Banchetto

*STILL UPLOADING THE VIDEO FOR THIS POST, please check back in a few hours :)

Our gig ended at 9 so we had so much time to kill before the Banchetto night market started. We decided to meet up with Pia at Starbucks.

Trixie gave me the Green With Envy Orly nail polish after our gig (thank you!!!) and I had quick-dry stuff (Sally Hansen Dry Kwik and Insta-Dry top coat) + O.P.I. cuticle oil in my bag (they're always in my bag cos I used to get regular mani-pedis done before running errands once a week), so the most logical thing to do was give Riz her first-ever rock-star method manicure.

The rock star method obviously entails no cleaning/nipping/trimming- just slap on some color, trying not to go outside the nail bed, then topping it off quickly with the insta-dry coat (okay the last part's something rock stars wouldn't do, but hey, who wouldn't want to save themselves from having to wait forever for their nails to dry? LOL).

Then came midnight and we decided to brave this sea of people! We totally didn't expect for the turnout to be this way. The 3 of us have never been there and we only frequent the Salcedo Market on saturday mornings which is never too jam-packed.

The crowd was a mix of call center agents, families and groups of friends. The later it gets, the more you'll see college students and yuppies arriving after a night of clubbing.

Balls of rice with sisig as a filling! Riz and Pia said that it could've been better if the sisig was still warm. Guess they got to buy the last sets already. They're positive that lots of people flocked towards this quickly so the ones left aren't as fresh anymore.

This was the night I had my first bite of kwek-kwek (the orange deep-fried quail eggs on skewers). In all my years of taking my minor subjects in Taft, I never braved to eat anything from the street food carts, simply because of my mom's voice constantly nagging inside my head saying "food poisoning is not a joke". So I just had to try some at the market since it looked clean compared to the street food carts... IT'S GOOD! I've been missing out--- on the calories. LOL!

Met two groups of girls who followed my blog that night... In my head, that was a hilarious experience-and it was caught on camera!!! HI GIRLS!!! :)

Damn, those packed dinners sure look delish! I just wish the vendors didn't use styrofoam and plastic, though... Is there anything we can do about this??? We ended up bringing home tons of plastic and food inside styrofoam packaging... I really wish they could find a green alternative.

People sat on sidewalks and on the facade of buildings.

Mac'n'cheese that looks like pizza? WIN!!!

For 20 Pesoroos you get some skewered marshmallows and you get to dip it in chocolate!

Screamed when I saw the pichi-pichi and buko pandan. Two of my faves!

The thing on the left is HELLA GOOD as well... It's a best seller and it's basically maja blanca with bico inside! Heavenly.

Riz took some footage of our foodtrip! Don't you just LOOOOVE her nails? LOL.

So much isaw! Heart attack, anyone?

Even more kwek-kwek!

They also had stalls of Sbarro and Dulcinea

Stage where we performed for the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf Are You Listening acoustic tour with Salamin from 7PM to 9PM... This area (Ortigas Park) was right across the Banchetto night market! Look at how full the stage is with people eating their foodums from the market.

My foodie buddies, Rizza and Pia

♥♥♥

Overall, the Banchetto food market was a different experience from the Salcedo Market. I'm always late with these food market things since I got interested with them just this year... Banchetto in Italian translates to "a feast". It's along Ortigas, opens at 12 midnight and lasts through 11AM on Saturday!

Call center agents fill up the entire place, as well as families and more yuppies with friends. Like the Salcedo Market, they have tables set up when you reach the end of the line of food tents, which I think is even longer than S.M.'s.

Quite frankly, my vegetarian self didn't enjoy the food choices as much because it's mostly Filipino food- meaning lots of grilled meat. There are a lot of vegetarian-friendly food that you can purchase, but it's nothing special. There's the typical cheesy baby potatoes, mashed potatoes, lots and lots of pasta (and none of the stalls don't seem to specialize in pasta/italian food), salads, and some street food (kwek-kwek). There were lots of desserts as well, both Filipino delicacies and non-Filipino specialties like cheesecake, fondue, meringue, cookies, etc. We sampled a couple of desserts but nothing stood out apart from this Filipino kakanin that involved maja blanca with bico inside.

I think we were just all overwhelmed with the amount of food available so it was a really fun experience! If you're looking for a place to pig out or buy a lot of food at reasonable prices, the Banchetto Emerald is great. Especially if you love street food, Filipino food, dessert/delicacies, and the usual food market finds (burgers, barbeques, sausages, crepes, rice with toppings, etc.).

We took some footage of our experience so I'm just waiting for the upload to finish!