A FIGHT in a restaurant? What’s that, you may well ask. Monica Huertas, owner of Captain A’s Seafood Grill, explains the concept of boodle fight.
A boodle fight is a military tradition type of eating where food is laid on a long table: all the elements of a meal (rice, chicken, pork, fish, vegetables, noodles, sardines, all cooked of course) are placed on top of banana leaves.
The military men, after washing their hands, then crowd around the table and partake of the food using their hands until everything is eaten.
Rank here does not matter; the military men share this meal.
Monica had Philippine Military Academy (PMA) graduates of various years to illustrate this tradition during the opening of her Captain A’s Seafood Grill.
She says hers is the only restaurant in Cebu that offers this type of meal though, of course, instead of standing around the table, which the PMAers de, the diners can sit down properly and if they choose, use spoons and forks. Eating with the hands can be a tempting option, though, especially if there’s crab!
There are six set menus for the boodle fight at Captain A’s, cleverly named “Battle of Mactan,” “Cebu’s Pride,” “Boodle Fight the Original A” and “Boodle Fight the Original B,” “Loakan Fiesta” and “Birthday Boodle.”
The more popular boodle sets are “Battle of Mactan” and “Loakan Fiesta.”
“Battle of Mactan” has bagoong rice, steamed rice, tuna and crabmeat sisig, grilled shrimps, grilled tilapia, chicken barbecue, kinilaw na tangigue, beef kare-kare, ensaladang mangga with bagoong and salted egg, served with fresh fruits and one round of iced tea. The “Loakan” set has Java rice, plain rice, grilled squid, grilled pork belly, steamed crab, nilasing na hipon, sinigang na miso, pinakbet, ensaladang labanos with dilis, also served with fresh fruits and one round of iced tea. Soon, Captain A’s will also offer a boodle merienda.
There are other food offerings, individual dishes that are on Captain A’s menu. Being a seafood place, it offers live crabs, prawns, squid, African hito and other fish for you to pick from the resto’s aquarium. It also offers sizzling Monica (sizzling tuna bihod), sizzling delight (sizzling tuna bagaybay) and fried crispy kilawin (tuna bagaybay). Beer here can be served in beer towers, tall, cylindrical containers for a group of diners to tap from.
Being in IT Park, Captain A’s is open 24 hours and offers sizzling breakfasts, all served with rice and coffee or tea with a choice of burger steak, native chorizo, pork steak, pork tocino, chicken barbecue, beef steak Tagalog, meat loaf or Hungarian sausage. And all under a hundred pesos!
The chef of the resto is Eduard Arbon and the supervisor is Beta G. Reyes (who also oversees Monica’s other resto in the building, Jacobo’s) who will be more than eager to show you what the boodle fight is all about.