Join Hidden Hi Fi for an interactive, time-traveling cultural expedition through Historic Filipinotown (“Hi Fi” for short).

Taste your way through Historic Filipinotown and discover bagoong, suka, balut, and corn-and-cheese ice cream.

Get to know one of Los Angeles’ most vibrant, under-the-radar neighborhoods—its hidden charms, history, and personality. Find out what’s “Filipino,” what’s “historic” about it, and how it fits into the multicultural landscape of Los Angeles. You’ll travel back in time through a curated media archive of community stories that bring history to life, visit sites of social histories that are “hidden in plain sight,” and immerse yourself in Filipino food culture by exploring the oldest Filipino market in the area. Along the way, you’ll find out where to stock your pantry with flavorful staples like bagoong and near-surreal suka, contemplate whether corn-and-cheese ice cream is a grand idea, and understand why so many Filipinos have Latino-sounding last names. You’ll discover where to find that curious Filipino-American hybrid: the adobo sandwich. And, if you’re feeling particularly brave, you may try balut.

Hidden Hi Fi is a cultural and economic development project of Public Matters and Pilipino Workers Center (PWC) that seeks to share the wonders of Historic Filipinotown with the rest of the world. It is funded in part by the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles and Center for Cultural Innovation’s Creative Economic Development Fund grant.