Here are TriNoma’s mall hours for the Christmas season:

November 30 – December 15
- 10 am to 10 pm (Mondays to Thursdays)
- 10 am to 11 pm (Fridays to Sundays)

December 16 – 23 – 10 am to 12 mn
December 24 – 10 am to 9 pm
December 25 – 12 nn to 9 pm
December 26 – 30 - 10 am to 10 pm
December 31 – 10 am to 6 pm
January 1 – 12 nn to 10 pm
January 2 onwards – regular mall hours

Restaurants at the park, plaza and lobby levels can operate beyong the mall hours indicated above.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Take a break from all the Christmas bustle and be inspired as Ayala Center Cebu lines up several concerts and fun-filled activities for everyone!

Here are Ayala Center Cebu’s Operating Hours for December 2011:

Main Mall (including Active Zone, Food Choices and Services):

December 1 – 14 - Regular Mall Hours
December 15 – 22 – 10:00 am – 10:00 pm
December 23 – 10:00 am – 12:00 mn
December 24 – 10:00 am – 8:00 pm
December 25 – 12:00 nn – 9:00 pm
December 26 – 29 – Regular Mall Hours
December 30 – 10:00 am – 10:00 pm
December 31 – 10:00 am – 8:00 pm
January 1, 2012 – 12:00 nn – 9:00 pm

The Terraces:
Regular operating hours except on the following dates:

December 24 – 10:00 am – 8:00 pm
December 26 – Not later than 12:00 nn
December 31 – 10:00 am – 8:00 pm
January 1, 2012 – Not later than 12:00 nn

Regular mall hours will resume on January 2, 2012.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

(L-R): Raymund Magdaluyo, Shanna Lopez, Glecy Lopez-Go, and Marvin Agustin

Their branch at The Terraces is their first in the Visayas and the biggest in the country so far, with a seating capacity of 120.

SumoSam, as the name suggests, is a Japanese-American Restaurant truly reflected by its interior design featuring a unique ambiance of stained wooden planks, textured paints, and colorful light boxes. Playful decor of sumo wrestlers captured in various poses are also a visual treat.

SumoSam ceiling

According to Magdaluyo, their goal with SumoSam is to “make Japanese food or present it in a more formal or more international way”. He claims the strength of SumoSam is “bastardizing Japanese cuisine, (laughs)”. SumoSam is one of the more popular Japanese food chains in the country today and it is positioned to be “not too expensive but still able to provide quality”, he added. The menu is very extensive with around 140 items and each one actually has a photo with it so when you’re browsing SumoSam’s menu, you’ll feel as if you’re viewing a photo album. This was done for “people not to be scared of Japanese food”. Due to their success in SumoSam, they opened spin-offs from SumoSam such as John and Yoko, featuring cosmopolitan-Japanese cuisine, Marciano’s, featuring Italian-New Yorker cuisine and Mr. Kurosawa, featuring European-Japanese cuisine.

Raymund Magdaluyo with SumoSam’s textured walls as his background

Marvin Agustin

Agustin further explained that SumoSam is a “family-oriented restaurant”. Realizing their desire to expand and reach out to untapped markets by opening new stores, he revealed that they are opening a branch each in Bacolod, Cagayan de Oro and one more in Davao next year. For Cebu, they are looking at opening one of their spin-off brands at the Phase 2B of Ayala Center which is currently under construction. In the next two years, the company is planning to open 15 more branches on top of the 10 stores that are currently operating. They are also now open to franchising. Typically, investment on a franchise would cost P5 million to P7 million depending on the size of the store.

As operations normalize, they also plan to introduce new items that will “utilize Cebuano ingredients”. And now that SumoSam has finally invaded The Terraces, they are hoping to put more smiles on the faces of the diners in Cebu. Not only because SumoSam is at last a quick drive away, but also because now, you can choose over the wide array of sumptuous meals prepared skillfully by SumoSam’s highly-trained chefs and served by modish and vibrant attendants. To date, SumoSam confirms that the fusion of Western and Asian cuisines can work.

SumoSam Red Ice Tea. Bottomless at P98.

Chicken Teriyaki and Mangoes Pizza. P288.

SumoSam’s Pride: mixed greens with grilled prawns, mango, caramelized walnuts on Citrus Miso Vinaigrette. P278.

