Hello and Goodbye

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“Vacation” is over for GM Timothy Wright of the Shangri La Mactan Island Resort and Spa and he heads to work in Shangri-La Bangkok. A warm welcome to the new GM, Raymond Bragg! In a nutshell, that was what the celebration was all about last February 28, 2008, a hail and farewell cocktail party.

How time flies! It is still very fresh in my memory, the  celebration of Shangri-La Mactan’s 10th anniversary in July 3, 2004 at the Cowrie Cove. It was also a festivity to welcome the incoming GM Timothy Wright in an affair I wrote as the “Ultimate Cocktail Party”. Now it is GM Wright’s time to leave, with encoded memory cells of the most pleasant experiences during his tour in duty of this island we lovingly call Cebu.

During a round of top-level managerial reassignments, this is always a celebration of some sort with good food and good wine. And when very interesting celebrations are happening, your favourite food columnist seems never far behind, tasting all that delicious food and sometimes drinking all the wines.

In this party, we had the following appetizers: Parma Ham Cream Cheese Roulade with Dried Fruit Compote, Marble Potato filled with Eggplant Caviar and Tomato Skin, Herb Buffalo Mozzarella with Oven-dried Cherry Tomato, Grilled Chicken Breast with Spinach on Corn Bread, Smoked Salmon on Toast Bread and Saffron Aijoli and Medallions of Chicken with Grilled Apple. Each of these delicious morsels of food was served on a tablespoon and was imbedded in a wall.

Food stations were distributed all around the Ocean Pavilion. This meant some form of exercise for a food columnist to visit the following:

a. Beef Rolls with Asparagus in Teriyaki sauce and the Mediterranean Seafood Bruschetta with lemon parsley butter

b. Flamed Baked Mussels with Hollandaise Sauce and Cheddar Cheese

c. Fried Squid with Salt and Black Pepper Fragrance

d. Seared Ahu Tuna with Wasabi Mayonnaise on Japanese Cucumber, Japanese Style Beef Yakitori, California Maki, Unagi Negeri

e. Arborio Risotto with Truffle paste on Parmesan Well and the Italian Bruschetta and Rosemary Grissini with Olive Tappenade

f. Lamb Curry on Pita Bread

g. Lechon de leche section

h. Watermelon Gazpacho with Cucumber Granite on Shooter Glass

i. Desserts (so difficult to choose on which one to try!)

j. Fresh fruits

 So many food stations to travel and so much exercise (both on the muscles of the legs and mastication!) but I had my favourites that night – the Arborio Risotto and the Beef Rolls; I missed the Pan-fried goose liver with vanilla citrus fruit dressing on brioche with port wine glaze served in the 2004.

Farewell, GM Timothy Wright, and welcome to Cebu, GM Raymond Bragg.