Viva Pampanga!

Viva Pampanga!

This outlet mall is home to Kapampangan Festivals – and all else Kapampangan

By JACKY LYNNE A. OIGA

Strategically located along North Luzon Expressway, Robinsons Starmills is slowly becoming the outlet destination of the North.

Pampanga is probably one of the richest, if not the richest province in the Philippines; which explains the Kapampangans’ penchant for dressing up and panache. Close family ties, as with any region in the country, is also very prominent in the region, while its rich culinary heritage and prolific craftsmanship are world-renowned.

These distinguished Kapampangan traits are especially celebrated during Pampangas’ vibrant festivals like the Giant Lantern Festival, Sinukwan Festival and Piyestang Tugak - three major annual celebrations that found a home in a curiously new space – a mall.

Last year, the local tourism office of Pampanga named Robinsons Starmills in San Fernando the home of Kapampangan Festivals after the full-service mall graciously opened its gates to host the aforementioned festivals in its effort to help promote local tourism in Central Luzon.

“Part of our thrust to promote local tourism in Pampanga is by doing tie-up projects with the local tourism office of San Fernando to hold festival activities on the mall grounds and driveway,” said Jodee Arroyo, group property manager for Robinsons Starmills Pampanga and Robinsons Place Angeles. “Also with the mall strategically located along North Luzon Expressway (NLEX), the festivals become more accessible for spectators coming from Manila.”

Cultural common ground

Every October, the people of San Fernando reserve a special day to honor the humble tugak (Kapampangan term for frog) that abound in the rice fields. Aptly called Pyestang Tugak or Frog Festival, it aims to perpetuate the beautiful tradition of catching and cooking frogs that has become a big part of Kapampangan culinary culture.

Apart from honoring their favorite amphibian, students dressed like frogs march on the streets of San Fernando to replicate the resiliency of the people particularly after the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1995. Last year, the celebratory ‘frogs’ paraded on the spacious driveway of Robinsons Starmills and proceeded to its Atrium for a frog themed competition.

The same is true for the Sinukwan Festival, held from November 29-December 6, which highlights the Kapampangan cultural diversity with a week-long calendar of cultural events capped by a grand street-dance parade culminating in a dance competition where participants from different towns of San Fernando try to out-dance each other to the tune of ‘Ating Cu Pung Singsing’.

Organized annually by the Save the Pampanga Movement, the festival venerates Aring Sinukwan, god of the ancient Kapampangans. Recent holdings of the Sinukwan Festival focused mainly in making it a unifying occasion for the various sectors of the community. The festival is also integrated with the Pampanga Day celebration, enhancing the cultural dimensions of the yearly affair while province officials are finding ways to invite other provinces to take part in the event, similar to Sinulog, Masskara, and Bonok-bonok, among many others.

According to Arroyo, the local government of Pampanga is positive that through the Sinukwan Festival, their vision of making Pampanga a premier tourism destination will come into fruition. The LGUs encourage other provinces to join them in celebrating, even compete in the activities of Sinukwan that are now being held in Robinsons Starmills.

Arroyo also noted that the mall is the only place in San Fernando that can accommodate high profile, big scale events like Sinukwan and Tugak and its always more convenient to do these events in an indoor, air-conditioned area than risk taking it outdoors.

However, the biggest and brightest (literally) event that the mall hosts yearly since 2007 is the Giant Lantern Festival which is usually held during the last Saturday before Christmas Eve. “The best time to visit Robinsons Starmills is in December when intricately designed giant lanterns are displayed and the whole place lights up with dancing lights and the sheer cheer of the Christmas spirit,” Arroyo shared.  

A one-stop-shop outlet destination

Apart from taking in festival spectators under its star-shaped roof, Robinsons Starmills has virtually become a haven for shoppers who like to be on-trend without hurting their budget. Positioning itself as the outlet mall (a full service mall where all the shops offer discounted last season merchandise) destination of the North, the mall offers a wide range of outlet stores of international and local brands including: Mango, Guess, Brandsmart, Olympic Village Outlet, All Flip Flops, Folded & Hung, People are People, Plains & Prints, Space, Collezione, Adidas, Shoreline, Mogao and M7J Outlet Store.

“Shoppers from Metro Manila are more familiar with the outlet stores from the South that are usually located in shopping squares and gas station stopovers. That’s why we’re aggressively promoting Robinsons Starmills as an outlet mall – an air-conditioned space, clean with roving mall security,” Arroyos explained.

Arroyo added: “We also want the mall to be a one-stop-shop destination for everything Kapampangan. We’re currently planning to make a special zone for local Kapampangan products like souvenirs, pieces of furniture, artworks, sculptures, etc. Everything people would want to see and buy in Pampanga we want to have them here for the shopper’s convenience.”

In addition, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), as part of its agreement with Robinsons Land Corporation, has recently opened its Consular Office at the 2nd Floor of the mall. The Consular Office offers New Passport Application, Passport Renewal,  Assistance to Filipinos in Foreign Countries & their families, and will also offer starting July 2012 the Authentication of Public and Personal Documents needed by Filipinos abroad such as Birth, Marriage, and Death Certificates, School Diploma and other school records, contracts and other  services.

“This is the first mall-based regional consular office of the DFA,“ said Arturo Romua,  officer-in-charge of DFA regional office – Pampanga. “We operate during mall hours Monday to Sunday. We have an average foot traffic of 700 people every day from different provinces of Central Luzon as well as applicants from Northern Manila since this office is more accessible to them than the main office on Roxas Boulevard.”

A culinary fiesta

After the opening of DFA’s regional consular office in Robinsons Starmills, an increasing number of tourists and Manila-based consumers have discovered the outlet mall and have been coming back ever since. But according to Arroyo, their biggest market is still the balikbayans coming home to Pampanga as well as foreigners residing in Clark, Angeles. And more than the discounted shops, these global mall-goers come for the authentic Kapampangan food.

Fiesta Kapampangan is a dining area within the mall that provides the authentic Kapampangan culinary experience, be it traditional Kapampangan dishes like nasing biringyi (chicken saffron rice) or innovative variations of Kapampangan classics like the bulanglang.

 Fiesta Kapampangan boasts of tenants who have achieved acclaim and are among the best in the Kapampangan culinary scene. Their offerings—recipes of which are family treasures passed on from one generation to the next—draw loyal patronage among residents and enthusiasm from local and foreign tourists.

Among the homegrown culinary tenants include Aling Lucing Sisig, the pioneer and inventor of the famous sisig in the 1970s; Cecilia’s Crispy Pata and Bulalohan, renowned for its crispy pata and rich bulalo; Mejicano’s Grill famous for its Pampanga-style grilled liempo with lagat puso and Grilled Tugak Betute (frog stuffed with ground pork); and Kanan Kapampangan that offers authentic Kapampangan kakanin and other scrumptious eats.

Also found in the area are the best-selling Kapampangan pasalubongs that balikbayans buy in crates and boxes: Navarro’s Taba ng Talanga, owner Gil Navarro’s original crab paste recipe that’s been sweeping the hearts of Kapampangans since the 1970s and Edelyn’s Homemade Nuts, homemade greaseless nuts that are, according to Nanay Edelyn herself, products of her blood, sweat and tears.

Indeed, whether it’s dancing in a fiesta, shopping for discounted designer brands, eating the best tasting sisig in the region or getting a new passport, everything can now be done in Robinsons Starmills – thus making the short trip to Pampanga all the more worth it

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