The 26th Negros Trade Fair of the Association of Negros Producers will be held at the Rockwell Tent, Makati City is slated on September 28 – October 2, 2011. The annual Negros Trade Fair is a much awaited event by buyers and exporters.  Negrense products such as fashion accessories, garments, furniture and furnishings, gifts and housewares and food  will be featured in the event. Manila based Negrenses also await this event in order to touch base with family and friends and to be updated on the latest in Negros Occidental.

This year’s trade fair is dubbed iNegros and will be featuring Natural and Organic Products as a new sector of the Association of Negros Producers. This year’s Bulawan Awards, the ANP’s product design competition, will be featuring products from bamboo, coffee and moringa (malunggay).

Show your support to our Negrense entrepreneurs by promoting this event and if you happen to be in Manila, drop by the different booths of our producers and I’m sure you won’t leave the Negros Trade Fair empty handed.

26th Negros Trade Fair Schedule of Activities

Day 1, Sept 28, Wednesday    

Opening  Program
Masskara dancers
Bingo (am/pm)
Experience Pinoy Hilot
Bulawan Awards Night

Day 2, sept 29, Thursday

Launching of Natural and Organics
Masskara dancers
Bingo  Ilonggo (am/pm)
Natural and Organics Symposium
Pinoy Hilot
Sugar Planters Night (tentative)

Day 3, Sept 30, Friday

Live mannequins
Masskara dancers
Free Bingo (am/pm)
Pinoy Hilot
Fashion show- Black out Models
Konek; Negrense IT Experts and Entrepreneurs Forum- Atty. Jocelle Batapa

Day 4, Oct 1, Saturday

SK  Forum
Masskara Dancers
Free Bingo (am/pm)
Pinoy Hilot
Live Mannequins- Blackout Models
Negrense night -Hosted by Negros Occidental Province

Day 5, Oct 2, Sunday

Free bingo
Pinoy Hilot
USLS – Institute for Culinary Arts -Cooking Demo

repost from: ExperienceNegros

One man’s poison is another man’s staple food. Most foreigners would balk at eating balut. Heck, there are a lot of Filipinos who don’t even eat balut. Balut is a Filipino delicacy of boiled fertilized duck or chicken egg while the unfertilized egg is called penoy.

Come to think of it, nobody sells balut at daytime and certainly nobody seems to be eating it at daytime. Balut is traditionally sold by street vendors at night who shout “Balut! Penoy” in their most modulated voice. They usually wrap the balut in cloth inside a basket to keep it warm. Today’s street hawkers have discovered a more creative way of keeping the balut hot. They use pedicabs (bicycle with a sidecar)  installed with a tin can with water heated by a small stove. The steam keeps the balut hot.

Balut should be eaten while hot to enjoy it’s juice. You eat it by lightly breaking the bottom shell. Partially opening it with only enough space for you to drink the juice. Then peel the shell, sprinkle a little salt and add vinegar if you like and eat the egg.

Balut is probably hell to those who can’t take eating it and heaven to those who love to savior it’s exotic taste. Balut was listed as the top most terrifying food in the world by the website Cracked.com. Although some of the food listed there seemed more horrifying than balut, I understand where the fear is coming from. Before I came to love eating balut, I used to think of it as a human fetus. I overcame my fear when I stopped thinking and started eating instead. I especially love the juice, the soft yolk and the chewy egg white. I don’t even notice whatever chick is already there.

Balut without shell.

Our lowly balut received, perhaps it’s redeeming moment when Tom Parker Bowles, food editor of Esquire and son of Camilla Parker-Bowles, recently visited the country to write about Filipino food for the August 2011 issue of the magazine. I’ve read about his visit from Marketman so I’m also looking forward to what he’s going to say about our food.

Parker-Bowles received caution from friends about Manila that it’s “one of the grimmest cities in the world”.  The promdi in me would nod to this but then it’s my country’s capital you’re talking about so I couldn’t help but feel bad. Fortunately, he is a little adventurous when it comes to food so despite all the warnings, he managed to visit the Philippines particularly Manila.

Here’s what he has to say about balut before eating one, “But then there’s balut, the pavement equivalent of Animal Farm—the porno version you saw as a teenager on grainy VHS. It’s fertilised duck egg, complete with embryo, and like the porno (and Manila, too), suffers from a wildly exaggerated reputation.”

Then after eating balut, “But if not a delight, then balut is certainly a surprise. The broth is rich, tempered with a hint of shit and decay. But no worse than a decent Époisses cheese. The duck is tiny, no bigger than 5op piece, with the texture of a warm oyster. I swallow it down and bite into the egg. It’s beautiful, regally rich and pungent. A soft-boiled egg in mink cape, packing gold-plated AK-47. One more Filipino myth destroyed.”

I never thought of balut in that manner but thanks Mr. Parker-Bowles, you have definitely raised our balut to a level beyond just a street food.

