{"id":248633,"date":"2017-03-21T06:06:44","date_gmt":"2017-03-20T20:06:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=248633"},"modified":"2017-03-21T06:06:44","modified_gmt":"2017-03-20T20:06:44","slug":"virgo-cruise-starts-food-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/virgo-cruise-starts-food-trip\/","title":{"rendered":"Virgo\u00a0cruise starts with a food trip"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-248633 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\/virgo-cruise-starts-food-trip\/img_1811\/'>IMG_1811<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-248635'>\n\t\t\t\tResorts World Manila\u2019s Stay and Cruise package FAM tour participants are just about to ready to sit down for a hearty meal at\u00a0Sharmila Ihaw-Ihaw Paluto Seafood Restaurant along Macapagal Avenue in Pasay City. (MARK RABAGO)\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\/virgo-cruise-starts-food-trip\/img_1829\/'>IMG_1829<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-248636'>\n\t\t\t\tMedia and\u00a0Stay and Cruise package\u00a0partners pose for a group photo after enjoying a full-course Chinese lauriat. (MARK RABAGO)\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\/virgo-cruise-starts-food-trip\/img_1835\/'>IMG_1835<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-248637'>\n\t\t\t\tCopa de Manila\u00a0was so named to reflect\u00a0Winford Hotel&#8217;s racetrack past. (MARK RABAGO)\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\/virgo-cruise-starts-food-trip\/img_1836\/'>IMG_1836<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-248638'>\n\t\t\t\tPancit canton made a cameo at\u00a0Copa de Manila&#8217;s breakfast buffet spread. (MARK RABAGO)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>MANILA, Philippines\u2014A tourism trend that has yet to take root in the CNMI is the concept that food in itself can be a come-on for tourists to visit a destination.<\/p>\n<p>The epicurean tour has long been established in the Philippines and during the launch and accompanying familiarization tour of Resorts World Manila\u2019s Stay and Cruise package, media from the Northern Marianas and Guam found themselves gorging on plate-loads of food to their heart\u2019s content.<\/p>\n<p>After a short three-and-a-half hour trip from Guam via Cebu Pacific that was preceded by a short commute from Saipan for media from the CNMI, the assembled tour participants of RWM\u2019s Stay and Cruise program went straight to Sharmila Ihaw-Ihaw Paluto Seafood Restaurant along Macapagal Avenue in Pasay City.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0dampa\u00a0setup last Saturday teemed with seafood aplenty, which our intrepid reporters and Stay and Cruise program partners that joined the trip were more than happy to indulge on.<\/p>\n<p>A\u00a0dampa\u00a0eatery usually entails diners to go first to a wet market and buy the ingredients they want to eat\u2014fish, meat, vegetables, and the like\u2014and have the food establishment cook it for them in the manner to their liking. To save time, RWM staff already pre-ordered the dishes.<\/p>\n<p>Between rekindling past experiences coming to Manila and growing up in the Philippine capital (some of the tour participants used to live and work in the city), they feasted on native dishes that included nilasing na hipon (literally drunken shrimp), squid adobo, inihaw na baboy (grilled pork), crab drenched in tomato sauce, baked mussels, and sinigang na isda sa misu.<\/p>\n<p>Some of them even caved in to the hosts\u2019 persistent suggestions to try the freshly made mango shake. They weren\u2019t disappointed.<\/p>\n<p>During the launch of the Stay and Cruise program at the Winford Hotel in Tayuman later in the evening, dinner was a full Chinese lauriat\u2014a couple of hours after the sheer gluttony that happened at the\u00a0dampa.<\/p>\n<p>Peking duck, braised octopus, steamed chicken, tofu and kangkong, and the ubiquitous Chinese noodles were just some of the sumptuous items on the menu. Dessert wasn\u2019t shabby too, with one tour participant suggesting that she stuffed a couple of custard buns inside her bag for her\u00a0midnight\u00a0snack.<\/p>\n<p>Next day\u2019s breakfast was at Copa de Manila, another reference to the Winford Hotel\u2019s storied racetrack past, a standard Filipino buffet spread of tocino, beef tapa, fried rice, and a cameo appearance of pancit canton greeted the group almost giddy with excitement to begin their cruise aboard the SuperStar\u00a0Virgo\u00a0luxury liner later that night.<\/p>\n<p>Two days into RWM\u2019s Stay and Cruise\u2014even before coming aboard the maiden voyage of SuperStar\u00a0Virgo\u2019s\u00a0Laoag, Kaoshung, and Hong Kong cruise\u2014participants of the FAM tour already were already treated to a gastronomic experience that served as a perfect prelude to the six-day, five-night cruise.<\/p>\n<p>The global hotel brand\u2019s Stay and Cruise program aboard the SuperStar\u00a0Virgo\u00a0is currently accepting reservations. For a starting rate of just $655, cruise-goers get an overnight stay at any RWM hotels.<\/p>\n<p>Guam and Saipan residents can directly avail of the Stay and Cruise package using credit card payments through the SSV RWM BUNDLE option at\u00a0www.rwmanila.com\/stayandcruise. Those interested can also call John Hagemann at +63917878583\/john.hagemann@rwmanila.com\u00a0or Janine Chua at\u00a0+639178788576\/ janine.chua@rwmanila for more details. For other inquiries and reservations, contact Tourist\/Visitor Hotline at (02) 908-8833 or visit\u00a0www.rwmanila.com.<br \/>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MANILA, Philippines\u2014A tourism trend that has yet to take root in the CNMI is the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":248635,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[26,42,51,13892],"class_list":["post-248633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-and-style","tag-cnmi","tag-food","tag-guam","tag-rwm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248633","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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}