pitstop at IFEX Philippines

-
Late afternoon yesterday, I found myself walking in the cavernous exhibition hall of the SMX Convention Center as a visitor at the 2013 International Food Exhibition Philippines. It was an opportunity for local producers to be exposed to the international market. At the same time, it was a chance for other countries to showcase their food products to current and potential Filipino audiences.


The ~9000 sq.m. hall hosted quite a number of booths, with native ingredients from different regions of the Philippines on display. While browsing through the products, I realized that many of the booths were selling organic colored rice, chocolate tablets, coconut products, seafood, cured meats, and coffee products.

I was particularly curious about the rice grains. I haven't heard of many of the trade names... Among the labels I've encountered were Jasmine Gold, Sampaguita Gold, Black Rice, Heirloom Rice, and (the most intriguing name of all, for me) Rambo Rice. Then there were portmanteaus as well: I came across Jasponica and Miponica rice products (Dona Maria brand) in one booth... I regularly buy the Jasponica rice for home use so I've heard of it. In contrast, it's my first encounter with Miponica.

For people wanting to eat food from other countries without leaving the Philippines, the good news is that Filipino products were not the only ones for sale. There were booths that offered items coming from Malaysia (ginger-honey candy), Japan, Korea, and the United States (fried potato cubes). I remember also passing by an exhibit of different grains from Argentina.

There were just so many booths to visit, I didn't notice that I had already spent more than an hour in the SMX Convention Center! In fact, the exhibit was about to close when I reached the chefs' corner. I wasn't able to watch them work their magic on the ingredients available in the hall; I wasn't able to watch the baristas' acrobatics either. Nevertheless, I had a good time exploring the exhibit area.


I just have to thank Ige Ramos, editor-in-chief of sansRival, for telling me about IFEX Philippines.

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for dropping by!

Before moving on, please share your thoughts or comments about the post. :)

Thanks again!

Popular posts from this blog

Skyflakes

-
One of the more famous Philippine exports is Skyflakes , a wheat-based, salty cracker. It is one of my emergency food items: I typically have some stocked at home and in my handbag in case I become hungry (like in traffic jams). When there's no electricity and it's impractical to cook rice (because the leftover would spoil), I'd open a pack of Skyflakes and generously coat each cracker with Cheez Whiz... if I had a bottle of it within reach. Anyway, each time I spent more than two weeks outside the Philippines, I'd be elated to see boxes of Skyflakes inside Asian stores (particularly when in I was Australia and in the USA). Back then, I took it as a sign of homesickness. When I moved to California, I didn't miss Skyflakes because Mommy made sure that there's a steady supply in the house. Skyflakes is embedded in Filipino gastronomy as a snack, a panawid-gutom , that anyone who reacts positively upon seeing Skyflakes outside the Philippines must have spe...
Read more

10 things I learned while driving on Marcos Highway to Baguio City

-
I went on a day trip to the City of Pines, which was around a 700-km drive from my house. I drove  going up there and then from the city to Victoria, Tarlac. After that, my dad took over the driving duties. It was day trip with Tita Ising and Tito Sibing with us. Anyway, this trip was my first time to go to Baguio City with me behind the wheel. As everyone who drives up knows, there are three main routes to Baguio from the lowlands: Kennon Road, which ascends from Rosario, La Union. It was out of my options because it's too dangerous to use that road in the rainy season. The second route is via Naguilian Road, which makes my trip a lot longer because the beginning of the ascent is in Bauang, La Union (further north). The last route, and the one I took, was the Marcos Highway, now known as the Aspiras-Palispis Highway. This 47-km road starts from Agoo, La Union and is touted as the safest route among the three.  As I drove up and then down (on the same day; we were in...
Read more

Surat Mangyan

-
Image
In high school, part of the Filipino curriculum was learning about one of the country's ancient native scripts called Baybayin . I learned back then that this script was eventually abandoned because the Spanish, and eventually the Americans, encouraged the use of the Latin script for written communications. But that's in the lowlands; the rules were different up in the mountains. In the lush mountains of Mindoro, groups of indigenous people called Mangyans  live largely in isolation away from the Christianised Filipinos. This isolation has led to the continuous development of the Mangyans' old script, Surat Mangyan . As I walked inside the Ayala Museum , I saw this bamboo tube (I'm not sure if it's an instrument) with Mangyan script written all over it. I suppose that this was equivalent to a book or a song. But I haven't figured out what's written yet, despite the translation guide provided. What I can do, however, is write my name in Ma...
Read more