Michael Pimentel and Xiaofei Lai

00:06 My name is Mike Pimentel. My age is 32. Today's date is October 16th. 2020. I am in Decatur Georgia. My partner today is say and she is my wife.

00:23 My name is shut my life or Fey. My age is 31 today's date is October 16th. 2020. I'm in Decatur Georgia. My partner today is Mike Pimentel and he is my husband.

00:41 Being here today. I'm happy I get to interview you for this storycorps about your passion about food and your company. So, please interview. I know you but please introduce yourself to everyone who's listening adobo. It's a pop-up and catering business in Decatur, Georgia. We specialize in Filipino American cooking and we've been I've been here in Atlanta for six years and I moved here from from New York from New York originally.

01:29 Adobo is a it's a very common dish in the Philippines. It's a braised. I usually chicken dish that's cooked with garlic and sorry again and vinegar and then the vinegar is the meaning gradient. I guess it's it's known for its parts and salty flavor. So it is a common dish every Filipino family has adobo pick that name for my for my business because I really I really like the adorable that my mom made growing up. It was the first dish Filipino. Dish. I've learned how to cook but also everybody's adobo if a different adobo everyone has their own way of making it

02:29 And their own opinions of how it should take a stand and how it should be served. And I I love that about adobo of that. Everyone kind of has their own way of doing it, but we all see it as adobo.

02:45 Call thanks for explaining that and you mentioned earlier that you move to Atlanta to Decatur or Atlanta about 6 years ago. So tell me about 4. What were you doing? Where were you living? Sure, so I was born and raised in New York. We lived maybe an hour outside of New York City. I just sent in the suburbs basically. So my mom and dad moved here from the Philippines in the late 70s and they are The Residency here in medical training. I was the middle child of three an older brother and a younger sister and we grew up with eating a lot of Filipino food cooked at home from either my mom or my grandmother so are Lola.

03:45 Which is Philip Graham on Filipino Arlo has both of my mom's side of my dad side has lived with us throughout my childhood. So they say they brought with them different Regional styles of cooking are Filipino food that we were exposed to from very young age. And it was I guess normal for us to you have spent lunch dinner together home cook Filipino food at the same time growing up in the suburbs in New York. Your friends are mostly not Filipino. So

04:30 You know, we're after school. We all go out and you know get faster than we go in a Wendy's drive-thru or are we at the mall? So I guess my exposure to food was kind of two sides of Philippine buried in a regional Filipino food at home. But also just a regular American food growing up growing up in the suburbs. So I kind of grew up with with those and some of the most memorable experiences for me with Filipino food at Family parties, and that's really where and I think if anyone has gone to a Filipino party at a funeral at home, are they always this overabundance of food and that's always seems like a centerpiece of of any gathering with Filipino families at least

05:30 Way that we were we were raised and a lot of it. I like it alot of my influence of how I view food and Filipino food is centered around this idea of a celebration Gathering and its really

05:49 Developed a passion Within Me of sharing and Community around Filipino food. So yeah, I guess those two things put together, you know grew up with that went to college in New York City for engineering and lived in New York City for a few years after college and living in New York City. We were going to my school was in downtown Manhattan. So we were exposed to even more diverse cultures and Cuisines and a small school that didn't have anything. So we were basically he left a fan for assault sleep which men

06:43 I was doing a lot of cooking for myself in in my apartment. Also, whenever you wanted to escape and try food somewhere else. We could go out and get some pizza or sushi or or whatever Ramen.

07:02 So yeah, so those things kind of brought me to where I worked before right before I move to Atlanta. So I I I work in aviation construction. So I was working at the airport at LaGuardia and I got an offer to work for Delta which is headquartered here in Atlanta. So basically I have to relocate for this job from New York to Atlanta and basically keep doing the work that I'm doing but headquartered out of here. So I've never lived anywhere else before this. This was my big a big change for me personally with no personal life social life. Everyone most of my friends and everyone lived in the New York area.

