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Condiments are an essential part of Filipino cuisine. Sauces and marinades are essential in most iconic Filipino dishes like adobo, kare-kare, and kaldereta. But while delicious, these condiments can be time-consuming and labor-intensive to make. And for kitchen newbies, a delicious result is not always guaranteed.

There’s a shortcut to those sauces, though, which comes in the form of Fila Manila.

Fila Manila is a brand that bottles versions of quintessential Filipino sauces and condiments. Jake Deleon launched the brand during the pandemic. He is a first-generation Filipino American immigrant who only had $1,200 and a dream.

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“Food was always equal to love and bonding,” said Deleon on the inception of Fila Manila. Like many Filipinos abroad, food is a medium to communicate love and maintain a sense of community in a foreign place. Aside from a love for food, representation, and visibility for Filipinos in the United States was an equally important reason for Deleon to set up shop.

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“Fila Manila was built around the core idea of enabling representation. Filipinos are the second largest Asian American community yet had almost zero representation on most grocery shelves,” he explained.

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He went on to say that Filipino cuisine has been lumped with the general “Asian” category, even though our cuisine isn’t a monolith.

Now, Fila Manila is present on the shelves of major retail chains across the United States, like Target and Whole Foods.

The brand currently produces four main sauces, which are adobo, kare-kare, kaldereta, and spicy adobo. They also stock Isla, a boozy, sweet and sour pineapple rum sauce made with tamari soy, garlic, and onion as well as their own version of ube halaya or ube jam.

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Aside from using these sauces in the dishes they were created for, they’re also versatile enough for use in other recipes as a sauce or a tabletop condiment.

Fila Manila’s rise is a heartwarming thing to witness. It’s not every day that a Filipino-American product makes its way to some of the biggest retail stores in the United States, and to make things even sweeter (or more savory) it’s a tribute to our cuisine and community that comes straight from the heart.