Like many Manileños who fell in love with the sun, sand, and surf, Bebo Bharwani moved to San Juan, La Union and made a living by preparing Indian food for locals and tourists. He is the chef and co-owner of Bebo's Bombay Burritos, which serve Tikka Taco, Keema Nachos, and other Indian dishes. This food stall is located at Port San Juan along the national highway in Barangay Urbiztondo.
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00:14 - Hi, my name is Bebo Barwani.
00:22 I'm the co-owner and cusinero at Bebo's Bombay Burritos.
00:27 I'm Indian, but born and raised in Manila.
00:30 Second generation born here.
00:32 And so obviously like we had Indian food at home.
00:36 I hated Indian food in the beginning.
00:39 You know, it's crazy as a kid, you wanna eat burgers,
00:44 you wanna eat like, but my dad, he just kept,
00:47 he cooked every day.
00:48 So it was the food that we had at home.
00:50 You know, as a child, you don't really like
00:52 understand the value of that.
00:54 I discovered cooking a bit little late,
00:56 but it became kind of my love language,
00:58 just the way my dad kind of does.
01:00 That's how he showed us that he loved us.
01:04 And I think I took that on.
01:07 And so I would have people in the house.
01:08 I just kind of love to cook for people.
01:11 And they would come and say,
01:12 "Hey, you should open something up."
01:13 F&B was a bit scary.
01:15 So I started selling off of Instagram for a little bit.
01:18 I guess it's always been a dream
01:20 to kind of move to La Union and cook.
01:23 That's always kind of like,
01:25 it's kind of a wish that we had.
01:28 We've been coming to San Juan for about 12 years.
01:31 And every time we came, we just loved the place.
01:33 We love the community.
01:35 We packed up, we packed Manila up
01:36 and got a spot at Port San Juan
01:39 and are excited to cook for everyone.
01:41 Our kind of brand of Indian food
01:43 is basically stuff that I cook for friends at home.
01:47 And I remember as a child, we would have merienda
01:50 and it would be this thing called the Frankie.
01:52 I guess every culture has like a bit of food that's wrapped.
01:56 It's called the Indian Frankie or the Bombay Frankie,
01:59 which is essentially like a Bombay burrito.
02:01 You know, we thought it would be great for surf down.
02:04 We wanted something more accessible
02:06 that we could put in your hand.
02:08 And truly, I think, at least our version of the Frankie
02:12 is basically it's a wrap with meat, with the sauces.
02:17 I think the best of Indian cuisine,
02:19 like how do you put that in one dish?
02:22 And I think the answer would be like,
02:23 stuff it in a burrito, right?
02:24 So we have potatoes that are stewed in fenugreek.
02:28 It's got hummus.
02:29 It's got, you choose your meat,
02:31 whether you want like a tandoori chicken
02:33 or a chicken tikka or a beef kofta.
02:37 We have vegan options, like a mushroom tandoori.
02:39 And you pretty much pick your protein.
02:43 And then it comes with like these four or five sauces.
02:46 It's got the cilantro chutney.
02:48 It's got the garlic sauce.
02:49 It's got the hot sauce.
02:51 It's got like the tamarind sauce.
02:53 If we want to gift you with something,
02:55 you can walk away and just eat anywhere.
02:58 Yeah, and then we do have your traditional curries.
03:02 We do stuff on a rice bowl.
03:06 So we're proud to kind of like introduce
03:07 some of these things.
03:08 We also introduced like the gulab jamun,
03:13 but if you're familiar with Indian food,
03:16 like that's the queen dessert of Indian food.
03:19 But we have it stuffed in a,
03:23 like pretty much a frozen yogurt.
03:25 And so you get the hot and cold,
03:28 you get the tartness from the yogurt,
03:30 you get the super sweet jamun kind of combo.
03:34 Yeah, but that's our story.
03:35 We've always, it was our dream
03:37 to kind of move to the beach.
03:38 And I think there's something primal
03:41 about food being cooked on the fire,
03:45 on the beach, you know,
03:46 or at least proximity to the beach.
03:49 That lends to just conversation,
03:51 lends to community.
03:53 Want to bring people together.
03:54 Yeah.
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