I’m not young or single enough to know the context for this video, but I am Asian enough to be annoyed that I’m not in the number one category. My inner Asian dad is demanding a parent-teacher meeting RIGHT NOW.
(Below is a still-frame from earlier in the video, showing the numerical rankings…)
Anyone care to explain the “toxic Asian boys” meme to this non-TikToker?
If you’re looking for a different kind of dessert, check out the ube ice cream sandwiches at Mata’s Philippine Cuisine in Tampa (on West Waters, a quick drive west of Dale Mabry)!
Ube (pronounced “OOO-beh”) is a sweet purple yam from the Philippines. It has a flavor that I describe as a mild mix of vanilla, white chocolate, and hazelnuts. It’s been a Filipino sweets staple for centuries, but only in the past decade has it become popular in North America. That’s a shame, because you’ve been missing out on some amazing, colorful dishes as a result!
They put the ice cream between “krispy treats” made out of sticky puffed rice (which often gets called pinipig in the Philippines, but that isn’t accurate). Just think of it as ube ice cream between Filipino rice krispies treats and enjoy the flavor.
It was great, and I’m coming back for more!
We also left with dinuguan, chicken adobo, pinakbet, and ginataang bilo-bilo.
Mata’s Philippine Cuisine is in Tampa at 4350 West Waters Avenue — east of the Veterans Expressway, west of Dale Mabry.
If you have Filipino family or friends, you’ve probably encountered a nickname or two that seem really weird by non-Filipino standards.
Case in point: the comedian whose legal name is Joseph Herbert, but who’s better known as Jo Koy:
Here’s an explainer for these nicknames, courtesy of OneDown, whose slogan is “Redefining Filipino in today’s modern world”.
The slide above might be wrong — here’s another explanation for the nickname “Totoy”:
(Kuya is the title for “big brother”, and ate is the title for “big sister”.)
Here’s a post I started back in February 2019 and didn’t finish — until now! Jo Koy returns to Tampa at the end of February, and I wanted to publish this before then.
Anitra and I caught Jo Koy’s sold-out show at the historic Tampa Theatre.
There aren’t many theaters like this one left. It first opened in 1926, and was the first commercial building with air conditioning. It had its heyday during the golden age of movies but fell into disrepair during the era of suburban flight in the 1960s. The city rescued the theatre in the early ’70s, with Hillsborough County’s arts council taking over the theatre’s program and selecting its films and events. This effort became the model for saving endangered theaters nationwide.
We had VIP tickets, which entitled us to a quick selfie session with Joseph Glenn Herbert (that’s his actual name; “Jo Koy” is derived from “Jokoy”, which is one of many possible Filipino nicknames for “Joseph”) himself:
