Sept 18 - Sanya Dining

We have a saying in China: food is heaven. For those of you who know me well, I am the living example of that saying. That's because I inherited it from my dad. My dad is great cook and a fussy eater. When he travels, his biggest problem is always finding food that lives up to his standards. I had an earful of his complaints when he spent two months in Ottawa: cucumbers were too large; tomatoes were tasteless; beef and pork were frozen instead of fresh; even the stove was not perfect - it was not a gas stove. Knowing my dad's idiosyncracy about food, I paid special attention to food during my hotel research. Numerous on-line postings gave Horizon a high score on food - it was the main reason why I chose the hotel. I was anxious to find out if the on-line comments were accurate.

Our first meal was breakfast on the morning after our arrival. It was a buffet. I have tried many breakfast buffets. The Westin Hotel in Ottawa is a favourite spot for Kenny and I in the winter for breakfast buffets. When we go to Barbados, the Hilton is our favourite buffet place. But both places pale in comparison with the Horizon. The breakfast buffet is held in the coffee shop in the hotel. Don't be fooled by the name "coffee shop" and start visualing a Starbucks-sized estalishment. The coffee shop in the Horizon is a huge hall with marble floors built on an elevated platform. It is surrounded on three sides by beautiful trellises and a lotus pond. We chose a table underneath the trellis beside the peach-blossomed lotus flowers, where we could see the sea just beyond the coconut trees surrounding meadow in front of the coffee shop. As soon as she saw up approach the table, a waitress came over and asked us if we would like coffee or tea. All the waitresses are dressed in a type of local attire, have the same hair style, pleasant-looking and extremely helpful. There is never a chance for used dishes and utensils to pile up on your table - the waitresses keep a close eye on what you no longer need.

The food was amazing both in variety and quality. Coming from a country that greatly respects multiculturalism, I could really appreciate the care that was taken to please people from different parts of the world. There is always a Japanese hot dish of some sort - vegetable teriyaki or meat teriyaki; several south east Asian dishes - Malaysian chicken curry, Thai Tom Yum soup, Indonesian beef, Singapore fried rice noodle; an section dedicated to Mexican food - tortilla chips, cooked ground beef, guacomole, shredded cheddar, tomato and lettuce; complete selection of western-style breakfast items - bacon, sausages, ham, omelette made to your liking, fried eggs, fresh-baked goods, stewed tomatoes, home fries, toasts and jam. The juice bar offers interesting choices, including mango juice and papaya juice. Fresh fruits are different from what we are used to in Shanghai - fresh papaya everyday, star fruit and the sweetest canteloupe. Surprisingly there is also a yoghurt and cheese bar. I tried a piece of brie cheese - not bad for Chinese cheese.

But my favourite spot in the whole buffet, by far, is the Chinese table. It is located right at the entrace of the buffet. You can get plain congee, black rice congee, Japanese miso soup, Korean miso soup, Vietnamese sweet and sour soup, soy milk and all the congee fixings - a variety of Chinese pickles, deep-fried peanuts and fermented bean curd. Everyday there is an offering of 4 different dim sum items, lotus cakes, Japanese steamed eggs, shrimp dumplings, fried noodles, fried rice, spare ribs with black bean sauce, etc. However, the spot that I visit most often is the Cantonese congee station. Cantonese people are known for their ingenuity when it comes to food. Cantonese congee is one of their famous inventions. You start with plain congee and add an assortment of meat and dried food, then flavor it to your liking. The best combination, in my opinion, is liver with fish. I know most of my North American friends would be frowning severely by now but if you haven't tasted liver and fish congee, you absolutely have to give it a try! The chefs at the congee station are quite skilled. The fish and liver are made to perfection. They always add some ginger slivers to take away the fishy taste before they start. And I would add green onion, coriander, dried seaweed flakes, chili oil and just a drop of soy sauce. I converted mom and dad on the first day. The three of us take turns going to get our fish and liver congee while the other two eat the freshly-prepared fare. The congee chef is also in charge of blanching fresh veggies. We always complete our breakfast with a plate of fresh-blanched bokchoy or Chinese lettuce. The result of our breakfast buffet is that we didn't need any lunch for the four days we stayed on the island.

As one could guess, the specialty food on the island is seafood - probably caught from the body of water 100 yards from our room. We had nothing but seafood for four days. It was difficult for mom because she prefers meat to seafood. But it would be silly to choose meat over seafood when you can have such fresh seafood! We were adventuresome, we had seafood in two of the many restauratns in Horizon, one restaurant near center town and one restaurant (if you can call it that) on a dilapidated boat! Some restaurants are so clean you can eat off the floor. On the other hand, the boat restaurant we went to made my hair stand up on their ends. It was absolutely filthy. Although the food tasted alright, I was half expecting getting poisoned any time. But I wanted to experience how local people dine so we stuck it out. In the end, nobody got sick. The format of the seafood restaurants are all the same. When you walk in, you see a wall lined with fish tanks. Different marine lives swim/crawl around in these tanks. You would pick what you want and how much you want. The waitresses will kill the seafood in front of you and weigh them. The killing part is quite difficult for me. So much so that I stopped choosing fish after two meals. They kill the fish with a baseball bat. At least you don't have to knock the clams and the shrimps with weapons. The different types of shell fish are most delicious. My favourite is something called mango clam. Its shell is shaped like a mango and has a touch of mango-color to it. Here is picture of some clams, shrimps and crabs.

My most satisfactory dining experience is the seafood hotpot in Horizon. It was a beautiful night. The sun has set and the sillouette of the coconut trees was dark against the deep blue sky. The seafood hotpot is served on a large paved square beside the sea, under large coconut trees. Since it was the slow season, there were only 3 groups occupying the large square where seafood hotpot is offered. We had the full attention of many beautiful waitresses. They brought a large pot filled with nutritious broth (Chinese ginseng, red dates, ginger and other good stuff were brewed in it) and placed it on a stove in the center of the table. We were free to order anything we would like from a large menu - shellfish, fish, shrimps, crabs, meat, veggies, etc. As our food arrived, we cooked them ourselves in the pot to perfection and then dip them in a sauce we mix ourselves from some twenty condiments. The only thing they didn't allow us to cook were the shrimps. The shrimps were still jumping around and if we cooked them ourselves, we probably would have been scalded from the splashing broth. Everything was amazingly tasty because they were so fresh. The service was out of this world. Our waitresses were so attentive and pleasant I almost wanted to take one home with me. Here is a photo the three of us waiting for our hotpot meal and a picture of our selections.

All in all, dining in San Ya was excellent, especially its seafood. For those of you who might travel to San Ya and decide to stay at Horizon, my advice is that you will be more than happy if you just dined at the restaurants inside the hotel. You will receive great value, outstanding service as well as a tasty meal. Whatever you do, do NOT go to a dilapidated boat and eat there. I have tried to live like a local person and only came to realize that I am after all, a tourist.