Wednesday, October 11, 2023 10:46PM
LOS ANGELES (KABC) — To celebrate Filipino American History Month, Eyewitness News is showcasing a local business that takes customers on a trip down memory lane.
Wanderlust Creamery offers creamy desserts inspired by the owners’ Filipino American upbringing.
“I’ve been obsessed with food ever since I was a little kid. I always wanted to go to culinary school, but of course, being Filipino and the child of an immigrant my mom wanted me to be a nurse,” co-founder Adrienne Borlongan said.
Once Borlongan decided she didn’t want to be a nurse, she pursued a degree in food science.
In 2014, she developed an obsession with ice cream and the next year her co-founder John Patrick Lopez found an abandoned ice cream shop with equipment left behind.
“We just walked right in and started an ice cream shop,” Borlongan said.
“I got a congratulatory email from one of my uncles, who said ‘I can’t believe you’re following in your grandfather’s footsteps.’ And I was like what do you mean?” Borlongan said.
It turns out her grandfather was a flavor chemist for Magnolia ice cream.
“It’s in my blood,” Borlongan said.
“I feel ice cream is a really easy medium to introduce something to someone, especially someone unadventurous,” Borlongan said. “If you present it as a scoop of ice cream, it’s like what’s the worst it can be? It’s ice cream.”
Wanderlust Creamery is collaborating with social media star Bretman Rock in celebration of Filipino American History Month. They’ve teamed up to make his own ice cream based on one of his favorite childhood deserts, Filipino fruit salad.
“I think that’s brought a lot of non-Filipinos in here,” Borlongan said.
“We’re meeting more and more people like us,” Lopez said.
“My experience as the daughter of Filipino immigrants, born and raised here in Los Angeles, I feel is such a unique and really cool experience,” Borlongan said. “You get to have the best of both worlds, and I think the month is about celebrating that.”
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