Dining at a Food Market
Traveling abroad is always a fascinating experience. You taste new food and drinks, encounter exotic customs, shop in malls and see different landscapes and architectural structures. As a food writer, I focus on local markets wherever I go, those selling native produce and the supermarkets where local processed foods are sold. I dine on the local cuisine found in hawker centers, food markets and streets that are often jampacked with tourists.
Foreign tourists who came to visit our country often shy away from food markets for reasons of personal safety and food hygiene. Local tourists dare eating out in the open, but often escorted by the local residents. I have observed that the millennials, (students, office workers, barkadas and call center agents) and small families are the major customers of food markets like the Sugbo Mercado.
I was invited by Michael Karlo Lim, one of the pioneers of Sugbo Mercado which opened in September 2015 with a vision to be first and the biggest food market in Cebu. It is a joint venture of seasoned businessmen and startup food entrepreneurs who have new products to market and the operational viability to maintain its operation. Nine of these pioneering vendors are now proud owners of signature dishes.
Vietnamese food, Phở (beef noodle soup) and Gỏi cuốn (spring roll) were sold in Vietnamese shop called Saigonoi. I compared it to the versions of the dishes I had tasted in Hanoi and Saigon – and I rate it… at about 85 percent. The beef stock in Hanoi was more intense and it was live cooking for spring roll, including the making of the rice paper wrap, while the customers watched.
I tried some Japanese street food, Takoyaki Pork and Octopus from the Delica Yama stall. It is ball-shaped, wheat flour batter filled with meats, cooked in a special pan and brushed with the special sauce. No wonder, it had a special taste, this street food delicacy from Osaka!
My favorites were products of The Hog and Bull Smokehouse like the Pulled Piggy (10 hours smoked Boston pork butt) and the Butt Rub (14-hour smoked beef brisket). Its juicy and tender meat was delicious with its dominant smoked flavor.
On another occasion, I brought friends to Sugbo Mercado, so that I could taste more dishes. This time I went for the native dishes, like the Tuna Panga, (Kuzina Guadalupe), Pochero (K’s Bakareta & Pocherohan), Lechon Belly (Reylechonship), Pork Sisig (Teng’s Grill Sisig Bar) and Lechon Cebu (Ana’s Lechon). Drinks came from the Carnival Cravings and Tipsy Pops (Strawberry Daiquiri). I liked their concept of food service like the Reylechonship’s Swako Meals where you get 100 or 150 grams of lechon belly with three puso and soft drinks.
I dream that one day food markets like Sugbo Mercado, excuse me, will be also packed with foreign tourists like the Chinatown Complex Food Center in Singapore, Jalan Alor in Kuala Lumpur or the Floating Markets in Bangkok.