The rainy season really hampers the mood specially for a travel and food blogger like me. With the Philippines’ incessant rain and typhoons from the middle part of the year onwards, my traveling is restrained and food escapades limited.

Visiting Mercato Centrale

The last time I went to Mercato Centrale in July, I was soaked in a heavy rain shower going back home. But these are the sacrifices you make for good food and indulging experiences. Night or day, I love Mercato. With the unique and varied choices of delicacies offerred by the foodie stalls, each visit can be as unique as your pallate can take.

On the other hand, the rainy season can really spoil a Mercato Centrale experience.

Heaven Sent City Delivery

We all know that the concept of food delivery is nothing new. But I never thought a group of small foodie businesses could actually come together and get themselves a food delivery partner.

It’s a simple but bright idea. Lightbulb!

City Delivery Delivery Boy

I don’t have to drag my sleepy head on a cold bed weather weekend morning. I’d just have to call on City Delivery’s hotline number 87878. Or if you want to experience Mercato Centrale delivery online, check their website at  http://CityDelivery.ph or their Facebook page where it says City Delivery is a “multi-restaurant delivery service…we let our customers experience the world on their plates with an impressive array of cuisines from the city’s prime restaurants and other food establishments.”

Currently, for a minimum order of Php500 and a delivery fee and 10% Delivery charge,they deliver to the residents of the following areas: Alabang, Greenhills, Las Pinas City, Makati City, Mandaluyong City, Manila City, Marikina City, Muntinlupa City, Ortigas, Paranaque City, Pasay City, Pasig City, Quezon City, and The Fort.

The cap is a little high for an individual delivery but I guess it fits more for group or family order so the P500 minimum delivery is not a problem. I owe all these realization from Mel who asked me if I could feature them here at NomNom Club. And so, now, here it is! I never knew beforehand that I could have stuff from Mercato delivered at the comfort of my home. 🙂

Please keep in mind the advance and real-time ordering scheme:

• Weekdays: Advanced ordering (2 days in advance depending on the merchant)
• Weekends: Real time ordering (9AM-­‐2PM)

Moreover, I was told that current participating establishments are the following:

• 

  Manang's Chicken

  Bale Dutung

• Big Bob’s
• Chuck’s Grubberie
• Homemade Ravioli
• Manang’s Chicken
• Merry Moo
• Mochiko
• Spring by Ha Yuan

I hope more will join in the near future so that consumers can have more choices.

Although my top pick is the ever-famous Bale Dutung, I haven’t tried Manang’s Chicken either. With a recommendation form Mel, I decided to give their signature chicken a try.

Manang's Chicken from Mercato Centrale through City Delivery

Rice almost gone but there are still 2 chicken!

Mel didn’t fail me as Manang’s Chicken was good as well. The white meat was tender and I cannot let go of the sinful chicken skin made tastier by the SAUCE.

I just had to put it in all caps; you would know why after trying Manang’s Chicken yourself.

🙂

In my next City Delivery order, no one can stop me from having one of Pampanga’s best – Bale Dutung by by Chef Claude Tayag!

🙂

Mercato Centrale at the Comfort of your Homes with City Delivery

Thank you City Delivery, it’s Mercato goodness, rain or shine!

I was excited to have the privilege of visiting Gardenia’s bread factory yesterday. The Philippines’ top brand in delicious and healthy breads conducted a bloggers’ plant tour for food and lifestyle bloggers. Interestingly, their plant is located along Star Avenue, LIIP Mamplasan, Biñan, Laguna, which is also from the south and near my place in Batangas.

Mr. Nestor Constancia

In the first part of the program, Mr. Nestor Constancia (Marketing and Sales Manager), shared Gardenia’s history and distribution system. We also watched a short AVP about the company’s processes and fully-automated machines. QAF Limited through Gardenia International Pte. Ltd. established Gardenia Bakeries Philippines Inc. In 1997 and started construction of its bakery plant in Laguna Industrial Park (LIIP), Biñan, Laguna. Operation started in 1998 with the state-of-art bread factory rated as one of the most modern large scale bread manufacturing facility in the country. Its highly-automated and major equipments come from bakery suppliers from Germany, Holland, UK and USA.

Gardenia Bread

Moreover, it now has the largest distribution network in the baking industry covering the whole Luzon archipelago; eastern and some western parts of Visayas including Mindoro, Panay, the Negros islands, and Samar; and even as far away as Mindanao. Their efficient distribution system utilizes a fleet of company-owned feeder and delivery vans, as well as the public Roll-On-Roll-Off (RORO) nautical highway system.

