{"id":220940,"date":"2016-02-16T04:00:53","date_gmt":"2016-02-15T18:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=220940"},"modified":"2016-02-16T04:00:53","modified_gmt":"2016-02-15T18:00:53","slug":"aqua-resort-holdsvalentines-buffet-for-the-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/aqua-resort-holdsvalentines-buffet-for-the-first-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Aqua Resort holdsValentine\u2019s buffet for the first time"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-220940 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/aqua-resort-holdsvalentines-buffet-for-the-first-time\/arc-3\/'>ARC-3<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-220945'>\n\t\t\t\tAs an appetizer, a shot of Bloody Mary with oyster was served to the guests. (Frauleine Villanueva-Dizon)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/aqua-resort-holdsvalentines-buffet-for-the-first-time\/arc-4\/'>ARC-4<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-220944'>\n\t\t\t\tPete and Mathilde Igitol have been spending their Valentines at Aqua Resort for over 20 years. (Frauleine Villanueva-Dizon)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/aqua-resort-holdsvalentines-buffet-for-the-first-time\/arc-1-2\/'>ARC-1<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-220942'>\n\t\t\t\tYoung couples are the generation targeted by Aqua Resort Club this year as they offer buffet dinner for Valentine\u2019s Day. (Frauleine Villanueva-Dizon)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/aqua-resort-holdsvalentines-buffet-for-the-first-time\/arc-2-2\/'>ARC-2<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-220943'>\n\t\t\t\tA violinist serenades dining couples. (Frauleine Villanueva-Dizon)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/aqua-resort-holdsvalentines-buffet-for-the-first-time\/arc-5\/'>ARC-5<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-220941'>\n\t\t\t\tSpecial desserts and pastries were served for the occasion by ARC\u2019s pastry chef. (Frauleine Villanueva-Dizon)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>For more than 20 years, the Igitol couple has been celebrating Valentine\u2019s Day at Aqua Resort.<br \/>\nPete and Mathilde Igitol said they love spending dinner nights in Aqua Resort especially during the special day for lovers and couples because they feel like they\u2019re home.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe go here because it\u2019s a place where we can relax, friendly atmosphere, and we really enjoy ourselves,\u201d Pete said, \u201cCouples come here, they enjoy, no pushing, no need to hurry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Unlike the Igitols\u2019 over two decades of dining, however, last Sunday\u2019s dinner at Ra Raina for Valentine\u2019s Day was something new. Instead of a sit down, fine dining dinner, a buffet was set up for the guests.<\/p>\n<p>According to Marie Ann Razon, ARC assistant food and beverage manager, this is the first time that they offered dinner for Valentine \u2019s Day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor how many years, Aqua Resort has been known for holding fine dining for Valentine\u2019s Day. This is the first time that we had a buffet,\u201d Razon said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe just want to try and see what the outcome is and actually it is the idea of our executive chef to try something new,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the buffet setup, servers of Ra Raina served guests\u2019 initial items.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo that the couple can still have a little moment to themselves, we served them appetizers and main course first,\u201d Razon said.<\/p>\n<p>For the appetizer, a cocktail shot of Bloody Mary with fresh oyster was served.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat was the first that we served to everybody,\u201d Razon said.<\/p>\n<p>It was followed by the main course, which is the Certified Angus Beef\u00a0Captain\u2019s\u00a0Cut\u00a0Prime Rib.<\/p>\n<p>Over 40 other items were made available to the guests via the buffet table, which includes their carving station featuring lamb shawarma with condiments and pita bread, and baked whole salmon in sea salt meringue and tomato pesto remoulade among others.<\/p>\n<p>The eight items under entrees include pork hocks, tilapia fillet with cranberry butter and asparagus in orange ginger salsa, and chicken brochette with forest mushrooms<\/p>\n<p>For seafood, they also served crab legs with mignonette sauce, poached shrimps with cocktail sauce, and green mussels with chimichurri sauce aside from the sashimi and sushi items.<\/p>\n<p>Eleven items were served for dessert including white chocolate raspberry cheesecake, mascarpone strawberry cupcake, and assorted valentine cookies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo cater to the occasion, our pastry chef made different than usual desserts,\u201d Razon said.<\/p>\n<p>Free flowing wine and beer were also served with the help of ARC\u2019s sponsor, MarPac.<\/p>\n<p>Razon said they had reservations of over 100 as opposed to when holding fine dining where they can only accommodate around 60 people. <\/p>\n<p>The dinner buffet is much more cost friendly for the guests also as it is priced at $45 per person as opposed to their four or five-course meal which is about $60 and above.<\/p>\n<p>Razon said they are targeting more of the younger generation to try the dining experience at their hotel. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can see we have more of the younger generation,\u201d Razon said, \u201cWe are trying to get that kind of market and at the same time accommodate the older market.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Razon said another usual customer that they have didn\u2019t want to do the fine dining this year and was thinking of going to another restaurant. However, when they knew that it was buffet, they went ahead and made their usual reservations.<\/p>\n<p>Razon said they might continue with the buffet dinner next year, but they will still do add in extras for the guests like serving them special items per table.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For more than 20 years, the Igitol couple has been celebrating Valentine\u2019s Day at Aqua&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":220941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7318,3088,9721,9722],"class_list":["post-220940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-aqua-resort","tag-arc","tag-mathilde-igitol","tag-ra-raina"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}