C hef/couple EJ Macayan and Hitomi Wada started their pop-up in 2018 and changed it to a takeout spot during the pandemic. A great mix of Chef Macayan's Filipino heritage and Chef Wada's Japanese background, they named it after their respective zodiac animals. It was very interesting to find out that initially, Chef Wada was not entirely confident on this concept. Japanese
and Filipino food does not mix well in general. They are almost opposite in taste. In addition, there are no existing cookbooks or guides on how to integrate them. Instead, they had to rely on themselves in three ways: mixing organically, experimenting, and learning about histories. There were times when it was as easy as putting another type of citrus like yuzu in for calamansi. More often than not, they have to think outside the box, such as marinating pork with patis (a Filipino fish sauce) for their tonkatsu (a Japanese breaded pork dish).
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