Mercato Centrale Archives - Certified Foodies

Foodgasm II : Our Top 6 Picks

Because of our current jobs, Ken and I barely have time to go out together to dine out (we really couldn’t complain because we love what we’re doing 🙂 ). When we received the invite to be part of Foodgasm II by UP EcoSoc, since it was a Saturday, I thought we could go together. Sadly, Ken had to work and so I tagged my high school friend along with me.

By the way, and you probably already know. this post has been delayed for 3 months. I thought I already posted this in March only to see it in my Drafts. 😀 Sheesh.

We arrived past 7pm (I think) and already, there were many foodies there. I think Foodgasm II was more organized than last year, especially because we survived the tasting without getting too sweaty even on a humid weekend night.

There were two sections at Mercato Centrale that were dedicated to the event. It was funny though that we didn’t know there was another section outside the main Mercato tent. 😀 I didn’t hear anyone announce or see any signs that there’s a whole bunch of Foodgasm II stalls on the other side of Mercato, just outside the tent. Good thing I noticed while we were busy rating the ones we already tasted.

Anyway, I’m quite happy with what we’ve tasted at Foodgasm II since there were many new food purveyors with dishes that stood out for us. I wish Ken was with me though ’cause my friend Tina was feeling guilty to continue with the tasting mid-way. Now I know who I shouldn’t invite at events like this. Hahahah 😀

Okay, enough blabber. Here are our top picks from Foodgasm II.

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See You at Foodgasm II at Mercato Centrale!

See updates and ticket information at the end of the post. 🙂

After last yearâ€™s Foodgasm event where Ken and I participated as blogger judges, we are looking forward to another night of yummy discoveries at Foodgasm II brought to us by UP Economics Society (UP EcoSoc).

Foodgasm is UP EcoSocâ€™s fund-raising project where they aim to highlight 30 up-and-coming food businesses / entrepreneurs through a food-tasting competition. This year, thereâ€™ll be a total of 800 foodies at the event, including some of our fellow food bloggers and chef judges.

The event is happening on March 9, 2013 at Mercato Centrale, and this month, there are still slots open for food business owners. If you are a startup entrepreneur in the food industry, this is your chance to get the word out about what you have to offer.

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Cucina Andare : First Food Truck Market in the Philippines!

From all my watching of American TV shows about food (Top Chef, No Reservations, Master Chef, etc), I learned the big part food trucks play in the food culture of Americans. It was something Ken and I believed would definitely suit us here in the Philippines considering we already love street food, food carts, and Jolly Jeeps 😉 . So, when we heard about Cucina Andare, the first food truck market in the Philippines, we got all excited!

Cucina Andare will finally be open tomorrow, December 14, 2012, and it’s located at the Glorietta Open Park (front of Glorietta 3, Landmark, Makati Shangri-La Hotel and 6750 Ayala Ave). It’ll be open every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from 4pm to 3am, which is just perfect for my erratic schedule. I can’t wait to go during our 1-week holiday vacation! 🙂

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One Night of Foodgasm

A few weeks ago, Ken and I were invited to be blogger judges at Foodgasm, a food tasting event and competition that was organized by UP Economics Society. Having been a supporter of up and coming food entrepreneurs, we were excited to see who’ll be there. We went home glad that all but two of the participants were completely new discoveries to us.

The event was held at Mercato Centrale, tent area. The venue was a little tight considering the number of foodies who were there to partake on what the food purveyors had to offer. I believe the a/c wasn’t on, so we were hot and sweaty by the end of the event, which I’m sure wasn’t part of the Foodgasm concept. 😉 We think that’s something they can improve on next time around. Still, it was a successful event. 🙂

Before we tell you our favorites, we’d like to congratulate Blue Toque for winning that night. Everyone, including us, loved The Ultimate, their mouth-watering multi-layer cake. Keep it up, Blue Toque! 🙂

Now, let’s get on with our top 5. This list was based on the collective mind of me, Ken and our 2 food trip buddies that night – Ken’s friend, who is also a budding chef, Marge and our nanay. There were a total of 17 participating food businesses and only 5 made it to our list. There were some that almost made it and we’ll share them with you later on this post. For now, rightfully so, the spotlight is on our TOP 5:

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Foodgasm : A Competition for Food Entrepreneurs

Â Updated: See ticket prices below the post.

