A taste of home: Shediac woman grows Filipino foodtruck into Main Street business

Katelin Belliveau · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 20, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 11 minutes ago

In downtown Shediac there is a ceramic building, built in 1910, which holds immoderate of the town's past.

But it's the motion to the aboriginal wrong that makes the erstwhile Léger Pharmacy gathering basal retired now.

It's location to Sarap, a Filipino-Canadian takeout edifice and a new international market store.

At the store's opening past week, proprietor Melody Landry greeted astir everyone who entered by their name and thanked them arsenic they walked by brightly coloured bags of prawn chips.

The store's aisles are filled with products specified arsenic jackfruit candy, steamed atom cakes, called puto, and mochi atom balls. Behind the counter, members of Landry's family serve coffee and bubble tea.

Landry moved to New Brunswick from the Philippines much than a decennary ago, and she inactive can't judge however acold her concern has come.

"It's not [sunk] in yet that I ain this building," she said, adding that each nighttime aft work, she passes by the gathering a fewer times to spot her agleam reddish signs nether the lights.

To a increasing Filipino assemblage successful Shediac, Landry's institution creates a imperishable consciousness of belonging.

WATCH | 'It's different milestone of our journey':

The takeout menu is filled with accepted dishes similar the Philippines' national dish, chickenhearted adobo — a tender chopped of chicken in a sticky coating.

Landry serves different mains, specified as pork skewers and fried chicken, with a broadside of fried rice. And she ne'er forgets to adhd a fewer other handmade spring rolls — on the house.

Her concern is a model into however overmuch this Acadian coastal municipality has evolved. 

Feeding a community

The Filipino colonisation successful New Brunswick appears to person much than doubled from 2016 to 2021, according to a Statistics Canada census, with 2,590 radical listing Tagalog, a connection autochthonal to the Philippines, arsenic their parent lingua during that time.

The vibrancy of that radical is evident to anyone who spends a time connected the Shediac area.

Christian Makiling moved from the Philippines 13 years ago. He lives connected the aforesaid thoroughfare arsenic Sarap and is a regular there.

To him, Landry is reconnecting his assemblage to authentic Filipino dishes they can't get successful Canada, like pancit bihon, a traditional blend of fried atom noodles, veggies and protein.

"It's the existent stuff," Makinling said. "Even immoderate of the ingredients, you cannot find present successful Canada but she makes it. 

"I don't cognize how, but I deliberation that's Melody's magic."

John Thomspon is from Cormier-Village, which is portion of the municipality of Cap-Acadie. He entered the caller market store connected opening time and matched Landry's cheery welcome.

He knows Landry — his children attended the aforesaid daycare arsenic Landry's eleven-year-old son, Zach-Philippe. And he's ever bask her takeout.

"At lunchtime, it's a peculiar dainty conscionable to travel down and person a bite," Thompson said, as helium waited for his bid astatine the takeout. "It's supporting section and it's precise delicious."

"Delicious," as it turns out, is simply a connection plastered each implicit Landry's businesses — though galore customers may not recognize it astatine archetypal glance.

That's due to the fact that the connection sarap means delicious in Tagalog.

To Landry, it's important to remember where she started. That's besides why she has a photograph of a agleam bluish nutrient motortruck successful her restaurant.

A imagination connected wheels

In the Philippines, she had cooked for her friends and household astatine peculiar events. Eventually, she realized being successful the room ignited a passionateness successful her that her grade successful machine subject and occupation astatine a slope did not.

That's why, erstwhile Landry got the accidental to enactment astatine a seafood processing works successful Cap-Acadie backmost successful 2012, she jumped at it. Her program was to prevention money, instrumentality to the Philippines and unfastened her ain edifice there.

Instead, she met her husband, Jason Landry of Grand-Barachois, connected the level of the plant. They person been joined for 12 years and she credits his household arsenic her biggest supporters.

Her travel with Sarap started successful 2018 erstwhile parked a nutrient motortruck connected the beforehand tract of her in-laws' location successful Grand-Barachois, adjacent Shediac.

At first, she was hesitant to stock Filipino nutrient with radical who were calved here, she said. She adjacent included things similar hamburgers and blistery dogs connected the paper arsenic a failsafe.

"I'm the archetypal Filipino to present the nutrient astir the country due to the fact that backmost then, we [didn't] person overmuch Filipinos around," she said. "Now, my champion seller is the Filipino food."

Her lawsuit basal took disconnected during the warmer months. And she served every order successful a paper bag with a sticker that read, "Thank you for supporting my tiny business."

In 2023, she bought a takeout determination successful the bosom of Shediac, connected Main Street, which allowed her to tally each twelvemonth round.

"Everybody was amazed due to the fact that I was conscionable the woman successful the nutrient motortruck lasting successful the vigor of the sun," Landry said.  

"Until now, I couldn't judge that being a Filipino, coming present successful Canada, having lone $300 in [my] pouch … and present [I] ain the gathering connected Main Street."

As Landry looks to the future, she wants her lad to beryllium arrogant of her and their heritage.

"I tin permission a bequest to my son, [so] that he's arrogant of his mom," she said.

"At slightest erstwhile successful my beingness he's gonna accidental that, 'My ma made a sanction successful this community.'"