Earlier this week, on 20 May 2019, we conducted the first SM Foodcourt Food Crawl at the SM City General Santos, the largest mall in the South Central Mindanao region of the Philippines.
The event is part of the SM City Mall of General Santos’ campaign with the Department of Tourism to promote the cuisine of the country, and in this particular case, that of General Santos City. Dubbed as “The Flavours of Sox” (Sox is short for SoCCSkSarGen, acronym of our region), it featured a cooking demo of tuna recipes (Tuna, being a prime commodity of General Santos City) and, in collaboration with my group, the Local Guides Sox, we conducted short talks on Mobile Phone Food Photography & Flatlaying X Food Styling.
Days before the event, the mall displayed this giant poster featuring our logo and group name, at the high-traffic area at the ground floor.
The event drew in more than 20 participants, 15 of them Local Guides members of our community, all armed with their smart phones. The mall prepared a small stage with a backdrop of the official poster at a corner of their huge foodcourt. This was where I gave the attendees an overview of what to expect at the gathering.
The first major activity were Cooking Demos by two tenants of the foodcourt: Tuna by Chona’s and Casa Ilongga, focusing on tuna and seafood. The Local Guides had fun observing how they prepared their bestselling dishes.
This was followed by two talks by two members of the Local Guides Sox Community. Local Guides Sox member, Ariel Lalisa, a Science & Math teacher, discussed his “Tips of Food Photography”.
Local Guides Frankis Moyoko, who is a chef by profession, gave a talk on “Flatlaying X Food Styling”.
After all those valuable lessons, the Local Guides proceeded to the back of the stage where the different flatlays of the participating food establishments were laid out. It was time for the much-awaited food crawl of some of the best cuisine of the city.
After exhausting all possible camera angles and shots, the Local Guides had a chance to take selfies at the photo wall provided by the Foodcourt.
The day capped with a food tasting activity for everyone at the main dining area.
Everyone agreed that it was not only fun but enriching because of the demo and talks involved. The manager of SM Foodcourt promised to set up more collaborations like this with the Local Guides Sox on a regular basis.
And why not? Food Crawls are definitely more fun in Gensan!
Click HERE for more photos of the SM Foodcourt Food Crawl. #ConnectWritingChallenge @AdrianLunsong
where my home city, General Santos (or Gensan) is. Our LG Community is therefore called Local Guides Sox. 
Sorry for the confusion. Lol.