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Smoky, sweaty and sizzling, a new food market rises in 'the East'
There is something about the sight of a busy and noisy food market right smack in the middle of high-end, established restaurants that is so liberating.
Maybe because it shatters the “fine dining” ambience and concept-based interior design of restaurants Filipino foodies have all come to look for and love.
The crowd squeezes into the market's cramped, smoky space to get at the food.
Maybe because here, in a cramped space where food stalls of emerging home-based entrepreneurs have managed to squeeze in, amidst the smoke, sweat and sizzle, stripped off all its pretentions, food is elevated to its most raw and real form.
Similar to street art, food at the Mercato Centrale Group’s newest market called Levante (meaning “The East”) is the kind that cannot be boxed inside the four corners of a restaurant.
Levante at Eastwood City is the latest food market opened by the Mercato Centrale group, after the main Mercato in Fort Bonifacio, Mezza Norte at the Trinoma and the food truck market Cucina Andare at the Glorietta Park.
“Yung Levante market, the plan is really to help out mga home-based entrepreneurs. We wanted this to be our food market in the East. Kasi mayroong North and South. It’s very strategic. Because you know it has its own community. And I’m sure marami din diyan mahilig magluto din sa mga bahay nila,” said Anton Diaz, co-founder of Mercato Centrale Group and the man behind the food and travel blog www.OurAwesomePlanet.com.
Together with co-founder RJ Ledesma, Diaz carefully curates the food stalls, making sure the concepts are unique. Putting together a food market also means striking a balance among the variety of concepts, so that foodies have a lot to choose from.
“First and foremost, dapat masarap. We taste test everything. Second, it has to be well-curated. It has to be original, meaning walang duplication,” Diaz said.
Similar to street art, food at the Mercato Centrale Group’s newest market called Levante (meaning “The East”) is the kind that cannot be boxed inside the four corners of a restaurant.
Levante at Eastwood City is the latest food market opened by the Mercato Centrale group, after the main Mercato in Fort Bonifacio, Mezza Norte at the Trinoma and the food truck market Cucina Andare at the Glorietta Park.
“Yung Levante market, the plan is really to help out mga home-based entrepreneurs. We wanted this to be our food market in the East. Kasi mayroong North and South. It’s very strategic. Because you know it has its own community. And I’m sure marami din diyan mahilig magluto din sa mga bahay nila,” said Anton Diaz, co-founder of Mercato Centrale Group and the man behind the food and travel blog www.OurAwesomePlanet.com.
Together with co-founder RJ Ledesma, Diaz carefully curates the food stalls, making sure the concepts are unique. Putting together a food market also means striking a balance among the variety of concepts, so that foodies have a lot to choose from.
“First and foremost, dapat masarap. We taste test everything. Second, it has to be well-curated. It has to be original, meaning walang duplication,” Diaz said.
Bite-sized delights: taclings are very small tacos.
These food markets also become incubators for products that home-based entrepreneurs are testing the market for.
But of course, for us foodies, always on the lookout for new tastes, innovative food and the next big thing, a food market where there’s a rich variety of food yet to be discovered is like a treasure trove.
The newcomers
Like romance, which never comes at the right place and at the right time, Levante opens during such a day I was scheduled to diet.
But since I reasoned I might not wake up or the world might end the next day, with a shrug, I dived into the crowd and disappeared into the smoke of the white tent.
I followed where the smoke is and found myself, appropriately, in front of a stall called “Cheat Day”, where the cooks wearing the same red shirts and black bonnets were busy grilling burger patties.
Cheat Day, apparently, is a newcomer along with Maria’s Ilocos Empanada and Twisted Cakes.
While waiting for my Cheat Day burger, a 1/3 lb. beef patty stuffed with mozzarella cheese, the owner and griller Ean Cuenco shared his story.
But of course, for us foodies, always on the lookout for new tastes, innovative food and the next big thing, a food market where there’s a rich variety of food yet to be discovered is like a treasure trove.
The newcomers
Like romance, which never comes at the right place and at the right time, Levante opens during such a day I was scheduled to diet.
But since I reasoned I might not wake up or the world might end the next day, with a shrug, I dived into the crowd and disappeared into the smoke of the white tent.
I followed where the smoke is and found myself, appropriately, in front of a stall called “Cheat Day”, where the cooks wearing the same red shirts and black bonnets were busy grilling burger patties.
Cheat Day, apparently, is a newcomer along with Maria’s Ilocos Empanada and Twisted Cakes.
While waiting for my Cheat Day burger, a 1/3 lb. beef patty stuffed with mozzarella cheese, the owner and griller Ean Cuenco shared his story.
Some days just have to be cheat days.
Cheat Day actually came from his weekly get-together with the boys for a round of beer and his grilled burgers.
“My friends say Friday night is always their cheat day,” Cuenco said.
