Hoisin Pork Tenderloin

Thanksgiving 2023. The Filipino Community Thanksgiving gathering — organized by me this year, taking over the community coordination from Tita Mercy who is eighty and whose organizing energy, while still formidable, is no longer sufficient for a three-hundred-person event. I organized. Lourdes cooked. The division of labor: the daughter handles logistics, the mother handles lumpia. The lumpia count: three hundred. The number. Always the number.

The community center was full. Not just Filipinos — the Mountain View community in its full, beautiful diversity. Samoan families. Hmong grandmothers. Native Alaskan elders. Hispanic families. The neighborhood that is the most diverse in America, gathered around tables that hold turkey and lechon kawali and pancit and the particular Alaskan potluck chaos that produces food from every cuisine on the same table, the flavors mixing, the cultures meeting, the eating democratic.

Pete was there. Angela and James and Mia (twenty-two months, running everywhere, the running a constant, the energy Santos-level). Joseph called from Kodiak — he and Suki on the boat, the annual boat Thanksgiving. Mark called from San Diego — the twins at two and a half, eating turkey with their hands, Sofia using her drumstick as a weapon, the Santos woman combat instinct manifesting in poultry-based aggression.

I stood at the serving line and watched the community eat and thought: this is what Reynaldo crossed an ocean for. Not the turkey. Not the lechon kawali. The room. The people. The together. The eating together is the point. The eating together is always the point.

The lechon kawali was gone by the third wave of the serving line—which is the highest compliment a dish can receive and also a logistical problem when you have three hundred people and a mother who is already emotionally invested in the lumpia count. In the weeks after that gathering, thinking about next year, thinking about Reynaldo and the room and everything the room meant, I kept coming back to pork: pork as the through line, pork as the thing that shows up at every table in every culture if you look closely enough. This hoisin pork tenderloin is the answer I landed on—quick enough to scale, glazed with flavors that feel familiar to the Filipino side of the table and curious to everyone else, and generous in the way that all the best food at a community potluck is generous.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 25 minutes | Total Time: 35 minutes | Servings: 4

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs pork tenderloin (about 2 small tenderloins)
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 green onions, thinly sliced, for garnish
1 teaspoon sesame seeds, for garnish

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 400°F. Pat the pork tenderloins dry with paper towels and season lightly with salt and pepper.
Make the glaze. In a small bowl, whisk together the hoisin sauce, soy sauce, honey, rice vinegar, minced garlic, grated ginger, and sesame oil until smooth. Set aside about 2 tablespoons of the glaze for finishing.
Sear the pork. Heat vegetable oil in an oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat. Add the tenderloins and sear for 2–3 minutes per side until golden brown on all surfaces.
Glaze and roast. Brush the seared tenderloins generously with the hoisin glaze. Transfer the skillet to the oven and roast for 18–20 minutes, brushing with additional glaze halfway through, until an internal thermometer reads 145°F.
Rest and slice. Remove from the oven and let the pork rest for 5 minutes before slicing into 1/2-inch medallions. This keeps all the juices where they belong—in the meat, not on the cutting board.
Finish and serve. Drizzle the reserved glaze over the sliced pork. Garnish with sliced green onions and sesame seeds. Serve immediately.

Nutrition (per serving)

Hoisin Pork Tenderloin — The Dish That Carries the Ocean Between Two Tables