Going in blind
It is said that we must watch what we eat. For those of us who were invited to an interesting dinner concept at the Cebu City Marriott Hotel, we had the best excuse not to watch what we ate—we were blindfolded!
The unique experience of Dinner in the Dark is a creative partnership between the hotel and premier eyewear boutique, Eye Society. Apart from offering premium eyewear, Eye Society advocates increasing awareness of blindness in the Philippines, and the detection, prevention, and solution of loss of sight. Dinner in the Dark events benefit the Eye Bank Foundation of the Philippines, a non-profit organization that is dedicated to the restoration of sight through its work with eye tissues for transplant and research.
“Let’s take this event to become more conscious of this God- given sense,” said Mikko Araneta, Eye Society brand manager, before we were asked to put on our blindfolds for dinner.
It was quite a challenge to navigate drinking glasses, cutlery, and not spilling food on ourselves when we could not see what we were doing. To make things a little easier, each table had a guide who dictated to us that our wine was at our one o’clock, or we had pushed food to our six o’clock.
Without eating with our eyes, the rest of our senses were heightened. The guests had fun trying to guess what was in front of us, analyzing different textures and flavors. I guessed that we had sliced pork with pickled cucumber for starters, tomato soup with something a little sweet in it, salmon and mashed potatoes, and a cheesecake with a fruity twang.
As it turns out, the dishes that Thai executive chef Chachpol Suaisom had designed were all beautifully plated. We got to see onscreen pictures of the grilled pork with marinated sweet lemongrass and green mango salad; roasted tomato soup with thyme and cheese powder; herb crusted salmon with lemon pea mash, roasted onion, and saffron cream sauce; and a chocolate orange cheesecake with tropical fruit salad.
Not being able to see definitely gave us all a renewed appreciation for our sight, which provides 80 percent of the information we receive and process about our world. It’s an experience that will be offered to the public soon, so you can “see” for yourself what it’s like to have Dinner in the Dark.