ILOILO FOOD TRIP

There's a new dimsum place in town and they're serving dim sum all imported from Singapore! And they have more to offer other than  Chinese specialties of small steamed or fried savory dumplings served on small steamer baskets. SM City Iloilo invited members of the Iloilo Bloggers for a gastronomic adventure showcasing SM Southpoint . SM Southpoint creates a relaxing mall experience with its wide garden space and al fresco ambiance. The newest hang-out of the Ilonggos is an al fresco wing of the biggest mall in the region consisting of local and home grown restaurants and cafes as well new local and "imported" players in the food service industry. It's time to discover what SM Southpoint has to offer ... Gourmet Dimsum is among the new "imported" players calling SM Southpoint its new home. "Imported" since they have a branch (or two) in Manila and almost everything you eat here is imported from Singapore. 

I can still vividly remember my first orders at San Jose Cafe when it opened years ago - Watermelon Slush and Chocolate Cake. It was just an on the spot order for the sake just ordering something and I expected nothing special about them. But I was wrong ... SM City Iloilo invited members of the Iloilo Bloggers for a gastronomic adventure showcasing SM Southpoint.  The newest hang-out of the Ilonggos is an al fresco wing of the biggest mall in the region consisting of local and home grown restaurants and cafes as well new local and "imported" players in the food service industry. It's time to discover what SM Southpoint has to offer ... Photo credit: The Appletizer

Tinumok and Kandingga. Can you guess which part of the country these dishes come from? More dishes as clues - Tinutungan Manok and Kinunot . How about these final dishes - Laing and Bicol Express?  Now you know that these are the part of the Bicolano food scene that sets our palate's on fire! SM City Iloilo invited members of the Iloilo Bloggers for a gastronomic adventure showcasing SM Southpoint .  SM Southpoint is a great nightspot with its wide array or restaurants perfect to cap the day.  The newest hang-out of the Ilonggos is an al fresco wing of the biggest mall in the region consisting of local and home grown restaurants and cafes as well new local and "imported" players in the food service industry. It's time to discover what SM Southpoint has to offer ... Craving for those Bicolano specialties? There's no immediate need to visit the Bicol region (but I would love to do so) just to try them as   Spicy Elements brings the famed (an...

Don't we all love pizza? Be it pepperoni, margherita, 4-cheese or Hawaiian, we always look forward to the generous toppings and the gooey mozzarella cheese. There are even dessert pizzas with chocolates, fruits and more. But most of these pizzas we all love are considered junk food because of the high amount of refined carbohydrates, fat and sodium it contains. But some are the opposite like this Herb, Roasted Garlic and Shrimp Pizza. SM City Iloilo invited members of the Iloilo Bloggers Inc. for a gastronomic adventure showcasing SM Southpoint.  SM Southpoint makes dining al fresco a lot better with lots of greeneries and open spaces. The newest hang-out of the Ilonggos is an al fresco wing of the biggest mall in the region consisting of local and home grown restaurants and cafes as well new local and "imported" players in the food service industry. It's time to discover what SM Southpoint has to offer ...  "Promoting healthy living throu...

Ramboys. Liempo. That's probably it. Ofcourse, you'll have to have some extra rice to go with that deliciously crispy liempo that would surely make you rave and crave for more. You'd never look at any other liempo when you tried Ramboy's version. In fact, that would become your standard for a great-tasting liempo. SM City Iloilo invited members of the Iloilo Bloggers for a gastronomic adventure showcasing SM Southpoint.  The newest hang-out of the Ilonggos is an al fresco wing of the biggest mall in the region consisting of local and home grown restaurants and cafes as well new local and "imported" players in the food service industry. It's time to discover what SM Southpoint has to offer ...

The coffee industry in Iloilo, even in Western Visayas, is inevitably hot and brewing.  The popularity of local coffee shops is one proof how Ilonggos are coffee lovers, or we say, "coffee business"-minded. Seeing the industry's potential, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) beefed up its support to the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the coffee industry in the region. In fact, it is one of the seven priority industry sectors of the department.  For 2022 alone, the DTI regional office 6 has prepared 18 kinds of training for coffee entrepreneurs to help them improve their products in terms of packaging and marketing.  Among others, DTI has "Kapatid MentorMe" program – its flagship program that aims to create smart entrepreneurs. In Iloilo City, the city government, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) Iloilo Chapter, Inc. and other stakeholders forged a partnership with the goal of providing a venue to promote local coffee ...

Ensuring the freshness and quality of food items everyday and making diners happy are key to Ocean City’s iconic status and enduring success for 30 years now. With more Ilonggos patronizing Ocean City, the seafood restaurant grew bigger from a 20-man team to 68 employees now, serving more mouth-watering meals in a total of seven branches, two of which are at SM City Iloilo.  Convinced that SM’s high foot traffic is good for the business, they first opened a kiosk in SM City Iloilo’s food court in 1999 and then a stand-alone seafood restaurant in Southpoint, which opened in 2016.  According to its second-generation leader, Eric Borromeo, delivering consistent freshness, quality and customer satisfaction were closely tied to the fact that they are very hands-on when running the business and that local ingredients are mainly sourced from public markets. It used to be that he was the one who personally went to the market early in the morning to catch the best ingredients.  “I...

Filipinos love coffee so much that in 2021, Fitch Solutions sees the Philippines consuming about 7358.2 60 kilogram bags of coffee by 2025. The country’s coffee industry continues to grow and whether its’ hot or cold, Filipinos seem to have an insatiable thirst.  As people today juggle a fast-paced lifestyle, noticeably, there is a  high demand for delicious coffee and a cozy coffee shop that feels like a second home.  About two decades earlier, Arlene Juan Tong and her husband already anticipated how Ilonggos love for coffee would grow into a lifestyle and founded Bluejay Coffee & Company. Bluejay Coffee and Company is the first-ever coffee shop in SM City Iloilo that has been operating for more than a decade now with an Espresso machine coffee and delectable food offerings.  "Bluejay was born in 2004 out of our own yearning for a good coffee shop. Back then, there was no place in Iloilo that sold coffee made from an espresso machine. As someone with a distribu...