Biggest Northern food fest ever at MarQuee Mall

MANILA, Philippines -For most people who love to eat, five meals a day is not unusual, with fried rice for breakfast and cold leftover rice for mid-afternoon snack. What could be more exciting for them than a full-blown food festival with everything in it?

Ongoing until Oct. 20, MarQuee Mall in Angeles City, Pampanga, hosts “Big Bite! The Northern Food Festival.”  Billed as the “largest northern food festival ever,” over 100 food stalls will be set up at the outdoor MarQuee Park, which will offer just about everything, from local produce, fruits and vegetables, to freshly cooked Filipino dishes and native delicacies as well as baked goodies and treats.

Pampanga has long been known as the country’s “culinary capital” — famous for its many popular specialties such as longganisa, tapa and tocino, sizzling sisig and the more exotic batute (stuffed frog) and camaru (mole crickets). All these you will find at the food festival and much more.

“The food festival features regional cuisine, not only from Pampanga but also from the other provinces in the region, from as far north as Ilocos and Nueva Ecija,” says Rowena Tomeldan, Ayala Land VP and head of operations and support services for the commercial business group.  Other provinces represented in the festival include Cagayan, La Union, Baguio, Pangasinan, Zambales, Bataan, Tarlac and Bulacan. They will be bringing in the best that their province has to offer such as special chicharon from Bulacan, Sweet Heaven’s leche flan from Nueva Ecija and Bella’s puto calasiao from Pangasinan. 

Naturally, you can’t miss Pampanga’s homegrown favorites such as Nathaniel’s buko pandan salad, Kabigting’s halo-halo and palabok, and of course, the exquisite tibok-tibok and sapin-sapin from Susie’s Cuisine. There’s the baked macaroni from Toll House,  Rowena’s personal favorite. “It’s comfort food,” she says. And for the more adventurous, Apag Marangle offers the must-try batute and camaru.

“We always want our mall-goers to have a unique and rewarding experience,” remarked Tomeldan. Culinary legend Lillian Borromeo of the famous Kusina ni Atching  Lillian and renowned chefs from the Asian Food Channel — chef Sau del Rosario, Sabrina Artadi, and Rolando Laudico  — will do live cooking demonstrations in situ as part of the food festival’s special attractions.

At the media preview, Atching Lillian gave a cooking demonstration where she prepared chicken pastel adobo, which uses the same ingredients as the pastel we know — carrots, potatoes, chorizo de Bilbao  — but a different preparation technique that requires marinating the chicken breast in vinegar and soy sauce. She used an heirloom wooden mold to make the design on the dough for the crust before baking. She related that back in the day, cooks used their hands as instruments for cooking and even to test the temperature inside the native oven. Rather than following exact measurements, they went by the  “tancha-tancha” method.

For the festival, families from the region are invited to share their heirloom recipes. The best recipe will win P20,000.  A receipt with a minimum of P500 from any of the stores in the mall entitles the shopper to sample food treats for free from 6 to 8 p.m. during the three-day food fest, which will be open during regular mall hours. Food industry experts and celebrities will judge a culinary competition among students, chefs and other food enthusiasts. Food-eating contests as well as live entertainment are also scheduled throughout the food fest.

“We expect people to come not only from Pampanga but also from the other neighboring provinces as well as Manila,” Tomeldan remarked.  MarQuee Mall is just an hour’s drive from Metro Manila, strategically located next to the Angeles exit of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX). With three floors housing over 400 shops, restaurants and cinemas, it offers the same consistent high-quality merchandise and service that one has  come to expect from all Ayala Malls found in key areas in the country.

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MarQuee Mall’s “Big Bite! The Northern Food Festival” is staged in partnership with the Department of Tourism, Department of Trade and Industry, Manila North Tollways Corporation, Asian Food Channel, Cignal Digital TV, and Mercato Centrale Group.

For information, call 0917-752-7071 or e-mail bigbiteMarQuee@gmail.com. Like and follow MarQuee Mall’s social networking sites: facebook.com/MarQueeMall, @MarQueetweets, and instagram: @iloveMarQueemall.