CDO eats: 10+ food finds from Big Bite 2023 festival

CAGAYAN DE ORO -- Ayala Centrio in Cagayan de Oro celebrates the summer of 2023 with the 9th Big Bite Northern Mindanao Food Festival.

The festival was first held back in 2014. Centrio was not the first Ayala Mall to hold a Big Bite Food Festival, although it is currently the only property holding the event. The aim was to select deserving small and medium scale food entrepreneurs, exposing them to the pressure of selling their products in a mall, and perhaps, invite some to come in as tenants after the festival.

The mall remained committed to Big Bite even during the pandemic. The nationwide COVID-19 lockdown happened one week after the food festival in 2020. Fortunately for Cagayan De sro, it was never under severe lockdown compared to the rest of the country and this allowed the mall to hold a much humbler version of Big Bite in 2021. Exhibitors were only allowed to set up stalls in the outdoor areas of the relatively empty mall. 

What this did was to gather the pandemic small businesses together and use the booths as their mini commissaries and leverage the ANA (Ayala Neighborhood Assistance) service to pick and deliver food to those who stayed at home. 

Last year, the mall and Big Bite adjusted to the new normal with a larger number of exhibitors but still wary of restrictions.

For its ninth outing, the Big Bite Northern Mindanao Food Festival seemed to have bounced back and was bigger than ever. This year, 74 exhibitors, the most the food fair has ever had, signed up. The mall was not spared from businesses that had to close because of the challenging past two years. The storefronts were turned into booths with some even becoming pop-ups for previous Big Bite participants.

Here are some highlights, picks, and nibbles from Big Bite 2023:

Perhaps an indication of the Cagayanon’s changing palate is this year’s top seller Khana Sutra (@khanasutracdo). 

Owner Natish Singh uses his food to give “Bumbai” a positive spin equating it to great Indian food instead of something else. He cites the Syrian influence on the Punjab cuisine for his spicy and exotic beef keema and his kebabs. 

Check out his Bumbai bowls with a very different butter chicken, Murgh Makhani, that’s yellow with turmeric instead of the usual red tomato sauce.

Some restaurants went through a period of reinvention during the pandemic. Ajirang (@ajirangcdo) started out as Golden Arirang, one of the first Korean restaurants in Cagayan de Oro. 

The new restaurant wasn’t even open yet when Stefan Bryce Go Jeun, the second-generation owner, brought Ajirang to Big Bite last year. Jeun recounted how crazy it was as they’d run out of food to serve every day. 

The booth’s special menu for this event featured authentic Korean ingredients like Dongwon luncheon meat for their kimbap and Spam fries, and spicy red gochujang for their spicy squid and chicken.

The festival was a way for businesses to find their audience. The Korean hotdog booth Crushh Landing has a devoted following back in Zamboanga, but they were totally unprepared for the deluge of customers that flowed in during the festival. With prices starting at P80, one doesn’t have to wonder why.

Crushh Landing was such a smashing success that word of franchising in Cagayan de Oro was already going around even before the last day of Big Bite.

Existing tenants put up booths to try out new concepts. One example is Chips (@chipscod), a “chick and chips” shop, from partners Pretty Gin Tenio and Christian Sayson. Their past concept, Dales Taqueria, is a Big Bite success story having started out as an exhibitor last year and now occupies a stand-alone shop in the al fresco area in Centrio. 

The Tanduay BBQ Chicken Nuggets and Nashville Hot Loaded Fries were strong, super spicy, and would be nicely paired with ice cold bottles of beer.

Cheesy experimental concept Supper Supper Club’s main draw was the owner Toto Gamboa’s creamy cheese pasta which is cooked then tossed in a Grana Padano cheese wheel and sells it for P180 a serving. 

Everybody was just lining up to take pics, and good for them, the pasta tasted as good as it looked.

Stories of business survival during the pandemic were common. One such story is Rotondazz, a collective of five pandemic baby business “street vendors” that first set up shop at Cagayan de Oro’s main rotunda during the pandemic.

The first was Kape Rolls Sa Dalan (@kaperolls_sadalan) by self-trained coffee person Oddre Bernaldez, who served up grab and go coffee for motorists passing by keeping contact to a minimum. 

