A FILIPINO FOOD MOVEMENT

34 Wyatt Street is Carl Canela’s answer to popularising Filipino food in Adelaide, where the 25-year-old reinvents classic dishes through Filipino-inspired sandos and rice bowls. We visited the hotspot to chat about the journey of the venue, and how Filipino food is an ongoing evolution.

Words:  Lara Pacillo // Photos: 34 Wyatt Street

Authentic Filipino food is loud. To those unfamiliar with its intensity of bold flavours and vibrant aromas, it can even be overwhelming, Carl Canela says.

“Traditionally, Filipino food is a bit over the top when it comes to flavour – it’s too spicy, too sour, too sweet – and for a lot of Western palates, it can be too much.”

At 23 years old, having worked in some of Adelaide’s most prominent kitchens including Shobosho, Carl decided to empty his savings, in the pursuit of popularising Filipino flavours in Adelaide through Filipino-inspired cuisine.

Just off the office strip of Pirie Street, Carl opened 34 Wyatt Street in early 2023 as one of the only Filipino eateries in the CBD. The café has grown to become the Filipino community’s best-kept secret – an icon within and somewhat undiscovered from the outside.

Sando and rice bowl varieties that shift with the seasons are made to order in the intimate 12-person venue.

The menu is formed from flavours Carl, now 25 years old, recalls from his childhood growing up in the Philippines, and ones he’s found hard to come across since moving to Australia with his family eight years ago.

The concept of the venue is to introduce Filipino flavours in a palatable way through twists on authentic dishes.

“You’d be surprised how big the Filipino community is, yet no one’s doing Filipino food. Those that do are usually sticking with traditional food and it’s sadly not working yet in Adelaide,” Carl says.

“The aim is to make it a bit more approachable for people who haven’t tried it, while offering a fresh take on classics for those who have.”

One of the most popular dishes at 34 Wyatt Street is the Crumbed Pork Longganisa Sando, which is inspired by the traditional longganisa Filipino sausage.

“Instead of making a sausage by putting the meat in a casing, I’ve turned it into a sando and used the meat as a meatball. It’s the same flavour – pork mince, garlic, soy, vinegar, salt, and pepper – just reinvented.”

The Pork Tocino Rice Bowl and Sando on the menu represent Philippines’ long history of influenced and ever-changing culture. Carl describes that “Tocino” means pork in Spanish, while the dish also closely resembles the Chinese char siu dish.

“Filipino food in general is a mix of Chinese and Spanish influence through colonisation and trade. It’s all been mixed up. The cuisine is a fusion of other cultures, and now that’s what I’ve done too, by incorporating western influences with Filipino food.”

Specials are introduced spontaneously when inspiration or cravings hit. However, the Fried Chicken Sando and the Leche Flan Croissant are another two crowd favourites that remain year-round, as do the three rules of 34 Wyatt Street: “Everything needs to be cooked in here, prepped in here, and served in here – otherwise I’m not going to put it on the menu,” Carl says. The only outsourced element is the bread, a compromise Carl has made due to the lack of an oven.

Cooking was always thought of as a career for Carl, with his dad being a chef and his mum an excellent cook. A pastry chef was the original dream job, but after joining his dad in the kitchen at 18 years old, he was opened to the world of line cooking and fell in love with it.

Carl travelled interstate to learn the crafts of being a chef and to discover which style he was drawn to most.

“I hit Melbourne, didn’t like it. Hit Sydney, didn’t like it. I went to Adelaide, and decided this is it,” Carl says.

“The food scene at the time wasn’t as great as Melbourne and Sydney, but I could see it getting better. People are playing around with food here. There’s a trend with a lot of young chefs breaking boundaries and not being scared of trying.”

34 Wyatt Street has been an evolution of Carl’s curiosity and journey as a business owner. For the first three months of trade, the venue focused on dinner service with a formal and experimental tasting menu. Carl then pivoted to lunch to draw in the daytime crowds of the city, with an extensive menu. Now the current offering is a result of streamlining and focusing on dishes people are drawn to most.

Carl says it’s a tricky yet exciting road, balancing the business side with the art of cooking, yet his team continues to expand and his Filipino food movement keeps pushing forward.

“It’s all about not being scared of trying to play with food because at the end of the day, if it doesn’t taste good, you can create something different, make it better. It’s always about trial and error.”


34 Wyatt Street: 34 Wyatt Street Adelaide 5000 // Monday to Saturday, 8am to 3pm

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