstore just next door. Then we came back to do a round of raffle prizes and ate some more.
Tofu and mushroom adobo
Bilo bilo sweet soup. Recipe: astigvegan.com/ginataang-bilo-bilo
Filipino vegan Lumpia
“Nick’s Kitchen” vegan ribs
Filipino vegan macaroni salad
vegan Pandesal roll. Recipe: astigvegan.com/vegan-pandesal
vegan Filipino tamales
mung bean soup. Recipe: astigvegan.com/video-recipe-how-to-make-mung-bean-stew
Kain Vegan 2018 group photo
We held Kain Vegan at Bayanihan Community Center, a space for non-profit groups to hold meetings, classes, and more. We were not a non-profit but Bayanihan was kind enough to let us hold our event there for the community. As token of gratitude, my friends and I raised funds through the raffle game and donated the money to Bayanihan.
The people who came were a mix of familiar and new faces, vegans and omnivores, Filipinos and other ethnicity, and those who live next door and those who traveled far and wide. A family came all the way from Santa Barbara! Some of my Instagram friends also came. It was nice to finally meet them in person and talk to them face to face.
Although getting people to attend was tricky because of the Memorial Day, we still managed to have a crowd. The time I spent at the potluck made the time spent making the lumpia and mango ice cream all worth it. In fact, I’m dreaming about the next elaborate dish for the next get together. If you would like to check out the next potluck, feel free to see my calendar. I hope to see you then and share a meal or two or three with you.