Farmer’s Market: Traditional Filipino Cuisine
By Jill Alexander
After managing a fast-food restaurant and then creating authentic Filipino dishes, Hershy Abas is now running his own business: Kalyefornia.
He offers traditional Filipino dishes such as adobo, turon, chicken sisig as well as pancit Canton, a vegetarian noodle dish. All are sold at the Scripps Ranch Farmer’s Market on Thursdays.
“All of my food is traditional, and I make everything in a commercial kitchen and then take it to the market,” he said. “Some is prepared onsite at the market, too.”
The 35-year-old relocated to San Diego from his native Philippines in 2018. Abas started Kalyefornia in November 2023 after leaving his job of four years at McDonald’s as a general manager and after a short stint at a medical company.
“I moved to San Diego to make a new start after growing up in the Philippines,” he said. “My mom had a local restaurant like a local café that served breakfast and lunch … sometimes I would help out.”
Without his mother’s knowledge, he opened her café at night and added karaoke, “finger snacks, and bottled beer,” resulting in the place becoming a huge hit.
“When she figured it out and saw that the place was making money, she said I needed to return to school,” he laughed. “But I didn’t want to go back to school … she said I could do better, so I had to stop and respect my mom.”
After a few years, Abas landed in San Diego where he would scope out places like farmer’s markets to see how they were doing things while he continued to work.
“I went to a lot of markets, and I liked what I saw,” he said. “I liked the crowds and communicating with people.
After living “paycheck to paycheck” Abas wanted to become his own boss but only had $1,000.
“I was eventually able to start my own business and slowly bought all the baking stuff I needed,” he said.
Today, Abas sells his food at Scripps Ranch Farmer’s Market as well as other markets.
“Scripps Ranch is a good place to sell even though it’s my smallest market … I like it and don’t need two jobs anymore,” he said. “I’ve been doing the markets for about six months and really like it. … The Scripps vendors make me feel like I am family there.”
Abas hopes to bring his mother to San Diego from the Philippines in a year or so since she expressed interest in helping him run the business.
“I am happy now, but I’m still learning … I don’t want to get overwhelmed and would like to do events too at some point,” he said. “My mom is retired but still likes cooking, and that’s how she was able to raise me and my siblings.”
Visit Hershy Abas at the Kalyefornia booth in the Scripps Ranch Farmers Market, held from 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. each Thursday at 10045 Carroll Canyon Road.