07:58 Sounds a bit hesitant to move but at the same time, you know, the way I saw it was when I regret it if I didn't move and you know, I told myself that I would so definitely decided to go and jump into it move to New City. My other big hesitation was well, you know, what I'm going to do. What about all the food that I miss hanging in New York are very used to being able to try all the different foods around New York City at all hours of the day really enjoyed that that's part of living there. And at the same time I'm moving away from my family my parents my grandma and my aunt and uncle to cook all this great food Filipino food. And as far as I knew I hadn't heard of any Filipino restaurants are built.

08:58 In Atlanta nearby where I can go and eat that so

09:05 There's a bit of a hesitation but I moved here. Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised at how abundant and thriving the food scene was here. I really enjoyed getting very used to eating a lot of barbecue and fried chicken and other food that southern the southern region is known for definitely try to immerse myself as much as I could in that food culture and that food scene.

09:39 But I guess what it made me realize that I really was longing for the access to Filipino food in Filipino culture that I had living close to home in, New York.

09:58 I kind of see that as kind of my way to connect back to my family and culture.

10:11 Yeah, so I guess that's the end of it maybe.

10:20 I asked.

10:23 That's quite a monologue. I asked you early childhood, but I think you took me through taking out. So there's a lot to follow up there. So let me choose the right ones. I want to go at first you mentioned when you moved when you're thinking about moving to Atlanta from New York. You asked yourself.

10:51 What would you regret if I didn't like what would you regret if you just stayed in New York in the time that I've known you? I've known you to be.

11:01 Extremely like just the most like go get her personality I've ever met and you work at Delta. You have a very demanding job and yet you started this business. So I don't know. It's just take me through your thought process and like wanting to do something in addition to your day job knowing that it wouldn't want to be a lot more work for you. You have a lot more to juggle.

11:33 And then to like going back to the lake this regret saying that you think about like can you describe like what is in you that like need you like want to do it?

11:45 I guess so going to my my day job. I do enjoy my job my my work working in aviation and construction. It's a great industry, but I think it only partially fulfills my interest so as much as I enjoy I guess it's kind of my engineering background morte technical Texas getting projects completed. There is a I guess I'm more artistic fun side that I icing food and

12:29 As much as I know I like her just cook for myself and you know, she's at home. I've always been fascinated by the food industry and going out to restaurants and food scene, and I think that's

12:46 A kind of why I've always been curious and about how how I would approach and work in that food scene and in the food industry, so I guess my only real way of being able to have both is acute start something on my own as much as that's a lot of work rather than taking out two jobs. I could really have all the control of when I want to cook where I want the what I'm cooking. I just started my own business and I've been lucky enough to see it grow and Thrive and have a lot of great feedback from customers and the community

13:45 You must have had mentors on why are people that you've looked up to you? So you share with me how the community in Atlanta has and has reacted to your business. And then the second part of it is

14:01 Have you had mentors on the way that it helped you develop your business from you know, the first post on Instagram to what it is today.

14:10 Sure, so I guess I thought I'd say the community has really been a bit of a driving force and inspiration for me here when I started I wasn't really sure how many Filipinos lived here or what type of interest there was in Filipino food. But just through social media through Instagram. I find the color pop ups and other smaller no Foodies & Free groups that are not have that food interest and I tried to connect out connect with them with a surprisingly that everyone that I've connected to has responded very positively and very willing sex elaborate and help out with but I know

15:10 My dreams and my Michaels.

15:14 I'd say the biggest influence or inspiration for me. Probably kamayan. The other is other Filipino pop up that started in Atlanta. Maybe about a year before I did they opened up a lot of opportunities for me me and me by allowing me to help them at their pop-up events, which gave me a lot of exposure to the inner workings of a food business and that really encouraged inspired me to to see how I could do it on my own and you know what it really takes to get there that also so I started also while I was here at the Philippine American National Historical Society fahns

16:14 Started the Georgia chapter here. So and Lisa Alex Audrey, they all

16:22 Also, we're at these kamayan pop-up events and that I met a lot of them through through these events. So they've also giving me a lot of opportunities Outlets to volunteer with bonds and

16:40 Opportunities to cook for them and I think that's a lot of confidence and my

16:51 United validation that I can do this. I'm about know it's busy. It's a lot of work. I still have my day job, but I can still have the ability to make this grow and there's there's an interest out there for Filipino food and I'm you know, I'm happy to be there. So I feel bad. I feel bad about the interest that you see any Filipino food in my observation. I seen that there are a lot of members in this community who are Filipino and know exactly what they're looking for.