But it looks like cheat days with the boys will not happen, at least until the Friday night Levante market is open and foodies like me are reaping the benefits. The juicy beef patty had a strong seasoning and peppery taste, which the very neutral mozzarella melted with perfectly. The buns were the generic kind though and I wished it had more texture, like a pan de sal.
As a lover of Filipino regional cuisine, I just had to drop by Maria’s Ilocos Empanada. The orange rice dough was made from scratch and the empanada deep-fried right in front of the customers.
When I took a bite of the thin crunchy dough, the filling oozed out, which was made from monggo, repolyo, longganisa and egg, and I couldn’t stop eating. I didn’t even need to add vinegar. It was already too flavorful to resist. The owner, Maria Hazel Santos, lives in Quezon City but hails from Ilocos.
Crunchy, greasy and heavy meals
Levante Market has a mix of stalls offering heavy meals as well as snacks. Call center agents and BPO professionals were lining up for rice meals at Sinangag Trip, massive sausage sandwiches at Schmidt’s, as well as sisig and rice at Chef Bab’s Sisig and More.
Chef Babs is offering a wide range of sisig: beef, crispy pork, and for people like me who are “sort of” watching their weight, there’s squid, bangus, tofu and veggie sisig.
“My friends say Friday night is always their cheat day,” Cuenco said.
But it looks like cheat days with the boys will not happen, at least until the Friday night Levante market is open and foodies like me are reaping the benefits. The juicy beef patty had a strong seasoning and peppery taste, which the very neutral mozzarella melted with perfectly. The buns were the generic kind though and I wished it had more texture, like a pan de sal.
As a lover of Filipino regional cuisine, I just had to drop by Maria’s Ilocos Empanada. The orange rice dough was made from scratch and the empanada deep-fried right in front of the customers.
When I took a bite of the thin crunchy dough, the filling oozed out, which was made from monggo, repolyo, longganisa and egg, and I couldn’t stop eating. I didn’t even need to add vinegar. It was already too flavorful to resist. The owner, Maria Hazel Santos, lives in Quezon City but hails from Ilocos.
Crunchy, greasy and heavy meals
Levante Market has a mix of stalls offering heavy meals as well as snacks. Call center agents and BPO professionals were lining up for rice meals at Sinangag Trip, massive sausage sandwiches at Schmidt’s, as well as sisig and rice at Chef Bab’s Sisig and More.
Chef Babs is offering a wide range of sisig: beef, crispy pork, and for people like me who are “sort of” watching their weight, there’s squid, bangus, tofu and veggie sisig.
The perfect pulutan: crunchy, sinful bagwang.
But of course, since I wasn’t looking for heavy meals, I made it a point to try all the crunchy snacks, which I call “kutkutin”: the yummiest kind of food in the world if you ask me, and also the most calorie-loaded.
I fell at first bite for Manila Q’s Bagwang, which is bagnet marinated in lots and lots of garlic and fried until super crunchy. It was the perfect pulutan to beer, which was also available in Levante.
Other crunch-stoppers were the old-timers in the food market Eat my GF (garlic fries), FMT Taclings (bite-sized tacos) and Carlo’s Kitchen crunchy belly.
Though there was still space for dessert, I decided to call it a night with my tummy. Since the dessert stalls were only offering cakes, I was looking for dessert coolers like halo-halo, buko pandan and ice cream to keep myself cool from the hot weather.
Before I left Levante, I took one last look at the market, which was still brimming with people, the sizzling, frying and grilling sounds in perfect harmony with the people talking, laughing and eating.
Set against the background of the sky and twinkling stars, the market seemed like a traveling gypsy circus, but this time, the magic and mayhem is all in the food. And hopefully, it will stay that way. — BM, GMA News
Levante is held at the Eastwood Citywalk 2 every Friday night, from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m.
I fell at first bite for Manila Q’s Bagwang, which is bagnet marinated in lots and lots of garlic and fried until super crunchy. It was the perfect pulutan to beer, which was also available in Levante.
Other crunch-stoppers were the old-timers in the food market Eat my GF (garlic fries), FMT Taclings (bite-sized tacos) and Carlo’s Kitchen crunchy belly.
Though there was still space for dessert, I decided to call it a night with my tummy. Since the dessert stalls were only offering cakes, I was looking for dessert coolers like halo-halo, buko pandan and ice cream to keep myself cool from the hot weather.
Before I left Levante, I took one last look at the market, which was still brimming with people, the sizzling, frying and grilling sounds in perfect harmony with the people talking, laughing and eating.
Set against the background of the sky and twinkling stars, the market seemed like a traveling gypsy circus, but this time, the magic and mayhem is all in the food. And hopefully, it will stay that way. — BM, GMA News
Levante is held at the Eastwood Citywalk 2 every Friday night, from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m.
