Daly City: One of My Closest Encounters with Asia Since I Haven’t Traveled Overseas
The Bay Area city they call “Little Manila” has a majority Asian population
The reason for the nickname and a little history and background
Daly City is known as “Little Manila” and for good reason. The city of just over 100,000 residents just south of the city of San Francisco is home to an Asian population of 59.1%, with a majority of that number coming from the Philippines, coming in with over 1 in 3 residents in town from the islands.
Obviously, this month of May which is Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month is a big event in the city. The current mayor, Dr. Roderick Daus-Magbual, is also of Filipino heritage. Apparently, the Filipino population flocked here initially after World War II because it was home to a large plant nursery that employed many Filipinos.
This nursery, and not the nursery many Americans would normally associate with my mom’s people, was used to supply a major cemetery in the famous cemetery in the neighboring city of Colma.
Food and experiencing the city firsthand
This is the only city in the United States with two locations of the fast-food restaurant, Jollibee. I also love getting the señorita bread from Star Nam and Goldilocks Bakery. Food was a large part of my exposure to Filipino culture growing up and was a large part of every gathering we had with our family friends.
Daly City, unsurprisingly, is home to numerous Filipino and many other Asian restaurants. I had the good fortune of staying with some family friends in the city, who happen to be Filipino, for two weeks during my first American Idol audition in San Francisco. I got to experience the city they call Little Manila and it was a time I will never forget.
I don’t think I saw very many Caucasian people at all while I was staying in the city. The Asian population is very prominent in the city. I went once to the largest shopping center in all of Daly City at Serramonte Mall. The mall is home to one of the Jollibees I had mentioned previously.
The mall was a cultural reflection of the region
It is also a reflection of the population as a whole as there are numerous Asian restaurants from across the board, including Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Indian, Filipino, Taiwanese, and even Hawaiian, to name a few. The Asian influence of the mall’s food options is very evident. This can also be seen in other stores in the mall as well. You know, they say that a city’s mall can certainly be a reflection of the population itself.
As many malls in America are shutting down, I’ve just heard recently that the Serramonte Mall is undergoing a remodel. I haven’t been there since I last lived in California but it wouldn’t surprise me.
If you speak Tagalog or another Asian language, you may feel at home
I don’t speak my mom’s native tongue of Tagalog. That would’ve been a nice experience if I wanted to learn and immerse myself just by living in a city so close to my original hometown since there are so many Filipinos. The town also boasts a 51.3% foreign-born population as well along with its large Asian population.
If someone wants to experience an entire city with a large Asian population without going to Asia, there are also many other cities in the San Francisco Bay Area that one could go to. My favorite city though is still Daly City because of the close ties with my mom and being able to learn her culture without having to leave the state I was born in.
I’ve been to other cities in the Bay Area with a heavy Asian influence such as Fremont, Cupertino, and Milpitas. They don’t quite capture the same magic as Daly City does for me as I really feel at home around the culture and food that my mom exposed me to as a child.
