adultdatingsingle

Viennese to get a taste of Pinoy food in Hiltons Philippine food festival

Filipino chefs Gilbert Edano and Jose Tagalog
By HECTOR PASCUA ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau
"Kain na Tayo," or "Let us eat," an invitation to share a meal, a personal interaction and a social experience. This has been realized in Vienna, Austria, when Hilton Hotel Vienna, in cooperation with the Philippine Embassy and the Filipino community in Vienna, opened the Philippine Food Festival on May 29.
Hilton Hotel Cebu sent to Vienna its chief cooks Gilbert Edano and Jose Tagalog. The two chefs will present during the week-long Philippine Food Festival, dubbed "Experience the Philippine flavors", the countrys favorites like adobo , the lechon and sinigang , together with a selection of other fine dishes.
Bernd Maier, Operations Manager of Hilton told ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau, "Our Hilton Hotel in Cebu is helping us to make this food festival for a week. Our main objective is primarily to introduce to our clients here in Austria, Filipino culture through these Philippine foods. The two chefs from Cebu are helping us to make authentic recipes. And I am very much convinced that they are really excellent cooks. And of course, it is an excellent Philippine cuisine."
Philippine Ambassador to Austria Linglingay Lacanlale likewise explained the purpose of the affair: "Tonight, we are opening the Philippine Food festival here at the Hilton hotel Vienna. This is in cooperation with Cebu Hilton. The purpose is to promote our cuisine as well as our food products."
"We have mangoes which we shipped from the Philippines. We have also beverages, courtesy of the Department of Agriculture, and we hope this will expose our products to the Austrian community and also for them to know our cuisine. Further, we hope, this will be a big opportunity to see for themselves how varied and rich the Filipino cuisine is," she said.
One foreign diplomat commented after tasting the adobong manok, "I love this chicken adobo. It is full of flavor, and extremely tender. It fell right off the bones. I will surely come back here together with my family."
An Indonesian diplomat who is a Catholic said, "the pork with some vegetables tastes good. We also have such thing in Indonesia, though I would say, this one is really different. I do like the vegetables in it like the okra, spinach, radish, green pepper and string beans. It is really excellent!"
No wonder that Mr. Bernd Maier, the operation manager affirmed, "Filipino cuisine is really very nice and very colorful. It is very impressive. I already heard positive comments from our clients. I think this Philippine Food Festival would be a very successful endeavor."
Aside from the classic Filipino recipes being served during the whole Food Festival, there are also typical Philippine appetizers. These feature cool, healthy concoctions with tropical savor with fruits like mangoes and pineapples, seafood like shrimps, tuna and mussels and local lime, herbs and spices.
Dessert offerings are fresh, ripe, succulent Philippine mangoes – the best in the world. There is also the halo-halo, a refreshing summer treat of iced tropical fruits, and a selection of Filipinos sweets, cakes and delicacies.
Governor Gwendolyn Garcia, who is on a business trip to Europe with some provincial board members of the Cebu government, also graced the occasion. She invited the guests to savor the Philippine cuisine in its proper setting, which is in Cebu. The governor also extended her invitation to visit the beautiful island of Cebu.
The Philippine Food Festival will last until June 5, 2008. There will be Filipino cultural performances every evening at the lobby of the Hilton Hotel, Vienna during the Food Festival.

Mitsui to source petrochemicals from Petron

Agence France-Presse

LIMAY, Bataan - Japanese trading giant Mitsui Co. Ltd. signed an agreement on Wednesday to buy the output of a newly-opened petrochemical facility from Philippine oil refiner Petron Corp.

Petron president Kamal Al-Yahya and Mitsui president Masayasu Nagai signed the agreement at the opening of the new facility.

The facility converts oil into higher-value products like liquefied petroleum gas, gasoline and diesel while producing chemicals like propylene that can be used to make plastic products.

The officials did not say how much propylene Mitsui had committed to buying or how much it would pay.

Go asserts supremacy in San Mig drag racing

The Philippine Star
Anthony Go of Team Ere displayed consistent performance as he turned back tough rivals to rule the Pro class recently in the fifth leg of the 2008 San Mig Coffee Drag Racing Championship at the Batangas Racing Circuit Drag Strip.
Go had to deal with top caliber rivals, including teammate and defending champion Jonathan Tiu, before pulling through with his third win in this eight-leg series sponsored by San Mig Coffee and supported by San Miguel Corporation, Pilipinas Shell, PagCor Sports, Fujitsu Ten Corporation of the Philippines, Denso, Yokohama and Stoplight TV.
After beating Tiu in the semifinals, Go barely escaped with the triumph in 16.931 seconds in his final faceoff against Ryan Lee of Speedwork.
Top lady driver When When Dagondon of Team Vannitec took third place.
With the victory, Go keeps solid grip of solo leadership in the Pro class with 55 points, making him Tius strongest rival for the coveted Drag Racing Driver of the Year plum.
"It was much tougher this time as other drivers are cramming to earn more points to boost their title bids. But luck was on my side and Im happy I got through," said Go.
Sharing the limelight with Go in this event sanctioned by the Automobile Association Philippines were Louie Montalbo of Montevita and Fritz Olan of Group N.
Montalbo ruled the Sportsman class with a time 15.407 seconds, winning by a slim margin over runner-up Edel Caraan of I-Drag TMC 15.532 seconds in their final showdown.
Michael Pua also of Group N was third in 14.306 seconds.

