Bright Leaf awardees tour Guangzhou

Be an agriculture journalist and see the rest of SouthEast Asia!

That could well be the invocation and invitation issued as enticement for the Bright Leaf Agriculture Journalism Awards (BLAJA) sponsored by the PMFTC Inc.

Not only do the top national winners in four genres, from writing to photography, win handsome cash prizes, Apple iPads and distinctive trophies. They also receive a bonus prize of an all-expense-paid trip to a Southeast Asian city.

For the 2010 winners, it was a visit Ho Chi Minh City in April of 2011. And for the 2011 winners, it was a four-day jaunt in Malaysia last July, inclusive of Kuala Lumpur, Malacca and Genting Highlands.

For the 6th-edition winners who were honored at a glittering awards ceremony last November — namely Baguio-based writer for the Business Mirror Marilou Guieb Demetillo, Agriculture Story of the Year awardee; Mauricio Victa whose Tobacco Story of the Year appeared in Sun.Star; Richard Balonglong of Philippine Daily Inquirer for Agriculture Photo of the Year; and Leoncio Balbin, Jr. of Candon Times for Tobacco Photo of the Year — it was a three-night stay in Guangzhou conducted last week.

The media delegation that accompanied the winners was composed of Manila Bulletin’s Lifestyle section editor Isabel de Leon, PDI’s contributing writer Reynato Guatlo, Philippines Graphic magazine’s contributing food writer Editha Antenor, and this columnist, who had also served on the board of judges for the agri-journ writing and photo contest.

Attending officials of PMFTC, Inc. were corporate affairs director Bayen Elero, Atty. Amy Eisma and Didet Santiago, plus the Bright Leaf secretariat members David Isaac Buenaventura and Wee Tilos.

PMFTC Inc. president Chris Nelson reversed the usual order of our itinerary by hosting everyone for the traditional lavish dinner on the very first night. He had also just flown in from Beijing together with Atty. Eisma. And he would fly back ahead to Manila the day after.

But it used to be on the last day of the sortie when the genial Chris would join the delegation and treat to an elegant dinner. This was also the case with the Art Awards of the Philippines winners a few years back — as I still recall that memorable grand dinner with a grand view at the classy M on the Bund in Shanghai.

In Ho Chi Minh, the culinary treat with champagne toasts was at Nam Phan, which occupied an entire four-story building of PoMo architectural features cum orientalesque art deco.

And last year at KL, no less than the revolving resto Atmosphere 360, atop the needle-like KL Tower, was selected for the dinner venue. Philippine consular officials graced the occasion, and that fine meal came with the changing view of the cityscape at night, with the Petronas Twin Towers sailing past at least twice.

This time out, while we were billeted at Hotel Sofitel Guangzhou Sunrich, which boasted of dazzling architecture that bedazzled even more at night, we had our ceremonial grand dinner on the 71st Floor of the Four Seasons Hotel. An additional treat was the 70th-floor upper lobby that provided anyone with a camera terrific shots of the fabulously illuminated triangular atrium that soared up for some 30 more floors.  

The upscale lauriat — bookended by Tsingtao beer and Chateau des Crozes 2009 — consisted of the following, in this order: Barbecued meat combination 3 kinds; Double boiled silky fowl soup with fish maw; Pan-fried Wagyu beef; Braised sea cucumber with organic millet; Steamed pink grouper with ginger and spring onions in bamboo basket; Sautéed prawns with chili X.O. sauce; Stir-fried minced vegetables served with lettuce wraps; Seasonal vegetables in Supreme broth; Yu Yuen style fried rice; and Seasonal fruit platter. 

Burp. But it turned out to be the only memorable repast we had in Guangzhou. Well, that wasn’t really so surprising, even given the fact that our pancit Canton was supposed to have originated in the bustling city by the historic Pearl River.

In 1988, all of a quarter-century ago, I first visited Guangzhou as part of a Pinoy writers’ delegation (with fellow Philippine Star columnist Butch Dalisay and poets Ricky de Ungria, Eric Gamalinda and Ma. Fatima LIm) that also took us to Beijing and Shanghai. And I can’t recall any memorable meal either. In fact, we disliked the food in Beijing at the time, and only Shanghai seemed to provide some epicurean treats.

Despite the vaunted superiority of Chinese cuisine, the real treats aren’t quite as readily available — the way it seems to be uniformly beholden to quality when one ventures from all kinds of restos to street food stalls in Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur. Why, our own Binondo Chinese restos, especially those in Binondo and Greenhills, are uniformly superior, I daresay, to most eateries in cities in the Chinese mainland.

The only exception to my mind has been the Cong Dadong’as specialty Peking Duck resto in Beijing, supposedly the best and where I enjoyed the treat during the Beijing Olympics. Then there was that time a little over a decade ago when I joined another Pinoy writers’ group on a thrilling excursion to Kunming in Yunnan province, where the meals were all spicy and quaint, and delectable, served as they were by the varied cultural communities at each stop we made.

We all knew we wouldn’t get pancit Canton in Guangzhou, or what could even pass for it. But we had our hopes raised for hearty lunch at a ginormous buffet hall with what seemed a cornucopia of strange delights, including alligator head in soup. But that was it: the food was just quaint, or looked it. The treat was more visual, as the hall was guarded by futuristic robot figures.

And the two other restos we tried out in the Sofitel neighborhood didn’t turn out to be appealing either. So, thanks to Chris Nelson for the introductory dinner that more than made up for the rest. Oh, I’m sure there are quality restos galore in what’s also called “The City of Goats” (because residents punctuate every sentence with “Meh,” it is said — antedating Bart Simpson. But we just weren’t lucky, or were too driven by tight itinerary to make the good choice/s.

In any case, it wasn’t supposed to be a culinary tour. And we did get our fill of sight-seeing and culture visits, inclusive of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen’s Memorial Hall; Guangdong Folk Arts Museum with Chen’s Ancestral Hall, known as “The Pearl of Lingnan Architectural Art” — an architectural complex comprising 19 single buildings connected with verandas and interspaced by courtyards; a Buddhist temple with the Hall of Mahavira, where Maitreya and Sakyamuni are among the three large bronze statues cast in the 2nd Year of the Kangxi Period in the Qing Dynasty (1663 A.D.) — with a height of 6 meters and weight of 10 tons each — the biggest ancient bronze statues in Guangdong province.

And we did have some photo ops on the banks of the Pearl River. All in all, an enjoyable three days it was in Guangzhou. Congrats once again to the 6th BLAJA winners, and thanks to PMFTC, Inc. for the continuing treat throughout SouthEast Asia.