Pamimiyesta — Jaclyn Reyes

Pamimiyesta (2021)
COMMUNITY FOOD ENGAGEMENT & ADOBO CONTEST

This project was supported by the New York City Artist Corps Program.

Pamimiyesta was a food-based social engagement project rooted in Filipino fiesta tradition, organized by FlipEats and Little Manila Queens Bayanihan Arts with support from the NYC Artist Corps. Presented on October 2, 2021, at the Little Manila Block Party in Woodside, Queens, the project transformed adobo cooking into a participatory community event. The term pamimiyesta referred to the act of visiting neighbors and sharing food at a fiesta—a practice grounded in generosity and communal intimacy.

The event featured an adobo cook‑off among over half a dozen Filipino cooks across generations in New York City, inviting public tasting and conversation. More than a competition, Pamimiyesta foregrounded discussions of culinary adaptation, migration, and lived identity—exploring how adobo evolved across class, region, and diaspora rather than conforming to a singular ‘authentic’ standard.

This dialogue unfolded in the wake of a 2021 proposal by the Philippine government’s Department of Trade and Industry to develop a Philippine National Standard for adobo and other staple dishes. The move sparked substantive public debate: critics argued that standardizing adobo threatened the rich multiplicity of widely varying home recipes and culinary creativity. The backlash, widely shared online via hashtags like #donttouchmyadobo, emphasized that adobo was best understood as a cooking technique with countless local and familial variants—not a fixed recipe.

Pamimiyesta responded to that cultural moment by asserting that every recipe was a valid expression of belonging. By inviting attendees to taste and engage with stories embedded in recipes, the project framed culinary practice as civic art: shared food moments became opportunities to talk about cultural survival, intergenerational wisdom, and community-making in the diaspora.