17:37 You experience both what types of questions do they ask you? What's your interactions like?

17:46 The I guess there's two main groups that I try to serve through my pop up and catering. There's others the group that has a Filipino food. Is there typically Filipinos that have grown up either in the Philippines or somewhere else cuz it's a big move to Atlanta and they're knowledgeable about Filipino food and are looking for specific dishes and things like that. I definitely

18:25 Cater to that crowd, but at the same time I also don't want to just leave them that I grew up in the Philippines. And I know exactly you know that specific type of regional Cuisine everything a lot of different types of food in different ways that people enjoy Filipino food.

18:50 But I guess when I when I do offer is my interpretation of Filipino food as I've been to you throwing up. What I what I want to do with my food is too.

19:09 Bring a new offering a Filipino food that reflects growing up in a as a filipino-american. So I have my influences of the pinna. Growing up eating at my family's house. But at the same time I want to bring in the influence of American American food or American food culture influences from all over the country all different types of Cuisines Regional and international and I want to leave that into

19:44 My fresh to Filipino food so I can stop the other side where people were not quite familiar with Filipino food, but they are familiar with every other type of Western Cuisine and I want to educate them but also serve them something that they feel familiar I think at the end of the day everybody's looking for comfort in food the sun's agree on that.

20:22 So tell me about a dish that's on your menu that you're particularly proud of and then what was the inspiration behind?

20:38 I

20:40 My favorite one of my favorite dishes. It's what we called this dick. So has a Spanish name. It's traditionally served as a beef dish with sliced onions and cooked with soy sauce and lemon are pretty simple preparation and we grew up eating it as kind of

21:12 Flight delays, but when I the way that I serve it is a little different just the things I loved about this steak is the sauce and I like it when the meat is really soft. Typically when we eat at home. It's a little bit depending on the cut of meat. So I personal little differently where flavors are all the same but I use it that I cooked for a long long time. So what happens if the meat gets very soft and

21:53 Serta melt-in-your-mouth, and that's the way that I serve it. So I think you know you seen with rice and you know, some vegetables are some your side vegetable with it. I really enjoy. Tisch because if you don't know anything about Filipino food, it's going to be delicious either way and you know, what beef is you know, what soy sauce do in a rice will taste like but if you do know what Filipino food is and you see bistake you have an idea of the flavors, but you see it in the new preparation. So it kind of meets the needs above crowds. I guess by the same time is something new and exciting and something that I'm I enjoy and I'm very proud of

22:48 I think it's one example and the best part is the meat juice that I just ate was rice, you could just so he got your back like memory lane and maybe share with us your first pop up and I don't like relive that experience like how you were excited or nervous or some things that were unexpected and then I'd love to hear from you how you've learned from those experiences to you know, how you're operating a pop-up now.

23:40 Okay. Yeah, so my first pop-up was in I want to say September 29th 2019. Yes, September 2019 you he was at Monday Night Brewing on the west side and there is an event they're called controllerise. And basically it was a huge hang out with vent where they have a bunch of DJ's playing Lo-Fi hip-hop and they have a giant projector screen with anime playing and there was a bunch of other food vendors there including me. So the

24:25 The MC of the event of a x Filipino. So when I approached him about a new pop up and still I know I do Filipino food alarm for it and give me a spot at his at his event to be one of the food vendors. So the thing is it was on a Monday night at started at like 9 p.m. So it was already starting out of at a late night and for someone like me who has a day job. It was already I renew it was going to be difficult, you know that I'm time crunch, but I wanted to know how I really wanted to have that opportunity and I was up for it. So I

