Setting Footprints: Wonderful foods and culinary treasures I found in the sneak preview of the second Big Bite!

Margette is musing on what variation of sisig to try in this array of pork sisig, chicken sisig, and bangus sisig served pica-pica style like tapas.

I have been to Pampanga many times recently and in the past, but it was only in the Big Bite that I found so much Capampangan foods and culinary treasures in one setting.

The Tuguegarao longanisa is of ground lean pork.

I'm overwhelmed with The northern food festival that I never knew exactly where to start and when to end taking photos. Same thing happened when we start partaking of the foods, I never knew exactly what to get first and what to get last.

The table centerpiece has local fruits that we took as after meal dessert, except of course the vegetable fruits.

The other dilemma I realized later was that I never knew when to stop - it seemed that I cannot have enough of everything. Oh, Big Bite!

Your experience with the Capampangan cuisine is incomplete if you have not tried yet these exotic foods. (L-R) sauteed camaru (mole cricket), grilled bulig (mudfish), and betute tugak (stuffed frog).

Surely, you will have fun with what you will find there on October 17, 18, and 19, 2014. Check these wonderful foods and culinary treasures I found in the sneak preview of the second Big Bite!.

Chicken sisig

Pork sisig

Bangus sisig

Sizzling pork sisig - a sizzling plate of classic pork sisig. This is what Chef Mel W. Galang and his son, Chef Edwin Galang, demonstrated live in the sneak preview of the second Big Bite last week. See more about it here

A serving tray of Chef Sau del Rosario's gourmet version of tuna sisig he performed live in the sneak preview of the second Big Bite last week. See more about it here

His kind of seafood sisig can be also be justified as healthy and nutritive other than being gourmet. In my assessment, this combination of local and imported ingredients will surely spike up your libido. I never thought Chef Sau is cupid. See more about it here

A pot of chopped Ilocano bagnet with side dipping of pig liver sauce similar to lechon sauce. The golden-brown pork skin is delectably crisp and the cubed meat of bagnet tastes like that of lechon Cebu.

Spiced up aslam atbu (cane vinegar)

Crisp fried lumpiang gulay served with spicy aslam atbu (cane vinegar)

Packets of binulo or rice cooked in bamboo tube.

A serving of Binulo rice. The taste actually depends on the kind of rice used.

Cassava cake

A pot of swam na mais

Ms. Jingjing Romero of Stratos Inc. helping herself a cup of swam na mais.

Pots of Kare-kare. The saucy dish has a layer of boiled vegetables on top, The well-stewed meat, usually cutlets of oxtail, knuckles, and skin of cow are laid at the bottom. Dig the ladle to fish them out. Kare-kare is best if smothered with sautéed bagoong alamang (shrimp paste) sweetened with little amount of sugar, like the one in the white porcelain mug.

A serving plate of pacu salad (young fern salad) garnished with ripe tomatoes and itlog maalat (salted duck egg)

Who said palitaw is always flat? So, it's true, they have these balls of palitaw in Pampanga.

Ice-cold dark sago't-gulaman.

A squadron of betute tugac. They really equals the taste of manok inasal (roasted chicken). The frog meat are tender and tasty.

A pile of ningnang bulig (broiled mudfish)

A mound of sauteed camaru (mole cricket)

A serving of sauteed camaru

The Marquee Mall of Angeles City hosted last week (Oct. 1, 2014) the sneak preview of the 2nd Big Bite! The Northern Food Festival.

A magtataho scoops out taho and strawberry preserved.

My cup of taho-strawberry

Her cup of taho-strawberry

A plateful of Central Luzon's binatog, boiled white corn kernels topped with shredded not-so-matured coconut meat.

Binatog is supposed to be served with a douse of fresh milk or evaporated milk. Other condiments may include, butter or margarine, sugar, salt, and the optional cracked or ice cubes.

There is no better way to serve empanadang Iloco than to use freshly cracked chicken egg, wrap all the ingredients and cook right before you then eat it right away while still very warm.

This empanadang Iloco is prepared the way the Ilocanos from Ilocos Norte would do it. Back there, they would deep fry it in kawali, but in the Big Bite! it is done in electric fryer.

One of the distinguishing mark of empanadang Iloko is the its orange-colored crust.

You have to split or cut the empanadang Iloko so you could put some or dip it effectively in spiced up vinegar. Here, you can see the pouched egg, and the pre-sauteed bits of longanisang Iloko.

A cup of freshly brewed Kalinga coffee.

Chunks of sliced Tuguegarao longanisa with sliced cucumber, tomato, and ripe pineapple.

Tuguegarao longanisa is of ground lean pork meat.

The BIG BITE! on its second year, will open on the weekend of October 17, 18, and 19, 2014. There are more to find on those days.

A table setting for the sneak preview of the second Big Bite in the Activity Center of the Marquee Mall.

This sour-sweet berries of littuco (rattan fruit) is better than coffee to keep you awake. Ilocano truck drivers are fond of it while having a long drive.

Mangosteen

You only have to eat the luscious white pulp around the seeds similar to when you eat santol. But unlike santol, the rind is hardly to be considered edible being bitter and acrid.

Until now, many of us still don't know the English name for atis. It is called sugar apple (sc.name: Annona squamosa, L.) or sweet sop.

Among the activities to expect in the food festival are the food market, Sisig Festival, Food Art Installation, street food aisle, culinary cook off, cooking demonstrations, live entertainments, fire works, free food sampling, and many more.

The achara of Suzie's Cuisene

The greaseless peanuts of Navarro's

The pork chicharon with laman also of Navarro's

The banana chips of Navarro's is glazed with caramelized sugar. A nutritious, delicious snack.

The aslam atbu (cane vinegar) of In My Kitchen makes a perfect dip for the pork chicharon with laman of Navarro's

Two kinds of bottled Cesario's chili oil: The Extra Hot Chili Oil and the Chili Garlic Oil.

In My Kitchen found the best way to help you avoid the nasty smell when frying tuyo (dried fish). These bottled ready-to-eat Garlic Tuyo Fillet in canola oil and the unflavored Tuyo Fillet in canola oil will keep you away from trouble with your uninitiated neighbors abroad.