It’s Time for Halloween!
Last October 29, members of the Confrerie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs celebrated its version of the Halloween with a dinner convergence “Spooky Night Theater at
Halloween has its roots in an ancient Gaelic festival called the Festival of Samhain, celebrating the end of the harvest season and preparing supplies for the winter. Originally celebrated on October 13, the ancient Gauls believed that the worlds of the living and dead overlapped and “costumes and masks were worn in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or placate them.” The most famous symbol of Halloween is the carved pumpkin lit by a candle inside, a Scottish and Irish tradition of carving a lantern from a turnip.
Because the membership of La Chaine is international in character (American, British, French, Italian, Swedish, German and Filipinos, et.al.), celebrating Halloween seems to be appropriate. If membership of the organization is all Filipino, kalag-kalag na lang!
La Chaine version not only includes the usual good food, good wine and of course, good company, this time, a Transylvanian ambiance was added where “spooky characters” appear from all sides of the ballroom to perform excerpts from Broadway hits like Cats and Phantom of the Opera within everyone’s touching distance.
The food and wine served reflected the character of Manny Osmeña, our most gracious host of the Hilton Cebu Resort and Spa. He thinks only of the freshest oysters, salmon and Wagyu beef; this has to be paired by his personal collection of wine. And your favorite food columnist, excuse me, was one of the very few people who shared a US $ 1,200 bottle of wine, La Tache with Manny O, just a few weeks ago.
There was a buffet that evening and I do have a problem in such a set-up, often homing only in on one food station and forgetting that there are simply other delicious places to visit. This time, fortunately, I was in the company of food connoisseur Choy Sala; we travelled to each station in slow motion.
We began with the fresh shuck oyster display. The plump oysters were paired with the 2005 Nepenthe Sauvignon Blanc, Adelaide Hills, warranting several return trips. We also had a short visit to the cheese board with dried fruits, nuts, grapes and walnut bread. Unfortunately, I forgot the poached oysters with gruyere mornay and fume de poisson.
Moving to another white wine, the 2005 Skillgalee Riesling, Clare Valley, we began with a skirmish on the Wagyu shio yaki sushi/ seared Wagyu on sushi, grilled on charcoal and dressed in sushi rice. This was followed by an ambush on the fresh salmon sashimi and a sustained assault on the half lobsters and giant tiger king prawns skewers from the grill. Whew, eating all these delicious food and drinking the tasty wines was very hard work!
Running out of ammunition…I mean, white wine...we switched to a red: 2004
Finally, the desserts and this, my memory cells recall the nuances of a dessert wine, Chateau d’Yquem (a mere US $ 1,200) and I blame Manny Osmeña for making my palate appreciate only the more expensive things in life! I had to console my palate with the aged balsamico over vanilla ice cream.
Balsamic vinegar or aceto balsamico has joined the ranks of the world’s most prized ingredients. It has a sweet pungent aroma and flavour and lends a “savoury fullness to nearly every dish from salads to desserts”. Your favourite food columnist has once written about a liter of vinegar that cost only P92,355.00—the Aceto Balsamico, Tradizionale di Reggio Emilia, Gold Label. And if you read about it, thank you for being one of my most beloved, ever loyal followers.
Christmas is fast approaching and this means more food adventurer to be made, more culinary accounting to be rendered and hopefully…lesser calories to be gained.
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