For a fundraising bake sale in her city centre office years ago, the majority of Josie Popera’s colleagues brought with them the usual array of cupcakes and cookies.
Choosing another direction entirely, her contribution was savoury portions of Pork Belly Adobo, the national dish of her home in the Philippines, which she hoped would raise a few pounds for Macmillan Cancer support.
By the end of the day, not one serving of this tangy meat with rich flavours of soy sauce, vinegar and garlic remained, leaving the budding home cook confident that Scotland had an appetite for Filipino food.
“Sometimes, when work is really busy, you find yourself searching for a way to relax,” she said.
“Looking at a spreadsheet of numbers all day meant that it had to be something totally different to my day job.
“When I moved to Glasgow in 2010, there weren’t any Filipino restaurants so I started trying to recreate the food that I was missing and going to local supermarkets that carried Asian products.
“That’s how I started cooking, with recipes from my mum or my Grandma.
“The good thing about Scotland and Glasgow itself is that people love to try new food and won’t shy away from anything that you put on the table.
“I just make sure to warn my friends to take some of the chillies out first.”
While on the subject of spice, some might remember Popera, also known as Josie Pops, from her 2018 turn on Britain’s Best Home Cook, where she battled it out against other contestants in front of a line-up of all-star judges.
She looks back fondly on her time with the show, recalling cracking a coconut open with a machete in front of a concerned Chris Bavin and serving a dish that was just slightly too hot to handle for national treasure Mary Berry’s palate.
Through all of these experiences, she has remained true to her roots and passion for sharing Filipino cuisine with others.
“I’ve slowly introduced people in my life to the food I grew up with and now they love it.
“The good thing about it is that the dishes are very close to our neighbouring nations, like China.
“Then there’s a bit of Spanish flavour too as well as Indonesian and Malaysian.
“We’re very into our sauces so there’s often a really nice level of vinegar with other flavours like onion, lemons and limes.”
Although used to finding sanctuary from a nine-to-five grind as a tax analyst in the kitchen, you’re just as likely to spot Popera out and about in the city expanding her own culinary horizons and making new friends along the way.
“As much as I love to cook, I’m just as interested in going out to support other restaurants.
“I live in Dennistoun, but my boyfriend laughs at me because there are restaurants all around Glasgow that I visit so often that they know me by name.
“That could be anywhere from the Station Kitchen to Celinos, which I love.
“I would walk for miles just to eat my favourite noodles or sushi dish.”
For anyone who is just as committed to embarking on new foodie adventures, this weekend, Popera will be taking over the West Side Tavern in Glasgow's West End to serve a Filipino feast of dishes like grilled chicken Inasal, Inihaw na Liempo (a BBQ pork belly dish), and a fresh Kinilaw ceviche.
Hoping it will be the first of many more to come in the city, she said: “I’m really looking forward to it and I’m so happy I get to do a Filipino BBQ as that’s a big tradition in my hometown.
“The last pop-up I hosted at the Filipino Festival Barrio Fiesta sold out in a few hours and I know that we already have a good few bookings for Saturday.
“What I like about the West Side Tavern is that they seem really keen to offer chefs like me opportunities and push us to pursue our passions.
“They say ‘People Make Glasgow’, and that has been so true of my experience over the last 14 years.”
Josie Pops Kitchen will be popping up at West Side Tavern beside the Kelvinhall Subway station in Glasgow from 2pm on Saturday 2 7and Sunday 28 July. For more information follow her on Instagram at @josie.pops.
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