Something's cooking at the Sixth Floor

It's called Metro Food Avenue. It opens at 9am and closes at 9 pm. It is located in the heart of Cebu City. It seats 700 people at any given time. All these things are happening at the Metro Gaisano Colon.

Whenever I am in Colon St., it is always a trip down memory lane, spiced with a sense of history. I am walking on the oldest street in the Philippines. When I see Vision Theater, I also remember that this was the only building left in this area after World War ll. Then, the urge to go shopping comes and the name "Gaisano" comes to my mind.

Since 1982, customer traffic seems to concentrate in the vicinity of Metro Gaisano Department Store and Supermarket in Colon St. Its central location has attracted even left-oriented organizations to rally nearby to draw out maximum publicity.

Last June 14,2006, your favorite food columnist was invited to lunch at this venue with the management heavy weights of Metro Gaisano Colon. The various food concessionaires provided the food and as it appears, it was an instant Fiesta Table which can be assembled in a mere 30 minutes. The whole atmosphere reminds me of a Hawker's Center in Singapore but with air-conditioned comfort. Nice!

Lunch assignments are a slight difficulty since my taste buds had merely awakened. Eating all that delicious food through these years could place layers of unwanted fat and, with this as a health guide, I began my day with a very light breakfast since a scheduled lunch appointment is certain to be sumptuous.

It was an eight-course encounter that began with Lechon Kawali (from the food outlet, STK or Sinugba, Tinula, Kinilaw ug uban pa!). An offer very difficult to ignore since it was as crispy as Carcar's chicharon carajay.

From Fiesta sa Sugbu, we had three dishes served in very rapid succession: Pochero, Calamares and Bam-i. The latter dish will be the subject in a future article about original Cebuano foods (the puso or hanging rice was the first). I will present documents to prove that it is indeed a Cebuano creation since, no noodle dish in any country uses two types of noodles, a rice-based (bihon) and wheat-based noodle (pancit) in one dish.

We tried two types of roasted chicken (Roaster Chef), the Original Blend, and Peppered Chicken; and two types of sizzling dishes (Steak Rush), Sizzling Steak and Sizzling Tangi-gue. I recommend the original blend while it was the sizzling beef that had its merits.

For dessert, I ignored the Leche Flan (remember, I am on a self-imposed diet!) and I had difficulty in selecting among the various flavors of Icy Frost (water melon, mango, sweet corn, avocado, buko pandan and blueberry with peach).

This is the strongest selling point of Gaisano's Metro Food Avenue variety! I finally settled with the blueberry with peach (tastes great) while mentally computing the total number of fellow Cebuanos enjoying their lunch nearby. Mathematics always induces a slight headache but I finally came with a total of over 3000 customers within a two-hour lunch period. Such a strong patronage, and in the food business, it is definitely a numbers game for continued existence.

About four years ago, I once wrote that the Cebuano palate is so demanding that for a food establishment to survive in Cebu, food must be tasty (lami), in generous servings (daghan) and inexpensive (barato). In the Metro Food Avenue, it was a pleasant surprise to see all these delicious food at very affordable prices.

Since the Asian crisis, a new decisive factor has emerged: extras (dunay pakapin). One hour before closing time, all items in this food paradise are sold at a sales promo called "Good Night Discount". All items are sold at a 40 percent discount, and to any Cebuano (whether pure-blooded like me, transplanted, or adopted), that is music to the ears.

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