These flavorful cookies promise to be a passport for your tastebuds

INDIANAPOLIS — While most Hoosiers might not be familiar with Filipino staples like ube, halo-halo, and pandan, they do know cookies. And they can get the best of both worlds from Salamat Cookies, baked right here in the Circle City.

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Salamat, which means “thank you” in Filipino, is pronounced sah-lah-maht. But owner Michael Williams II is well aware that most people in the state pronounce it sal-a-mat.

No matter how you say it, Salamat Cookies deliver an experience unfamiliar to the average Hoosier palate.

“I never had these flavors available to me as a Filipino American in Indy as a kid,” Williams II said. “So to be able to have these flavors available now in Indy is just so cool.”

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Williams II began baking cookies at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I wanted to be that cool dad who baked for his kids,” Williams II said. “[I] asked my mom if she had ever put mango in a classic oatmeal cookie, and she's like, ‘Nah,’” and so that was our first-ever cookie.”

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Williams and his mother, who he calls mama Odie, began baking out of her kitchen until she asked for her kitchen back. The pair eventually found kitchen space inside St. Matthew's Episcopal Church on Indy’s east side.

“It's home to so many local vendors that are growing and aspiring to have their own kitchen,” Williams II said. “Having a shared commercial space is really cool because you get to see all the other businesses that are out here hustling.”

Anyone that’s worked in food service knows the hustle is real.

“You could do so many other things, less wear and tear on your body, than food,” Williams II said. “But it's just so satisfying when people take that first bite and they light up.”

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It’s validation delivered one bite at a time.

“Food is that bridge to different cultures,” Williams II said. “We have so many people and so many different cultures represented in Indy, so trying these different foods, it's really going to change the game and make us a more foodie city.”