A Rainy Sunday Morning At Soderno With My Mother

Last Sunday I took my Mom to Soderno Sunday market.  I have taken the Little Ones to Soderno Night market before, but was not able to blog about.  Honestly there was just way too many people that night to really take any pictures but I and the Little Ones had a fun time sampling the delicious food items. 

I almost cancelled on Mom, because it was drizzling that day, effects of typhoon Sendong.  But glad that we did go because there were plenty of new food discoveries.

Manila Q's Bagwang

My favorite discovery was Manila Q's Bagwang.  This is liempo sliced thinly like bacon.  It was so good I used in different dishes for 3 straight days. 

Another great find was Odayang's which had the best tasting okoy we have ever had. Love that it was made mainly out of green papaya, it gave the okoy a wonderful taste and texture.   And this is probably one of the cheapest but tastiest items being sold at Mercato.  At P25.00 a piece, which is huge, this is super worth it. 

Odyang also sells goto with lechon bits which my Mom absolutely loved.  I don't eat goto but from based on my Mom's feedback the goto was cooked perfectly and she loved its clean taste, no panghe after taste that other gotos have. We brought home a bowl of this for Dad, who was equally as pleased with it.  In fact this is on our must buy list when we visit Soderno again. 

Manang's Chicken

This is the Little Girl's absolute favorite.  She had her first taste of this when we visited Mercato Centrale earlier in the year.  Since then she has been craving for it, so had to buy her some Manang's.  She finished about 8 pieces on her own.

Of course Mom's first weekend market visit would not be complete if I did not buy her some sweet stuff.

This is called Inutak, it is like sapin-sapin but softer in texture.  It comes in two flavors - plain and keso de bola.  Mom chose the keso de bola one, which she shared with the Little Boy who absolutely love it. 

These are from Elle's Torta, they are called Cebuana Tortes.  I guess it originated from Cebu.  It is like mamon but more buttery in texture. It is not too sweet, so I liked this quite a lot. 

And last but certainly not the least, a box of yummy chocolate chip cookies from the FoodLab, Inc.They not only have delicious pastries they also have the friendliest and funniest people.  I always look forward to dropping by their booth because I always leave with a smile. 

The Littles Ones love the cookies so much all of it was gone by the next day.  Such little cookie monsters they are =) 

Overall Mom was quite happy with her first experience at a weekend market, I can't say the same for my wallet ; ) good thing it was the last weekend for Soderno.  But I am sure come January Mom will be asking when can I can take her back to Soderno?  Need to save up for that  =) 

Great Food Finds At Midnight Mercato

After we left the Ayala Triangle Gardens light show the Little Girl asked that we head over to Bonifacio High Street, so off we went.   She and the Little Boy had a great time running around the play area.

She wanted a close up pic first

Then a long shot of the gigantic teddy she was
hiding behind of

I love that pets are allowed here.  The Little Ones had a fun time pet watching. They especially loved this super cute chow chow.  They asked it's owner if they could have a photo with it, so glad she said yes. 

Taking a brief break

After a while she got tired from all the running and asked if we could go to Midnight Mercato to grab a bite to eat before heading home.  I was kind of hesitant to go because it was getting late.  But the Little Girl really wanted to go and since I was not really satisfied with our dinner at Pho 24 off we went to Midnight Mercato.  We have been to Mercato Centrale before and we loved the food finds there, so we were very excited to make new discoveries.  

Since it  would be our first time to visit Midnight Mercato I was not sure of the hours operations.   We arrived at 9PM but apparently the market opens at 10PM.  I was trying to convince the Little Girl that we should head home because it was going to be an hour wait, but with her sad eyes she asked us to stay, so stay we did. I am glad we stayed because the food items we got  were all worth the wait.  Everything we bought was absolutely delicious. 

Now I must inform you that the following photos are not very good, it was my Sister-in-Law who took them since I was busy getting the food.

Taclings is the Little Girl's favorite food find at Soderno, so that glad that they had these here too.  Since we are not beef eaters we always choose to have the tuna filling.   We love the combination of the tuna, garlic mayo, salsa, and of course the wonderfully creative taco shell.  Love that they serve these in old egg cartons, it is so convenient.  The owner was there, such a lovely and kind Lady.  She deserves all the success her business is reaping.  There is always a long line at Taclings so prepare to line up and wait, but it is super worth it. 