This was followed by followed by Boding Factura’s Tibasak Street Tacos (@tbsk.streettacos) for birria, and Quirky Streatery (@quirkystreatery) for Vietnamese street bahn mi, flavored sodas and Pinoy empanadas by chef Angelo Ongchua, a Siargao surf instructor who turned to cooking after the back-to-back problems caused by the pandemic and typhoon Odette. 

The group had to leave their original location but thankfully has found a more stable space in the city.

Rotondazz became a nice place to go because one could have coffee, Mexican, Vietnamese, Japanese Yakitori (who wasn’t in Big Bite), and Malaysian-Indian courtesy of Makan Bro (@makanbrothers) who opted for a separate booth because of their full menu featuring the recipes of owners James and Vanessa Mae Aquino's Malaysian aunt. 

The Beef Rendang and Chicken Ayam Biryani did have authentic flavors and rich creamy textures though I thought the heat was a bit toned down. This was easily tweaked by adding some of their homemade Boy Sambal, best described as a crossover of chili garlic oil and palapa, a southern Mindanao mix of herbs and spices.

There were many stalls selling drinks to extinguish all that spice and heat. One of the more unique drink sellers was Southeast Handcrafted Drinks (@southeast.ph). 

While they do have coffee drinks in the menu like the Thai Black Tie -- a full-bodied drink made with Thai milk tea and cold brew coffee -- the drinks to try are their craft mocktails like the Bali Sunrise (a mango, passion fruit and guava soda) or the Tamarind Sour made even more potent with calamansi and amaretto. 

One just wishes there would be a cocktail bar version as a number of drinks would be fantastic with a shot of rum or gin.

With Bukidnon a short drive away, Cagayan de Oro is blessed with access to the five-star fruit and produce. Many of the exhibitors were sampling farm-to-table products like Tropiquantes (@tropiquantes) with varied fermented hot sauces, the mango habanero, in particular, was a pleasantly sweet, fruity, and spicy discovery.

Favorite coolers at the festival were the shakes made with Bukidnon mango, avocado and guyabano from Frozen Kitchen (@frozenkitchen.ph). It was surprising how real (for lack of a better word) the fruit was in the bottle. No artificial concentrates here. 

Owner Kizzy was proud to say that each bottle had at least 80% fruit, fresh milk, and just a tiny bit of sweetener. Apparently, Frozen Kitchen is much sought-after because they don’t have a physical store, no delivery service, and just pops up at food fairs and festivals like these.

Bean-to-bark chocolate Pagmaya (@pagmayachocolateofficial), made with from cacao from Davao and Bukdinon, sold bars, tableya, sikwate, and chocolate creations with Juliette’s (@juliettes.ph) dessert shop.

One can’t talk about Bukidnon without mentioning coffee. Big Bite's coffee shops were pulling espressos and Spanish lattes with Dahilayan and Mt. Kitanlad beans from local roasters like Neighborhood, Mindanao Coffee Roasters, and M.C. Coffee. 

For beans outside Northern Mindanao and beyond, Permir and H Proper feature coffee that will please even the most demanding coffeeholic.

For dessert, the tarts, particularly the new ube tart, from Bake It Right (@bakeitrightcdo) were highly recommended by the locals. These are best paired with a nice cup of coffee from any of the CDO cafes around the mall.

Stylist/florist/crafter-turned-baker Kevin Soriano serves up Basque Cheesecake, buttery Madeleines, and Koonies, soft cakey dark chocolate cookies that’ll make any dessert lover happy.

A Big Bite festival wouldn’t be complete without celebrity cooking demos during the closing weekend. This year, festival-goers were entertained by the antics of social media culinary superstar Ninong Ry and actor now congressman Richard Gomez.

Overall, The Big Bite Northern Mindanao Food Festival did what it set out to do. The booth owners seemed happy to show off their food to a mall full of visitors. It would not be surprising to see this adopted elsewhere, particularly in areas where deserving hidden food gems can be given their due exposure.

The big question is, how in the world will Ayala Centrio go all out with the 10th Big Bite Northern Mindanao Food Festival next year? Ten is a big milestone and we’ll just have to wait to get a bite of what they’ll have to offer.