25:17 I started with scrapping it, you know couple days in advance. I was rolling a lot of lumpia which is like a fried spring rolls. That's another very popular Filipino dish. So kind of taking my my skills from my day job from work where I do a lot of a lot of planning and scheduling for construction or in a project starting Daze in a days in advance rolling a bunch of lumpia and finding out exactly what I needed to do, you know before and after work out for it and when I came to the night of actually had some of the people from kamayan the other pop up there to help me with serving we got there and there was already a line of people out the door to get into the event so that just, you know, kind of jump-started all of us.

26:17 Excited but also be nervous about old man. We have to get up and running. Are we going to be able to do this? So I think it was kind of a just almost like a trial by fire like jumping into the deep at like, okay. So this is you know, we just got on the next as a grade. I would say

26:46 And I like a like a e minor the food was getting out but I'd say if it if I didn't have you know, three or four other people helping me. It probably I would have gotten buried I say it was like

27:05 It was really busy. The room was kind of dams. We can really see at that. Well and I think my setup for the food was I thought it started well, but there were some tweets there with the way I laid out my my tables everything that probably would have been better. So since then I've tweaked, you know about some lights on a little tense and rearrange my menu and also rearranged my setup of the where I place my my equipment and everything so that I can serve customers as quickly and you know

27:55 Mike could you perhaps he'll say do you remember what was the first order that night?

28:01 What was it like making that first order with rice and with a fried egg on top, so

28:17 Yeah, so that first order the way I had planned it so that everything was pretty much trapped like cooked already, but it was just like a simile. So I had a person take me to order the front no yelling to order down to us so that you know how to answer phone. You know, I have the rice and that they'll grow up on the table, but they have like a like a tomato salad, but it wasn't up on the table yet. I had to dig through like a and then I ended up just having bad on top of the cooler. So just like in the first order I would like to change my order quickly.

29:08 And then yeah another Friday, so I have somebody else he was doing the fried eggs and stuff on the flat top so they were able to get that. Yeah, it was it was pretty exciting that that feeling of while I'm I'm serving food for somebody and for money, you know, and this is all started from me. I think that was yeah that was a pretty eye-opening and very very rewarding satisfying at the end of it so much more than just cooking food for people but getting to that point was very very rewarding at that point.

29:58 Speaking out of like it's a lot of work with a pop-up. If your steak out at a brewery people can kind of see what goes on as they're cooking the food assembling the food. It's not like a restaurant where everything so they already see some things that go on behind the scenes but like what else is there? That's like behind the scenes that you didn't realize I'm continuing or you didn't realize a lot more effort and dedication to sure. Yeah. So I guess what people see when I'm at the pot like a typical pop up at a brewery with a tendon, you know, the tables and stuff. That's really

30:39 That's like, you know, it's like the tip of the iceberg and what they don't see below it. It's all the the days of work ahead of time that it takes to do that. So all the cooking and menu planning thinking about

30:55 The whole process of okay, you know this dish may be really cool and really delicious but how am I reasonably going to be able to serve this to somebody at the end of the day and they said that they're not waiting like 30 minutes for me to cook something at the other piece of it is the setup and just transporting out of all my my gear and equipment. So I just prefer foremost my pop-ups. I've been able to get everything into our RSVP into the back. I put the seats down and it's like Tetris trying to figure out exactly where everything goes so that I can fit, you know, my tables and boxes and stones in front end of my all that.

