Where to Start with Liza Agbanlog
Liza Agbanlog is a Filipino-Canadian food blogger and cookbook author. She was born and raised in the Philippines before moving to Vancouver, Canada, in the 1990s with her husband and children. Missing the food of her homeland, she began recreating classic Filipino dishes using ingredients available in North American grocery stores and documented her recipes on her blog, Salu Salo Recipes. The blog grew into a trusted resource for Filipino home cooking, and in 2018 she published “Quintessential Filipino Cooking,” a collection of 75 authentic recipes adapted for Western kitchens. Agbanlog’s approach is practical and family-oriented, focused on getting real Filipino food on the table without requiring hard-to-find specialty ingredients.
Start here
Quintessential Filipino Cooking
Liza Agbanlog · 192 pages · 2018 · Easy
Themes: filipino cuisine, beginner-friendly, classic recipes, home cooking, adobo
Agbanlog’s only cookbook, a practical collection of 75 authentic Filipino recipes drawn from her childhood memories, family traditions, and the recipes she developed on her Salu Salo blog. The book covers the essential dishes of Filipino cuisine: adobo, sinigang, lumpia, kare-kare, longanisa, pancit, and leche flan, all adapted for home cooks with access to standard North American grocery stores.
Why Start Here
This is Agbanlog’s signature work and the natural entry point into her cooking. The recipes are straightforward, well-tested, and written with beginners in mind. Each dish includes step-by-step instructions and photographs. The book grew out of years of blogging and responding to questions from home cooks around the world, so the instructions anticipate the places where people commonly get stuck.
What to Expect
A compact paperback at 192 pages with about 60 photographs. The recipes are organized by type and most can be completed in under an hour. The ingredients are chosen for accessibility, making this a practical starting point if you do not have easy access to a Filipino or Asian grocery store. The tone is warm and encouraging, aimed at cooks who are trying these dishes for the first time.