{"id":381519,"date":"2022-12-14T06:01:47","date_gmt":"2022-12-13T20:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=381519"},"modified":"2022-12-14T06:01:47","modified_gmt":"2022-12-13T20:01:47","slug":"chow-time-opens-new-and-bigger-location","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/chow-time-opens-new-and-bigger-location\/","title":{"rendered":"Chow Time opens new and bigger location"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_381528\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-381528\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Chow-Time-pix-1wb.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Chow-Time-pix-1wb.jpg\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-381528\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chow Time owner Anna Liza Alcantara joins Gov. Ralph DLG Torres, Father Rey Rosal, friends, and staff during the ribbon-cutting ceremony of Chow Time\u2019s new location at the old Virralicci parlor in Garapan.<br \/><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Chow Time is moving to a larger place, which is a mere stone\u2019s throw away from their current location inside the 99 Cents Store in Garapan.<\/p>\n<p>Owner Anna Liza Alcantara said the old takeout snack bar is expanding to become a full-fledged restaurant by taking over the old digs of the Virralicci parlor.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>So, from a location that could barely seat six, the new and improved Chow Time can now comfortably accommodate 50 customers.\u00a0<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_381529\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-381529\" style=\"width: 225px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Chow-Time-pix-2wb.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Chow-Time-pix-2wb-225x300.jpg\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-381529\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Father Rey Rosal conducts a blessing of the new Chow Time location. (MARK RABAGO)<br \/><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n<p>Alcantara, however, clarified that the new Chow Time, for the meantime, is available only for large catering events like birthdays, christenings, weddings, graduations, promotions, or any special celebrations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor now, the new location is open to host parties as we can\u2019t open it as a restaurant yet because it\u2019s the busy season for catering with the holiday season and all.\u201d<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_381530\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-381530\" style=\"width: 225px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Chow-Time-pix-3wb.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Chow-Time-pix-3wb-225x300.jpg\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-381530\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Guests were treated to a smorgasbord of Chow Time\u2019s all-time favorites. (MARK RABAGO )<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n<p>She said though that Chow Time will start welcoming its loyal customers and new ones starting next month when they finally move in.<\/p>\n<p>Aside from their usual bestsellers like tokwa\u2019t baboy, sinigang, kaldereta, beef stew, chicken curry, and the ever affordable $3 breakfast meals, Chow Time can now prepare new dishes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Among them are combo plates like beef, seafood, and chicken with vegetable, rice, and soup that all typically start at $13.<\/p>\n<p>Alcantara is also excited with their $5 beef pares with unlimited soup with fried rice. Papaitan will also be an everyday fare at the new Chow Time.<\/p>\n<p>Sizzling squid, which they only sold at Sabalu Market, will also now be part of the menu. Ditto for sizzling plates, which they used to serve at Chow Time 2.<\/p>\n<p>Also part of the expanded menu is sizzling balut and everyone\u2019s favorite\u2014pork and chicken barbecue skewers.<\/p>\n<p>The genesis of Chow Time came about when Alcantara, then a customer service agent at Pacific Oriental Inc. Aviation, and her coworkers used to pine for food during their shift in the wee hours of the morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s when she realized this could be a business opportunity and Chow Time was born.<\/p>\n<p>Aside from satisfying her coworkers\u2019 hunger at the airport, Alacantara soon started delivering at Century Insurance and Saipan Tribune in 2015<\/p>\n<p>Before coming to Saipan, Alcantara shared that her family wasn\u2019t well off in the Philippines. In fact, her children hardly had enough food to eat.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSometimes my kids would come home hungry and ask what food was there. I\u2019d say adobo, which is our codename for rice with soy sauce; or shrimp, which is our codename for rice and Oishi (Filipino prawn crackers),\u201d she said.<br \/>\nAlcantara also isn\u2019t ashamed to say that she used to hitchhike when she was selling her food and that\u2019s why she doesn\u2019t hesitate to offer rides to strangers herself on her now fully paid SUV.<\/p>\n<p>Alcantara hosted friends and staff that helped her grow the business during the soft opening and blessing of the new Chow Time last Thursday. Guests included Gov. Ralph DLG Torres and Father Rey Rosal.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>More than 60 guests had their fill of Chow Time\u2019s all-time favorites like fried chicken, sisig, chopsuey, palabok, mechado, lechon, and the aforementioned papaitan and beef pares, among others.<\/p>\n<p>Alcantara specifically thanked her AKAP family, lawyer Steve Pixley and her executive secretary Susan Espanillo, Celso Agui, U.S. Passport Office\u2019s Maggie Naputi, Cristy Villaflor, her daughter\u2019s soccer coach, and her beloved staff, which she largely attributes Chow Time\u2019s success to.<\/p>\n<p>For more information on Chow Time and their wide selection of food for catering, call (670) 233-8463, (670) 989-4247, or go to their Facebook page.<br \/>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chow Time is moving to a larger place, which is a mere stone\u2019s throw away&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":381527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[7462],"class_list":["post-381519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-chow-time"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}