The Soft Opening

We were at the soft opening of Henry Sy's Mall of Asia on May 20, 2006. This is an ambitious undertaking which consists of three commercial complexes built on a stretch of land in what was the reclamation area in the bay area along Manila's Roxas Boulevard. Where once there was ocean, there are now three commercial complexes ready for the shopping public. I was told that only one of these complexes has to date become operational.

My brother Louie entered into a partnership with some enterprising friends and took out a franchise on a Bacolod Chicken Barbecue restaurant. To the average Filipino, the word Chicken Bacolod brings to mind sizzling, tasty and crispy chicken barbecue, marinated and roasted to cholesterol-driven perfection. Chicken Bacolod is eaten with loads of garlic rice. The name derives from the city of Bacolod, located in an island south of Manila. Bacolod is in the heart of hectares of sugarland and is renowned for its dazzling mestiza women, delicious sweets, great beaches and easy-going, friendly dudes. Sometime back, the locals perfected the art of turning out fantastic chicken barbecue, hence the term given to such dishes: Chicken Bacolod.

We were lucky to arrive at lunchtime when there were available seats at the restaurant. It was a broiling, hot summer's day outside but the location of the mall plus its design allowed a breezy current to circulate around the grounds.



We met up with my folks and chowed down in earnest. Joshua came along as it was his first time ever to go around a mall, and by the looks of it, he simply enjoyed himself.

After a lot of fiddling around and struggling, Ana and I managed to get Joshua's car seat affixed to the rear seat of our vehicle. The infant car seat turned out to be an instant hit. Judging from the look in Joshua's face, it seemed like nothing else was going to budge him from his position in the car.

The interior of Bacolod Chicken Barbecue was bright and lively, very clean and all in all, conducive to eating and just hanging out.

We decided to go around the mall and check out the shops. The place was sparkling new and it was abuzz with activity. I heard the next day saw hordes of shoppers turning it into a veritable mercantile madhouse.

This is a shot of the family while we checked out the first level of the mall.



Here was an interesting layout adopted by the shop's owners. Joshua seemed taken in by the blue balloons.

Louie also bought a stake in a Cafe Mediterranean joint in the second level. Unfortunately, the baby was quite knackered already and we had to call it a day. In any case, I'm going to be having lunch at his branch of Cafe Med one of these days when my itenerary takes me to the bay area.