Fried Chicken & Pork Gyoza. P228.

Grilled Chicken Teriyaki. P268.

Victory Float: tuna, salmon, kani sashimi, California, Philadelphia, Dynamite roll. P858.

*Prices are subject to change without prior notice

**Author’s note: Prices may appear to be quite steep at first look but each item actually has huge servings, enough to serve 2-3 people, depending on the appetite of course.

So what are you waiting for? Head on over now to SumoSam Cebu, located at the ground level of The Terraces garden row (in between TGI Friday’s and Banana Leaf)! SumoSam also has branches at Shangri-La Plaza Mall, Rockwell Power Plant Mall, MarQuee Mall, TriNoma, ABS-CBN, Nuvali, Greenbelt 3 and Abreeza.

Anyway, Christmas is just around the corner. And, a truly Pinoy Christmas is never complete until you’ve walked home on a frigid morning dawn mass and stopped to sample a warm bibingka from a small stall by the road.

Genuine smiles

Since there was a category for Most Plates Served, each bibingka had to be weighed for a fair competition

Competitive yet cheerful participants

iFM 93.9 DJs Randy and Radcliffe hosted the event

Naturally, with Christmas being so close, SM Hypermarket chose to cap their quarter-long Master Chefs extravaganza with a celebration of one of the most iconic of holiday treats, the bibingka. And where better to do it than in the home of the biggest bibingka in the world, Mandaue City, Cebu.

SM Hypermarket’s very own customer assistants provided free wholesome entertainment!

Rows of bibingka! Amazing!

The very energetic audience.

Known as the source of the best bibingka in the country, Mandaue City is also the home of many ingenious bakers who have taken this delicacy and given it a delicious twist. Some make it with grated keso de bolo on top, others with a layer of salted egg, and still others with a generous heaping of grated coconut and muscovado sugar. But one thing stays the same – all Mandaue bibingka are cooked in the classic “inurno” style. The batter is made of rice flour, coconut milk, yeast and sugar. The mixture is then baked to perfection in a terra cotta container. Red-hot coals placed above and below heat the batter through until it is fully, moist, and delicious, with a dark brown crust on top. It is this unique method of cooking, and the smoke from the coals, that gives bibingka its distinctive flavor.

Mr. Lee R. Jennie, founder of Adam Jennie’s Christian Center for Special Children based in Mandaue City, served as one of the judges.

Ms. Louella Cabanero, head of the Mandaue City Tourism Office, was the only lady in the board of judges

The event was also graced by the presence of one of the country’s celebrity chefs today, Chef John Paulo Sia, who was also part of the esteemed board of judges.

SM Hypermarket wants to kick off the holidays in Cebu by holding a festival for bibingka makers and lovers of the treat. Their Supersized Cookoff competition held yesterday, paid tribute to the many variants of the basic recipe and challenged chefs from all over to create the tastiest bibingka, and to serve up as many plates of it as they can. The competition was open to everyone who wished to join, provided that they formed groups of five and served a minimum of 50 plates.

At the end of the day, two groups were proclaimed as winners. The Best Tasting Bibingka was awarded to the Alang-Alang Group with a very high average score of 93.33%. Meanwhile, the Most Number of Plates Served was awarded to the Mandauenian’s Group for serving 391 plates of bibingka. Each winning group got P25,000 worth of SM Gift Certificates and a plaque of recognition from SM Hypermarket.

This is the final round of the SM Hypermarket’s Supersized Challenges. The previous ones were Iloilo’s Batchoy Challenge, which produced 1,862 servings of the beloved noodle dish; Batangas’ Bulalo Challenge which came up with 522 cups of the beefy broth, and Pampanga’s Sisig Challenge, which produced 1,775 plates of the spicy pulutan favorite. Knowing the Cebuanos’ cheerful fighting spirit, the final round held yesterday bested all the previous cook-offs as there were at least 2,000 plates of bibingka served!

Alang-Alang Group together with Mr. Lee Jennie, SM Hypermarket Cebu branch manager Angelo Carandang, Chef John Paulo Sia, SM Hypermarket senior manager for marketing communications and iFM93.9 DJ Randy

Mandauenian’s Group together with SM Hypermarket Cebu branch manager Angelo Carandang, Mr. Lee Jennie, Chef John Paulo Sia, SM Hypermarket senior manager for marketing communications and iFM93.9 DJ Randy

Fashion Beats takes on the first unique collaboration on fashion and live music on the runway. Launched last March 25, the first installment of the series was recently held at Greenbelt.

Unlock your unique style and witness Style Origin Fashion Beats at an Ayala Mall nearest you. Ayala Center Cebu’s Style Origin Fashion Beats happens this Sunday, May 8, featuring Rico Blanco.

Express and cultivate your unique and personal sense of style as your senses witness and listen to fashion moving to the live local sound at Style Origin.

For more details, you may refer to the event poster below

Ayala Center Cebu once again celebrates Earth Hour, the mall’s annual participation to the effort organized by WWF (World Wildlife Fund) that encourages households and businesses to turn off non-essential lights and other electrical appliances for 1 hour to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change.

Last year, Ayala Center Cebu , together with the Cebu Business Park , was able to save 3,661 kwh or an equivalent CO2 emission reduction of 702.55 kg for this initiative. Earth Hour 2011 will raise the bar and go beyond the hour by working hand in hand with the mall’s merchant partners for a year-long campaign for a sustainable environment. With this, Ayala Center Cebu has prepared various activities for all of us to join and pitch in our contribution to this cause.

To start with, let us support Earth Hour by SWITCHING OFF our own non-essential lights on March 26 from 8:30PM to 9:30 PM. The mall will SWITCH OFF again 70% of the lights at the common areas and some equipment such as elevators, escalators and water features. Restaurants can use alternative lights on the tables and are encouraged to place glow sticks or any glow in the dark items inside their stores.

Going beyond Earth Hour, Ayala Center Cebu encourages you to participate in there other activities as well:

Merchants Green efforts, March 16-25: A contest for all ACC merchants to share their innovative efforts in helping reduce environmental impact. Top five (5) best and most relevant efforts will be selected and awarded during the Earth Hour party on March 26. Each best entry will get P3,000 worth of eGC and Five (5) pcs. Ayala Cinema Passes.

Beyond the Hour Contest from March 18-25: Thru Ayala Center Cebu ’s Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/AyalaCebu) , shoppers can participate by posting their small acts for Mother Earth. It may be a simple text describing the act or effort or a photo which can be uploaded. Ten (10) best acts/efforts from both written and photo categories will be selected and awarded with Gift Certificates during the Earth Hour party.

Earth Hour Countdown at The Terraces, March 26: This will be led by CHI Management Heads, WWF Representative, ABCCI President, Business partners and the merchants. Glow-in-the-Dark I Commit to Go Beyond the Hour Wall, percussionists, fire dancers, Capoiera demonstrations, some games and prizes will be prepared for everybody.

Together our actions add up and we can make a difference. So what are you waiting for? Mark your calendars and have a meaningful and worthwhile Earth Hour Celebration only at Ayala Center Cebu as they celebrate Earth Hour beyond the hour!

February 18 – 20, 2011
- SM City Sta. Mesa
- SM Center Valenzuela
- SM City Calamba
- SM City Baliwag
- SM Center Molino

Up to 70% off on selected items!

Regular mall hours schedule will resume on Black Saturday, April 23, 2011.

The SM Supermalls:
SM Center Las Pinas
SM Center Muntinlupa
SM Center Pasig
SM Center Valenzuela
SM City Bacolod
SM City Bacoor
SM City Baguio
SM City Baliwag
SM City Batangas
SM City Bicutan
SM City Cagayan de Oro
SM City Calamba
SM City Cebu
SM City Clark
SM City Dasmarinas
SM City Davao
SM City Fairview
SM City Iloilo
SM City Lipa
SM City Lucena
SM City Manila
SM City Marikina
SM City Marilao
SM City Naga
SM City North EDSA
SM City Novaliches
SM City Pampanga
SM City Rosales
SM City Rosario
SM City San Lazaro
SM City San Pablo
SM City Sta. Mesa
SM City Sta. Rosa
SM City Sucat
SM City Tarlac
SM City Taytay
SM Mall of Asia
SM Megamall
SM Southmall
SM Supercenter Molino
The Podium