Jun — pronounced Joon, just like the month of June – is my nickname. It is a very Filipino nickname, in fact. I was named after my dad and I don’t think anyone other than Filipinos shortens Junior to Jun. Jun-blog is my personal collection of easy-to-follow recipes, stunning photographs, and heartwarming narratives about cooking Filipino and being Filipino away from home.

I didn’t know my way in the kitchen until I moved from Manila to California for graduate school in 1998. Learning how to cook was easier than learning how to do my own laundry.  I can still remember the very first time I stepped inside my tiny kitchen in Palo Alto.

It was a chilly Saturday morning. The steam billowing out of my hand-me-down rice cooker kept my cold, clammy hands warm. The rice was cooking while the pork was simmering slowly in a delicious vinegar bath teeming with garlic and black peppercorns. 

I made my mom’s pork adobo for the very first time and it was delicious. It tasted like home. It instantly whisked me away from my homesickness and brought me back home even for a fleeting time.

I learned how to cook through long-distance phone conversations with my mom, the lady who taught me the love of food and cooking. “Sauté the garlic, then the onions, and then the tomatoes,” she would instruct me while I scribbled down the ingredients and directions. “How much fish sauce should I add?” “How many cups of water and how many cups of rice?” My questions were endless. Sometimes silly. “Taste it and you’ll learn,” she taught me.

Jun-blog is a mouthwatering collection of how-to’s and ABC’s of Filipino cuisine peppered with funny but oftentimes sentimental anecdotes. Each ingredient and each step bring back fond memories from long ago. Halo-halo and calamansi juice in the summertime. Arroz caldo and bibingka during the Holidays.  For those unfamiliar with Filipino food and culture, Jun-blog is a delicious introduction.

Jun-blog has been featured in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Philippines’ Food Magazine, and Australia’s Feast Magazine. The blog was a finalist for Best Regional Cuisine Blog in Saveur Magazine’s Best Food Blog Awards in 2012 and 2011. The blog was nominated for a People’s Choice Award for Best Culinary Blog by the International Association of Culinary Professionals in 2012.

My work as photographer and blogger has been mentioned in the New York Times’ Diner’s Journal, Saveur Magazine’s “the Best of the Web”, Cooking Channel’s “Eat Street”, Los Angeles’ KCRW Good Food, San Francisco’s Inside Scoop, San Francisco’s SF Weekly, and food sites like Foodista, Gojee, Food News Journal, and the Kitchn. My photographs have appeared in Gobba Gobba Hey: A Gob Cookbook, Spenser Magazine, Culinary Trends Magazine, Florida’s Saltwater Recreational Fishing Regulations Magazine, San Francisco’s 7×7 Magazine, San Francisco’s SF Weekly Magazine, and San Francisco’s Professional Travel Planner’s Guide.

I moonlight as a food photographer but I am a technologist in Silicon Valley. I live in Oakland, California with my partner, calamansi tree, four chickens, and beloved corgi.

“Jun Belen turned his homesickness into a creative endeavor with this blog about Filipino cooking. A professional food photographer, his images are a warm entry point into Filipino cuisine and culture.”
Jun-blog was named finalist for Best Regional Cuisine Blog in Saveur Magazine’s Best Food Blog Awards for two years in a row.

Tara Duggan writes about Noche Buena and Misa de Gallo in a special to the Chronicle about the Filipino Christmas feast featuring stories from Jun Belen’s childhood and his recipe for bibingka and arroz caldo.
– San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco, December 2011

“Filipinos are very proud of their cuisine, but Jun Belen took his love for Filipino food to a whole new level. … In every entry, he shares stories about his family, growing up away from his motherland and the native dishes he has come to love.”
– Food Magazine, Philippines, October 2011

“Philippine-born, San Francisco-based Jun Belen quells his homesickness with a blog about his homeland’s food. … Jun’s job as a photographer and stylist makes for a blog that is both interesting and beautiful.”
– Feast Magazine, Australia, December 2011

“Jun Belen, the voice behind Jun-blog, moved to California from the Philippines in 1998. His first Thanksgiving was spent in a Carrow’s on the side of a Las Vegas highway.” Jun Belen talks with Evan Kleiman about his first Thanksgiving and stuffing balls recipe.
– KCRW Good Food, Los Angeles, November 2011

Jun Belen talks about Filipino food and Hapa SF, Chef William Pilz’s popular modern Filipino food truck in San Francisco, in Food Network Canada’s and Cooking Channel’s Eat Street with James Cunningham.
– Eat Street, San Francisco, July 2011

Out of 40,000 nominations, Jun-blog was named finalist for Best Regional Cuisine Blog in Saveur Magazine’s 2011 Best Food Blog Awards. Jun-blog also made it to Saveur’s elite roster of “the Best of the Web” with a feature on pork barbecue skewers and banana ketchup.