In the parenting world the term "instant gratification" conjures up nightmarish images of slacker offspring who can’t accomplish anything for lack of immediate rewards.

But in the case of Yana Gilbuena, the desire for immediacy has fueled a trek across the U.S. that has her cooking Fili­pino food throughout the country. She’s nearly completed her goal of serving the cuisine in 50 states, in just over 50 weeks. The journey, which she titled the Salo Project, began in March 2014 in Key West, Fla., and ends in Hono­lulu on April 22. ("Salo," taken from the Taga­log word "salu-salo," means "gathering.")

It has been Gilbuena’s way of introducing the flavors of her native cuisine to the nation and raising money for a charity in her homeland.

"I love cooking because I can see the immediate impact my work has on people," said the self-taught cook, who worked previously as a behavioral therapist, social-media director and furniture maker in Los Angeles and New York.

Gilbuena, 31, held pop-up Fili­pino dinners in Brooklyn because of her "longing for the flavors of my childhood," and she quickly realized that few people knew anything about the cuisine.

"The thing that drove me to do this project is I feel Fili­pino food is not represented at all," she said.

Gilbuena’s passion for the cuisine shines through in her work. She is a one-woman show, wearing multiple hats as researcher, event planner, publicist and cook.

When she hits a town, she finds a venue for her dinner, spreads the word and goes shopping at a nearby farmers market. In each state, Gilbuena tries to source her ingredients locally, which requires her to research the products available before arrival, then select Fili­pino dishes suited to those items she finds. Naturally, she often substitutes ingredients — bison for beef, for instance, or one green for another.

Some dishes are flexible enough to accommodate a wide variety of ingredients. Gina­taan, for example, has a coconut milk-based sauce with a shrimp base and Thai chili. It’s a simple dish that nonetheless can be elevated, says Gilbuena. The versatility comes in the protein, whether fish, sweetbreads, chicken, tongue or oxtail.

Batchoy, a favorite of Gilbuena’s, is a Fili­pino version of ramen. Broth is made with bones and innards and served with fresh egg noodles. Toppings can range from liver strips and chicken to chi­char­rone (fried pork rinds) and scallions, though Gilbuena says any manner of ingredients could be added.

Five or six days after arriving in a town, she serves dinner in traditional fashion, known as "kama­yan" style, in which food is served directly on the table on banana leaves and diners eat with their hands. She tries to feature the flavors of three regions of the Philippines: Luzon, Visa­yas and Min­da­nao.

In Luzon in the northern Philippines, food is flavored with vinegar and fermented fish paste, or ba­goong. The cuisine is what most Americans recognize as Fili­pino food, said Gilbuena. Visa­yas, located in the middle of the country, delivers sweeter dishes that commonly include coconut milk. In Min­da­nao in the south, a rich coastal region where the influence of Muslim traditions is heavy, pork is scarce and seafood and pineapple are predominant. Food there is prepared with a lot of coconut products and is spicy.

Though each region has its own culinary distinctions, Gilbuena says each has its own version of adobo, a national dish of sorts.

"There’s a joke that you can tell where someone is from by the way they make their adobo."

Gilbuena grew up in Ilo­ilo province in the Visa­yas region. She was raised by her grandmother, who would send her to the kitchen to help the cook when she misbehaved. But for Gilbuena, that was no punishment.

"I enjoyed it," she admitted. "It fueled my naughtiness."

It was in the kitchen that she discovered a natural knack for "making stuff."

"I was always a maker. I just didn’t know I was passionate about it."

Her commitment to creating couldn’t be described any other way. To embark on her project, Gilbuena gave up her lease in Brooklyn and sold all her belongings except a backpack and her knives. She’s been a literal nomad, staying in homes of friends of friends, and sometimes on the couches of generous strangers, in a practice known as "couch surfing."

Her plan has been to "follow the sun, literally. I based my entire direction on the seasons," she said, to ease her travels and maximize the availability of locally sourced food.

She started the project in Florida and made her way up the Eastern Seaboard. During the summer she hit the northern and midwestern states and then headed west, and back down to the lower Midwest. After Hawaii, Gilbuena will return home to the Philippines, where she will research more regional cuisine with a visit to Panay island.

Gilbuena says she originally approached the Fili­pino communities in the first cities she visited, but it was the foodies who were most enthusiastic about her project, and it is often via local food bloggers that she draws her diners.

"We can connect on a food level if not a cultural level," she said.

Some towns are more receptive than others. Her biggest crowds have been in Washington, D.C., and Seattle, where more than 80 guests attended her dinners. Chicago drew about 70 folks; South Dakota, with its high Fili­pino population, gathered 55 diners.

North Dakota, however, was another story.

"That was my most challenging place. I didn’t know anyone. I tried to connect with the foodies in Fargo and Grand Forks, but it was finally a woman in Bismarck who helped me," said Gilbuena. "She was a lone voice trying to promote local farmers and local, healthy produce. It seemed like a food desert in Bismarck. There’s just a chain of fast-food restaurants there. It’s a little sad."

But even in that environment, Gilbuena pulled off a dinner. The woman hosted her for the night and found a Unitarian church hall to hold the dinner.

"There were four people there — the lady, her husband, a Cambodian or Thai woman, and the woman in charge of the church, whom it turns out was in the Philippines during martial law," she said. "We couldn’t find any banana leaves, so we used butcher paper to line the table."

Gilbuena’s most memorable visit was in Cordova, Alaska, in August, where a fisher couple took her under their wing. She reminisces less about the dinner and more about their hospitality.

"They own a boat and catch salmon, and they send it across the U.S. They showed me their entire operation and welcomed me as an old friend," she said.

It was folks like these who reinforced Gilbuena’s belief about food bringing people together.

"I’ve had to have a lot of faith in people," she said. "I’ve found there’s so much kindness in people if you give them the opportunity to show it. It restores my faith in humanity."