not your lola's cooking

Open-Fire Filipino · Hudson Valley, NY

Instagram: @siraulo.ny jessandharry@studiosiraulo.com

Pop-Up's · Catering · Events · Custom Experiences

"Sira ulo" loosely translates to crazy head — a phrase many children of Filipino parents grew up with.

It felt like the perfect name for a brand that's honest and rooted in my upbringing, as well as being a little unconventional, creative, and not afraid to do things differently.

— Jesseca Naldo

Our Story

We're career chefs & partners Chef Jesseca Naldo and Chef Harrison Cohen cooking bold, nostalgic Filipino-rooted food over open fire based in New York City but roaming the Hudson Valley.

Fine-tuning recipes during pop-ups at Rose Hill Farm and collab dinners at Restaurant Kinsley, we cook food that we grew up eating with our families. Mom's lumpia. Dad's chicken adobo. Grill marks on every skewer of chargrilled inasal. Infused with our own memories & style. This is Filipino food Jess grew up eating and the way she's experienced Filipino culture most intimately.

We're grateful y'all get to share in our love of Filipino & Filipino-American culture & stories. From persistence. To resistence. Of course thru food.

GF DF Nut-Free Vegan Options

@siraulo.ny · jessandharry@studiosiraulo.com

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Pancit noodles and chicken inasal on a rustic table

Grilled skewers lined up on the counter at Basilica

Harrison prepping lechon in the Kinsley kitchen

Eating a fresh salad at C. Cassis pop-up

Full kare-kare bowl with lumpia and ube brownie

Grilling skewers over open flame with smoke rising

Kare-kare bowl with ube brownie and lumpia spread

Jesseca and Harrison at the Sira Ulo pop-up booth

Family-style Filipino feast at Restaurant Kinsley

Chicken Inasal

lemongrass & ginger, crispy garlic skewers

That garlic sauce better have enough for everyone— our ever-in-demand inasal is super garlicky, super ginger-y, super lemongrass-y with hints of calamansi & coco vinegar. We baste each skewer til caramelized, then finish with crispy garlic. Because of course we gotta have one of those too.

"Your lola approves. Once she tries it."

Whole Roasted Lechon

suckling pig from Northwind Farms

Collab with Restaurant Kinsley family-style, our lechon is roasted suckling pig from Northwind Farms slow roasted over hardwood coal til that skin shatters and that meat just falls apart. How it should be served.

"Your lola probably isn't friends with Howard from Northwind Farms on facebook. But she would be by the end of the night."

Smoked Pork Sisig

crispy pork, chili, calamansi, scallions, chicharron

Our ode to the Kapampangan sisig classic. Pork is smoked low and slow, chopped and crisped on the grill with onions, chili and finished with a squeeze of calamansi. Hands down our most popular dish. The one that makes people leave strangers and come back friends.

"Lola serves hers on a sizzling plate with raw egg on top. We use a paper bowl and still get our eggs warmed by the grill. She'd probs still eat three."

Guava-Garlic Pork Tocino

cured pork belly, grilled pineapple & garlic relish

Our tocino is marinated overnight in our signature guava and garlic blend, then chargrilled over open flame til caramelized and served with grilled pineapple relish, banana ketchup and chicharron. Because it's savory, sweet and a lil bit ridiculous.

"Your lola's tocino probably came straight from a bag. Ours sure as hell doesn't."

Oxtail Kare-Kare

braised oxtail, sunflower butter, grilled vegetables

Our low and slow-braised oxtail is served in our house-made sunflower-butter kare-kare sauce. A nut-free spin on the traditionally peanut butter-based Filipino stew, we pair with grilled okra, eggplant and a drizzle of mushroom bagoong over our signature shallot rice. The one we hope people dream about after they leave.

"Lola definitely used peanut butter. We use sunflower. She'd come over for dinner anyways."

Ube Fudge Brownie

purple yam, dark chocolate, coconut

Dense, fudgy and impossibly purple, you know you want one of our always-sellin-out ube fudge brownies. The only dessert we historically sell before the mains come out.

"Your lola would eat three and then tell you she did not."