A local café offering gluten-free menu hosted a ‘Kamayan’ feast for local residents who love Filipino food. The café owner, Rejoice Thomson, said she was excited to serve gluten-free Filipino food.
“We really wanted to do something together that is gluten-free. We want to promote that Filipino food can also be gluten-free,” said Ms Thomson.
“It’s a degustation-style of kamayan, so we start with entrée, main dish, and then dessert.”
“This is the first time that Dovetail on Overend organised such an event. I’m so glad to be able to share this event with Yana,” she added.
Filipino-American chef, Yana Gilbuena believes Filipino food is naturally gluten-free. According to her, the use of gluten was only brought on by the colonisers.
Gluten-free Filipino food Source: Supplied by Rejoice Thompson
Dovetail on Overend's Rejoice Thomson with Yana Gilbuena Source: Supplied by Rejoice Thomson
“If you look into indigenous cooking, we never grew wheat. None of that was natural in the Philippines,” she said.
“Ours was always rice, corn, even the use of tomatoes was an introduction of our colonisers. So most of the time, I really love to delve deeper into what was pre-colonial and embrace that cuisine.”
