Tweaks on the buffet services

CEBU, Philippines - Restaurants and food courts have become more popular when it comes to entertaining family and friends in this modern age.

Homes have shrunk in size and the number of house helpers in most households have been reduced because such services have become more expensive and there are a lot more employment opportunities elsewhere. Gone are the days when even middle income households had majordomos to supervise the yayas, cooks, gardeners, labanderas and drivers. Today, you need to have a very big income to support such a lavish lifestyle.

The increasing popularity of dining out is the reason why food service in restaurants have also evolved from the "a la carte" in the past, where the diners order from the menu and the selected dishes are brought to the table, to the popular buffet service.

The buffet style of serving meals or the  all-you-can-eat (AYCE) for a set price -- where the diners can see their food, quickly select which dishes they want to eat and come back for more -- is making waves in the restaurant industry.

One of the more popular buffets in the metro is Isla Cebu Seafood City's "Paluto All-You-Can"where you can consume unlimited seafood cooked according to your preference. There are no limits on the following seafood items: bangus, katambak, lambay, oysters, squid, live pompano, live suahe, maya-maya, mol-mol, octopus, tanigue, tiger prawn etc. The promo also includes all the pork, chicken and vegetables you can order. But make sure that there are no leftovers because you will be charged double.

The restaurant invited a group of select journalists, including your favorite food writer, and some bloggers to  the launch of the Paluto All-You-Can. My good friend, masterrestaurateur Winglip Chang joined this quite lively group consisting primarily of millennials and a few baby boomers.

The following dishes were served on the Paluto foodservice: Baked Oyster with Cheese and Butter, Baked Oyster with Mozzarella Cheese, Fried Red Grouper with Sweet & Sour Sauce, Grilled Pork Belly, Squid Adobo, Steamed Suahe with Soy Sauce, Tinola Tanigue Soup, and a meat dish, Grilled Pork Belly.

Drinks, desserts and premium seafood (live lobster, crabs, grouper, stone fish and sea mantis) are charged separately but Winglip, who is ever generous, gave the group a taste of the premium, a huge platter of the Fried King Crab with Salt and Pepper and the Fresh Fruit Platter. It is a difficult task to cook these crabs well because these are fresh and should have a distinct flavor that millennials call umami and baby boomers refer to as "tam-is".

A bottle of whiskey was also available to those that require some digestants, and this writer, excuse me, needed some good old whiskey to assimilate all the flavors of the delicious spread. (FREEMAN)