A Kamayan Filipino Feast | Listen

In Charleston, Nikko Cagalanan is making kamayan a Filipino tradition worth traveling for

Nikko Cagalanan grew up in the Philippines, where it’s common to have multiple generations living in one household. Even everyday meals were a big production, serving 10 to 20 people. “Comparing in the US, with me and my wife, it’s just the two of us,” he says; he and restaurateur and business partner Paula Kramer tied the knot last fall. The two opened Kultura restaurant in Charleston in mid-2023, four years after Cagalanan opened Mansueta’s Filipino Food in the former Workshop food hall space. Just this past year, he was named a James Beard finalist for Emerging Chef.

Along with his regular menu, Cagalanan began offering a special kamayan dinner about once a month, often in collaboration with another chef. At a long table in the outdoor space of his tiny restaurant, he and his team lay out banana leaves and serve a range of classic Filipino dishes, from chicken adobo to lumpia, accompanied by rice, dipping sauce, vegetables, and fruit—all to be eaten by hand.

Although eating by hand was common in the Philippines before colonization (and in other parts of the world throughout history), the kamayan tradition is a celebratory meal that began in the military as a way to create camaraderie among soldiers, who nicknamed it “boodle fight,” referencing the scramble to eat as much food as possible before their neighbors could.

Cagalanan’s once-a-month dinners have been met with such enthusiasm that he’s now offering two-, four-, and six-person kamayan options on his regular menu. He keeps some ingredients traditional to his upbringing, like a combination of jasmine and sticky rice, and readily sources other ingredients locally. “We have so many amazing farmers. We’re next to the water, and I can drive to Miss Paula’s Shrimp five minutes from downtown and just get the freshest ingredients. Marvin [Ross] from Peculiar Pig Farm is the one providing the suckling pig, the lechon, for the kamayan. He’s an amazing pig farmer 20 minutes from Charleston. The easiest part is connecting with those people.”

One thing he would like to change, though, is a stigma still attached to elements of Filipino food.

“The hardest part is introducing uncommon dishes,” he says. “[People] know chicken dobo or pancit. The next thing is trying to introduce [dishes like] dinaguan, pork braised with its own blood. It’s my favorite dish that my grandmother would make, and you wouldn’t even know that it’s made with pig’s blood. It’s so hard to sell when you put it on the menu; it just changes the perspective of people reading it. But people will eat Spanish blood sausage or French boudin—why can’t you eat a tasty braised pork?”

There’s little doubt he’ll accomplish this goal. The self-taught chef, who cut his Charleston chops at Zero George, was a 2022 Chopped champion for the “bizarre baskets” episode, which had him cooking everything from rooster testicles to crickets. “Chopped was so much fun and so stressful,” he says. “Everything you see on Chopped is real. They do edit, but when the time starts, it won’t stop. Even if you cut yourself.”

He attributes the win to all the practice he got doing pop-ups since 2020. “I was doing pop-ups everywhere and using the kitchen without knowing what they have. I think that gave me the advantage because I can work around any kitchen that you give me.” In fact, he adds, “we’re still doing it at the restaurant.” His tiny Kultura kitchen is set up like a pop-up with a two-eye induction burner, a pot of boiling water, and an office oven. “Having limitations makes you more creative and makes you do things that other people wouldn’t do.”

Creating Kamayan at Home

Although some dishes need to marinate overnight, you can prep and cook for kamayan in a day, Cagalanan says, but “definitely make sure you ask family for help. It will be much faster. And that’s the best part of it—preparing it together.” He serves a range of pork, chicken, and seafood dishes, including a skewer, along with lumpia, fried spring rolls. Rice is essential—a lot of it, as it’s the base of every bite. Vegetables, fruit, and dipping sauce are the final elements. Everything is laid out on banana leaves, which serve as both tablecloth and plates.

And then you use your hands. “Grab your rice, put it in front of you; grab your meat, do a dip, put it on top of the rice and you eat it. And then you follow it with maybe string beans or bok choy, you dip it again, and that’s the move,” Cagalanan says. Repeat with each dish, and finish with fruit, which is typically watermelon, pineapple, and mango but can be whatever you like.

He recommends sourcing banana leaves and certain ingredients like lemongrass, palm sugar discs, kalamansi juice, and banana ketchup at an Asian grocery store, where they will often be less expensive. But most ingredients you’ll need can be found at major grocery stores or online.

“It brings me joy when I do a kamayan dinner in the US,” Cagalanan says. “It makes me feel at home. I love the fact that you sit with a stranger next to you and you get to talk about anything, and you get to share a meal and experience a different style of eating. I think that’s a beautiful thing.”

Pro Tip: Cagalanan recommends using a rice cooker to cook a combination of jasmine and sticky rice (about 1½ cups each to serve up to 8 people).

8 Filipino-Inspired Dishes for a Kamayan Dinner

Chicken Inasal

Grilled Fish

Pork Skewers

Pork Belly Adobo

Shrimp with Yellow Curry

Lumpia

Toyo-Mansi Dipping Sauce

Banana Ketchup Dipping Sauce

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