Kantina: The Newest Market To Hit The Town

We're cutting into the Delightful Davao series today to share this new find called Kantina.

Watch out Banchetto and Mercato Centrale, there's a new food market that has just launched and is ready to serve night noms to late night crowds who want to have a simple warm meal before heading home. Kantina is the latest one to join the night market bandwagon.

We found out about it only by chance, and boy, am I glad. Friday night date and I were heading out to the parking lot of Market Market after dinner when we noticed a few tents set up at the far end. Curious, we made our way towards the tents and were surprised to find food stalls a la Banchetto and Mercato Centrale (initially, I thought it was a bazaar). 

Kantina opens on Fridays starting at 10pm and doesn't close shop until the next day at 9am (one of the latest I've seen, Banchetto is open until about 7am and Mercato only at 3am). The area is much smaller than the previously mentioned night markets and there were only about twenty food stalls. The good thing about it is that no stall sell the same nomz (except maybe the two grill stalls).

At Kantina, you can have shawarma, siomai, lutong bahay like dinuguan, pansit and palabok, grilled seafood, barbecue, isaw, and tenga,  bibingka and kakanin, cheesecakes and various pastries stall and drinks of course.

Because we already had dinner (I was sad. I really wanted to try the sugpo-slash-lobster. They were huge!), we were eyeing the dessert stalls and ended up getting freshly made Puto Bumbong and a slice of Strawberry Cheesecake. To make the long story short, the hot kakanin made me feel like it was Christmas again and the cheesecake that tasted like starchy Jell-O killed the fantasy.

Sugpo-slash-lobster (p100), Puto Bumbong (p30), Strawberry Cheesecake (p45)

Kantina is a small scale night food market that targets Taguig office drones heading home late from a long day at work and don't have time to cook warm meals at home. I'm really glad for this current night market trend, it used to be a chore to find an inexpensive place to eat at if you get home past mall hours. Now we have night markets.

Kantina Night Market
Location: Parking lot (the one near the open food court), Market Market, Taguig
Contact details: 0927-563-9234
Other info: Open every Friday from 10pm to 9am the next day; Kantina Official Website; Kantina Facebook Page

My Mini Banchetto Date

No, my date wasn't little (or underage). This post is entitled as such because it will be all about that one Friday night spent nomming the grub at the very famous Banchetto Street Food Fiesta. 

Because I had to be home earlier than usual that particular night to take care of my recently adopted, super cute, ten-week old puppy that has yet to be housebroken, I thought that a Banchetto trip would be out of the question (because it starts at midnight). Then I came across their website where it says that they have an extension branch that opens shop much earlier at nine o' clock and is situated closer to the Makati CBD (favorable if you're from the South like me) along Pioneer Street in Mandaluyong City. So off we went.

Banchetto, the now famous Ortigas street food market

Classic Pinoy Desserts - Turon

The turon is a classic Pinoy dessert. Fried saging saba (cardava bananas) enveloped in egg lumpia wrapper sweetened with brown muscovado sugar. They're best eaten hot off the fryer; either as merienda or as dessert to cap off a nice meal.

While hot turon is widely available every afternoon in nearly every corner of Makati, Taguig is a different story altogether. Since transferring to the Taguig office, I haven't been able to satisfy my cravings for these sweet treats. And that is why I'm happy to have gotten some good ones the last couple of weekends. 

Jay-J's Inasal, Timog

I got my first turon fix last week from Jay-J's Inasal at Timog, Quezon City-

Jay-J's turon (p0)

The best thing about these sweets is that they're free. Yup, you read that right, these treats cost nothing. As long as you dine at Jay-J's, they'll give you and your party some of their special turon for dessert on the house! The wrapper was a bit thicker than I'd have preferred, but other than that, Jay-J's turons are pretty good- they're sweet, bite-sized, and nicely served on top of a banana leaf.

Jay-J's Inasal also has a branch at Ortigas, near the Home Depot along Julia Vargas street. Incidentally, Ortigas was where I was able to try the turon-gasmic turons of Oh Wow Turon!

Oh Wow Turon!, Banchetto

My second turon fix came from Oh Wow Turon!-

"Have a Turon-gasm now!" is Oh Wow Turon!'s tagline

They can be found at Banchetto, that Friday night to Saturday morning food market along F. Ortigas Jr. street. They have three kinds of turon- plain (p20 for 3pcs), with langka (p25 for 3pcs), and turon valencia (sprinkled with pinipig, p25 for 3pcs). All fan-tas-tic! Turon Valencia is my favorite. They're neatly wrapped and have just the right amount of sugar, the bananas inside were perfectly soft, and the pinipig sprinkles added a nice crunch.

Try them and you won't be disappointed for sure. I'll have to go back to Banchetto again to try some of the other stalls there, there are just so many interesting ones! I'll write about it on BaconTunaMelt soon enough, watch for it. ^^,