THE Chinese New Year is all about reunions and feasts and the Royal Mandaya Hotel was all that last February 5 as it celebrated the Lunar New Year with a bang.
The lobby of the hotel was clad in shares of red and gold with a wing of the grandiose space converted into a mini Chinatown complete with a booth selling traditional Chinese treats such as hopia (mung bean cakes) and tikoy (sticky new year rice cake).
For the romantic, there is a massive wishing wall, where one can wish for finding love, prosperity, or good fortune. There is also a fortune telling corner where one can consult mediums from the Angel Tarot Readers for their fortune in the Year of the Pig.
The program started with a fan dance followed by a traditional Chinese Lion Dance. Energetic and fun, the dance is supposed to drive away evil spirits as well as bestow good fortune to everyone seeing it. A pat on the lion’s head is also said to make one’s wishes come true.
A sumptuous dinner buffet at the Kamayo Cafe was promptly opened with guests feasting on Filipino and Chinese dishes. There was a dimsum station, various Chinese appetisers, and a fried dumpling station. My favourite dishes of the evening were the roast pork belly which was served with its skin crispy and meat tender to the bite and the fried garoupa, since fish is a staple in any Chinese new Year feast.
The dinner ended with fortune cookies distributed to the guests with lucky diners finding prizes such as dinner or lunch at the Royal Mandaya Hotel’s Kamayo Cafe and an overnight stay with breakfast at the hotel’s superior room.
