MANILA, Philippines - Yes, it’s a double red-letter day this Sunday as we celebrate both the Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day (double sigh!). And at Mandarin Oriental, Manila, you get a quadruple dose of good food, good fortune, great art, and great festivities as it welcomes the Year of the Golden Tiger with a hearty roar.
We get a sneak peek into our fortune (or misfortune?) at the preview of Mandarin Oriental’s Chinese New Year celebration, a cherished tradition these past many Chinese New Years. For starters, well-loved, well-traveled feng shui master Joseph Chau dishes up the Year of the Tiger forecast for everyone’s delectation.
“It’s golden tiger, not metal tiger,” Master Chau clarifies. “It’s the yang tiger, meaning positive energy.”
Did we hear a loud roar across the Mandarin ballroom?
“Except for the dragon, the tiger is the strongest animal sign,” notes Chau. “This is a challenging year, but with the tiger’s positive energy, everybody will have more energy to face the year. Especially those born in the months of August, September, October, November, December, and January, who will have good luck for the next six years.”
Roars fill the four corners of the ballroom.
For the Year of the Golden Tiger, the lucky zodiac signs are Rabbit, Dragon, Horse, Goat, Rooster, Dog, and Pig. The not-so-lucky signs or those offending the tai suey (grand deity) are the Tiger, Monkey, Snake, and Ox.
The lucky colors are: “All the colors, except for pure white and pure black because they’re funeral colors,” asserts Chau.
The luckiest businesses include mining, banking, car selling, jewelry, hotel/tourism, entertainment, and electronics.
But the money star, says Chau, is “in prison.” How does one release it? The magic word is “declutter.” Don’t put too much furniture in your house or office as it will block the energy and keep it from flowing in. Once more, with feeling: Less is more.
“The door in the northeast location should be open,” the “house doctor” prescribes. “If there’s an air conditioner there, make sure it’s clean, there’s no dust.”
Now, that’s not just good feng shui, it’s good for our health and the environment, too.
Chau gives everyone this friendly advice, “Don’t expect too much. You earn something, win something, lose something. Don’t be too greedy. Don’t make any high-risk investment as you may lose everything.”
The prosperity star is in the northwest location. The trouble star is in the south, the travel star in the east, while the southwest is the disaster location. The latter is also symbolic of the ladies, especially those born in the Years of the Dog and the Monkey who must pay attention to their health.
Malacañang is facing southwest so the year 2010 is not so good for its premier occupant, Chau points out.
Any fearless forecast on Philippine politics? Chau is quick to reply, “In school, my teacher told me, ‘Joseph, no politics!’ Feng shui masters of the world never talk about politics.”
So, let’s talk about romance. For single Rabbits hopping around and hoping to find true love, their dream will finally come true. As for the single Snakes, there’ll be no hissing; instead, they’ll be kissing their bachelorhood goodbye as they meet their potential partners in life. Single Dogs have something to bark about as the romance star shines bright for them. It’s an auspicious year to get married for the Horse (no more horsing around, guys!), Pig, and Ox — so eat, drink, and be married!
While Master Chau gives us a serving of our good fortune, we get our fill of good food from the master chow — that is, Mandarin Oriental’s chef Hann Furn Chen, who’s cooking up a lauriat at Tin Hau from Feb. 13 to 28, together with the hotel’s Chinese chefs. For Tin Hau, he’s got five separate set menus for the twin Chinese New Year/Valentine’s Day celebration.
For your first auspicious meal in the Year of the Tiger, Mandarin Oriental has laid out an exquisite menu that starts with the New Year’s Five Happiness combination platter, a selection of specialties symbolizing abundance and prosperity: roasted suckling pig, deep-fried seafood roll with mango, Szechuan-style marinated jellyfish, bean curd sheet roll with shrimp, and sliced conch meat in soy sauce.
For soup, you’re having the much-prized braised shark’s fin soup with crab meat and roe. “We use only the best quality shark’s fins available, some coming from here and some from Hong Kong,” says Ernest Lau, F&B manager-Chinese operations. “There are no chemicals, no MSG (monosodium glutamate).”
“It takes a very long time to prepare it,” says Chen. “First, the shark’s fin is steamed for two to three hours. Then it is run in water for eight hours; steamed again for two to three hours; cooled again, and then put in the chiller to make it expand a little.”
“Only about two or three hotels in the country have this kind of shark’s fin because it is so expensive,” Lau is proud to tell us. “And it requires a lot of skill and technique to prepare it.”
Also, it’s the Sri Lankan crab roe from Singapore that’s used in this soup-er dish because it’s bigger, of better quality, and is more aromatic, too.
Other dishes in this lucky menu, some of which we were lucky to have tasted, are the stir-fried scallops and shrimps with XO sauce; braised dried scallops, Chinese mushrooms and black moss with lettuce in abalone sauce; steamed live grouper in homemade soy sauce; yang chow fried fragrant rice; stir-fried noodles with shrimps and bean sprouts, steamed pork and vegetable dumplings; and Two-way Chicken.
To sweeten up your luck, there’s the ubiquitous tikoy, the hot red bean creamed with glutinous rice balls, and homemade black sesame seed ice cream for dessert.
Meanwhile, providing a sensual feast are three renowned artists — Ramon Diaz, Roberto Robles, and Cesar Caballero — who interpret the dawning of the Chinese New Year in Galleria Duemila’s show dubbed “Emergent Energy” at the Captain’s Bar and the Clipper Lounge.
Lucky guests also get to enjoy the Celebrations special room package from Feb. 12 to 15, which includes buffet breakfast at Paseo Uno for two persons, a copy of the Year of the Tiger Forecast, a welcome gift of a bottle of wine and a bouquet of flowers, P1,000 dining credit at any of the restaurants, 20-percent discount on a la carte treatments at The Spa at Mandarin Oriental, and a late check-out option of up to 4 p.m. (subject to space availability). The package starts at P6,888++ for one night and P11,888+++ for two nights in a Superior Room.
On the eve of the Chinese New Year, the Saturday night celebration kicks off on an auspiciously delicious note: an imperial 10-course lauriat dinner at Mandarin’s ballroom, elegantly adorned with accent furniture from Noble House. Sponsors include Infinity powered by Smart, Citibank, Hennessy XO, BMW, and Enchanted Kingdom. Main attractions are master geomancer Joseph Chau, of course, and the colorful Chinese dance performances by the Shin Yi Dance Troupe.
At cocktails at the hotel’s porte-cochere, Mandarin Oriental general manager Mark Bradford opens the evening with the traditional ceremony of dotting the eyes of the lions and a dragon. And then, to warmly welcome the Year of the Tiger, a fireworks display lights up the skies shortly before 11 p.m.
Surely, we can only predict a roaring good time for everyone at this twin feast!
* * *
Tickets to the celebration are available at P2,688 net for adults and P988 net for children, including exclusive access to all the festivities, a seat at the midnight lauriat, and a copy of Master Joseph Chau’s 2010 Year of the Golden Tiger Forecast. The book will be sold at P398 at the Lobby Shop and Mandarin Deli beginning Feb. 13.
For more information on Mandarin Oriental, Manila’s Chinese New Year activities, call the hotel at 750-8888 or e-mail at momnl-reservations@mohg.com. Details are also available on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MandarinOrientalManila.