Exploring Filipino Kitchens
Share
Balikbayan views on food & culture through travel 🇵🇭 Find the podcast online! Exploring Filipino Kitchens is a travel blog and podcast by Nastasha Alli.
Through stories from her conversations with locals, she shares her views as a balikbayan on the cultures and traditions of the Philippines. As a food tourism professional, Nastasha has reached audiences across the world eager to connect with the Philippines through culinary experiences. Her writing has appeared in The New Filipino Kitchen cookbook and various digital platforms. The podcast reached 10k subscribers in 2021 and has twice been featured on Apple Podcasts’ AAPI Heritage Month collections. On the podcast, she has interviewed chefs, home cooks, authors, academics, farmers, agriculturists, and people who work on improving the country’s food systems. Nastasha is currently travelling across the country to discover what people are cooking in their kitchens - at home, in restaurants and carinderias, and anywhere food is prepared to share with others.
09/07/2026
On this episode we chat with Chef Nuit, Jeff, and Joel Regular, co-owners of makilala.ca in downtown Toronto. Awarded one of Toronto Life’s Best New Restaurants this year! ✨
We learn about their journey to building sukhoTHAI, Jeff Regular and their other Thai restaurants - truly some of the best in the city - and we talk about how Makilala has become a quintessential part of the family. 🇵🇭
Thank you immensely to the team at Makilala for this interview and find the episode on your podcast app or link in bio!
05/18/2026
On this episode, we visit the Yangil valley in central Luzon’s Zambales province, where a documentary called “The Foresters: A Story of Climate Keepers” by follows an indigenous Aeta community and the challenges they face through a rapidly changing climate.
It’s also about how organizations such as have begun and continue to expand on massive reforestation and agri-tourism projects together with the local community. To date, over 130,000 trees have been planted in the valley!
A story near and dear to me that I hope you join us in sharing and learning from ❤️🇵🇭
Link in bio or wherever you listen!
02/15/2026
On this episode we chat with Bettina Makalintal, senior reporter with the national team at . We chat about a range of topics on Filipino food and culture through a diasporic lens, so let’s get to it!
Episode highlights
04:40 Filipino food in today’s media
10:45 Identity, frozen in time?
12:55 Windows into worlds
15:00 On the Philippines Michelin Guide
19:35 Natural interest in regional cuisines
23:35 Tracing coffee routes
26:45 Food as a gateway
28:40 Doreen is back in print!
32:30 Storytelling is alive
39:40 Lunchboxes then and now
Tap the link in bio or subscribe to the show on your podcast app to listen ✨
12/16/2025
On this episode we chat with Abi Balingit, author of the cookbook Mayumu: Filipino American Desserts Remixed. It landed on the New York Times’ Best Cookbooks list in 2023 and won her an Emerging Voice award from the James Beard Foundation ✨
Her desserts are truly one of a kind - and this cookbook makes a lovely present! 🎁 🎄☺️
Find the episode on Spotify or wherever you listen!
11/24/2025
On this episode we chat with Walbert Castillo, Monica Blanco, Andrew Dizon about the stories behind , a Las Vegas-based pop-up restaurant that aims to showcase the diversity of cuisines across the Philippines, interpreted by chefs in the diaspora.
Earlier this year, we collaborated on the Captain’s Log for Galeon: Part One, a dinner series inspired by the far-reaching influences of the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade. How amazing was that?! ⚓️
The next Galeon dinner is happening on Dec. 9 and tickets are going fast!
Link in bio + subscribe to listen ✨
Click here to claim your Sponsored Listing.
Contact the public figure
Address
Alerts
Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Exploring Filipino Kitchens posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.