Malabon Kulinarya Festival 2012

Eat's More Fun in Malabon.

Printed on one of the souvenir shirts, the City of Malabon truly boasts a wide array of food and dishes that all of us have tasted, if not considered as a favorite or a choice of comfort food. In my lifetime, I have been to Malabon just twice, but I could certainly tell a lot of Malabon food and dishes. In fact, Pansit Malabon is my most favorite type of noodles.





In celebration of the 413th founding anniversary of the city of Malabon, they launched the Malabon Kulinarya Festival, which aims to feature the rich culinary history of the place. Led by its acting Mayor Len Len Oreta, the kick off of the event happened at Dampa sa Paseo (Niugan) last Tuesday.


Part of Malabon's rich culinary heritage are the people who continuously showcase and improve the many flavors of Malabon. At the event, there was a cooking demo by CCA's (Center for Culinary Arts) very own,  Ms. Annie Guerrero and Chef Mira Cruz, who both hailed in Malabon.


They demoed two dishes - Adobong Pusit and Sumpia with Garlic-Vinegar Dip, which may not really be originally from Malabon, but the way it is cooked is traditionally from Malabon. While the adobo is usually the way we all do the dish, it was the Sumpia that got me really interested. Imagine lumpia with veggies and garnish like that of Fresh Lumpia with a wedge of hard boiled egg inside. They shared to us the recipe, which I will be cooking this weekend.

At the event, different known and new names in the Malabon food industry were present to showcase their products. Among the food and dishes I was able to photographed and tasted include:


Nanay's Pancit Malabon. Well yes, it's my choice of pancit, so when they told guests that we can sample food from each booth, I made sure I taste this one. Well, I don't really have a favorite "brand" of Pancit Malabon, but this was really flavorful.

Aling Upeng Kikiam. Growing up, my parents would always buy one Kikiam every Friday, but when we transferred here in Caloocan City, we didn't get to eat it anymore. Seeing this and tasting this brought back so many memories.


Tita Rowie's Special Bagoong. I wasn't able to taste it, but it seemed interesting.

Pastry by Miko Manzano. Miko is one of the contestants of Junior Master Chef Pinoy Edition, and is also from Malabon. These cute pastries were baked by Miko and I appreciated that it was light and not-so-sweet.

Maid in Heaven Acharap. Another product that I didn't get to taste, but I was told that their product is really good.


Okoy ni Jr. I have tasted many kinds of okoy, but while I cannot tell if this is the best, I did love it because it was crispy, it had lots of shrimps as well as vegetables...and it wasn't soggy with oil.

Judy Ann's Crispy Pata. When we arrived at the event, we were greeted by acting Mayor Len Len Oreta and one of the products he raved about was this crispy pata. Well, not only was it visually appealing, it was really worthy of such praises because it was really delicious! The meat was so tender yet the skin was so crunchy, and what made this a new dish for me was its sauces. I wasn't able to ask the exact names of the sauces, but clearly one is soy sauce based and the other was somewhat sweet spicy one, which was my choice of the two sauces. It was really good!

There were still so many food and dishes at the event, but I guess I will have to make another post for that because there were just a lot to share.

The bazaar at the parking lot of Malabon City Hall just wrapped up this afternoon, but the celebration will continue on May 21, with a big Cooking Competition among food enthusiasts and senior citizens. Miko Manzano will also do a cooking demonstration, so if you're interested to watch that, just head on to the Malabon Amphitheater on the 21st of May.

Eat's More Fun in Malabon?
Oh yes!

Big thanks to the city government of Malabon and to Mhel & Ken of CertifiedFoodies.Com for the invitation.


ps - the cake on the first image was made by Simon's Online Bakeshop.