Spring Festival 2019

CEBU, Philippines — The destination for the Spring Festival event in Cebu was Shangri-La’s Mactan Island Resort & Spa, where they celebrated the Chinese Lunar New Year. Festivities began at 10:15 a.m. Consul General Jia Li from the Consulate of the People’s Republic of China in Cebu and Shangri-La’s GM René D. Egle performed the Hoi Gong or “Eye Opening” ceremony.

During the ceremony, the eyes of the Chinese lion were dotted “to awaken its spirit.” Red ribbons were tied around the lion’s horn as a symbol of courage and honor. Then, the lions began their dance followed by the dragon, and then the fireworks and the beating of the drums. Those loud noises were to drive out evil spirits and malevolent beings. The ceremony ended with the Prosperity Toss, also called the Yee Shang Tossing Ceremony, an endeared ritual to bring in long life, prosperity and unity for all.

These rituals of the People of the Middle Kingdom and have been faithfully followed their descendants in all these past 4,000 years.

At Shang, a Chinese banquet followed where I joined media colleagues for lunch at the Tea of Spring. A five-course lunch consisted of Appetizers, Select Dim Sum, Soup, Main Courses and Dessert. (A four-course meal is taboo with the Chinese because the number four is considered unlucky.) We had fun with the Snow Pear and Marinated Jellyfish Yee Sang Salad, tossing the ingredients as high as possible, limited only by the overhanging lights above the table.

Appetizer was a marvellous selection of dim sum dishes: Onion Cake with Chicken, Bean Curd Rolls, Pork & Shrimp with Petite Abalone, Pork Loin & Cabbage with Prawn, and Black & White Har Gow (Shrimp Dumpling). The last dish was had it just right, since food with white colors is taboo because it is the color of mourning; at least the black color neutralized the white.

Pumpkin Soup with Scallops & Crabmeat was served, followed by the Main Courses: Steamed Whole Fish with Truffle Spinach Sauce paired with Fragrant Fried Rice with Crab Meat, Dried Scallop & Small Lobster, Deep-fried Chicken Skin with Fish Paste, Deep-fried Prawn coated with Golden Pumpkin Sauce, Pan-fried Diced Beef Tenderloin in Black Pepper Sauce with Chinese Wine, Braised US Scallops with Broccoli and Bean Curd Dumpling in Oyster Sauce.

There was a fix – in Chinese banquets, rice is usually the last dish served, but Filipinos are used to eating rice together with the main dishes. Chinese Chef Boon Boon Hoe provided a Solomonic solution, excuse me, by preparing a rice dish so complex that it became a Main Dish itself. It was really a nice move by a Chef who is well-versed in the dining etiquette of a Spring Festival celebration. The Bean Curd Dumpling was good, the Chicken Skin with Fish Paste was better but the Whole Fish with crunchy texture coming from the toppings (seasoned capelin roe) was the best dish in the two-hour power lunch.

Dessert was the Chef’s Mango Pudding and Deep-fried Milk Cake.