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On the eve of my last day at work, Cris, Lei, Rose and I decided to go to Mercato Centrale to find some goodies that I might be able to give some of my colleagues. Alas, I came home with nothing to give them because most of the stuff you buy at Mercato Centrale are cooked on the spot. Except maybe for the desserts.

Anyway, here are the photos. Will just give my general opinion of Mercato Centrale at the end. (Since I already gave my opinion of Edgie-kun’s cam capabilities at the beginning. XD)

Before anything else, Cris and I met up with Lei and Rose (both in black at the far end of the picture), who were having dinner with (from left) JC, Janine and Dinah at Reyes Barbecue in Magallanes.

After that, we went straight to Mercato Centrale. It took us a while to find the place because my sister said it’s at The Fort. We thought it was near Market Market, but it’s actually nearer to SNR and Home Depot.

This is the first sight that greeted us. Lots of smoke came out of the place because merchants were grilling various meats.

There were different sorts of buffet stalls in one of the wings.

Huge sausages! I bet they’d look yummy to meat eaters.

You can see from afar the various tents that have been setup.

Very healthy pasta choices. The Zuchini Lasagna looked very scrumptious.

This is some sort of a cross between a cheese steak and a hotdog sandwich that’s topped with Japanese condiments such as nori, Japanese mayo, fish flakes, kani etc. Cris said that these types of hotdog sandwiches are a big hit in Canada.

Stuffed tomatoes! I love these — haven’t had them in ages — although I’ve never seen ones so small.

Ah, pastries galore!! That strawberry shortcake in the middle is pretty good. These were on a buy-one-take-one offer when we went.

And who can’t resist a small helping of Brazo de Mercedes? Me, me, me! (I’m actually such a bad blogger right now because I can’t remember the names of the stalls we bought from. Argh. Basta! The stuff you see in Mercato Centrale are one-of-a-kind, so there’s only one stall selling these babies.)

Small macarons from Empire.

They also sell big ones. They look a little too perfect. Haha.

These frozen mochi were selling like pancakes that night. We wanted to try them but the queue was unbelievably loooooong!

If you find the outer tents too smoky, you can dine inside the airconditioned tents. These tents house the desserts.

Nori snacks. Intriguing.

Various stuffed pizza. Why is it that I never tried them. Haha! They look very filling.

Overall opinion of Mercato Centrale:
Hm. Okay, I’m not really too impressed with Mercato Centrale. It’s not so bad, as the wide array of dishes were really something to behold (and taste!) but…I don’t know. For me, it didn’t live up to the hype. It’s too cramped and filled with so many people.

I asked Cris why I wasn’t overcome with joy and she told me that I’m not a meat eater (I am, too — except for pork — it’s just that I don’t indulge). It’s a haven for those that love seeing their meats cooked and all. She says it has a lot of room for improvements, of course. Like maybe the Pinoys could clean up after themselves. And bigger space would be nice, so we could leisurely stroll down the aisles instead of trying not to get into the next person’s face.

Plus, I went down with colds (accompanied by fever and followed by coughs) the next day. I suspect that the smoke from the outer tents was the culprit. My body immediately reacts to cigarette smoke so I figured that it might also react the same way to grill smoke, especially when there are massive quantities of it.

I would like to go back in the future, maybe when they’ve allotted more breathing space for the area. I know I could enjoy it there, but maybe not now.