PhilFest 2015 tickets on-sale at PAO Cafe

Posted on March 27, 2015 by paocafetampa

Tampa is home to one of the biggest Philippine festivals in the United States of America and PAO is happy to be a partner food vendor in this event. Each the year the festival attracts thousands of visitors.

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This year the Philippine Cultural Foundation celebrates the 20th year of the annual PhilFest from Friday, April 10th, 2015 to Sunday, April 12th, 2015 at the Bayanihan Cultural Complex.

There will be non-stop entertainment all weekend long including folklore dancing, a singing competition, a hip-hop dance competition, Mr. and Mrs. PhilFest competition, Grand Flores de PhilFest parade, Musikong Kawayan Bamboo Ensemble, Philippine Choral Group, Philippine Performing Arts Company, and more. See a full entertainment schedule at: http://www.pcfitampa.org/philfest-2015-entertainment/

If you love Filipino food, there is nothing like PhilFest which has vendors all over the festival serving all kinds of traditional Philippine cuisine for hungry visitors to enjoy. Our PAO Truck Filipino Food Truck will be at the event and there will be all kinds of other vendors serving delicious food as well. Full PhilFest vendor list: http://www.pcfitampa.org/philfest-vendors-and-merchandisers/

Discounted pre-sale tickets are available at the PAO Cafe! Come and buy your ticket today!

PhilFest is sponsored by the City of Tampa, Hillsborough County Arts Council, Asia Trend Magazine, TFC: The Filipino Channel, One Philippines Florida Edition, and more.

Now Serving Halo-Halo Dessert

Posted on March 17, 2015 by paocafetampa

As spring heats up in Tampa and we get back to this warm tropical weather, come cool off at the PAO Cafe with our Halo-Halo dessert! Halo-Halo is an a popular Filipino dessert with mixtures of shaved ice and evaporated milk to which are added various boiled sweet beans, jello and fruits. It literally means “mix-mix” because you mix your ingredients served to you to make the dessert.

Halo-halo was featured as a Quickfire Challenge dish in the seventh episode of the 4th season of the American reality television series Top Chef. It was also featured in an episode of Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, where Bourdain visits Jollibee, a popular Filipino fast-food chain.

Enjoy a regular Halo-Halo for $7 which includes an iced mixture of various sweetened beans, jellies, fruits, ube halaya, house-made flan, and ice cream. Order Halo-Halo Supreme for $3 more and add ube ice cream and turon!

We will have a special for March Madness. Enjoy 50% off Halo-Halo Supreme Daily in March from 3PM-5PM!

PAO Cafe Catering Menu

Posted on December 19, 2014 by paocafetampa

If you need catering for your event whether it is corporate or special events, we have you covered at the PAO Cafe. We have our Filipino food available in trays. In addition, if you have other needs for your event feel free to inquire and we can provide a wide-variety of cuisines. A half-tray serves 10-12 people with a full tray serving 20-25 people. Call 813-443-4855 to place your order or ask us questions.

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Halloween Special: Dinuguan

Posted on October 31, 2014 by paocafetampa

Come down to PAO Cafe and celebrate Halloween with our Dinuguan special ($8.99). This dish featured cubes of pork in a tangy pork blood stew, a vampire favorite, and is served with white rice. This dish is also known as Filipino chocolate meat due to its chocolate-like color and consistency.

Tracing the origin of Dinuguan in Filipino-cuisine is a task, but some stories claim that the tendency for Filipinos to waste no part of the food they eat (pig blood in this case) helped inspire the creation of Dinuguan as a dish in Philippine cuisine.

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The term Dinuguan comes from the Filipino word dugo meaning “blood”. Although often thought to be quite foreign, Dinuguan is not too different than European-style blood sausage or British black pudding with the main difference between vinegar and peppers. A similar dish is melas zomos (black soup) which is an ancient Spartan dish.

Other names for Dinuguan include dinardaraan in Ilocano, tid-tad in Pampanga, dugo-dugo in Cebuano, sinugaok in Batangas, rugodugo in Waray, andsampayna or champayna in Northern Mindanao.

Filipino Feast “Kamayan” Dinner Recap

Posted on October 15, 2014 by paocafetampa

The PAO Cafe participated in a Kamayan Dinner last month on September 22nd, 2014 in Orlando at East End Market. It was the first its kind in Florida and allowed diners to experience Philippine cuisine in a format often enjoyed by actual Filipino with food served family-style on banana leaves (utensils were available for interested diners). The event was SOLD OUT which was awesome and showed there is certainly some support for Philippine cuisine to succeed in Florida.

We were joined by Filipino MasterChef 5 contestent, Francis Biondi and Filipino chefs from Kappo at East End Market, an amazing new culinary spot in Orlando serving up excellent Japanese cuisine. We brought along our halo-halo machine for the event and had an excellent evening!

Here are some photos from the evening:

Until the next Filipino food event. Stay tuned! 🙂

PAO Cafe published in Creative Loafing Tampa

Posted on September 3, 2014 by paocafetampa

Check out tomorrow’s new issue of Creative Loafing Tampa and find a story on the PAO Truck establishing the PAO Cafe!

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You can also read it online at this link: http://cltampa.com/potlikker/archives/2014/09/03/pao-truck-launches-cafe-new-mac-n-cheesery-and-more#.VAdZQflENjJ

PAO Cafe Featured on ABC Action News The List TV

Posted on August 26, 2014 by paocafetampa

The PAO Cafe was featured tonight on ABC Action News The List TV Show! We are so humbled and honored to be included on this show. It was the hosts first time having Filipino food and we are glad they loved it! We love spreading Filipino food culture. Our first weekend open had a positive response and we are excited to be open again starting Tuesday! See you soon at PAO!

PAO Cafe Grand Opening!

Posted on August 23, 2014 by paocafetampa

Thank you to everyone who joined us for Grand Opening day! We are so honored to have our PAOllowers supporting us in a new venture as we help spread the Filipino Food Movement throughout Tampa Bay. Here are some photos from opening day: