Food Trip report by Kevin Toledo

On Tuesday, March 19, 2013, Kevin Toledo <kev.toledo@gmail.com> wrote:
>  Kevin Toledo
> SENTREP S20
> Prof. Jorge Saguinsin
>
> Food Trip so far was the most enjoyable experience for me in Entrep Class. The class really looked forward for this activity wherein it even took us time to decide on where to hold this food trip activity. The class agreed to have it along Makati Avenue, particularly in the A. Venue area. At first I was hesitant to go there considering that  our working budget per person is limited to P500 only, and we had to try out 3 kinds of food/place. I did not know that there is actually  a food bazaar in the area as I was earlier suggesting that we should just go in in a place with food bazaar like Mercato. So, it made sense to me that the class had decided for a perfect venue where accessibility was not really hard for most of us. First stop was at A.Venue Food Tent. As I earlier said, I was surprised that there is actually a food bazaar in the area. A. Venue Food Tent's concept is a food bazaar where varieties of street food that are safe with proper sanitary preparations are sold. This concept is really good as this is where you can buy value-for-money food that guarantees safety, where enough tables & seats are provided as well. The street food idea can make us feel excited about the thrill that these food could bring to our taste buds considering that it is usually unsafe to buy real deal street food. As I entered the Food Tent, I managed to observe that people actually go there. It even got my attention that a lot of foreigners are actually buying food there as well. There were a lot of food to choose from ranging from the Filipino street food like isaw, kwek-kwek, and even the Vigan empanada to the other foreign cuisines such as Mediterranean (kebab), and Italian (pasta). We had Vigan empanada, Isaw, vegetable kebab, and gulaman for drink. All the food actually tasted good, I even had 2 orders of the Vigan empanada, which my taste buds really missed. Last time I ate those was 10 years ago, the first & last time I went to Vigan. There was also no question to the food preparation and presentation, as I have noticed as well that the food were being prepared with sanitary considerations such as wearing hair net and or  toque. Over-all the experience was great, and indeed it was value for money food experience where we just spent around P70 each for good and exciting food.

  For the main course, we walked along Makati Avenue and stumbled upon a Korean restaurant, called Dona-Dona Korean BBQ Restaurant. When we checked the menu, we realized they are actually serving authentic Korean food. The group decided to have the dinner there. The people/staff were very warm to welcome us and really provided enough attention to us from choosing the food we will order to serving it and attending us until we finished eating. The owner even assisted in serving the food to us. I actually liked the food. The set-up was very typical Korean restaurant where they provided a lot of appetizers, especially the unlimited Kimchi. Also, the experience of letting the customers grill their food was a plus factor. The only set-back I noticed was that it was really hot inside as they did not have exhaust equipment for each grill in the table. But overall, I could say that the restaurant was very good as they have a decent price, service was really good, the food tastes great and the grilling experience is superb.

 After eating at Dona-Dona, I was really surprised that the group still have cash left for dessert. We tried to look for a decent pastry shop where we could have dessert and find nothing, so and we ended up having dessert at Goldilocks. We ordered 2 small cakes and coffee for everyone, and even managed to buy some polvoron for everyone. I should say that Goldilocks was a good choice considering that we have little money left to spend for dessert and their food really tastes good. I noticed that its location was very strategic where no other pastry shop can be seen in the area. Generally, the Food Trip experience was really fun, exciting, educational and relevant. Hope that there should be more of activities like this in the MBA course.<It was our last day yesterday>

Kevin and JP did well as Victoria Court Gurus

 Entrep Class, AGSB, H de la Costa Campus | February 19, 2012

Kevin and JP were assigned as as the panelists to lead the class in Victoria Case Analysis.  They seemed to have prepared well for this as they touched on the key relevant points of the case.  I always noticed that the class were more open to discussion if classmates were the case facilitator.

The key points mentioned were:  rebranding, repositioning, brand equity, feasibility of other alternatives, PTM.

Joseph noted that the change would have been complete if there were total overhaul of the structures.  Evan noted that a brand equity can not be abandoned because there was money and value in it.

It was a very satisfactory and very much improved case analysis.

I told the panelists earlier in the class that they must train to be future  GSB professors to which I think they positively responded.  (JP even wore an expensive suit)