By Alexie Villegas Zotomayor
Variety Features Editor

“We want to help some more.”
This is what Aqua Resort Club’s food and beverage sales manager Yoshimi Yanagisawa told Variety as she talked about raising the islanders’s awareness of environmental conservation in their efforts of supporting the Beautify CNMI! coalition at the Costa Terrace Restaurant during their Mongolian Barbecue night recently.
Yanagisawa said that Aqua Resort Club’s relationship with Beautify CNMI! began with their green concert whose proceeds went to Beautify CNMI!. Then ARC began participating in cleanups and other Beautify CNMI! activities that they thought of doing something to help some more.
In an earlier media statement, Yanagisawa said that 10 percent of the revenue from every diner at Aqua Resort Club will be donated to the Beautify CNMI! through the Mariana Islands Nature Alliance on April 1.
Yanagisawa told Variety that despite them not having a fat check to donate, “we’ll do what we can to raise funds for Beautify CNMI!”
Aside from inviting the public to dine at Aqua Resort Club for their fundraiser, Yanagisawa also told Variety that they are also encouraging the public to try their Mongolian barbecue buffet, which was an offshoot of their Friday seafood buffet. She said, “Due to its popularity among diners, we had to make it as a separate buffet.”
The Mongolian Barbecue Night is held every Wednesday at the Costa Terrace Restaurant of Aqua Resort Club. Diners are welcomed by a long table where pork, beef, chicken, fish, vegetables, noodles, and spices await for them. The end product would depend on how well a diner mixes the ingredients and which sauces suit his taste. All the cooks have to do is just cook the mixed ingredients and the wait staff garbed in Chinese traditional costume deliver it to the tables — hot and fresh.
“You don’t eat anything you don’t like,” said Yanagisawa as she showed how a diner can choose from over 20 ingredients and sauces.
Yanagisawa also said that they also offer a shrimp fountain, “siopao” and “siomai” aside from their good selection of desserts at the dessert bar and the salad bar. They also offer “all you can drink draft beer.”
Mongolian Barbecue Night is something diners would consider blocking all Wednesdays of the calendar for.
Yanagisawa also added that they are holding pasta buffet every Saturday simultaneous with their Cowboy Grill. She said that for $14, diners can have either one or both pasta and can choose from five sauces available.
Aside from their pasta night, executive chef Hubert Friedle is also encouraging the public to try starting Jan. 15 the rare Chilean sea bass or Patagonian toothfish. An expensive commodity that has been a regular entry on upscale menus in New York restaurants and elsewhere in the Western world, Chilean sea bass costs around $60 for a mere 16 oz fillet. Chef Friedle said that they will be offering it for $25 for the main course, every dinner, every day starting Jan. 15.
For one whole month, gourmets on island will be able to sample the rare Patagonian toothfish that has caused quite a stir in the culinary circles. Cooked Southern French style, Chilean sea bass will be a staple on ARC’s menu offering islanders a rare treat of the white meat.
With great selection of food, night after night, it won’t hurt to spend a few dollars more for quality food and service, and at the same time donate for a good cause.