CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — Kapampangan dishes took center stage Sunday, April 3, at SM City San Fernando Downtown’s Flavors of the Philippines campaign at the mall’s ground floor where a makeshift stage featured the cooking of native Kapampangan “exotic” food.
 
SM City Downtown public relations officer Rain Cervantes said the event aimed to promote the other side of Kapampangan cooking.
 
Kapampangan dishes, labeled exotic, are in fact dishes common in Kapampangan rural areas and are part of the usual dishes cooked in farm homes.
 
Cervantes said that most Kapampangans in the urban areas can only access such dishes through restaurants specializing in Kapampangan cooking.
 
The event aimed to promote interest in these dishes as part of the grand community palate.
 
Chef Rom Mendoza and kitchen help from Angeles University Foundation led the food demonstration for the dish betute tugak (fried stuffed frog) with ensaladang pako (fern salad) and adobong puklo (pig’s breast cooked in vinegar and soy sauce).
 
The event also featured an Exotic Food Challenge where mall participants showcased their signature exotic dishes.
 
The event is in support of the Department of Tourisms (DOT) Flavors of the Philippines Festival. Flavors of the Philippines aims to place the Philippines as a “center of food and gastronomy in Asia.”
The Flavors of the Philippines mounted by DOT serves as a prelude to the Madrid Fusion Manila 2015.
 
Also during the weekend, SM City Pampanga featured a giant “Biringhe” concocted by renowned Kapampangan Chef Claude Tayag and “Guardian of Old Kapampangan Recipe” Atching Lillian Lising-Borromeo, assisted by Hotel and Restaurant Management students from University of the Assumption, St. Nicolas College and Angeles University Foundation.
 
Other participating SM Supermalls include SM City Pampanga, SM City Clark, SM Lanang Premier, and SM City IloIlo.