Engorging myself at Grand Majestic Restaurant

I was invited by Mona Wu (one of the owners of Cebu Graphicstar) the other night to an eat-all-you-can (buffet) dinner at the Grand Majestic Restaurant (telephones 032.253.3087, 231.5876; opens 11 in the morning until 2pm for lunch, 6pm until 10pm for dinner) located at the Cebu Grand Convention Center in Lahug.

I've been to the Grand Majestic many years back when my Chinese friend brought me there. There was no buffet at that time yet but the ambiance is still the same: grand. The place, the service, the people, all of them in grand scale. 

A lot of Chinese eat there and I assumed this is their favorite hangout, although when we were there, there were a bunch of Koreans, a not so-surprising phenomenon because the Koreans are now everywhere.

For only 650 pesos per person, a buffet dinner at the Majestic is worth the price. I saw a poster at the entrance advertising a Peking duck buffet for only 450 pesos at lunch time. Peking duck is not my type. I also saw it during dinner but totally ignored it. Or was it fried chicken?

Their menu is mostly Chinese but there were also Japanese food choices and a lot of seafood, a good and appropriate combination for the Filipinos' taste of food. In fact, most of the menu were Filipinized (suited for the Filipino taste), so to speak. I saw a tray of fried beef adobo which looked really good but I attacked the California maki and some sushi instead since they were lighter and more nutritious, I believe. And my new favorite there- scallops with fresh asparagus- was my first and I loved the crunchy feel of it.

After three return bouts, I sat bloating in the corner and waited for my stomach to settle down for dessert.

At the dessert counter, I ignored the halo-halo despite of the fact that it is one of my favorites and preferred the Gelato Eliseo instead, coming back for the fourth time, sampling each of the flavors of ice cream available, two scoops at a time. I also picked up a piece of mango roll (the waiter told me it was good) but was disappointed with the tikoy-like dessert. The mango was quite sour and the tikoy (that sticky Chinese dessert) coated with coconut was bland. The real mango, fresh and fragrant and some pineapple slices made my dinner. If I would have died that night I am sure I would be in heaven.

With us occupying around three round tables, the place was like a battlefield of hungry attackers. I am sure the waiting staff would be having another tiring day.

Grand Majestic Restaurant has these to brag about: Ordre Mondial des Gourmets' Degustateurs 2007 and Chaine des Rotisseurs 2007. (Whatever those meant, I do not know. LOL)

Weird night

I happened to meet an online friend tonight and was very uncomfortable with the meeting. First, I have no work and I was afraid I might foot the bill. Second, I don't know what to do or say since he claimed he was from my hometown.

To be safe, I chose Mooon Cafe. Not too expensive and not too seedy.

He came in late. I already had my dinner.

He did not seem to know what to order and was quite amazed at the location. I could relate. When I was a newbie in Cebu, everything seemed big and expensive. But wait, he said he studied in Manila and that innocence could be superficial then. He ate his steak like it was his first time.

Well- I should understand.

Then over a set of beers we talked about just anything. He said he graduated from a seminary in Manila and that Ateneo professors were his instructors. Cool. He talked about the places he visited and that I should also visit them. Every time I mention a place, he has a word or two about them.

Then we had an argument which led me to think of the kind of education he was really getting from that seminary. He would not mention the name. He said the geothermal power from Maria Cristina Falls in Luzon was used to power a car in the Philippines. I said that was impossible. My argument was, if that technology is already in the country or elsewhere, why are we not using it since it would be less expensive and kind to the environment? He was very sure it was invented here, right in the Philippines. No, we could not use it because he said the technology was bought by a German-Swiss-Chinese company so that when the rest of the oil supply in the world would stop, that technology will be introduced. Goddamn capitalists!

I vehemently disagreed. First and foremost, I know that Maria Cristina Falls is in Iligan and that a falls could not generate geothermal power. I corrected that it should be hydroelectric power we were dealing with. I know Leyte has a geothermal plant in Tongonan and I visited those steam powered plants producing electricity in the Visayas. He insisted that it is geothermal power we got from Maria Cristina. A sureness that would not move for a decade or so. It was one of those lessons he got from the seminary. 

Oh my. I was frustrated.

No wonder our graduates now are getting worst. I still am against the move of the Department of Education to have our students undergo 12 long years of education. What we need are reliable and competent teachers that really teaches students right. No erroneous books. Maybe he is a product of one of those DepEd books?

Am I wrong in this point of view?

In the end, I paid the bill like what I expected. I won't be seeing him for a long time.

Selfish plug: Me in another state of being :p

Edgar Allan Poe's version of Inception

A Dream Within a Dream
Edgar Allan Poe


Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep- while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

A lot of people will never understand Poe. That is a terrible thing. Poe was tormented by numerous devils and his poems and stories were his escapism. Poe actually wrote only 50 poems in his life, only 50. Not volumes upon volumes. But every one was a work worthy of the effort of a genius. -Juan Olivarez

Taking pleasure of life in the islands

I have been here a hundred times. I have come to love this place for a million reasons- the ever hospitable people, their culture, the serenity, the freshness of almost everything.

This is Zumarraga in Samar.