Philippine Day Festival at Passaic Park
Passaic Park, NJ
Cocina de Geepee
13-A Wanaque Avenue
Pompton Lakes, NJ
(973) 616-2482
Here in NJ, Philippine Day is celebrated around the second Sunday every June, to mark its independence from Spain in 1898. We've had the festivities here for the past 30 years or so. There is usually a parade in the morning, then a program with native performances. And of course, lots of yummy food. This was Babams' first time and he was very excited.
The day started off very overcast and dreary. By the time we got there at 12:30 pm, the food stalls were in full swing. The turnout was not huge yet. We took some shots before picking out some grub.
At left is lumpia (little fried egg rolls, filled with meat). I am not sure what the middle dish was. The one on the right is empanadas (meat pasties).
A lot of the stalls (there must have been seven or so in all) have brick-and-mortar stores on northern Jersey. We were surprised that there were a lot of restaurants/catering joints that we have not even heard of. 
Hey guys, I found the bubble tea place!
Lots more yummy goodies. This place specialized in bbq skewers. The Philippine style meat skewers are usually marinated in a soy sauce mix, and is on the sweet and savory side. Very addictive.
Fresh bbq sticks right here!
Miss Visayas kindly posed for this pix. Thanks!
Chibs and Babams enjoying the festivities at a safe distance. Babams was really excited and wanted to try everything!
Chibs savoring the bbq meat skewer. Lucky dawg!
Now that's some good bbq!
DJKung ordered got this from Cocina De Geepee's stall. The mechado (chunks on left) was good, but the pernil (roasted pork, right) was superb. Their flyer advertises Spanish and Filipino food.
Here's Cocina de Geepee's stall.
We also got some fried turon (bananas wrapped in rice paper) at this stall. I did not get the name of this place, unfortunately.
Close-up of the fried turon.
Unfortunately, our grazing was interrupted when an old guy approached Chibby and started petting him. Chibs is quite leery of strangers, so he reared back and started barking. Babams, who was already hyper to begin with, decided to bark at some kids playing with a bright red toy airplane.
Mind you, they were under the control of DJKung, so all was in order and they were just letting off some steam. Nevertheless, we were asked to leave because we were "scaring" the kiddies. Who were quite a distance from us. Oh, well.
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