As previously mentioned in this paper, I am no great lover of Filipino food but I just couldn’t decline the invitation extended to me by Tourism Attach\u00e9<\/p>\n
Consuelo Jones<\/strong> and Marideth Laquian<\/strong>, Reservations Manager of Shangri-La Sydney. As expected, the two ladies gave me hugs and kisses at the entrance to the restaurant. That was more than enough consolation for the long walk I took from Wynyard Station to the hotel location at The Rocks.<\/p>\n Blame it on my Italian ancestry but I simply couldn’t stand the unaromatic stench of patis<\/em> and bagoong<\/em> which are standard ingredients of Filipino dishes. But I reminded myself that Shangri-La is a 5-star hotel and should be devoid of such foul odour.<\/p>\n I was not disappointed. The refreshing sight of halo-halo<\/em> ingredients \u2014 creamed corn, kaong<\/em> (sweet palm fruit), macapuno<\/em> (silky coconut), langka <\/em>(jackfruit), monggo<\/em> (mung beans), saba <\/em>(banana-like plantain), ube<\/em> (purple yam), nata de coco<\/em> (coconut gelatine), and sago <\/em>was enough to whet my appetite.<\/p>\n But I had to remind myself that I shouldn’t touch the dessert prior to having a taste of the entr\u00e9e<\/em> and hors d’oeuvre. <\/em><\/p>\n Among others, the appetisers included prawns, lobster tails, and fresh oysters, of which I must have devoured more than a dozen. Three generous platefuls of the hors d’oeuvre <\/em>were enough to fill up limited space in my tummy. I had barely enough room for the roast suckling, lengua estofada<\/em> and steamed barramundi. I took a glimpse of dinuguan<\/em> (otherwise known as vampire soup) but the strong taste of vinegar never really catered to my discriminating palate.<\/p>\n Introduced to me was Filipino Executive Sous Chef Gene del Prado<\/strong> of Makati Shangri-La Manila. I heard that he was flown in by Philippine Airlines to supervise the preparation of native Filipino dishes. He was later on interviewed by SBS Radio Director Ronald Manila<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Sydney-based Filipino master chef Neria Soliman<\/strong> at one time referred to me as a gourmet. I couldn’t accept the accolade but agreed to the term ‘connoisseur of fine dishes’ such as the ones offered at Shangri-La Sydney.<\/p>\n For those interested, the buffet of fine Filipino food is still available at the hotel until the 19th of October 2014. Book your reservations now by visiting their website at <www.shangri-la.com> or by dialling (612) 9250 6000. As previously mentioned in this paper, I am no great lover of Filipino food but I just couldn’t decline the invitation extended to me by Tourism Attach\u00e9 Consuelo Jones and Marideth Laquian, Reservations Manager of Shangri-La Sydney. As expected, the two ladies gave me hugs and kisses at the entrance to the restaurant. That was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3447"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"