BoBi

Envie d’une nouvelle cuisine asiatique? Decouvrez la cuisine PHILIPPINE

BOBI Filipino Food

17 rue Oberkampf 75011, Paris

The famous line any Filipino can ask you:

Finally I’ve met the two ladies behind the first ever Filipino restaurant in Paris. I had the chance to meet them last 11th of September, after ten thousand years of waiting with all the lock downs and necessary precautions. As a matter of fact, I already met them when the first Philippine food festival happened in Paris last October of 2019. They were one of the partners for the event who made it so successful.

So, who’s behind BoBi, may I present to you Jessica and Aurelie!

Jessica with filipino origins born in Paris, France, and Aurelie almost a filipina by heart, mind, and soul. They’ve known each other for almost a decade and surprisingly, it’s Aurelie who thought of the idea why not to start a filipino restaurant in Paris which for the obvious reason that there is none; after discovering and tasted the different kinds of food in the Philippines, such as adobo, sinigang, kare-kare, and the list continues…

BoBi aims to share the tradition, to open the door for everyone to discover how rich the culture of the filipino may offer through the tastebuds. BoBi opened last November of 2019 and was created for everyone to ‘feel at home’.

Maybe many of you will ask what is BOBI and why? Well, in fact it was derived from the word ‘bouis-bouis‘ in french, which is carinderia in filipino term. Even if they’ve created a word that is not tagalog I still find it very filipino beacuse it’s evident that in the Philippines there’s a lot of ‘carinderias’ which offer homemade traditional food as all the filipinos are familiar with.

The interior of the restaurant is really speaking of what the Philippines is known for. It’s designed with little ornaments like the jeepney and tricycle which may represents the capital. The hanging light lamps that are handmade shells that came all the way from Cebu. I congratulated them for transporting it to Paris without any damage. And of course the famous ‘banig’, a handwoven mat that also traveled all the way from the pacific to Paris.

I asked them how do they found the location and why they’ve chosen it? So to make their story short, for almost 6 months of searching, they came across this spot where Jessica had her sort of intern before and so they asked the owner if the location was for sale? According to the owner the day they asked if the location was for sale was 2 days after the owner decided to sell it. So it’s really in perfect timing and all the signs they’ve prayed and wished for was answered!

The most important subject is the FOOD! What do they offer and serve? Well, since there are four seasons in France, what they are serving adapts to its weather. For example they serve the sinigang and nilaga or tinola in winter when it’s cold and perfect for hot soup. By summer they serve halo-halo and ube ice cream with stick-O, and refreshments like calamansi juice and the famous redhorse beer and the other local drinks such as sarsi, and some fruit juices. But don’t worry adobo is all year long, together with shanghai rolls and lumpia, and kinilaw.

Where is Bobi headed? Not to consider the timeline, what is BoBi capable of bringing on the table? Jessica and Aurelie are firmed and determined that it’s already a good start and timing what they’ve conducted. They are planning to expand it, to have a bigger space so that they could offer and serve more the traditional food in a festive way. To bring pleasure, to introduce the recipes that deserves to be tasted worldwide and to make more people share the spirit of bringing everyone closer together.

One sure thing that makes us gather altogether in one table is because of food, and BoBi loves to share it the filipino way.