There’s a food park glut in my general area spanning Congressional, Visayas and Mindanao Avenues in Quezon City. I’ve seen some parks close. Others appear on the brink of closing because foot traffic has slowed drastically, especially for the older, less “hip” ones. The fickle, fad-obsessed Pinoy foodie is always on the lookout for something new.
The Food Hive’s particular marketing come-on is the collection of stalls conceptualized by “celebrity chefs.” I’m not an avid follower of the latest who’s who in local cooking, so I may be able to recognize just a name or two in the Food Hive list. Totally my fault, of course, and not the celebrities’.
Since increasing competition has forced these parks to open early to accommodate the lunch crowd, we decided to come at noon to avoid the noisy dinner hordes and the expected parking hassles. Good decision, I should say. We had the entire space almost to ourselves.
La Carnita Modern Mexican Cantina’s “Nachos Ala Bomba” was billed as the “First Ever Grilled Nachos.” Whether it was the world’s, the city’s or the food park’s, La Carnita wasn’t wont to disclose. In fairness, the baked (oops, grilled, sorry) topping of beef, cheese and beans in a tomato-based sauce made the bland nacho chips delectable. Wished I had a beer while nibbling on these goodies. The pico de gallo dip was fresh. Welcomingly refreshing on a scorching summer day. Just to clarify, nachos aren’t even truly Mexican.
We were somewhat in a meat coma mode and thus picked Yordanovi’s (“The Only Bulgarian Restaurant in the Philippines”) Wolf Salad, which wasn’t a salad at all in the vegetable sense. Food Hive surely had a certain propensity for hyperbole (First ever! The only!). Anyway. The “Salad” was a smorgasbord (sorry again, I had to use a Swedish word as I’m too lazy to Google the Bulgarian equivalent) of meats – 2 Kufte, 2 Kebapche, 2 sausage, 2 Bulgarian BBQ and red wine marinated pork liver.
I wouldn’t, for the life of me, know what kuftes and kebapches are, but two things were certain: cooking was on the dry side, and there was a lack of textural diversity in the various ground meats. The plate was generally promising though. I liked the smokiness and the conservative approach to using salt and seasonings. Strangely, the marinated liver was my favorite.
There was a small grilling stove in the Yordanovi stall, and I could imagine the staff having difficulties keeping up with orders during peak hours with such a minimalist cooking setup. Our Wolf Salad arrived after a half-hour wait, and we were the only customers served.
Some appealing items from other stalls may tempt a repeat visit.
Drinks were expensive. A small 250ml can of soda was 50 pesos. I saw a store (not the one pictured below) selling water in a fancy bottle, which I bet would be pricey as well. Food parks make a killing on drinks. It would be nice to have them install a water station as a generous and caring gesture to their patrons. A water fountain wouldn’t cut too much into profits.
I don’t expect to eat gourmet-level food at these food parks, the “celebrity chef” treatment notwithstanding. I can’t even fathom what the chef-y fuss is all about. Good concepts can be wasted by poor execution at ground level, where “kitchens” are nothing but frying and reheating stations because of space and time constraints. Half-trained staff can also affect how your orders come out. If I go to these places, I want simple, easy to prepare food that gives me my high-calorie or fast chow fix.
We’d still patronize the good food parks because they’re local businesses run by entrepreneurs. I may just need to bring my own canister of water next time around.
This article was originally featured here.