Afterwards, we began our plant tour. Once you enter the plant area, you’ll hear a recorded voice-over explaining the processes of each machine in each station. Here is the step-by-step procedures:

1.    Ingredient Preparation

Ingredient Preparation

2.    Sponge Mixing

Sponge Mixing

3.    Fermentation

Fermentation

4.    Dough Mixing

Dough Mixing

5.    Dividing

Dividing

6.    Rounding

Bread Rounding

7.    Intermediate proofing

Intermediate Proofing

8.    Moulding

Moulding

9.    Final Proofing

Final Proofing

10.    Baking

Baking of the Breads

11.    Depanning

Depanning

12.    Cooling (Top Photo)

13.    Slicing

Gardenia Bread Slicing

14.    Automatic Bagging

Automatic Bagging

15.    G-lock

G-lok / G-lock System

16.    Metal Detectors

Metal Detectors (staples) 😛

17.    Distribution

Gardenia Bread Distribution

It was an awesome sight to see the actual breads being made before you eyes, way beyond what the AVP can share.  However, we had to view it from a higher angle in an enclosed and air-conditioned viewing section intended for visitors. This is to maintain the quality standards of the factory.

A bread making demo using Gardenia breads, of course, and an open forum with Gardenia officers including Mr. Simplicio P. Umali Jr. (President & General Manager), Mr. Nestor E. Constancia (Marketing & Sales Manager), Ms. Cristina P. Domondon (Manufacturing Manager), Ms. Thea Tan (Marketing Manager), Ms. Merlie Barcelos (QA Manager), and Ms. Aine De Guzman (Nutritionist) followed the interesting plant tour.

Gardenia Plant Tour with the Bloggers

Let me give you some interesting points I learned from the open forum with the officers and this Gardenia Plant Tour experience:

• Gardenia delivers round-the-clock (24-hours) to ensure all convenience stores (or mini-stores) receive freshly baked breads everyday.
•  Gardenia uses a “G-lock’/’G-lok’ system that is distinguished with a color-coded scheme so that it will be easy to locate, open, and re-seal. The plastic clip also indicates the best before date as well as its retail price.
• Upon suggestion of the a guest, Gardenia may consider having a no-crust (edges) bread product in the future. But this merits a prior careful study and a lot of considerations including maintaining the quality of the bread.
•  Gardenia exerts efforts to be the environment-friendly by collecting old/left-over stocks of bread and gives them to fisheries for feeding.
• Gardenia incorporates big advertising banners and  posters on each company owned-feeder and delivery vans as a way of effective advertising in the field.
• It was also interesting to know that Gardenia is open to beneficiaries and discussions with charitable event/institutions in need of bread products.

Open Forum with Gardenia Officers

As their tagline “OH I LOVE GARDENIA! So good… You can even eat it on its own!” (masarap kahit walang palaman) suggests, Gardenia maintain its promise of providing the best quality breads to Filipinos in all possible aspects – freshly baked at all times, smells good, tastes even better, feels soft, and of course, nutritious.

It was an educational Gardenia Plant Tour experience indeed! For more info, you may visit the Gardenia website at http://www.gardenia.com.ph, ‘like’ their page on Facebook, follow them on Twitter, and watch their videos on YouTube.

*Contributed by Shekinah Armenta

It’s not the ususal SM Savemore grocery opening you know. With a number of SM Savemore stores opening stores around the Philippines, what makes this particular launch in Sta. Ana Manila unique is its first-of-a-kind facade and environment-conscious efforts.

SM Savemore Sta. Ana Grand Opening: (from left) Jojo Tagbo, VP for operations of Savemore; Manila City Councilor Honey Lacuna – Pangan; celebrity guest Bayani Agbayani; 2010 Ms. Earth winners Miss Earth Air Victoria Shchukina of Russia; Miss Earth Water 2011 Wattsaporn Wattanakon of Thailand; and reigning Miss Earth Nicole Faria of India; celebrity guest Sunshine Cruz; Felicidad Sy; Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim; Sta. Ana Heritage Board chairman Vilma Labrador; Parish Priest Andrew Litigio of Our Lady of Abandoned; and SM Supermarket president Herbert T. Sy.

Out-of-the-Box Facade

You might be used to the usual box-type yellow SM Savemore shops, SM Savemore Sta.Ana is the first to incorporate a cultural aspect to the design and architecture. It now looks more Asian in design and blends with the local community.

Environment-Conscious

The original lot has as longstanding Dita Tree which is more than 200 years old. SM Savemore decided to preserve and take care of the tree as a local community heritage. In fact, almost a third of the total land area was alotted for an open courtyard area with the Dita Tree at its center.

Different Facade Design from other SM Savemore Stores

International Miss Earth 2011 Winners Posed with the Dita Tree in Background

Young Narra Trees (lower left of previous photo) were also symbolically planted by International Miss Earth winners Nicole Faria of India, Miss Earth Air Victoria Shchukina of Russia and Miss Earth Water 2011 Wattsaporn Wattanakon of Thailand at the back part of the building facing the river. It also serves as customer parking lot.

