On Sept. 6, I honored the 10-year anniversary of my grandmother, Delia Mangali’s death from leukemia. I sat in my Eugene apartment, staring down at the bowl of lugaw, a Filipino rice porridge, frustrated because the color wasn’t right. Lola (grandmother in Tagolog) taught me how to make a silky white bowl of lugaw complete with some freshly cut scallions and soft boiled egg, a dish I haven’t been able to replicate quite right since her death. 

In her debut memoir, Crying in H-Mart, Eugene native-turned rock star Michelle Zauner breaks down in the aforementioned store’s aisle, following the death of both her aunt and mother to cancer. “I’m collecting evidence that the Korean half of my identity didn’t die when they did,” Zauner writes. 

That sentiment stuck with me as I wandered down the isles of Uptown Asian Grocery, throwing everything and anything I recognized into my cart with impunity. I see Lola in the dragonflies on the McKenzie River, in the mirror when I smile, and in this cart of groceries. 

Uptown Asian Grocery is owned by Gen Fillon and specializes in Filipino and other Asian groceries. In 2016, Fillon bought Uptown Asian from her friend, Jen Mattes. Six years ago, Uptown moved from its location on Main Street in Springfield to its current location on Mohawk Boulevard. 

Fillon is aware of the small Filipino community in the Springfield area and was doubtful of the success of the store, but they’ve managed over the past 10 years. 

“We’re not really making money,” Fillon says. “We’re surviving.”

Most of her day-to-day patrons are non-Filipino people interested in branching out their cooking by buying soy sauce or fish sauce or noodles. She makes most of her revenue from families and individuals driving hours to visit her store and stock up for months. 

Uptown Asian also provides an opportunity for remittance to the Philippines — meaning family members in the U.S. can send packages of food or money to their relatives overseas. 

Growing up in the Philippines, food was “always number one,” Fillon says. Each city, neighborhood and family has a different way of cooking traditional dishes. 

I took a beeline to the back freezers. Lumpia is a thin egg roll most typically served with a pork filling. 

“There’s no such thing as a right lumpia or a wrong lumpia,” Fillon says. 

Uptown carries a variety of brands and fillings, as well as wrappers if you want to roll your own. In the sauces section you’ll find a big bottle of Mae Ploy Sweet Chili Sauce, perfect for dipping your crispy lumpia in. 

The industrial sized freezers that take up most of the store space are filled with fish, pardon me, pish. I picked up half a bangus, or milkfish, to fry, eyes and all. I’ll mix up a vinegar-heavy dipping sauce to accompany it.  

The last freezer item I picked up was turon, a kind of sweet lumpia but fatter and stuffed with banana or jackfruit, then covered in a sugar syrup that hardens into a shattering crust. 

When it comes to Filipino desserts. You know you’ve done it right when a Tita takes a bite, and has a deadpan reaction, commenting, “Not too sweet.”

In the baking mixes section, two stand out to me: the first being Champ-O-Rada, or chocolate rice. In my house, my dad, Roderick Mangali, mixes everything with rice, from ketchup to a nice Italian bolognese. When we’re out of the mix, he’ll mix some cocoa powder, milk and sugar into day old rice. 

Next to it though, is puto (no, not that puto, my Spanish-speaking friends). My memories with puto include ripping up little chunks of the steamed, slightly chewy cake and putting them into my little sister and cousins’ chubby baby hands. It’s usually served doused with cheese. 

Fillon gets her fresh shipment of produce on Wednesdays, so when I walked in on Sunday afternoon it was slimmer pickings than to be expected on weekdays. They did, however, have both ube and taro. Contrary to popular belief, the starchy, sweet purple roots are different species, with ube solid purple on the inside and taro white with purple flecks. Ube is known for its much sweeter, vanilla flavor and is likely in the popular “taro” powders and extracts. Roasting both with some butter and salt is a worthwhile taste test to see which purple root you prefer. 

It’d only be fair to also speak about the few foods I’m not as fond of, starting with Filipino-style spaghetti sauce made with a base of banana ketchup and sugar. Startlingly sweet with additions that include ground beef and chopped hot dogs with cheese. 

Balut is a fertilized duck egg that is boiled and then eaten. Fillon is a fan when she’s drunk because, “you don’t really realize what you’re eating.”

Anthony Bourdain famously ate balut on live TV, saying, “It’s not one of my favorite things on earth, but really not that bad.”

Ending on a crunchy note, pork rinds, sweet onion chips and shrimp chips are my favorite. Sky Flakes, a sweet sandwich cookie is popular to cure sickness, and Fillion threw a bag of Cheese Ring in my cart.

“Tastes like straight MSG,” Fillon says. 

Filipino cooking is defined by cooking for a village. Its taste is an identity that lives on with me.  

Uptown Asian Grocery is at 1460 Mohawk Boulevard in Springfield. Hours are 11 am to 6 pm daily.