Philippine Day Festival at Passaic Park

Under furs, food & fun:

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.

Arigato Ariyoshi Izakaya!

Under food:



Izakaya Ariyoshi
226 E. 53rd Street
NY, NY 10022
(212) 319-3940



DJKung and I were feeling nostalgic about a prior trip to Tokyo, where we were hanging out at a local bar getting drunk and just noshin' on all sorts of grilled goodies. We were initially aiming for a robata (grilled food joint), but were not really looking forward to being surrounded by the East Village crowd on a Thursday (feeling old, I guess).



We agreed that Ariyoshi unselfconsciously felt like we were back in Tokyo, in the itty-bitty ryokan/hostel we stayed at, half-watching a popular game show while having dinner. It helped that the table next to us was populated by expats who, by that point, were animated after a few drinks.

Spider roll. Soft shell crab with avocado, in sushi rice. DJKung and I hardly ever order rolls. This one was pretty good; the crab was still warm and crispy. We were off to a good start.


Sapporo, Superfatty's beer of choice.

Mushroom soup, with three different kinds of mushrooms. We could identify the enoki and the oyster mushroom. The soup was sweet and hearty.

Hamachi kama (broiled yellowtail collar). This was a pretty big serving, meaty and succulent. I liked the little radish pickle (I think) thing in the middle.

DJKung ordered a beef skewer and a chicken skin skewer. Both were spot on.

While enjoying our apps, we came to realize that we ordered our usuals that we tend to get at Takahachi. I think we were really craving comfort food that night.

Tempura shrimp and veggies. This came with the tempura soba that DJKung ordered.

Soba noodles. Can't mess with this.

Nabeyaki udon. The broth was rich and smoky-sweet. It was perfect for that soggy, rainy day.

I'm not sure if it was because of the weather, but there were not many people out that night. I can easily imagine this place easily getting jam-packed, because of their nice little selection of beers and sake---nothing very fancy-pants. The food is very solid and there is a nice selection of skewers, apps and mains. It would be interesting to check Ariyoshi out in the wee hours of the morning (they close at 2 am on some nights).