How a Belfast pop-up food stall introduced renowned celebrity chef Rick Stein to Filipino cuisine

Celebrity chef Rick Stein has included his first ever Filipino dish in his new cookbook after a visit to Belfast last summer.

The cooking legend was introduced to Filipino food thanks to Nallaine Calvo when he visited her pop-up food stall, Kubo, in the trendy Trademarket on Belfast’s Dublin Road, as part of a new BBC cooking show.

Stein tucked into a Filipino-style Sunday lunch at KUBO during filming for his TV series, Rick Stein’s Food Stories, which aired earlier this year. He made a point of visiting her stall on his own before the crew had arrived and later enjoyed a Kamayan, a traditional Filipino communal feast, with her friends and family.

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KUBO is the brainchild of Nallaine Calvo, who is originally from Toronto, and set up her successful pop-up food stall business four years ago at the beginning of lockdown. One of mum's recipes for Filipino Pork Belly Adobo with Mango Atchara - that Stein enjoyed on his visit has taken pride of place in his latest book, Rick Stein's Food Stories, which accompanies the BBC Two TV series of the same name.

Stein also recreated the classic Filipino dish at the weekend when he appeared on BBC One's Saturday Kitchen and has admitted: "Prior to going to Belfast to film an episode of my latest TV series, I had almost no knowledge of Filipino cuisine. I can only say – what have I been missing?

"We visited an amazing stall called Kubo, run by chef Nallaine, and we filmed a traditional Filipino lunch called a ‘kamayan’ in which seven or eight dishes are laid out along a strip of banana leaf for everyone to help themselves and eat with their hands. The star turn for me, and the centre of the whole spread, was the pork belly adobo."

Nallaine says she's "honoured and so proud" that her family recipe has got Stein's seal of approval: "Over a year ago, Rick Stein sat down with my friends and I as we built him his first ever Kamayan feast for his new TV series - Food Stories. We feasted with him as this was his first ever Filipino feast - Pork BBQ, Kilawin, Lumpia and my mom's Pork Adobo were his favourites.

"We are honoured and so proud that our, and by extension - my mom's adobo recipe has been featured as one of the recipes in his new cookbook that mirrors the series. This is wild and bizarre to wrap our heads around!"

She added: "Thanks so much to Rick Stein Restaurants and the whole crew who chose us and made all this happen to an itty bitty little Filipino food business in Belfast. We are humbled and grateful and it goes beyond any award for us."

Moving from London to Belfast six years ago, Nallaine began to grow homesick for Filipino cooking and so decided to launch her own food outlet.

Operating as a home business before a stint at the Hill Street Hatch, KUBO was previously based at Trademarket and now operating at nearby Shaftesbury Square. Nallaine has also hosted the Philippine Kultura Food Festival, showcasing the delights of Filipino food and culture, for the past few years as well as helping to organise Belfast’s annual Canada Day Festival.

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