Every year, Town & Country magazine hosts the Fabulous Food Affair where the country’s best and most renowned chefs gather in one venue to let Manila’s elite, as well as various gastronomes, sample their delicious creations. This year was my first time to attend this epicurean experience, which was held at the Raffles ballroom of Fairmont Makati hotel.
Disclaimer: I apologize for the poor picture quality. I was only using my phone’s camera and it was dark inside the venue so I had to use a lot of flash. The photos really don’t do the delicious food justice!
I knew there was going to be a lot of eating so I came prepared. I wore a tight belt to keep my bulging tummy from hanging loose! Haha!
At the foyer, guests were crowding around this roving cheese buffet on wheels!
When I say “cheese on wheels,” I literally meant “cheese on wheels.” The cheese were actually placed on a Bambike, a bicycle created with natural bamboo by members of the Gawad Kalinga, a Philippine-based foundation that aims to eradicate poverty. I salute whoever thought of the concept of integrating the Bambike and food. This is the perfect example of injecting creativity in social and environmental responsibility.
Gruyere, manchego, brie, and more! I couldn’t get enough of these cheeses!
Another attraction during the event was this Asian street food cart. Look at all those vivid colors! How can you not want to sample everything? I had to stop myself from overeating the food in this cart because I had to leave room for the other dishes waiting for me inside the ballroom. But trust me, it was hard!
Tasting these spices was like taking a little trip to different parts of Asia! There’s the sambal trasi from Indonesia, the kimchi from Korea, the tobiko and nori flakes from Japan, and more!
Even the oils look classy!
Everyone loved the Asian street food such as squid stuffed with beef rendang, crispy prawn satay, duck rice, sushi rice risotto, and other yummy snacks.
My officemate Tin was my date for the night. We were waiting for the program to start, at least for a host or voice over talent to announce the opening of the event. About 30 minutes after we took our seats, we realized that there was no program! Town & Country literally just invited people to the event to eat, period. I have no problem with that at all!
Above is a photo of Your Local‘s Foie Gras satay. I love foie gras to bits, and this did not disappoint!
The chef of Your Local doing some nice touches on the Foie Gras Satay
Such vibrant colors of Phat Pho‘s fresh spring rolls and spices.
I’ve never eaten at Antonio’s (shame on me!) and it’s hailed as one of the best restaurants not only in Tagaytay but also in the Philippines, so when I saw these smoked salmon canapés from Antonio’s, I knew it was my lucky day!
Gaucho‘s carving station. I didn’t want to load up on meat that night but failed. These looked too appetizing!
Oh dear! Rabbit pâté?! I was debating on whether to eat this or not because rabbits are such cute little creatures and I had seven rabbits for pets before. (Seven! And all of them died!) But I was really curious so I had one. I didn’t enjoy it that much though because an image of a sweet little bunny kept popping up in my head.
There was so much food in the ballroom that I did not even get to take a photo of all of them because: a) I was too busy balancing plates in my hands to even have time to hold my phone, and b) I was too excited to eat! I’m just going to go straight to desserts:
From pictures, you might think that this is just a typical dessert table. But the reality is, my phone’s camera could not handle the amplitude of the dessert section, which seemed to go on infinitely. It filled one side of the ballroom, and I could see people looking at it, asking themselves “Oh my god. Where should I start?!” It was really impossible to get to try everything on the dessert section because there must have been hundreds of different kinds of sweets there!
As if the dessert section inside the ballroom was not enough, there was also this sugary spread waiting for us outside the ballroom:
You might be asking, “What in the world is that?!” THAT is an amazing chocolate buffet created by Chef Miko Aspiras of Raffles Makati. Yes, each and every morsel you see on that table is a piece of confection. It’s a delicious and beautiful mess!
Chocolate overload! Those cracked balls are made of chocolate and you can scoop out liquid chocolate from inside them. To show us what they’re made of, the chef took one ball and smashed it with his tools, and revealed the luscious filling of each chocolate ball.
I have never seen anything like this before, so I kept taking photos of the chocolate buffet from all sides. It’s too cool!
There’s dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate, and then there are out-of-this-world flavors like miso and edamame! They all tasted good!
Congratulations, Town & Country magazine, for such an exquisite, unique, and FABULOUS event! I don’t mind gaining the extra pounds at all!
This event was presented by: SMEG, Smart Infinity, and Volvo
Venue Sponsor: Raffles Makati & Fairmont Makati
Official Cocktail Sponsors: Johnnie Walker Gold Label Reserve, Ketel One Vodka, and Tanqueray
Official Wine Sponsor: McGuigan Wines
Town & Country also thanks: Spruce Floral Designs and Mayura Full-Blood Wagyu Beef
Oh my your post made e wanna just head in to Raffles’ for lunch.
BTW, I followed you in GCF, for i’m building up my linkages, hope you could follow me back, and I’m definitely following your escapades already. Here is my page: http://www.gastronomybyjoy.com
See you around!