The Best of Negros Island Delicacies and Cuisine at Rockwell on November 4, 5, and 6, 2022

The pandemic has certainly hampered people's wanderlust for the past two and a half years. To date, a lot of Metro Manila residents have not left the city yet for other islands down south.  Enter Negros Island, the Sweet Spot of the Philippines.  Negros is known not just for being the sugar capital of the Philippines, it is also known as one of the culinary capitals of the country.

From Negros comes the world famous Chicken Inasal which recently was adjudged as the the fifth best chicken dish in the world by Taste Atlas.  Other favorites for which Negros is known for are the yummy treats like the original Roli's Napoleones, a dessert made of puff pastry layered with pastry cream and glazed on the top.

For those who haven't had a chance to fill up on Negrense food and delicacies through the pandemic, the University of St. La Salle Alumni Association - Manila Chapter and Rockwell Center Bacolod present the first ever Namit-Namit Food Festival on November 4, 5, and 6, 2022 at the Hidalgo Drive of the Rockwell Center in Makati.

This culinary happening will allow visitors to taste authentic chicken inasal as brought by Bacolod Chicken Inasal, JT's Manukan, and Inasalan sa Dalan. Kansi by Pat-Pat's Kansi, and Sate Babi of Bob's Bacolod fame will be there too.  All in all, eleven (11) food merchants from Negros will treat visitors to an array of Negrense cuisine which will surely tickle visitors' palates with the festival of flavors.

The Namit Namit Food Festival, with all its tasty goodies are not just a delight to the palate.  It is also a delight to the soul of every visitor with Negrense roots.  It can be said that food can be a momentary time machine to the past.  This holds true for those who grew up in Bacolod in the 1960s to the 1980s and recall the well loved tastes of Bob's and Roli's.  Bob's serves up the all time favorite Sate Babi and Fruit Punch plus more, while Roli's treats us with the original Napoleones which Negrenses have learned to love through the years.

Complete list of food outlets in the Namit Namit Food Festival:

1. Manolo’s of Chef Manny Torrejon
2. Bacolod Chicken Inasal
3. Sir & Ma’am
4. Inasalan sa Dalan                              
5. Pat-pat's Kansi
6. JT’s Manukan  
7. The original Roli's Napoleones
8. Quan
9. Bob's
10. Quino's
11. Grem's Deli

The original Roli's Napoleones

Sate Babi and Fruit Punch from Bob's

byLloyd Tronco

in Food, Makati

November 01, 2022

The Best of Negros Island Delicacies and Cuisine at Rockwell on November 4, 5, and 6, 2022

The pandemic has certainly hampered people's wanderlust for the past two and a half years. To date, a lot of Metro Manila residents hav...

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The Road to the Fields of Memories.

While most people know me as coming from Negros, I was actually born in Manila. Sometime in the mid-1970s, my late dad gave up his advertising and graphic design business in Makati to move me and my mother to Bacolod City.

This is what brought us here. I have ceased to question whether the move was right or wrong. In the end, the entire sequence of events from 1975 when I moved from La Salle Greenhills to La Salle Bacolod (in the middle of the schoolyear!) to the time my dad passed away in 1985, is what shaped me to become the person I am today.

These are the fields where I meet my 7 year old self. The little boy who would always tag along with his father and try to shoot birds with a slingshot, chew fresh sugarcane every visit, be fascinated with farm machinery which I would endlessly draw sketches of on my Grade 1 pad when I was in school.

These are the fields where to this day, old farm folk could still speak of how kind my father was to them and how efficiently he managed both the people and the farm as a whole. Stories of which I am grateful for, for these are stories which reinforce what have already been passed on directly by my dad as teaching or admonition to a young boy.

These are the fields which have made me remember what the writer of Ecclesiastes has said, To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.

These are the fields where I meet myself - be it the young boy or who I am today. And the most interesting part, is that this road, the Road to the "Fields of Memories" could also be the same road to the future.

byLloyd Tronco

in Featured, Makati, Musings, Negros, Reflections

June 28, 2019

The Road to the Fields of Memories.

While most people know me as coming from Negros, I was actually born in Manila. Sometime in the mid-1970s, my late dad gave up his adve...

Read More