Food festival founder helps Filipino Winnipeggers cook their way to success in new country

Edmond Madriaga has been plying his friends with fish balls for the last 10 years, using the people he knows as test subjects while he worked to master the popular Filipino street food. 

He'd grind down fillets of fish, mix in flour, form small balls of the mixture and deep fry them in the kitchen of his home in Winnipeg's West End.

"I'd make my friends try it to see if it tastes the same as it was back home," he said.

Madriaga, who moved to Winnipeg from the Philippines in 1996, isn't a trained chef, but he dreamed of making authentic Filipino food to help people in his city feel more at home in the Canadian Prairies.

Today, he's known as "the Fishball King." That's in part thanks to Lourdes Federis, a multicultural marketing professional who founded Food Trip, a local festival which was originally established to showcase Filipino food businesses.

In 2017, Federis saw a need for these businesses — some of which were operating out of homes and selling meals on social media — to have a venue to promote their products.

Madriaga is not the only cook benefiting from Food Trip. Federis says many other food vendors have gone on to increase their customer base and even open storefronts.

"I created the event for them to have a legit way that they could sell it. They could start their food businesses," she said.

"I'm happy that most of them are in the process of building their own restaurants."

Federis doesn't just provide a venue for food vendors — she promotes their products and provides support for new businesses, helping the owners navigate legalities and licensing challenges.

Madriaga says Food Trip helped him take his business to the next level.

"Joining Food Trip, my business is so much bigger than what it was," Madriaga said, explaining he now works out of a commercial kitchen and sells his products at various festivals.

"It's really great, because there's a lot of Filipinos here and they always say they miss the street food back home. And I'm glad I'm able to bring them what they miss back home."

Across town on Isabel Street, the smells of garlic and deep-fried food emanate from a small restaurant that's packed with people ready to eat their fill of seafood.

Viel Anasco opened Sea Level 100 late last year. She's hoping to expand its reach by being a vendor at the Food Trip festival, which draws thousands of people wanting to taste foods from all over the world, for the first time this May.

"We are a small business but we're dreaming of doing a big business. [Federis] will be a big help for us to build our name," Anasco said.

Empowering newcomers

That's Federis's goal. She says she wants to see all newcomers to Canada, not just Filipinos, succeed in spite of the obstacles they may face upon arrival.

"That's why I'm giving them all these resources, all this information and platforms — so they can be empowered. So when they start their life here they are educated, so they can start their life here properly and on the right foot," she said.

Federis also wants to make Winnipeg feel more like home.

In 2017, she started a Filipino Christmas celebration called Paskong Pinoy, which hosts many of the same food vendors as Food Trip, but also incorporates holiday traditions from the Philippines.

"Christmas in the Philippines is the biggest celebration. We start Christmas there in September and it ends in January," Federis said.

"You're longing for that celebration and feeling of being home, so I created that event to make the Filipinos here in Winnipeg feel like they're celebrating Christmas there," she said.

"Being in this kind of celebration you get to meet a lot of people. Then you learn that [you're] not alone. There's also other people who is going through the same challenges."

Federis says all her initiatives are meant to add to the existing supports for newcomers to help Winnipeg feel more like home.

"They say it takes a village to raise a child and it's similar for us — we're basically like a child when we move here because we start from zero," she said.

"It's something that you cannot do alone. You need the community."

This story is part of a joint project called My Garden City between Winnipeg's Filipino community and CBC Manitoba. A pop-up CBC bureau will be set up at Garden City Shopping Centre (next to the food court) from March 6-21, featuring reporters on hand to hear stories plus events to bring together the local community.