Sumilon Island Gastronomics

Meals are included in what you pay for. They had better be as all that there is on Sumilon are as described in the previous blog entry. There are no humans other than the resort’s crews, therefore there are no sari-sari stores or anything like that if you were expecting it to be like Apo Island. On an overnight stay, you have the choice if you want the meals as “lunch, dinner and breakfast” or “dinner, breakfast and lunch”. We chose the former as we intended to be in Dumaguete lunchtime of Christmas Day. Hey Ms Barat Tilyo (you know who you are), don’t start getting clever again and dream of doing a “lunch, dinner and lunch” combination at Sumilon! No can do cuz we tried haggling for that! Thanks to your real wise ideas, really hehehe! Now, if you were dreaming of bringing the whole Carbon, Taboan and Pasil markets with you to save on food expenses, drop it! A cookout can probably be arranged somewhere at the beach but it won’t make the rates any less!

Mind you, Sumilon also has a day-tour package, in case you’d be interested not to stay overnight.

Lunch
Late! Because of the boat, you already know that, right? But, still served fresh and hot or warm where needed. And in true “first class resort” fashion as Sumilon claims to be. Appetizers and soup came after the refreshing glass of water was served. Soup was hot and breads were warm. All made in-house and tasted just good. Salads came fresh and cold crisp. Our sodas were opened right at our table with the waitress courteously asking if she can go ahead pour them to another set of glasses filled with tube-ice. See?! Well-trained eh?! Ah the talkative companion (just like me) was taking too long on the salad, and I could see a waiter just standing around waiting for a cue to perchance bring in our main course forth. I couldn’t help it, so I winked at him and said “bring it in”! Hunger overrides manners!

So, came our food. Hmm, I am a little bit hard to please when it comes to “fine dining”. I hate seeing what looks like just morsels of whatever in wide heavy porcelain plates and heavy silvers hehe. No, I have not forgotten what I learned from Conchitina Sevilla-Bernardo decades ago. I am just used to eating at little restaurants where food overflows in any container they come in – usually even without what the alta-sociedad would call garnish. Thus seeing my fish with a cup of rice surrounded by 5 sticks of carrots, same number of baguio beans and 4 little pieces of cauliflower had me thinking. Together with a dipping dish that contained the lemon-butter sauce, they all still provided a big white space in my plate, wide enough to hold double the amount of everything. I readily thought I would soon ask for the menu to order for more eatables. But come to think of it, everything felt just right to the grumbling tummy! Ah it must have been the salad (pasta, veggies, fruits). Or ‘nalipasan ng gutom’? Nah, it must have been the butter sauce hehe. Whatever, I thought that was a nice Sumilon lunch!

Take note: they have coke. Yes, at least Sumilon serves coca cola as this part of Cebu seem to be an undisputed territory of pepsi. Now that only proves this resort, wont sacrifice their guests’ needs in favor of a free cooler or blue refrigerator! Soon also came my companion’s main course. A piece of chicken lollipop, about 6 pieces of the cauliflower topped by mashed potato and 3 carrot sticks! Dipping dish also came inside the plate. All those occupied about just half of the big white plate. And I thought that was not enough too. But it was! Tasted good too! Well, again, it must have been the butter on the mashed potato, or the pasta salad, whatever! Ah, I don’t remember dessert and I don’t have a photo of what we had, as the swimming pool got me excited. But let’s jump to our Sumilon dinner.

Dinner and more
“Sir, we are preparing a dinner buffet for tonight, and we would like to request that you have your dinner here” said the excited waitress (in straight English) when we were done with lunch and just lazing around the pavilion. I asked why the “invitation”. She explained that from experience, most of their guests would request that their dinner be served elsewhere at various romantic spots in the island (there are a lot) or even their verandas or rooms. We said we’re fine with the pavilion and the very table we had lunch at. Hmm, we were told, buffet will be served at 8PM. I already sensed something…

It was a Christmas Eve Buffet! Not just for Sumilon’s guests but for all of us human beings celebrating Christmas eve on the island by choice or not. In total, probably about a dozen and a half of all of us. That was four of us guests (yep, there were only 4 of us, from 2 rooms) and all of them crews of the resort. This was wonderfully fun! They have set-up a big white screen where videoke was projected to, for everyone to sing the night away! Hey this is still Cebu so everyone does sing and we enjoyed listening to them crews do their renditions! Some not necessarily pleasantly lovely, just the same fun to hear as we were all there for a special event – Christmas Eve at Sumilon Island Bluewater Resort! Beat that?! Yes you guessed it… the inevitable happened… all of us had to sing, including the European couple who were our fellow guests. Hey, I even took part in the egging and coaxing for them to sing! And they eventually did so, again… and again!

