Haliya Bakery: Chula Vista’s New Favorite Dessert Spot
LeAnn Mendoza of Chula Vista’s Filipino-inspired Haliya Bakery shares insights on home-based bakeshop
When I moved back to California, one of the biggest things I was looking forward to was the food! I missed the eclectic variety of food here from all the different cultures, something that wasn’t very common in Arizona. Growing up as a Filipina-American in the 1980s and 1990s, I was raised with the best Filipino food with family parties and get-togethers. It’s no secret to all who know me that I have a huge sweet tooth — so when my parents mentioned that one of our neighbors ran a bakeshop with Filipino desserts, I knew I had to try it out! Get to know LeAnn Mendoza, the spark behind Haliya Bakery. It’s not only my new favorite dessert go-to business, but I’m sure you’ll love it, too!
Q: Tell me a bit about your background.
LeAnn: I’m LeAnn Mendoza, a first-generation Filipina-American, born and raised in San Diego. My family immigrated from the Philippines to San Diego in the 1980s — my mom’s side of the family coming from Imus, Cavite and my dad’s side coming from Guagua, Pampanga. Like many Filipino-Americans, I grew up with large and vibrant family gatherings filled with fun memories with my cousins, and of course a lot of food. I grew up in Otay Ranch on the east side of Chula Vista, a diverse community with a large population of Hispanics and Filipinos, and attended Otay Ranch High School. I recently graduated from UC San Diego with a B.S. degree in Bioengineering: Bioinformatics, and currently work at UC San Diego doing AI and Machine Learning Research. I hope to work in the tech industry while also following my childhood dream of opening up a cafe in the future.
Q: What inspired you to get into baking?
LeAnn: My mom is not a cook. She will not touch the stove if she doesn’t have to, and will leave all the cooking to my dad… with the exception of when she makes her famous chocoflan, a decadent and smooth leche flan with a rich chocolate cake base. Before Haliya Bakery was even a concept, my mom would make chocoflan for special occasions, and every time it was an absolute crowd pleaser. I saw how people light up after taking their first bite (of many). Desserts and baked goods do that to people, they make people feel good (at least in the moment), and I love that.
Q: What are some of your favorite things to bake?
LeAnn: For me, there are no other baked goods that bring me the same joy as panaderia items, or Filipino bread and pastries. Whether its traditional items like pandesal, mamon, or bibingka, or more modern-Filipino items such as ube crinkles or ube flans, there is something just so nostalgic and sentimental about Filipino baked goods. Maybe it’s just that the more I bake from my culture, the more I celebrate from my culture, and therefore the more I am connected to my culture.
Q: How did you come up with the name for Haliya Bakery?
LeAnn: When brainstorming the idea for a bakery name with our branding expert from the Philippines (and my cousin), Norman Dominguez, I gave him one simple prompt: a Tagalog word with a beautiful meaning that I can say with an American accent. A couple of days later he presented the concept of “Haliya” to me and I immediately fell in love. Haliya is an pre-colonial Ibalon diety of the moon. In Filipino mythology, Haliya is said to be a fierce and strong warrior-goddess, a protector of women, and so beautiful that she shielded herself with a gold mask. Also, Haliya sounds like halaya, which is a popular ube dessert, sort of like an ube-fudge.
Q: Can you share what or who inspired you?
LeAnn: Like many other first-generation Filipino-Americans, I struggled with my relationship with Filipinx identity growing up. This changed in 2017 when my family and I took a trip to the Philippines. During this trip, we stayed with family that still live in the same neighborhoods my parents grew up in, visited the same markets and took showers in the same freezing cold-water (have y’all watched 90 Day Fiance?). While going “home” was fun, it was also so formative for me. I realized the incremental choices and sacrifices my ancestors have made in order for me to be where I am and to have the freedom and privilege that I have today. This is a sentiment shared by many Filipino-Americans — a realization of the resilience, pride and hard work that are an essential part of our origin story. After returning from that trip, it became important to me to continually celebrate and preserve my heritage — I took a Filipino-heritage language class that next semester and began really prioritizing learning Filipino recipes, which ultimately led me to Filipino-centered desserts.
Q: Any future plans to expand?
LeAnn: As of right now, we don’t have any concrete plans for Haliya Bakery. We never intended to share our desserts with the amount of people that we have, but just like how it started, we are taking it day-by-day. As long as we have the blessing of people coming to us, we will continue to provide and share our culture and desserts with them all.
Q: It seems like Filipino desserts just haven’t quite reached the same status and popularity as other Asian desserts. What do you think could change that?
LeAnn: Without a doubt, it will be UBE. The purple-hued root has already made rounds in Trader Joe’s, selling out their ube pancake mixes all over the United States and is our best bet at breaking out into the mainstream. It’s color is “Instagrammable,” and its mild and sweet flavor is delicious. I’ve seen it in hipster ice cream and donut shops, and there are already a couple Filipinx-owned bakeries here in San Diego that focus on this flavor. Ube will change the game and open up doors for the exploration and explosion of Filipino desserts — we’re just at the beginning now.
Visit Haliya Bakery for a full menu, ordering details and to regularly keep up with the shop.
