Everyone knows about the Salcedo Market, that weekly event when some parking lot in the middle of the Makati Business District transforms into a hub for gourmands and uber discriminating grocery shoppers. It has become what National Bookstore is to students at the beginning of the school year - it's the default go-to place for the stuff you need to buy, whether it's an oyster cake or a bag of poppy seed bagels that you're looking for. However, unless you have Mary Poppins' carpet bag as your wallet, you probably know that the Salcedo Market isn't exactly the most affordable option. It's designed to meet the needs of soccer moms and the wine-and-dine set. 
Different dishes at Banchetto
Thus brings us to Banchetto - the average joe's Salcedo Market. Actually, it is the anti-Salcedo Market. If the latter is meant for families who get up early on Saturday mornings for a laid back meal together, Banchetto is for BPO employees whose lunch breaks are at some ungodly hour like three in the morning. And while the Salcedo Market carries mainly gourmet grub like galettes, samosas, albondigas and lychee sorbet, Banchetto's concessionaires tend to favor dishes that are closer to home. Here, chafing dishes are filled with kalderetang kambing, laing, barbeque, krispy kangkong and turon. And this is what makes Banchetto so interesting, because it is a reflection of the middle-class youth and because it showcases the kind of food that kids today look for after a hard day's work or a night of hard partying.
Puto Bumbong, Bibingka, Cupcakes & Brownies. You name it they have it.
Banchetto is essentially a night street market, located on an entire block in the Ortigas Center. At exactly midnight every Friday, the street turns into Divisoria or an ant hill, depending on your point of view. Two aisles, each about two meters wide, and give or take a thousand people shuffling through them - to call this a hullaballoo would be an understatement. And granted that its target market consists of call center employees whose shifts last until the following day, Banchetto is this jam-packed until it closes at 11 in the morning. We hear though that the food becomes disgusting after a few hours of opening. Rightly so though, because the place is open-air and most of the food is uncooked and prepared only as you order.
The traditional street food
We headed off to Banchetto sometime at the start of the rainy season, which needless to say was not a very wise decision on our part. We had barely settled down to our meal when the heavens parted and well, you can figure out the rest. This means though that we were unable to go through each of the stalls and check out all of the items that sparked our interest.
At any rate, we were able to at least make one round through the different concessionaires. And one round is enough to see that this place really has them young'uns in mind, because what's sold is token canteen fare - that perfect meal to sponge all the alcohol from the night's drinking binge, the stuff of high school lunch memories, and the kind that won't burn holes in your pocket. Whether you're craving for breakfast like tapa or sausages, local favorites like shawarma rice or kaldereta, or even heartier stuff like cheese-stuffed quarter-pound burgers, you're sure to find it at Banchetto. The place is so busy and the crowd was so thick that we could barely remember where we bought our food, but one general tip to keep in mind is that Banchetto is definitely unlike any food market you've seen in Manila before. It is designed for the yuppie - its pace is faster, the food is cheaper, and the crowd is well, different. And whether you fit the age group or not, what matters is that you bring your appetite – and we mean lots of it – and your umbrella.
Address: F. Ortigas, Jr. Road (Formerly Emerald Ave.), Ortigas Center, Pasig
Website: http://banchetto.multiply.com/
How to get there: Banchetto's Google Map
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