“I wanted to be independent, do my own thing. At least with this, I’m earning, developing stuff, trying things out, yielding results — all for myself.” — Miguel Jaime G. Ongpin in an Esquire feature
Miguel Jaime G. Ongpin needs no introduction. After all, he is the youngest son of Jaime V. Ongpin, a Filipino businessman who served as Minister of Finance under President Corazon Aquino. Jaime was the younger brother of Roberto Ongpin, a businessman and the Minister of Commerce and Industry during the administration of Ferdinand E. Marcos, Sr.
A man of his own right, Miguel started working as a stock market analyst and subsequently a licensed stockbroker in the Philippine Stock Exchange in 1994. Two years later, he was an on-air stock market analyst for a television segment which was aired on IBC-13. He also briefly worked as a news presenter on RPN 9’s 11 Evening News Watch on Saturday Nights.
After five years of working in the corporate world, he decided to join the media. He served as the night editor for the nationwide daily broadsheet newspapers Today, Manila Standard, and Manila Bulletin.
It was while working in Today that Miguel found his true passion, food. And not just any kind of food but shawarma. He said that in the mid-to late-1990s, Metro Manila experienced a “shawarma mania.”
“A strange bandwagon of sorts emerged and somehow it seemed that in many corners of the metropolis, many people were investing in shawarma machines and setting up shawarma stands,” he recalls.
One of them was a friend from his collective nightlife whom they jestingly named “The Shawarma Man.” To this day, he is still wondering whether his much sharper-tasting garlic sauce was better than theirs. The man had managed to lease sidewalk spaces on Katipunan Avenue in Blue Ridge and Visayas Avenue somewhat near Channel 4; both in Quezon City. He also helped a lady friend open a small shawarma restaurant on Nakpil Street in Malate.
“Looking back; I think I credit him with my introduction to shawarma,” Miguel admits. “It was actually my friendship with him that led me to try his shawarma. It was really good, and I was hooked.”
Before meeting this guy, Miguel’s recollection of shawarma stands was quite vague. This was because before the mid-1990s shawarma was unheard of.
“There are far more Indian restaurants in Metro Manila and surrounding areas today, than there were shawarma stands prior to that period,” he recalled. “I think I remember seeing my first shawarma stand inside a Rustan’s Supermarket in Makati sometime in the late 1980s.”
Miguel could also remember seeing another one in the early 1990s that was briefly inside the old Unimart in Greenhills. “I never got a chance to try either of these as I was often in a hurry to do other things after grocery shopping in those locations,” he said, adding that food courts didn’t exist then.
“I remember those years with a certain fondness,” he says now. “I remember that there were many good shawarma vendors. A good shawarma then was not at all hard to find. But today, the opposite is true.”
Before the turn of the century, shawarma in Metro Manila disappeared without a trace. “It seemed to me that everyone I knew closed; and for this, I think all of us in Metro Manila were all the poorer. What followed was a heinous undead period that lasts to this day.”
He observed that in Metro Manila these days, it is far easier to find a good kebab than it is to find a decent shawarma. “Often you find the absolutely horrible tocino-like shawarma with the detestable and abhorrent red, sweet marinade,” he guffaws. “The pita bread was almost always not good. Far too often, the quality of the beef was patently lamentable, with a lot of inedible hard fat and tendon.”
Size was another issue as he believes they were too small. He kept thinking to himself: “Can’t they make a bigger size and just charge me more?”
Miguel also thought too many corners were being cut and substandard. As a result, he entered what he called a “shawarma depression.” “It seemed I was on a perpetual fool’s errand looking for decent shawarma that I would never find. I kept trying here and there, in LRT stations. I was always disappointed.”
The disappointment kept on and on. “There was always this, that, and the other thing wrong with the shawarmas I was buying,” he says. “I lived in Cubao, but I would find it necessary to travel all the way to Ermita to buy decent shawarma.”
As the night editor of Today, he would fantasize about how wonderful it would be to have and run a shawarma stall. His fantasy became a reality in 2006 when he launched Rafik Shawarma.
“Rafik Shawarma began life in the Araneta Center Bus Terminal when it was located across Ali Mall,” he recalls. Also in the same year, he joined the Saturday Salcedo Market making and selling biscuit-thin Italian Pizza baked in a clam shell ceramic charcoal oven using our trade name “Pizza Di Grazia.”
The following year, the organizers of the Legazpi Sunday Market invited Miguel to join. “It was during this time that a fateful event occurred,” he says. “A close family friend has asked us to cater a pizza, pasta, and shawarma dinner in their home.”
It so happened the family owned a ranch in Bukidnon raising wagyu cattle. He was asked if they would give him wagyu (Kobe) beef, could he make shawarma out of it? Miguel answered affirmatively.
A few corporate catering events for them would later reveal that a hit of sorts was born. “We applied and were granted permission to sell wagyu shawarma in Salcedo and Legazpi markets,” Miguel said. “The wildly successful sales of wagyu shawarma combined with our limited manpower and freezer space then, forced us to focus exclusively on shawarma.”
On why he decided to be in the food business, Miguel replies, “I needed a reliable source of income. If you are selling luxury items, instruments for investment, or even non-essential things; you will find that these are prone to the effects of negative global economic conditions that always have implications locally.”
But food is another thing. “Food is more or less a constant that people will buy,” he says. “Obviously, we aren’t the cheapest provider; however, if you have very good quality and are not prohibitively expensive, people will always buy your products.”
The good thing about his food business is that he has a wife, Grace, who totally supports him. “I am very blessed that my wife is a hotel and restaurant management major who happens to share my ideas about food,” he says.
On why he focuses on shawarma, he replies, “We find this type of food business doable and motivating.”
In the beginning, the problems he encountered were labor and logistical concerns. Both are still true even today. “These problems are constants that must be addressed always,” he says.
There is the problem of raw materials. “Right now, the prices of rice and vegetables are of concern,” he says.
Miguel says they are using a Lebanese recipe for his shawarma. “We typically use thinly sliced top-round beef from Brazil,” he says. “Occasionally, for catering, we use wagyu beef for people willing to pay a premium. We get our bread from a Persian baker.”
On why he named it Rafik Shawarma, he replies, “I was inspired by the remarkable life and career of the late Rafik Hariri, a Lebanese prime minister and business tycoon. He used his own money to rehabilitate his war-torn country into a beautiful country.”
With the success of his food business, he is thinking of expanding it gradually in markets and locations where our products are viable, affordable, and desired.
Miguel is happy that the business is doing great. “For me, this is definitely work but it is never drudgery because I love doing it,” he points out.
The Rafik Shawarma food truck is located in Laguna, just before Santa Rosa exits. The shawarma food stalls, however, are located at Saturday Salcedo and Sunday Legazpi Markets. The most recent location is the SLEX Southbound Caltex.
Photos courtesy of Miguel G. Ongpin