Oh yes the food! Well, their chef must really be good. He concocted the dishes so that we had a fusion of Pinoy and western dishes for the ‘occasion’. Yeah, I think some of those delectable things we had were/are not in their menu. The soup was superb – a concoction of the bounty from the sea like clams, crabs, squid, fish and what have you. I think the base was not plain water but probably coconut milk. So it was like the consistency between a clear and a cream soup. It was the four guests (that’s us) who kept coming back for more of that, and I don’t know why hehe. There was spaghetti with white sauce (or is that called carbonara), but right beside it was pancit! True to Filipino celebrations, the pancit cannot be absent hehe! But not the common pancit though, it was in transparent-‘colored’ noodles.

There was rice and there was pizza – yes pizza! There was pork (humba or adobo?), beef, fish and ham. Hey I was not sure if that whole roasted bird sitting at center of table was turkey as it was rather small, though it would have been ‘giant’ for a lechon manok haha. Delicious still. The salad dressing was excellent and those rolled pancakes with mango in the middle were just delectable. Ah there was a chocolate cake with Christmas red and green sprinkles and there were also cupcakes topped by marshmallows. But I loved the ‘maja blanca’ that did not even command a space in the whole table set-up as its flat tray was just placed between the big salad bowl and the rice tray. I kept coming for it just the same hehe!

One curious observation though, up from the time those plastic wraps were removed from each of the buffet’s serving trays, a staff was always nearby swaying that stick with strips of plastic to drive flies away. Ah, even at night they’re that active on Sumilon eh? And they’re not the common house flies. They’re enormously bigger though just a bit smaller than those that pester the Karachi public markets hehe. I think those are called “bangaw” in Tagalog. I even asked how them flies were able to get into Sumilon island, and one of the waiters said probably via the fishermen’s boats who made this island their resting place in the past. Hey, them flies are probably nocturnal since I did not see many of them during lunch and at breakfast.

Breakfast
Ah yeah, breakfast… and it was a Christmas Day Breakfast in Sumilon for us! A regular fare I must say, but there seemed to be more in our plates than yesterday’s lunch! We initially both wanted corned beef, but good I asked if their’s was ‘home-made’ or the branded ones. Waiter said he thought it was something that we could all buy from the supermarkets. I asked if it was Purefoods and he replied he was not sure of the brand, though he was sure it was not Purefoods. I went for the bangus instead while companion stayed put with the corned beef. When them breakfasts finally came out, I was already dead sure, Sumilon’s corned beef is the one that sports a country’s name for a brand and advertised on local TV by popular people I am not too interested about hehe!

Well, my bangus looked and tasted just delectably well. The marinade, if any, must be good and it obviously was deep-fried in oil that was not being used for the nth time, as in many restaurants all over this country! Wheee! The dip was even special that I took note so I could do the same at home – vinegar with some black pepper, garlic and a dash of salt so says the waiter. The companion’s corned beef was so-so all in its overacting redness that made the pale yellow tomato look bright hahaha! But my bangus came with just a cup of rice while the corned beef came with warm breads (yep, different kinds) plus butter and strawberry jam. When I seemed to have salivated for them, ‘owner’ moved the plate away pronouncing the breads were for the ones eating corned beef and not fried bangus. Ack! So I quickly made a deal, I offered my mango juice in exchange for a crumb of each of those breads. Good that the ‘tea-pot’full of thick aromatic and strong hot chocolate was placed nearest my right arm, so I added that I will probably share a cup of it too, if I get to taste the breads.

I did not know, waiter was observing that early morning banter. He went back into the kitchen and came out with a little basket more containing the same assorted warm slices of the breads with jam and butter. He offered it to me saying “Merry Christmas, sir, this is for you, but please share the hot chocolate, its on the house and refillable”! We all laughed, including the European couple at the next table. But my stomach can’t take any juices in the morning or any other time of day, right? So I asked waiter if I can have it changed to Coke instead. He smilingly shook his head but offered he can bring me a bottle but for an extra charge. Agreed, and my fresh thick mango juice went to the companion whose last word was “you’re asking too much”! Hasht!!!

Oh one last thing about food on Sumilon Bluewater Island Resort… beware the sandwiches at midmorning hehe, they’re too big with a lot of frills on the side (chips), you still won’t be hungry at lunchtime! But if you’re traveling to Dumaguete at about that time, then that should ensure little tummy is happy until you get to have lunch!

Hah, let’s go around the island, shall we?!!

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