Market! Market! in Catribo

by Dante Corteza

In celebration of the Zamboanga Hermosa 2008 Festival, Catribo Complex is holding a trade fair inside its big parking space up to October 16. With variety of traders selling assorted items from clothing, novelty items, food, fruits, cosmetics, barter goods, etc., this is the version of Manila’s famous shopping paradise Market! Market! – this is Tiangge Tiangge na Catribo.

It officially opened last Sunday with VP Elago as the event’s energetic emcee and with the popular local band, Detour, giving live music entertainment. VP with his quick wits and good hosting of instant games the shoppers surely had an enjoyable Sunday evening.

I learned most of these shoppers just came from their visit from Fort Pilar. Some drop by before paying their religious homage.

What makes this marketing event special, it gives family opportunities to be closer with one another. They can shop and dine together in one of Catribo’s finest restaurants. And sing also in the shopping complex videoke bar before calling the night off. Like praying together, a family that shops, eats, and sings together too, will stay together. And it can happen right here at Catribo!

Friends and lovers also can do midnight shopping, and of course, buy early Christmas gifts to avoid the season rush all together. A cup of coffee or a bottle of beer can bring out anything under the sun topics after their shopping spree too.

Among those that first caught my pocket is the Michelle Special Bangus – that sells different kinds of bangus (milk fish) preparations specially the sought-after belly parts. Our family’s favorite – we had a satisfying bangus breakfast yesterday. The enterprising owner said the bangus came from Dagupan the Bangus Capital of the Philippines. The good news? The price is comparable to the ones being sold in our local market and groceries. But Michelle’s Bangus are more delectable and lip-smackingly good in sight (hygienically packed), smell heavenly (the aroma comes out during and after cooking), and taste (very good!).

Budgetwise also launched their new wine collections. Together with several friends, we had a sort of “mini-wine party” at Mr. Bean with three of Budget’s best wines. No – we didn’t end up as drunkards afterwards neither it was a social drinking (pa shot-shot lang). It was sort of learning the art of appreciating wines.

We animatedly talked the history of wines, where they came from, how they are made, how to store them, how to distinguish good wines using our sense of sight, smell, and taste etc. with one of the managers of Budgetwise. It was really an enlightening evening with him. Want to know about wine? Visit the wine section of Budgetwise and learn too.

My favorite, Chinito’s, one of the booth participants, brought their best cuisines and drinks. Asked why they were there? It’s a chance to serve their customers who likes to have Chinito’s in midnight they explained.

It was also the launching exposure one of the services, the Doddle, offered by the up-coming advertising and business consultancy firm, What’s On Zamboanga. A newly created company (merging new trends in information technology and business opportunities), the corporate team members (composed of dynamic young men and women) created a big wall of doddle (a mix graphic arts of drawn subjects) that caught the attention of the shoppers.

This is used in Manila trade fairs and other events to bring in the crowd. People can take pictures with the doddle as the background. Try it! Bring you camera, pose with the Catribo Doddle Board, and take your shots. In other places, they charge certain fees. At Catribo, it’s free!
(Catribo Tiangge, conveniently located in Buenavista St., opens from 4:30 pm to Midnight.)