Morning Mercato Centrale Relaunch and The Brown Rice Campaign

Morning Mercato Centrale celebrates its 2nd year anniversary with a return to its original location at  the corner of  30th street and 9th avenue (beside Bonifacio High Street and across Serendra) every Saturday and Sunday (7am-2pm) starting November 17. 

 I can still vividly recall 2 years ago, when Anton of Awesome Planet was just envisioning an innovative weekend lifestyle market that will provide unique and great tasting food finds and extensive selection of healthy and organic options, all located in a clean, comfortable and organized market setting.  True to its vision, Mercato Centrale is now one bustling weekend market at BGC with a myriad offering of unique food and organic finds all in one convenient setting. Cheers to the organizers! 

Get these fresh strawberries from Benguet for just Php50/pack. I am fond of this vitamin-C-packed fruit and I know for a fact that giant supermarkets sell these almost double the price!

Ripe mangoes from Davao sells for Php100/kilo

Cheerful Gail Ang of  Simply Pie! hands out free taste of their best-seller US Angus Beef Pie.

Ohhhh! Everything looks delicious! I had 3 of her mini quiches: Spinach, Feta and Sundried Tomatoes, Lorraine ( Tyrolian Bacon, Parmesan, Gruyere Cheese) and the newest flavor, Eggplant Parmesan. Can I just say I'm hooked? :) Sells for Php40 each. Assorted Mini Quiches Box of 6: Php240

Another crowd favorite is Margarita's Paella Valenciana. This is a classic paella of mixed meat and seafood, fragrant pork, chicken, shrimp, clams, chorizo and authentic Spanish Saffron. The paella lady herself, made me taste a sample and true to her words, she doesn't scrimp on ingredients! Flavor infused indeed! 

I was easily lured into buying one. An order costs Php280.    

                                                                              

And then, there's also Margarita's Paella Negra. Deep black ink seafood paella accented with garlic aioli. With the addition of mayonnaise, it creates a burst of unique flavor. Something new for my tastebuds! 

Baked by Anita's mini cupcakes! Cool flavors: Wasabi, Ultimate Chocolate, Peanut Butter Truffle, Red Velvet. Such cuties and we just couldn't resists buying a box of 4 of Red Velvet. If my memory serves me right, a box of 4 costs Php155.

The Angus Beef Tapa Lady is definitely the best Angus Beef Tapa in Town! I had the Premium Angus Beef Php 160 for dine-in and it tastes sooo good I had the Regular Angus Beef Php100  for take-away. 

Can you hear it sizzle? Good news for health buffs, they also serve it with Sun Made Brown Rice.

These cupcakes from SugarCakes Bakeshop are sooo pretty! Eye-candy right?! These cupcakes comes in red and blue velvet, smores, banana walnut, vanilla, lemon, strawberry, green tea, carrot, caramel, chocolate chip, chocnut, pink lemonade. Regular cupcakes costs Php80 and the mini's are php60 each.

My brother and egs made a beeline for Juana Bowl.
They serve freshly grilled, juicy US Rib-Eye Steak Php190.

Macheesemo Burgers are made up of 100% beef patty with a special blend of cheese that oozes ou in every bite! Take your pick from: Classic, Melt, Blue or Philly.  

These sausages are MSG and Nitrate Free! Buy 1 take 1 Php130. There's Schublig, Hungarian, Breakfast, Bratwurst, Italian, Beer and Garlic. 

Crispy and uber crunchy pork belly strips deep fried perfectly by Carlos Kitchen.

French Empire Macarons hand-piped with a delicately crisp almond meringue shell and a soft creamy filling. 

The Juice Bar! We had lemonade, Watermelon and Dalandan at Php55/cup.

Another interesting find is Bayani Brew from the nanays at Gawad Kalinga Enchanted Farm in Angat, Bulacan. We bought 6 bottles of these Bayani Brew Purple Leaf!  Brewed from all natural sweet potato, purple leaf tops (yes, its from talbos ng kamote!) with calamansi.

ManilaQ's Bagwang is such a hit! I had this pinoy bacon for take-away so that I could later savor and indulge its crunchiness at home! (tee-hee)

Other viands includes: Spicy Vigan Longaniza, Fish Ham (Boneless, Skinless Cream Dory from Vietnam) and Bagwang Sisig.

Lutong Ulam (Dinuguan..etc) anyone? Ihaw-ihaw (BBQ, Isaw)

Our first dessert at Mercato: Mochiko! We had their best-sellers: Potato Chip Chocolate, Cookie Dough and Strawberry. Php70 each.

With one of the organizers of Mercato, newspaper columnist, EIC of Uno Magazine, TV and events host and actor RJ Ledesma. He graciously thanked us for visiting the market. 

That's egs and me with our first round of foodie finds: Paella Valenciana, Schublig sausage, Ihaw-ihaw, US Rib-Eye.

Go organic! Here is Pamora's Home of the Real Free-Range chickens! Pamora Farm Inc. is a Filipino-European Joint venture undertaking, engage in Eco-Agri Tourism operation. The farm raises French breed free-range chickens, organic veggies, carabao mangoes and other tropical fruits. Around the farm, hardwood trees like Narra, mahogany & Teakwood are grown for reforestation and development purposes.

Experience the freshness of nature: Organic Vegetables from Costales Nature Farms

Egs and I are both Ginger Brew Lovers! We just had to buy these! P45/pack

Kristina's Inutak Premium Classic family-owned recipe makes its way to the market! Fresh coconut cream mixed with the freshest sticky rice is just heaven in its sweetest form. Egs got 2 boxes of these at Php120/box.

Things just could't get any better than this! Free 15-min spot massage from Amansala Home Spa Services. Shake off the gloom and lift your spirits. Book a session with Spa Amansala and revitalize yourself! If only I were living nearby, I'd book one asap!

Anlene's Bone Health Check Booth reminded me to start drinking milk for my calcium needs. 1 out of 2 Filipinos is at risk of Osteoporosis! And my current risk result is Medium Risk! Eeeek! Got 2 boxes for me and my mom. 

You can even shop for non-food items here. Free Zumba Work-out and other freebies by Curves Gym, Dermaesthetic and Orangee Productions.

Our Haul! (tee-hee!)

The Brown Rice Campaign: Lunch and Launch. Grow is Oxfam's campaign for better ways to grow, share and live together. Let's all support the EAT BROWN RICE advocacy. As Filipinos, rice frequents our dinner tables, even more than adobo or sinigang! Brown rice contains a more considerable amount of nutrients that help maintain basic bodily functions and helps fight against diseases. Plus, supporting this local products means a more self-sufficient food sector for the country. So make the positive shift and go brown!

The Launch had performances by talented advocates and artists.

Media and supporters of brown rice campaign all gathered around for an interesting talk by none other than...

.... Senator, Mom, Triathlete and Entrepreneur, Pia Cayetano 

Brown Rice advocates also included Tado Jimenez, Roxanne Barcelo

...and Kitchy Nadal. 

Let's support our small scale farmers. Often enough, the contribution that our small scale food producers make to society is over-looked, because many of us don't know what truly goes on along the food chain. Being more conscious of where you purchase your daily dose of food choices, and supporting fair trade will better ensure that they earn sufficiently from what they produce. This empowers them to sustain their livelihood and their families' future, too! 

Brown rice costs as low as P90/2kgs.

A well-informed, better Carmiscaprice after the launch. Thank you Mercato Centrale!

OOTD: Yellow Primadona Horse Print Dress. Yellow Aztec Bag by AbbyJocson