The American Way

Most of the Filipino advertising techniques have been patterned after the American model. I remember working for a British company whose thrust would always be very conservative. Lately, we have noticed an effective campaign to promote dehydrated potatoes called “Potato-rrific Bread Fiesta.” The United States Potato Board uses a combination of institutional and testimonial thrusts. Their ads placed in leading newspapers roused our curiosity and we made a quick visit to a bread outlet, called up the Philippine representative of the board and rang two other stores regarding this. Prior to this campaign, more than a year ago, we had already discovered potato bread and have been buying it from ShopWise.

It can be noted that recently, the US food industry has been aggressively promoting their products. A while ago it was US beef, using hamburger as its main campaign element.

Now comes dehydrated potatoes. We agree with the campaign that breads made of this are light in texture, soft and moist. Dehydrated potatoes, when processed, come out as flour. A piece of bread is not made of 100 percent potato flour – only about 3 to 5 percent. Three outlets where you can find potato bread are Simply Bread at WallMart, branches of Sugarhouse, and Liberty Mart in Tayuman and Tondo. The variants are pan de sal, raisin walnut, loaf bread, pull-apart loaf, cheese and bacon (using imported queso de bola), Asian, French, ciabatta and ensaymada. Prices range from P28 to P230.

A 10-year-old boy caught our attention on the ground floor of Liana’s Supermarket in Sucat, Parañaque. He was where the row of electronic game machines are located. We have long been intrigued by the number of people who always indulge in this past time all day and night. Don’t they have jobs or studies? Is this healthy for the young boy and the others?

On the same level is Suzhou offering dimsum and other Chinese food. Their xiao lung pao is tasty and fully filled, between P90 and P100. They still collected VAT.

Liana’s Supermarket is on the third floor of the building. A bit disorderly. Noted were Ligo corned beef at P27.85, Purefoods chorizo for P109, pork pigue at P180 a kilo, whole chicken at P115 (expensive), tomatoes at P59 and onions at P65.

Back in BF Parañaque after quite a while, we did our weekend supermarketing at Robinson’s, where they are conducting (until the end of the month) the “Wellness Nutrition Festival” with the accompanying “Fruits in Season” promo. One gets a cookbook for a total purchase of P3,000 or more and a face towel if a bunch of lacatan bananas is bought. There is an area for “Presyong Palengke” goods like cabbage and tomatoes.

The capsicsums were lovely at P52 and P70 per, green and red respectively; green lemon at P137 a kilo, Dizon melon for P65 a kilo and Davao pomelo at P165. The Healthy You section offers organic products – prunes, coconut oil sweetener at P132 for a box of 50 packets. Those who enjoy snacking will enjoy Vincenzi mini snacks.

The new San Fernando’s Best line includes chicken teriyaki at P80 a pack of 500 gms and pork tocino for P76. A cooking aficionado will delight in the imported sauces, mostly Asian. They include dumpling sauce, white sesame oil, phad thai paste, minced galangang, dried kafir leaves, Bonito soy sauce, rice vinegar/wine. Prices range from P170 to P450. Paul Newman’s Own organic sauces are also available.

We also spotted the Bake and Churn stall selling ice cream cakes. We could not resist getting a strawberry ice cream to-go cup at P75 for our apo. Look them up, their cakes look so tempting.

Outside, we found our favorite Empanada Mas outlet. Their latest offering is peanut butter fudge – very tasty in its creamy consistency. Also new is cream cheese and chives at P40 for 6 pieces.

Have a good supermarketing day!

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