Wednesday, September 03, 2008 Red and White By Carlo P. Mallo
LITERALLY, it was a night filled with red and white. From the interiors of Cafe Marco, which were filled with buntings inspired by the Canadian flag that has only both colors, the table setting of crimson red silk and opaque white linens, the variety of red and white meat dishes, and the irresistible red and white wines which, by the way, never seemed to run dry.
Interestingly, I was originally begging off Patty of the Marco Polo, asking her to invite someone else in lieu of me for the opening of the Canadian Food Festival at Cafe Marco that night as it was a school night.
But with her text message, informing me that the Canadian Ambassador to the Philippines was gracing the event, I simply could not say no.
It was reported, shortly before the Kadayawan Festival of the city, that Canada together with a handful other countries had issued a travel advisory against traveling to Mindanao.
But it was only Canada, which explicitly exempted Davao City from its travel advisory. And as if to prove their point, the Canadian Ambassador to the Philippines Robert Desjardins was in the city last August 27.
"Do you see any bodyguards?" the Canadian Ambassador said in jest.
Well, onto the dinner, the Canadian Food Festival is a gastronomic feast that everyone must try. Aside from the world famous and oh-to-die-for smoked Canadian bacon in maple syrup, there are a thousand other things from Canada that is pure indulgence on the palate.
Case in point is the lusciously rich Dungeness and King Crabs that were served that night. And being the youngest in the group and with cholesterol being the least of my worries, an entire plate was laid out in front of me, for me to finish on my own.
And who can ever forget the fresh pink salmon of Canada that we see the huge bears gobble up as the fish head upstream to lay eggs? Or the fresh seafood in the surrounding Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Canada? Or the French inspired cuisine of Quebec, the heart of Canada?
Cafe Marco served up pan-seared salmon escalope in Riesling sauce, fricassee of scallops and prawns with chanterelles, noisettes of pork with prunes in red currant sauce, grilled veal sausage with chili con carne, beef stew wit beer and dumplings.
But no trip to Canada, or to the Canadian Food Festival at that, is complete without sampling the roast leg of lamb and the roast prime rib.
The best part of the evening was yet to come. When everyone has just had his or her fill, it was time to simply talk and talk anything under the sun. The table I was seated was a perfect concoction of people who simply talked and talked and was simply having fun, the kind of fun that everyone else has already left but you barely noticed until the hotel's wine cellars have run empty of both red and white wine.
Choosing between the red and white wines was no problem as we threw all the rules in drinking wine to the wind. Simply preferring what was on the table, we drank wine until everyone was simply all smiles.