P50 WHole Chicken Pormo

A ground structure (left of 4th photo) was also preserved and made into a showcase area. It is said to be an old relic (various structure) of an old wine cellar usually referred to as ‘bahay na bato‘ which has been there for hundreds of years. These are the commitment made by Savemore to the Sta. Ana community towards the preservation of its heritage.

These are all in addition to Savemore’s ongoing commitment to the environment where trademark SM Food Retail Group’s reusable Greenbag are used. The Greenbags now comes in green, blue and black, with various designs that shoppers can choose from starting at P10 each (aside from the points gained by SM Advantage cardholders).

The Program

The celebration was started by the ceremonial ribbon cutting with guests led by Manila City Mayor Alfredo Lim.

Manila City Mayor Alfredo Lim (rightmost) with SM Executives and Guests

Miss Earth winners also graced the event and went on an actual grocery shopping of their own.

Miss Earth 2011 Winners Grocery Shopping

Celebrities Sunshine Cruz and Bayani Agbayani were also present at the event. They are Sta.Ana residents themselves.

Sunshine Cruz & Bayani Agbayani (left); SM Savemore Staff Dancing in the Opening

Here are some photos of the actual grocery inside embodied with the concept of neighborhood convenient shopping at affordable prices.:

SM Savemore Grocery Items

Magnolia Ice Cream and Fresh Fruits / Goods Section

This is actually just the first of SM Savemore Markets with a unique facade as they approach different provinces where the community’s history and culture will also be highlighted.

I’m not a vegetarian but I do chow on vegetables for health reasons. I include it in my meal whenever possible. Last night, it was a pleasure to discover that one of the new seven Starbucks Lunch Sandwiches – the Roasted Vegetables on Flat Bread -  is positioned as a healthy vegetarian sandwich for the ‘veggy‘ lovers.

Roasted Vegetables in Flat Bread

I wasn’t really expecting much from the vegetable sandwich but it was surprisingly good! The Roasted Vegetables Sandwich will replace the vegetable artisan roll you might have been used to. It consists of Mediterranean vegetables marinated in Italian spices with mild chili dressing on grilled flat bread.  The chili is interestingly mild just enough to put a twist to the fare.

To complete your healthy meal, pair it with the Green Tea Latte (no whip, of course) and go for soy.

6 Other New Lunch Sandwiches

Starting August 9, Starbucks will introduce these new hot lunch sandwiches catering to those looking for filling meals during lunch time. Prepared in less than 5 minutes, it is best suitable for  people on-the-go.

Aside from the Roasted Vegetables sandwich above, the first three which will be available in all Starbucks Philippines branches are the following:

Ultimate Grilled Cheese

Ultimate Grilled Cheese

It’s a grilled cheese sandwich made with six types of cheeses such as Gruyere, Emmenthal, Feta, Provolone, Mozarella, and cheddar.

Although half of those cheeses sounds alien to me, it ended up good to the taste. On the other hand, the premium cheeses might cater only to the more mature taste buds who can appreciate high quality cheeses. It also comes with slices of Hungarian sausages in between and seasoned with roasted garlic and Italian herb-ed butter on bread.

Roasted Chicken Pesto

The roasted chicken breast fillet comes with Shitake mushrooms and pesto mayo sauce topped with Emmenthal and cheddar cheese in between grilled flat breads. The breast fillet are juicy and the pesto mayo is really aromatic.

This is actually the only one retained from the previous lunch sandwiches menu. And there’s a great reason why this is so. 🙂

Roasted Chicken Pesto Sandwich (left) Beef Brisket Sandwich (right)

Beef Brisket

Emmenthal cheese covering slices of beef brisket with caramelized onions and Dijon mustard constitute this sandwich. The beef brisket itself was fairly ‘ok’ last night but I think I need to try this again before I give it a final verdict.

— o —

The last three new sandwiches are available in select Starbucks branches in the Philippines:

The Clubhouse

The Clubhouse Sandwich

It’s the usual chicken clubhouse you know…with ham, cheese, pickle relish, mayo mustard dressing, tomato and greens, among others, on flat cranberry bread.

It’s available in all Starbucks branches except Baguio, Boracay, Bacolod, Cebu, CDO, Davao, Iloilo and Naga.

Tuna Waldorf

Tuan Waldorf

Tuna Waldorf is a classic tuna salad with red and green apples, walnuts, and celery in yogurt mayo dressing topped with hard-boiled eggs served in raisin walnut bread.

This one’s a filler and will surely be loved by those with good appetite and good taste.

It’s available in all Starbucks branches except Baguio, Boracay, Bacolod, Cebu, CDO, Davao, Iloilo and Naga.

