Ayala Centrio’s Big Bite Northern Mindanao Food Festival is now 10 years old. Jeeves de Veyra 

CAGAYAN DE ORO -- Ayala Centrio’s Big Bite Northern Mindanao Food Festival marked its 10th year with a celebration of food that’s bigger than ever.

The 10-day festival attracted foodies from Cagayan de Oro and the surrounding areas to see what’s new in the Northern Mindanao culinary scene. 

Big Bite has come a long way from being a small collection of booths in the mall activity area. During the pandemic, Big Bite was kept alive with an online and delivery-only festival. Its face-to-face return restored much missed connections between chefs, cooks, food purveyors and their customers.

With its 10th iteration, Ayala Centrio has certainly pulled out all the stops as every corner of the mall has been dressed up with the festival's colorful livery. With around 100 participants this year, there was so much to see and taste as booth space extended into the driveway and the gardens for al fresco dining up to the second floor bridgeway.

Big Bite is Centrio’s clever way of reaching out to small-scale food entrepreneurs with aspirations of being found by a wider audience, and perhaps, take the next step to occupy a space in the mall. The participants collectively earned around P18 million during the 10-day event, almost double last year’s earnings.

The festival also gives Centrio a way to screen deserving businesses based on the quality of their food, public reaction, and how they handle the pressure of operating during mall hours with the frenetic flow of customers. 

Many Big Bite participants have become Centrio favorites like Nanay Choleng’s Muron that moved from Tacloban following Typhoon Yolanda, Cagayan de Oro’s very own milk tea giant Chingkeetea, and family-owned Pampangueño restaurant Minindal’s and Mr. Tempura.

Photo by Jeeves de Veyra

Last year’s success story is Southeast Café, which stood out with owner Raven Alla slinging mocktails and specialty drinks in the café area. In less than a year, he's opened a prime space near the theaters, continuing its menu of coffee, mocktails, and even a tea offer that I thought should be adopted by more cafes. When a guest orders tea, he or she has the option of brewing tea from Raven’s own stash like the extensive options for pour over coffee in specialty cafes.

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Cucina Italiana was awarded this year’s foodie discovery of the year. This Italian restaurant is a hidden gem up in the hills of Macasandig on the periphery of Cagayan de Oro. This restaurant features reservation-only dinners where Jenny Ceniza’s pizza and pasta are savored along with a spectacular view of the city. 

The restaurant doubles as a store where the Cenizas sell imported European ingredients like wine and cheese to discerning customers. Their cheesy maccheroni complete with an oozing cheese pull, along with their lasagna and pasta dishes were the big hits of the booth, perhaps addressing the gap created when a popular Italian restaurant closed during the pandemic.

Photo by Jeeves de Veyra

The festival has always been a good barometer of what’s trending in the city. From the first couple of years where they’ve featured local cuisine, the selection of food has grown to include more Mindanaoan dishes, Filipino food from other regions, and international cuisine. As the Big Bite festival grows, so does the adventurousness of the Cagayanon palate.

For example, very few expected Indian food to be such a big hit. New York trained Chef Nitash Singh’s Khana Sutra was the top earner last year. He returned this year to heat up the Centrio’s gardens with his Butter Chicken and Shrimp Vindaloo which was always out of stock at his booth.

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Big Bite attracts vendors from neighboring areas. Erah Balindong runs Café 1016 from inside Mindanao State University in Marawi. Her bites of bubble pancake were a nice way to save good bits from not-quite-perfect pancakes that would have otherwise just been thrown away.

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Speaking of Marawi, many of city’s residents have moved to Cagayan de Oro which accounts for the many stalls serving palapa, a creamy herby Maranao condiment made with a local scallion called sakurab and often spiced up with ginger and siling labuyo.

Pater is the Maranao addition to “giniling” dishes, that is a dish with ground meat and a sauce like menudo or Bolognese sauce. For pater, palapa is the sauce that binds the rice and the egg. It wasn’t uncommon to see “Unli-Palapa” for barbecue and pater stores around the city like the Patty’s Corner & Grill in the garden area.

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'We all have that friend and relative who wants that piece of fat from barbecue. Iligan-based B.Bu.Q has the “Pork Taba” -- the perfect stick made of 100% slices of grilled pork fat. Order some of the store’s palapa to slather on this along with their other grilled offers.

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New concepts were not the only things tested at the festival, but new menu items as well. Dale Sayson and Pretty Gin Tenio are Big Bite alumni and already have a Centrio store called Dale’s Taqueria. Burger lovers won’t miss the bun with their Burger Melt -- buttery slices of bread with two massive patties and their special sauce. Split this with a friend so you can also get their Hot Honey Chicken and Fries.

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The smashed burger makes its way to Cagayan de Oro via Legit Burger. Though personally, I would prefer more of the crunchy burnt ends in the patty, this was a pretty substantial and well, legit, burger for the price.

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Cold beer is always welcome, especially in the garden and al fresco area hot with all the grills and barbecue booths. The standout was the Cold Passion Fruit Pale Ale from Brownbox Craft Beer. These welcome cool, sweet, and fruity gulps to wash down all that food.

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Big Bite has its share of food stories. Charlie Genabe Jr. started making chili oil during the pandemic that he sold during the pandemic. It was such a hit that he and his wife Cassy asked themselves what they could pair with the garlic chili oil? The answer was dimsum that Cassy started making herself at home. Recommended are the 4 Kings with three kinds of siomai (regular, bacon, and Japanese) and a lettuce-wrapped Empress Roll, and the Siomai-raspberry tea combo. While you’re there. grab a jar of the chili garlic oil too.

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Chloe Lu followed her mom Candy, one of the OG dessert specialists of Cagayan de Oro, all the way to Le Cordon Bleu in Paris to also set up her own dessert shop. Her Apple Calamansi Tart at Big Bite was a taste of her “French techniques and Filipino flavors” approach to her pastries and desserts.

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This year, there were so many participants that some were located on the second floor bridgeway. Glaze 8’s mini filled doughnuts were a hit for P10 per piece.

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There’s peach mango pie, and then there’s peach mango pizza. I’m not a fan of biscuit pizza crust, but the sweet cake-y quality was just right for Pizza Kid’s (short for Pizza sa Bukid) dessert pie with a mango cheese base with whipped cream and peach in each slice.

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Matcha was pretty popular at the cafes and dessert area. Stepahanie Tan Suter of  S Kitchen went all out with an all matcha menu for the festival with her Matcha Cheesecake and her Matcha Drinks .

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Besides the cafes with their espresso drinks, local specialty coffee lovers had much to taste at Big Bite. My personal pick was the medium roast Miraiyon beans from Bukidnon at Sunnyside Coffee Roastery. A Japanese coffee lover snatched up all the bags after I got a sip of them, and I had to scrounge around the festival to buy some to bring home.

The Ayala Centrio team deserves a pat on the back for the 2024 edition of Big Bite Northern Mindanao Food Festival. Not only was there a lot of good food, but it also showed off the foodie spirit and the ever-expanding tastes of the Cagayanon through the massive amount of foot traffic throughout the 10 days and the tireless efforts of the Big Bite food entrepreneurs.

Now, I wonder which of these Big Bite vendors will be putting up a store in the mall in the coming months. I have my picks and I’m looking forward to congratulating them when I get the chance to congratulate them in their stores when I go back.