A special dinner for friends from the media

Maribago Bluewater Beach Resort (Buyong Mactan Island, Lapu-lapu City, (phones (63-32) 253-5411, 492-0100) invited a select group of media personnel to a very special dinner. As envisioned by Maribago GM Rhyz O. Buac, it was to strengthen that bond of friendship that exist between the resort and the media and to show the resort’s appreciation for the help the media has given them the past year.

Very timely the date of the dinner, February 7, 2009 because it was a prelude to the Valentine Dinner Menu offered by the beach resort to all celebrants of this special occasion and many Filipinos do consider Valentine’s Day a very important occasion. Note that the population of the Philippines is reaching the 100 million mark!

My beloved readers are knowledgeable that the simplest food groups like protein and carbohydrates exert its effects on the body using the pathway of neurotransmitters. These are brain chemical messengers that are derived from amino acids.

Eating carbohydrates will hasten the absorption of tryptophan that result in the release of serotonin, the “good mood” substance. This will make you happy and relaxed but will make you sleepy. Protein ingestion will increase levels of tyrosine that stimulate brain activity. This is exactly what you need to celebrate Valentine’s Day!

The four-course dinner as planned by Executive Chef Alan Gilbert Mathay was as follows:

1. Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese on Chive Crepe

2. Cream of Roasted Pumpkin with Broccoli and Cauliflower Florets

3. Grilled Tuna with Steamed Garlic Prawn with Japanese Fried Rice and Black Pepper Marsala Reduction

4. Coconut Rice Pudding, Molten Chocolate Cake and Strawberry Mousse

Your favorite food columnist had a small problem though with the way the soup was presented. How do I eat this? I do not want to follow a basketball player that ate the Mandaue “bud-bud”without removing the banana wrap! Instinctively, I added the florets of broccoli and cauliflower, mixed the liquid on the porcelain soupspoon with the soup, and began to consume the soup between bites of the accompanying bread. Very delicious soup indeed!

Chocolate is known to be the most seductive of all foods and when you have a dinner intended for Valentine celebrants, present gyud a dessert with chocolate. Chocolate contains the substance phenylethylamine which is the same chemical released in the blood system when you fall in love. And Chef Mathay was very generous in providing media personnel three desserts that evening, including the Molten Chocolate Cake.

We do have our favorite restaurants in Cebu and if I was to make a list of the top 10 destinations with no budgetary constraints, one of these restaurants is found in Maribago Bluewater Resort; the Cove Live Seafood Restaurant and Oyster Bar. My favorite seafood is steamed mantis shrimp, pwede pud grilled. Best symbol for Valentine because the monogamous species remain with the same partner for up to 20 years.

Now the search for that very elusive budget begins!