Manila (CNN Philippines Life) — At 8 a.m. on a Wednesday, Farmers Market in Cubao, Quezon City is a bustling labyrinth, its floor slippery from the water that keeps the seafood fresh, its air smelling of a rich mixture of that day’s freshest produce. This busy market place is where Chef Margarita Forés — Asia’s Best Female Chef for 2016 and a champion of Philippine cuisine — chose to introduce to the chefs of Madrid Fusión Manila 2017 the best of Philippine ingredients.

For an hour, chefs and visitors smelled, touched, pinched, and tasted what the market has the offer. Among others, there’s the local calamansi and kamias, which underlined the value of sourness in Philippine cuisine; the kinilaw, garnished with the same souring ingredients, highlighted with fresh shrimp and crab; and an impressive demonstration in deboning and filleting bangus, in order to make it into relyeno. While the chefs and other participants of Madrid Fusión curiously examined each ingredient that Forés enthusiastically introduced, vendors, market-goers, and passersby looked on.

Here are a few photos from their morning market run.