These are Charlie's Pritchon wraps, they were the first ones to come up with the pritchon idea. I've had pritchon before but never from Charlie's.  I guess the original is really the best. The lechon was lean but very flavorful just like how I like it, not greasy at all.  I loved how crunchy the skin was, with every bite you could hear a crackling sound. The combination of the lechon,cucumber, chili and mayo is a definite winner in my book.  For sure I will be getting this again on my next visit. 

I read very good reviews about Luigi Mulach's dishes at the Ultimate Taste Test 6, so when I saw that he had a booth here I had to try his chicken cordon bleu with aligue mayo.  One word for me describes this dish "SARAP!".  I know that it seems weird to pair chicken cordon bleu with aligue mayo but it totally works and worth all the calories.

Next time we are in the BGC area at nighttime we will definitely be dropping by again, I am excited to make more food discoveries in the dead of night : ) 

Mercato Centrale

When I was living on my own I use to frequent the weekend markets in Makati, especially the Sunday market at Legaspi since it was just a block from where I used to live. I miss those wonderful lazy Sundays where I spend the whole morning at the market walking around looking for new finds and old favorites. 

The other week I had the chance to visit Mercato Centrale for the first time.  I have been hearing so many good things about this newest weekend market.  I went with the Little Ones in tow, so I made a list of the stuff  I wanted us to try.

Manang's Chicken 

First on the list was Manang's Chicken.  This was such a hit with the Little Girl.  We got the an order of 6 wings, she finished 3 wings on her own.  The combination of the crispy coating together with the sweet tangy sauce made this a winner for the Little Girl. She was licking her fingers, it was that good. 

Lechon Tortilla

Dining at Claude Tayag's Bale Dutung in Pampanga is on my bucket list.  So when I learned that they  have a stall in Mercato I had to include them on my list..  I love lechon so I had to get the lechon tortilla.  The combination of the ingredients made this a delicious wrap, each bite is flavorful. And I was pleasantly surprised that lechon meat was crisp but not totally dry.  Next time I will have to try the Pan de Bagnet, it looks wickedly yummy.  

Merry Moo Ice Cream 

I wanted the Little Ones to try  the bacon ice cream, unfortunately it was not available.  So we ended up getting a cup of French vanilla for me, and mallows with pop rocks for them.  Both were very creamy and flavorful, worth every calorie.  I was expecting that the kids would be surprised by the pop rocks popping in their mouths, but there wasn't any pop. I guess the pop rocks lost their sizzle.  On our next visit  we hope the bacon ice cream will be available.   

Muncheez Yummy Treat

The Little Girl loved the free samples being offered by the different stalls.  So I let her be and told her she could buy what she liked best.  After sampling everything that caught her interest she decided to get two items.  The first one she chose was Marla's Original Muncheez a yummy cornflakes treat.  This is a perfect treat for kids, not too sweet nor is it sticky.  

See the big smile the Little Girl has.  Wish I had bought more, the whole pack was finished by the following day, that's how much the Little Ones liked this treat. 

Fudgy Bonbon

This was the other discovery of the Little Girl.  She tried several of the free sample items from Monfort's Kitchen.  After thinking it over she decided to get a box of the fudgy bonbon.  

I am not much of sweet/dessert person so I leave the choosing  and eating of sweets to the Little Ones.  This was a hit not just with the kids but with their Mita too.  Mita claims that these bonbons  are  not overly sweet and she likes that it was dense and moist inside.

Finally there was this stall, that I forgot to take note of the name, that had refreshing calamansi juice and crispy shrimps from Kalibo or was it Palawan, I can't recall.  The crispy shrimps was another hit with the kids. 

We hope to be back in Mercato soon with more food finds. 

P.S. On our way out of the market I spotted 3 celebrities - RJ Ledesma of the old Royal Tru-Orange tv commercials and Anton Diaz of OurAwesomePlanet.com with his lovely wife Rache.  I believe the three of them are organizers of Mercato. I wanted sana to have a picture taken with them but I decided against it. I did not want the Little Ones and my Sister-in-Law to rib me for being such a baduy fan.  Maybe next time I should go alone :)