Come to think of it, balut is like us Filipinos. We may sometimes be hard to like on the surface but once you break our shell, we are one of the most lovable people in the world.

Gruppo Uma Food Corporation, in cooperation with “The National Food Showdown” by TV Food Chefs Inc. of ABS–CBN Corporation chaired by Chef Myrna Segismundo, will hold “SABOR BISAYA – A Culinary Competition and Food Expo” on July 15-16, 2011, from 9am to 6pm, at the Convention Hall of the Bacolod Pavilion Hotel. This is an event dedicated to upgrade the level of standards of the Foodservice Industry Professionals and Students in the Visayas Region.

This event is the first in Bacolod City and was conceptualized by Jomi Gaston of Trattoria Uma and Cafe Uma. He was the host of the Promdi Chef, a cooking show previously aired at the TV5.

Below is the Sabor Bisaya  schedule to guide you on the activities on July 15-16, 2011.

July 15, 2011 Friday

• Visayan Cuisine Challenge (Student) 8:00AM – 9:00AM
• Organic Cuisine Challenge (Student) 9:30AM – 10:30AM
• On the Spot Table Setting Challenge (Student) 10:00AM – 11:30AM
• Seafood Challenge (Student) 11:00AM – 12:00PM
• Creative Fried Rice Challenge (Professional) 2:00PM – 3:00PM
• On the Spot Cake Decorating Challenge (Student) 2:00PM – 3:30PM
• Seafood Challenge (Professional) 1:00PM – 2:00PM
• Franchising & Trademaking Seminar 130pm
• Visayan Cuisine Challenge (Professional) 3:00PM – 4:00PM

July 16, 2011 Saturday

• Chef Wars (Student) 8:00AM – 10:30AM
• Prospects in the Barista Profession 930am
• Organic Cuisine Challenge (Professional) 11:00AM – 12:00PM
• Bartending Challenge (Professional) 11:00AM – 12:00PM
• Bartending Challenge (Student) 1:30PM – 3:00PM
• Chef Wars (Professional) 2:00PM – 3:00PM
• Awarding Ceremony 4:30

There will also be a Food Expo, Product Demonstrations and Culinary Flea Market.

Registration fee is P100 for professionals and P40 for students.

Tikal na kung tikal. The country’s best football players are the Ilonggos. That is excluding of course the Fil-foreigners who received better training and support. I wouldn’t say better genes because I think that has little or no significance to football. Look at Chieffy Caligdong of the Azkals. He is a full-blooded Pinoy yet he played really well.

But then, the disadvantage is you are playing against yourself. For me, Negros Occidental and Iloilo no matter the rivalry between the two, are still Ilonggos. There has long been a strong rivalry between Negros Occidental and Iloilo, in any field for that matter. As to Philippine football, it’s probably the most intense rivalry.

But tomorrow, I will have to choose which side I’m on during the Negros vs Iloilo match at the Panaad Stadium for the second game in the finals of the PFF Suzuki Under-23 National Cup. I was born in Iloilo but I now live in Bacolod City so both are home to me. But I can’t just be a fence-sitter, I have to cheer a team and tomorrow, I choose to be on Negros’ side.

I expect an intense game tomorrow since the first game at the Central Philippine University which was won by Negros was very physical. It was like a wrestling match as described by those who watched. Ironically, Jovin Bedic who is a native of Barotac Nuevo in Iloilo but now plays for West Negros University, helped Negros team won. We’re going to be on the same side tomorrow.

By the way, aren’t we all glad that May 21, 2011 is not yet the end of the world? We still get to watch the Negros vs Iloilo football match. It’s not yet Judgement Day for the world but tomorrow will be for Negros and Iloilo football teams at 6 pm, Panaad Stadium, Bacolod City.

I thought Bacolaodiat has reached a plateau with the Bacolaodiat 2011 celebrations having almost the same events as in Bacolaodiat 2010, well I was happy to be proven wrong. I was at the Chopsticks Alley during the opening of Bacolaodiat 2011 and judging by the throngs of people at the North Capitol Road and along Lacson Street, Bacolod’s celebration of the Chinese New Year has definitely surpassed last year’s celebrations.

The Lantern Dance Competition is something that we should look forward to every year. Dancers wear colorful Chinese costumes and uses lanterns as they dance to the Bacolaodiat theme song.The theme song was very lively and I guess I was having an LSS after the Lantern Dance Competition as I was silently chanting… Ba-colaodiat-laodiat-laodiat…

The Chinese New Year is not only celebrated by  Tsinoys but also us, full-blooded Pinoys. You can say, we Filipinos have also embraced this celebration as our own. Hopefully the government can make it into a non-working holiday next year so that more people can experience and participate in the festivities.

See you next BacoLaodiat and until then …  Toto, Inday, Kiung Hee Huat Tsai!

For more photos, visit BacoLaodiat 2011 at ExperienceNegros