Oil eases below 124 dollars a barrel

Agence France-Presse
SINGAPORE - World oil prices eased further on Tuesday, trading below 124 dollars a barrel as profit taking helped cool a red-hot market, analysts said.
Crude oil prices have more than doubled in the past year and have rocketed about 25 percent since the start of 2008, when they broke the 100-dollar barrier.
"Oil prices have simply risen too far and too fast over a short period of time with really no reasons driving the rally, other than investor and technical interest," said Victor Shum, an analyst at Purvin and Gertz energy consultancy in Singapore.
New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for June delivery, was 73 cents lower at 123.50 dollars from 124.23 dollars at the close of trading in New York on Monday.
The benchmark contract traded lower for most of the New York session, but struck a record intraday high of 126.40 dollars.
Brent North Sea crude for June delivery was 51 cents lower at 122.40 dollars a barrel after a drop of 2.49 dollars to 122.91 dollars on Monday in London.
Along with an inflow of investor funds, analysts have cited a variety of other factors supporting this year's price spikes, including rising energy demand from Asian powerhouse economies China and India, and OPEC's refusal to pump more crude.
Oil prices were also moving in line with changes in the US dollar but Shum said that connection has weakened in recent days.
The dollar fell to a record of 1.6002 dollars for one euro on April 22 but has regained ground since then.
A weaker greenback makes dollar-priced crude cheaper for holders of stronger currencies.
Analysts say the market is looking overbought as threatened disruptions to the Middle East supply have failed to materialize, and as violent threats to output in Nigeria are increasingly priced in.
"There is still scope for a correction in oil pricing," Shum said. "The support level is 120 at this point."
US President George W. Bush will raise the issue of high oil prices and their negative economic impact when he visits Saudi Arabia on Friday, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
Saudi Arabia is the biggest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries , which produces about 40 percent of the world's oil.

Czech shooter wins first gold of Beijing Olympics

BEIJING - Czech shooter Katerina Emmons took the honour of winning the first gold medal of the Beijing Olympics as the first full day of competition began on Saturday after a dazzling opening ceremony.

After China showcased its rich history in a breathtaking spectacular on Friday night, competitors began their quest for the seven gold medals on offer on the opening day.

The first came at the shooting range where former world record holder Emmons shattered China's hopes of dominating the sport on home soil, with China's defending Olympic champion Du Li a distant fifth.

Lioubov Galkina of Russia won the silver and Snjezana Pejcic of Croatia claimed the bronze.

Of the other medal events on Saturday, China's world champion Peng Wei is a strong contender to win the day's other shooting discipline, the men's 10m air pistol.

Other finals include the men's cycling road race, women's 48kg weightlifting and individual sabre fencing as well as two judo divisions the women's 48kg and men's 60kg classes.

The competition proper began at dawn on Saturday in Hong Kong when veteran Olympic champion Mark Todd came out of retirement to become the first rider to compete in the three-day equestrian event.

I didn't expect to be number one, it was just the luck of the draw, said Todd, equestian's Rider of the 20th Century who won gold at Los Angeles and Seoul, and retired after claiming individual bronze in Sydney in 2000.

I'm used as cannon fodder. They said send the old bugger out there first and see what happens.

He scored 49.40 penalties putting him in the middle of the field in the first round.

Late in the day American swimming ace Michael Phelps dives into his quest for eight gold medals and Olympic immortality when he opens his campaign with the heats in a race he says may be one of his toughest - the 400m individual medley.

Australian ace Grant Hackett, who has his sights on a historic third straight Olympic 1,500m freestyle title, will warm up for his signature event the 400m freestyle.

The first session of swimming finals is on Sunday.

The opening day of the Games, however, was not without controversy as Greece recalled a track athlete after testing positive for a prohibited performance drug.

Greek officials did not immediately name the competitor but Greek media revealed it was men's 200 metre runner Tassos Gousis, who denied any wrongdoing.

I am innocent and my conscience is clear, Gousis told reporters. It would be stupid for me to take a banned substance just before the Games.

But drugs scandals, as well as the Games' political and pollution concerns were laid aside, at least briefly, at the stunning opening ceremony staged before 91,000 spectators in the iconic bird's nest stadium.

The march into the stadium of thousands of athletes from 204 nations and territories brought roars from the crowd, especially for Taiwan which is enjoying closer ties with its long-time rival.

Iraq, which was only allowed to compete here at the last minute, also brought thunderous applause, along with Russia and North Korea.

But the loudest cheers were saved for China's athletes, led into the stadium by famous NBA basketballer Yao Ming and nine-year-old Lin Hao, who survived China's devastating earthquake in May.