We were coming from the successful relaunch of Nanding Mendez’s Fiesta in America in New Jersey yesterday afternoon when we found ourselves stuck in traffic. We were in Manhattan and on our way to the inauguration and blessing of Dollar Hits—the popular Los Angeles-based Filipino street food restaurant that was opening its first branch in the East Coast.
This was an event I was looking forward to since I was invited to cut the ribbon a few weeks earlier. For those of us in New York who are not in the know, Dollar Hits has been quite popular among kababayan in the West Coast for the smorgasbord of our favorite Filipino skewers—isaw, betamax, adidas, walkman, kwek-kwek, and many more—that it sells for just over a dollar. Since I did not have isaw during my recent trip home, the launch of Dollar Hits in New York was something I was just not going to miss.
It comes just a few days after the successful opening of the Jollibee flagship at Times Square. And so there we were stuck in traffic at 4:30 p.m. trying to make it to an event scheduled at 5 p.m. There was no way we could make it to Queens on time.
So I asked Wilson to drop us at the nearest subway station so Joey and I could take the 7 Train to Woodside. We took the train at Bryant Park and made it to the store on 64th Street between Roosevelt Avenue and 39th Street just a few minutes past five in time for the event.
After the ribbon cutting and blessing, Elvie Cunanan Chan led us inside and presented to us what Dollar Hits is famous for—skewers of what most kababayan refer to as “putok batok”—those sinful delights that Filipinos would still have anyway since these somehow get to bring them home. Elvie asked us what we want.
Just like in the carinderias back in the Philippines, we made turo-turo the pork isaw and tenga, balat and atay, balunbalunan,puso, and paa ng manok. “Yan mu ing buri mo, Congen?” asked Elvie, who along with her sisters Josephine and Nelita who run Dollar Hits with her, hails from Sta. Ana in Pampanga where I also come from.
I nodded but indicated I will try more later. As the skewers are precooked, customers are given the unique experience of having to grill their own selections. I tried it out myself in one of the grills set up along the sidewalk and ended up having my Pidayit barong exude a smokey scent that I was sure kababayan in the next event I would be attending would have a whiff of. We seated ourselves comfortably inside the restaurant, which could accommodate 30 customers.
While waiting, we surveyed the other delicacies that Dollar Hits has to offer. Aside from the skewers, they have balut, turon, ukoy, fruit salad, buco pandan, sliced mango with bagoong, ube shake, and many more. One of Elvie’s sisters later came bringing with her more skewers that now include ulo at palong ng manok and a few others.
She also brought in one of my favorites, dinuguan with isaw, that Nanding, the Residence caretaker, would sometimes give us a taste of. “Congen, bisa kang nasi?” Elvie asked as she placed a platter of rice on our table along with a plate of menudo and pinakbet. Over sticks of grilled chicken heart, liver, and gizzard, Elvie told us how Dollar Hits started.
She told us she had a small Filipino grocery store in Los Angeles that also doubled as a carinderia. Business was not doing well so she thought of offering something new. One day, Elvie placed a small table outside her store and laid out skewers of Filipino favorites.
The setup is, of course, very Filipino, and reminds kababayan here in the United States of the neighborhood barbecue places that pop up at night back home in the Philippines. Instead of the usual pork and chicken barbecue that Filipino restaurants in the US offer, Elvie came up with a different lineup of street food that many kababayan long for.
It was not long before Filipinos longing for a taste of home would line up for hours for Elvie’s signature skewers. After she got shut down a couple of times by authorities, she got herself a food truck.
So popular were her skewers that she eventually opened a storefront in Historic Filipinotown just a few months later. It has since become one of the more successful Filipino-owned restaurants in the West Coast.
Dollar Hits has become so popular that it was even featured in a Netflix series on street food. It took Elvie and her sisters more than a year before they could open their branch in New York but it was surely worth the wait.
We expect the store, which is being run by Elvie’s inaanak, Gino Galura, to be deluged by kababayan wanting a taste of home. “Are you sure it’s Dollar Hits and not Dollar Eats,” I asked Elvie before we headed out.
I was referring to how Kapampangans pronounce the h when they should not and not pronounce it when they should. She just laughed. “Ika talaga, Congen, Kapampangan ka talaga!” –By Elmer Cato Consul General Philippine Consulate General in New York