PIC pulls out all the stops for November

Pacific Islands Club—one of the CNMI’s leading hotels—has prepared special dining promotions for this month as the public celebrates Thanksgiving Day and other special events in the countdown to the December holidays.

Already known for its lunch buffet at its Magellan Restaurant, PIC invites the public to celebrate Thanksgiving at the restaurant, with a long list of special items added to the $25-buffet. The Thanksgiving lunch buffet on Nov. 25 will run from 11am to 2pm.

“There will be turkey with all the trimmings, roast suckling pig, maple baked chicken breasts, mashed potatoes, a Caesar salad station, Jumbo Hero sandwich, and, for the not-so-traditional, sushi and sashimi. There will be sweets as well, pecan pie, red wine cake and pumpkin carrot pie,” said PIC executive chef Robert Stern.

For Thanksgiving dinner, Magellan will start serving special menu as early as 5:30pm until 9pm.

“For $30, we continue the Thanksgiving theme with turkey and all the trimmings as well as stuffed pork chops, mahi in shrimp sauce, sweet yams and long beans and, of course, we can’t forget the pecan, apple and peach pies,” Stern added.

Saipan’s favorite sunset hangout, PIC’s Seaside Grill, will offer $30-menu from 6pm to 9pm on Thanksgiving. The special menu will offer a choice of traditional turkey dinner, cabbage wrapped monkfish or rack of lamb. Choices for dessert include pecan, pumpkin, and short dough apple pies with cinnamon or honey vanilla ice cream.

The Thanksgiving event is just one of the many special events the PIC has been preparing for. There will be a festive mood at the PIC on Nov. 27, when the hotel hosts the Thai festival known as Loy Krathong. The festival would feature Thai dancers, traditional arts and crafts, Stern said.

Running from 7pm to midnight, Stern said the festival would also feature Thai food such as chicken coconut soup and Thai barbecued chicken.

On Dec. 1, PIC’s Galley Restaurant will have an outdoor sit-down barbecue on the lawn from 6pm to 8pm. The barbecue will feature rib-eye steaks, shrimp skewers, baby back ribs, chicken breasts, lamb chops, corn on the cob, baked potatoes, salad, and dessert.

Even before Thanksgiving and other holidays, the PIC has also begun offering unique cuisine at the Seaside Grill, a favorite place for watching the beautiful sunset and for candle-lit dining by the sea.

Beginning today, Seaside Grill—and the Galley Restaurant—would be serving Beaujolais Nouveau, a special French wine.

“This is the new wine harvest in France. It is shipped to Saipan and here for you to enjoy at the Galley and Seaside Grill restaurants at the Pacific Islands Club for $6 dollars a glass and $32 dollars a bottle. This wine is light, fruity and easy to drink,” Stern said.

Seaside Grill now has “early bird set menus,” which are served between 5pm to 7pm.

For couples and buddies, Seaside Grill offers $60-set menu for two from 6pm until 9:30pm. The set menu includes a complimentary bottle of red or white wine or house champagne.

“The restaurant offers choices of tantalizing dishes, starting with smoked salmon and ahi tuna poke or chicken kelaguen and continuing with fillet of beef on a risotto cake with goat cheese or potato scaled parrot-fish with roast tomatoes in a bell pepper cream sauce,” Stern said.

The Seaside Grill also now offers monthly specials, such as hero sandwiches for the month of November. Hero specials are served at only $12, and are served with a tossed salad and either French fries or home baked potato chips. The restaurant offers lunch from 11am to 2pm.

“Seaside Grill…is doing heroes…from a meatball hero with caramelized onion to a breaded shrimp hero with Cajun mayonnaise,” Stern said.

Other hero sandwiches include chicken cutlet parmesan hero in marinara sauce, sausage and peppers, tempura dipped salmon with tomato and Tinian pepper mayonnaise, sliced steak with grilled onions and red wine sauce, among others.

For December, Seaside Grill will offer assorted fried rice with grilled sates as monthly special. Choices include chicken fried rice with chicken sates, beef fried rice with beef sates, seafood fried rice with mahi sates, shrimp fried rice with shrimp sates, and vegetable fried rice with tofu sates.