Green Christmas

The impact of climate change is becoming more serious than ever. Typhoons are going berserk in many areas. As the climate gets warmer, glaciers are melting and sea levels are getting alarmingly higher. Experts are anticipating serious disasters if nothing is done about the clear and present danger signs.

This is why serious efforts have to be made to remedy the situation and, hopefully, stop if not reverse climate change. Deciding to go green should be a good start for everyone. Saying “no” to plastics, using only biodegradable packaging, eating only sustainable and organically grown ingredients, and adopting eco-friendly practices not just at home and in school or at work but also when it comes to products that we choose to patronize, there’s no better time to start than now. Yes, now, Christmastime, when the world tends to use lots of packaging, lay out lavish food spreads on the table that do not get fully consumed and set aside environment-friendly practices for the sake of convenience!

Christmas can be a doubly meaningful celebration if we make that first step and go green now. There are so many ways to do it, and Cravings is giving us another option to go green by offering Green Christmas packages for us to consider. A restaurant brand of three decades which was started by the mother-and-daughter team of Annie Guerrero and Badjie Trinidad, Cravings has through the years become known as an eco-conscious restaurant that cascades its green practices to its customers.

This year, Cravings is making Green Christmas packages available for the first time, and these are highlighted by a sustainable menu made with local produce and prepared through low-energy and zero-waste methods.

There are two sets of Green Christmas lunch/dinner buffet menus to choose from: Set A and Set B. Each consists of appetizers, hot selections and desserts.

Set A consists of root crop chips and tomato mango salsa and Annie’s Organic Salad for the appetizers; free range chicken with rosemary garlic rub, organic spaghetti bolognese and roasted seasonal vegetables for the hot selections; and seasonal fruit platter and table praline brownies for the desserts.

Set B is made up of sopa de molo and Annie’s Organic Salad as appetizers; pancit palabok, fried lumpiang labong, seared tilapia with coconut pineapple relish and chicken inasal as hot selections; and Assorted Kakanin and Seasonal Fruit Platter as desserts.

For both menus, clients can have Cravings’ organic lechon station added and enjoy the roast pig’s crackling skin and tender meat.

Giving flexibility to the two available menus, the restaurant makes it possible for clients to customize or create their own menu. They can pick from any of these appetizers: tomato and basil bruschetta, chicken liver pate and crostini and vegetable crudites with blue cheese dip. For soup, the selections are truffle mushroom, seafood chowder and roasted pumpkin soup. For hot selections, there are many beef, pork and chicken dishes as well as a wide array of pasta and vegetable dishes to choose from.

For the sweets, Cravings lays out a good spread of cakes — such as Mango de Crema, Salted Caramel Cake and Tres Leches Cake — with Cravings’ famous Cookies, S’mores and Chocolate Barks.

“We want to show our customers and clients that it is possible to go green even with your events and catering. This is more relevant these days as we know that whatever we do has an impact on our climate and our one and only planet — the Earth. We might as well be responsible citizens who uphold environmentalism in our deeds and daily life,” says Pia Trinidad, Cravings’ business development head and granddaughter of Guerrero.

Speaking of Guerrero, an environmentalist who advocates a greener approach to culinary arts, she recently put together a passion project for the environment called Annie’s Kitchen. Its products are created using sustainable, old-fashioned methods at its earth kitchen in Kaingin, Quezon City. No artificial ingredients, chemicals or preservatives are used in the production of such interesting and delicious products as mixed root crop chips, banana chewies (chewy saba banana slices instead of crispy banana chips), roasted tomato and mango salsa, wild honey, organic achara and vegan bagoong (fermented santol).

These products are perfect as unique edible giveaways this Christmas. More than just being healthy for the body, they also fulfill a social responsibility, since Guerrero employs workers from indigent communities and thus provides much-needed employment to poor but deserving and persevering individuals. What’s more: part of the proceeds from the sales of these products goes back to the community.

Besides selling unique, relevant and eco-friendly food products, Annie’s Kitchen offers meal sets and packed food that can be delivered to parties and events. There are three menu sets to choose from, each coming with a starter, two main dishes, a vegetable dish, rice, beverage and dessert for as low as P300 per person.

The earth kitchen at Kaingin, Quezon City, likewise serves as a venue for seminars and workshops on different topics, such as ecological solid waste management, eco-brick making, sowing seeds, zero-waste crafts and bokashi. Companies, schools, groups and individuals can book the whole-day seminars and workshops for a minimal fee, which is inclusive of lunch and light snacks.

“In a world where environmental challenges seem so overwhelming, the easiest way for us to have a large impact is to reduce our individual waste, recycle and compost,” says Guerrero.

For inquiries and reservations on Cravings’ Green Christmas packages, call (02) 8726-2712, contact Viber 0977-0645453 or email salesexec@cravingsgroup.com. Meanwhile, for more information on Annie’s Kitchen, call (02) 8583-7905, 0917-8940455 or 0950-4302546.