Tonight, a friend and I went downtown to try a Filipino-fusion hole-in-the-wall that opened recently on Hudson Street. They have items on their menu like adobo chicken burrito, poke bowls with coconut rice, and ube ice cream. The food was really tasty and cheap, and is representative of the very recent popularity and influx of Filipino-influenced restaurants popping up all over the city.

When I was younger, I used to think “Asian fusion” was full of crap — it annoyed me that “fusion” restaurants were opening. My thought behind this was — each individual cuisine is already so good, so why try to mess it up by fusing any two or three together? I’ve changed my mind on this, though, especially if the restaurants do not claim to be authentic Chinese or “authentic” Filipino. If the food tastes good and works, why not? People of different cultures and races become friends, get married, and interact with one another, and so their cuisines would likewise do the same thing and have chances at being successful. Our opinions are always changing about everything.