E29 Immigrants' Table | She Grew Up Poor in the Philippines. Now She Feeds Her Whole City. | Café Baboy

Send us Fan Mail She grew up poor in the Philippines, where food wasn’t always shared. Now Lea runs Café Baboy, a Filipino food truck in Birmingham, Alabama, and her one rule is: food is for everybody. In this episode of The Immigrants’ Table, Lea takes us inside Filipino food culture, starting with adobo, a national dish born from poverty with only three ingredients. She explains malinamnam, a Tagalog word that goes deeper than “delicious.” She talks about salo salo, the Filipino tradition of eating together from shared plates, and how that became the soul of her bento box menu. She shares why she feeds the homeless community around her truck, even trading meals for help finding parking. Lea also introduces us to turo turo, the street food tradition of pointing at what you want, balut (yes, that balut), and maali walas, the untranslatable word that perfectly describes Birmingham’s weather. From the Philippines to Alabama, this is a story about resourcefulness, generosity, and what happens when you carry your culture’s food across the world and feed a city with it. 🎙️ From Where to Here is part of The Immigrants’ Table, a series of restaurants and immigrant stories. Follow Café Baboy on Instagram: @cafe.baboy ---------- 🏆 You can help From Where to Here win a Signal Award Voting is open until October 15th and takes 30 seconds. If this show has ever made you feel a little less alone, cast your vote at https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting#/ (Can't find the show? Search "From Where to Here" in the search bar) 📩 Let’s stay connected. Join my email list list for thoughtful reflections, resources, and behind-the-scenes moments I only share there. ✨ Get My Latest Free Resource Do you live between cultures, languages, or versions of yourself? Take the free In-Between Index quiz and find out exactly where you land. → quiz.fromwheretoherepod.com 🎧 Subscribe & Follow Follow From Where to Here on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen so you don’t miss a conversation. 📱 More language & culture, daily. Find me on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook @fromwheretoherepod 🤎 If this episode meant something to you… Leave a review or share it with someone who’d love it too.