We’ve posted about this before – we support up and coming food entrepreneurs, young and old, because we believe that there are many more creative foodie minds out there that need exposure. And in what we believe could be the yummiest event this year, we invite aspiring food business owners to join Foodgasm, a food entrepreneur competition brought to us by UP Economics Society happening on August 25, 2012 at Mercato Centrale.

The deadline says August 4th and on their Facebook page it says August 11th, but they’re still accepting registrations, so contact them.

If you own a food business, we encourage you to join Foodgasm 2012. It’s a wonderful opportunity to gain more exposure for your products and a way to show people what we can expect from you. Here are the mechanics:

MECHANICS:

Foodgasm is open to all young and aspiring, up and coming food business owners â€“ student entrepreneurs, food business existing for no more than 4 years, and those who just previously launched a new product.

Each participant should serve free samples of their best seller during the event, which will serve as their official entry to the competition.

Participants are also allowed to sell additional products in the event, provided that their allotted space will be able to accommodate the additional products. The allotted space will have dimensions of 2.2 x 2.2 meters. This may change depending on the number of participants.

Each entry will be carefully judged by all 1,000 foodies which includes bloggers and judges from Knorr and San Miguel Foods.

Certified Foodies will be one of the 13 food blogs that’ll be gracing the event as part of the panel of blogger judges. The winners will get a chance to be featured here. And, if your products also stood out during the event, we’ll write about you here too. 🙂

This is a competition, so as a food entrepreneur, give us your best shot for a chance to win prizes, awards/trophy and a feature on Appetite Magazine! Here’s a teaser video about UP Economics Society’s Foodgasm event:

For more information on how to register as a participating food business, visit Foodgasm’s Facebook page.

To our fellow food lovers who want to come, tickets will be on sale very soon, so stay tuned! And see you at UP EcoSoc’s Foodgasm in Mercato Centrale! 🙂

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UPDATE:

If you’d like to be there, tickets will be available during the event:

Pre-selling and door price until 8pm: Php 200
Door price after 8pm: Php 220

Program strictly starts at 7pm, so be there early so you can sample the products that are available for food tasting.

For tickets and inquries,Â contact 0917-885-0738 or email upecosoc.finance@gmail.com. You can pre-order your tickets now.

See you! 🙂

Haagen-Dazs Up to 50% OFF Sale + Must-Try Local Ice Cream

Last week of June, we wrote about Haagen-Dazs closing all their Philippines stores. To cap off their stay here, they are holding a massive “clearance” sale. You can now buy Haagen-Dazs ice cream for UP TO 50% OFF (note that not all products are sold at half off)!

Here are the participating stores and supermarkets nationwide (Metro Manila, Baguio, Pampanga, Tarlac, Pangasinan, Cebu, Bacolod, Davao, CDO, Gensan, etc) that are selling Haagen-Dazs ice cream at half off (click image to view a larger version):

The promo will end on September 15, 2012, so you still have 2 months to grab all the Haagen-Dazs ice cream you can get before they finally say goodbye to the PH. We’re planning on checking the Haagen-Dazs products and their sale prices at S&R and Landmark Trinoma to see if they’re worth the fuzz. If you can give us feedback, let us know at the comments section.

NOTE: This promo was posted on Haagen-Dazs Philippines’ official Facebook page.

Like what we’ve said before, we’re not completely saddened by this news about Haagen-Dazs stopping their sales here since there are a ton of other selections available to us Pinoys that are much cheaper and even uniquely ours. We’ve got artisan ice cream makers who produce high quality frozen products at various numbingly delightful flavors, so don’t fret. 🙂

Last time, we told you about the other ice cream brands you can continue to enjoy like Magnum and other Selecta products, Magnolia, Nestle, and even Arcee Dairy (wait for our upcoming ice cream series!). Now, let’s share with you our favorite artisan ice cream makers:

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Jollibee Sundae Mix-Ins Milo Blast at Mercato Centrale

Last week, we invited fellow foodies to join us at Mercato Centrale to get a taste of Jollibee Sundae Mix-Ins Milo Blast, a new sweet treat from Jollibee that anyone can enjoy. The temperature was scorching hot that day and so it was just good timing to cool down with a cup of this sundae.

If you’ve been to Mercato Centrale, you’re probably familiar with the crowd there. It’s a mix of young and old, and groups of friends and families, so we expected the crowd lining up at the Jollibee booth to showcase that as well.

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