TOO • roh

It’s there if you know where to look—in a strip mall, behind a car wash, at the back of a grocery store, in the Philippines or northern California, or anyplace Filipinos call home—this bare-bones canteen where, if you listen close, you can hear the low, steady hiss of steam. Food awaits in steel bins, warm and replenished as needed. Turo-turo means “point-point,” and that’s how you order. Prices are kept reasonable by low overhead: There might be just one or two people on staff at any time, moving between stove and cash register. You clear your own plate; you do your part. In return, you get abundance. Almost everything in this cookbook could fit in this chapter. What I’ve included here are the recipes that in my experience hold up the best over time, so you can linger and forget that you have anything to do but eat.