April 17, 2010 — I ate at Banchetto-Emerald
This is how I marked this particular date in my Starbucks planner. True to this brief description, I and a few of my Ulayaw friends went for a very late food trip at Banchetto-Emerald Avenue in Ortigas. This is the first overnight street food fiesta in the Philippines and was done to promote tourism in Ortigas Center. It starts from 12 midnight of Friday until 12 noon of Saturday.
Banchetto-Emerald was teeming with people when we arrived there around 2AM. Most of the customers, as I suspected, were call center agents working in Ortigas Center. Others looked like rich peeps who are just starting their gimik night with some real food.
For this particular food trip, we focused on the desserts. We ordered three different kinds of cakes from LeBlanc, namely Blueberry Cheesecake, Strawberry Cheesecake, and Chocolate Mouse. These mouth watering desserts form a pretty picture when laid out in plain white plates as they were displayed. Each slice cost Php85. Additionally, we bought Chocolate Custard Cake for Php50 at another stall (forgot the name). It looked fancy but tasted just like the ones you can buy in small bakeries.
Next, we ordered two half-pounder cheeseburgers. At Php155 a piece, I was thinking that they better be made of beef. And yes, they were. They tasted just the way I like my burgers to taste – the flavor of the beef patties blended well with the cheese, veggies and bun.
We also ordered crepes from Crepe-a-pips. One was made of mango, chocolate and rice crispies. The other, Banana-pre, was made of peanut butter and banana. For Php45 a crepe, it was definitely cheap. It tasted good too, but the dough was hard by the time we got to eat it that it that it felt like we’re eating hard hotcakes.
Bibingka and chapchae pansit made up our feast for the night. Since there were no available seats at the venue of Banchetto-Emerald, we decided to go to the nearby park, Ortigas Park, and sit on the steps for a night picnic. My diet was forgotten the minute we opened the styro boxes because the cakes just beckoned me to eat them. And eat them I did! My friends were kidding me about my diet but I jokingly told them I’d just take adipex diet pills if I fail to lose weight after a week. As it is, I’d be real glad that after all this eating, I’d manage to reduce my weight by at least a pound.
For those interested on having a stall in Banchetto, visit their Multiply account. Here are the contact numbers of Banchetto-Emerald organizers.
Home Office Phone: 6550590
Mobile No: 09228800861
Email Address: hundredmliz@yahoo.com
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