Kuya's Owner Gives Customers Experience and Respect Learned from Hometown

Those seeking authentic homestyle Filipino food in San Bruno need look no further than the small, friendly Kuya's Asian Cuisine on San Mateo Avenue.

Chef and part owner Luz Cabrera serves up the type of food she grew up with in Cavite, near Manila in the Philippines, and takes pride in creating dishes using authentic Filipino ingredients and her own special blend of herbs and spices.

Cabrera, one of 11 siblings, was heavily influenced by her mother's cooking, but didn't know how to cook herself when she arrived here in 1984. After working at several Filipino restaurants in the Bay Area, she began experimenting with recipes and discovered she had a knack for cooking.

"I found I could taste something and re-create that taste at home," she remembers. It was a trial-and-error method, but soon she was filling in for cooks at work and impressing people with her skill.

In 2005, she, her husband, Ceferino, along with two friends opened Kuya's. Her idea was to give customers the experience of Filipino food the way she had it at home.

Cabrera does most of the cooking at Kuya's, but she employs several other chefs to help out.

"Everyone can cook," she says. "It's the personal touch of the individual cook that makes the difference."

One of restaurant's specialties is Kare-kare, a complex dish of oxtail, tripe, string beans, eggplant and bok choy in a rich homemade peanut sauce, served with fermented shrimp paste.

Another is adobo, the national dish in the Philippines, with chicken or beef stewed in vinegar and soy sauce.

Cabrera also takes pride in her Lomi soup, which is chock full of noodles, chicken and vegetables. And because Filipino food is influenced by its Chinese roots, Cabrera also serves many Chinese-inspired dishes, albeit with a Filipino touch.

"Filipino food is a melding of different cuisines, and many people don't know that the popular Filipino finger food lumpia originated in China," she said. "Our version is filled with a mixture of ground pork and vegetables and served with a sweet dipping sauce."

Cabrera said that the name of the restaurant comes from a Filipino term of respect for older males. The restaurant was named after her husband, who works as a server and "does all the heavy lifting."

"Everyone likes my husband, and they always call him 'Kuya,'" she said. "And because he works out front, he's more popular than I am, so it was appropriate."

Kuya's Asian Cuisine is housed in a blue-tiled Art Deco style building in the 400 block of San Mateo Ave. The long, narrow interior features nine booths and half a dozen tables. Traditional Filipino farming and fishing baskets adorn the walls.

The restaurant is open daily from 10am to 9:30pm.

Maura Hurley writes about the people and cultures behind the many restaurants on San Mateo Avenue. If you have a story to suggest about the cultures and cuisines on San Mateo Avenue, send the idea to martin@patch.com.