31:46 And you know by the time people come there and serve the food that you know, everything's all set up and ready to go. So just packing everything getting into the pop-up unloading it setting it up and then we're at the end of the day breaking it all down and putting it back into the car says about Stadium people don't think about it. But but yeah, but it's is it still worth it in the end? You know you go home that that's the best feeling is after an event after like a catering gig on the way home or sitting in the car and you know driving home in like you just feels so good at your like walking on clouds that while I just serve Filipino food out to yeah, whatever many people a lot of them and you know, they made tell us a Wii

32:46 We don't know anything about Filipino food that looks good all try this and that's such a great feeling because

32:56 You know, maybe I don't know how big of a difference in their life it would make but you know the next time somebody mentions Filipino food now they can say oh, yeah, I had that one. I kind of do Bo and I think that's you know, that's a great thing for Atlanta. Are there any Filipino food out there Filipinos are the second most populous Asian American population in the in the US and for some reason or you know, we don't have you don't really know any Filipino food outside of California or New York DC area. So, you know, I want to

33:49 I want my food so that kind of help and make the food scene reflect the the community. Okay. Well in the remaining time we had left. I got two more questions. You've already started going there, but we're what are you excited about? What are your goals Michaels? I mean assume, you know, when covid and all that when we're kind of getting through this I definitely would love to continue with my pop-ups and do more and bigger and different types of pop-up events. So that could be a food festivals.

34:35 Doing a pop-up at a restaurant so I can do a I get ticketed sit-down event. That would be great. That way I can really cater to a more comprehensive menu and food experience and going beyond that. I'll be working on moving into a new kitchen, but you give me a bit more space and place of my own to work out of so that's kind of engineer in the near-term but way down the road it would be great one day that it would full-time and open open a restaurant that way it's you know, I'm serving food, but it's in a larger context of creating a space for the community you enjoy it but also enjoy company enjoy each other and just like I guess it goes back to like growing up at home where

35:35 Holiday parties were you have a baby? So I guess I I want to be able to create that experience for the community and you know for me to get to that but but yet but I'll enjoy it every step of the way I can.

36:10 Okay. Well the last question I have for you is

36:16 What advice do you have for people who are passionate about something and wanted to incorporate that into their life and work somehow like you did for love.

36:32 I say

36:35 Don't I guess not not to be afraid to start and that.

36:44 You you could be surprised that who else is out there with no similar interests and they may have resources that are other ways that they can help you. I've learned so much just from other other pop-ups other people in the food industry that I've met just doing helping out at other people the bands and I think the more you can immerse yourself in that culture that interest with other people it can only help with building your own guess your own path or one way of approaching it. So, you know, even if you're not, you know that I want to get into food and not but I can't drop everything and go to culinary school and go down like a usual food grab food career are still ways that you can be involved.

37:43 Build your own path going to say yeah get on social media start exploring go to go to different events talk to people and January find your own way to do it and give me a fun and enjoyable.

38:13 Thank you for your time here with us today. Thanks for your time.

38:24 So I have I have a couple questions first. What's the difference between a pop-up and a food truck?

38:36 So I don't care what the truck or anyting I prepped all my food outside at like a kitchen or whatever and then a pop-up is where

38:50 It's as if you went you go to like a music festival or Food Festival on they have like the tents and tables out and I'm just serving food. That's a shaping dish or whatever and it's almost like what you're doing in a food truck, but not in a in a truck.

39:12 The other question I have is you mentioned adobo was the the first dish you learn to cook. Could you maybe talk to talk to your wife about what was the first time that you made it over there? You feel like you got a right?

39:25 This is probably back in high school and I always watched my mom my grandmother cooking. Adobo. Remember a couple times where my mom would be, you know working late and they say okay. Hey, I need you to start cooking dinner start cuz your dad's on the way home. I'm on the way home stuck in traffic or whatever. So over the phone. She would coach me through how to cook adobo and it's pretty simple dishes like one, turn on the stove.

40:06 And it was I thought I came out pretty good. But after that, you know, then they started a just you know, they would just say hey, hey get dinner started for us. You know, they would just let me get into it more and more but there was one point maybe

40:23 I don't know how long it was maybe a month or two after doing this a couple times a week that my dad was eating it and he said, oh, you're a double taste like moms. Adobo now, but then I think about when I was like, oh and I'm starting to get it, you know, so now we're not really built my confidence up in in cooking cooking at home for my family, but getting more and more interested in cooking at home learning other dishes cooking non Filipino dishes, so