Tuna Melt

Tuna Melt

It’s a tuna salad with melted cheese on roasted Rye bread topped with mozzarella and seasoned wtih Spanish paprika.

This is the rarest among them all available only in selected provincial branches and the only one reachable by land from Metro Manila – is Starbucks Baguio. The other branches that carry this is Boracay, Bacolod, Cebu, CDO, Davao, Iloilo, and Naga only.

Starbucks Lunch Sandwiches

NomNom Recommends

After perseveringly trying all of the seven sandwiches last night for the benefit of my readers 🙂 , I recommend these top three in no particular order (parang beauty pageant lng) :

• Roasted Vegetables on Flat Bread
• Roasted Chicken Pesto on Flat Bread (there’s a strong reason why this one was retained)
• Tuna Waldorf in Raisin Walnut Bread

 So, a day after my birthday on August 8, you can immediately try these new Starbucks Lunch Sandwiches. But if you are the scrimpy-type like me, you can wait for August 15 and 16 where all Starbucks branches will have a P50 off promo on all these lunch sandwiches I have mentioned upon purchase of any Starbucks beverage except service water. 😛

Latte Art fun on a Sunday! Figaro is currently hosting their company-wide Figaro Latte Art Competition 2011 and we’re live blogging ’em from Figaro Emerald branch.

On it’s third year, the Figaro Latte Art Competition is participated by 28 branches this year, both from company-owned branches and franchisees. It aims to enhance the barista’s latte art design skills and to foster camaraderie among the different barista representatives.

Below are some of NomNom’s favorite among the 28 entries in the elimination round. For the complete set of 28 entries, check out NomNomClub’s Facebook Fanpage here.

Figaro Latte Art Competition 2011 (Eliminations Round Participant)

Figaro Latte Art 2011 Contestants

Figaro Latte Art Competition 2011 (Eliminations Round Participant)

Figaro Latte Art Competition 2011 (Eliminations Round Participant)

Who’s your bet for the Top 10 that’s going to qualify for the final round? Watch out for the results of the Figaro Latte Art Competition 2011 tomorrow!

And we’re back to thank our ‘reactionary‘ readers! 🙂 Here are our top commenters for the months of April, May and June 2011!

Congratulations to our returning top commenter for April Lariza Garcia,  May winner Jared’s Mum, and new winner Jian Marla for June.

All three would receive surprise gift packs from this Food Blog. Email admin AT NomNomClub.com for details on how to claim. Again, congratulations to the 2011 Q2 top commenters!

The much awaited tradeshow / conference / exhibit by franchised-business hunters is here again – the 10th Filipino Franchise Show 2011. Brought to us by the Association of Filipino Franchisers Inc. (AFFI), It will be held at the World Trade Center Manila (Philippines) on July 21 to 24, 2011.

An improvement from last year, this year’s Filipino Franchise Show 2011 will be housed in two exhibit halls and will run for four days instead of the usual three. So if you are wanting to start your business, franchised or otherwise, you might like to get some idea which business to target.

Learn the basics and know-how of owning a franchise through seminars and explore almost 300 franchisors. Let the business gurus enrich the entrepreneur in you! Leading brand participants would include Figaro Coffee, Aquabest, Sea Oil, Mang Inasal, Binalot, Fruitas, Reyes Barbecue and Bibingkinitan. Speakers include Randell Tiongson, Susan “Toots” Ople, Carlo Ople, Glenn Yu, Carson Tan, and Miriam Quiambao, among others, who will share their stories as entrpreneurs or as experts in thier respective fields.

10th Filipino Franchise Show 2011

“The 10th Filipino Franchise Show will be opened by AFFI’s Board of Directors on July 21 at the World Trade Center. Paulo Tibig AFFI’s president and Ricardo ‘Richie’ Cuna AFFI’s Chairman Emeritus will deliver the keynote address and opening remarks,” according to its website.

To know more about this event, please visit www.affi.com.ph or call the AFFI secretariat at 0917-5182334 /506 8883 / 9000002 loc 121. Judging from last year’s Filipino Franchise Show I have attended, this would be another great event worth visiting. 🙂

The 10th Filipino Franchise Show
July 21 – 24, 2011
World Trade Center Manila, Philippines

This is my first OpenRicers‘ Meet gathering and it was great meeting fellow OpenRicers and food bloggers. It was held at Tender Bob’s in Greenbelt a few weeks ago.

We had a good time and Tender Bob’s dinner was filling. Here are some of my photos taken with Samsung Galaxy S2.

Tender Bob's Salsds and Appetizers

Oriental Chicken Salad

Tender Bob's Steaks and Lagarde Wines

Ice Cream and Sizzling Bread & Butter Pudding for Desserts!

Until the next OpenRice meet! Thanks OpenRice.com and Tender Bob’s.