Viktor's Famous Sunday Lunch

Viktor is mine host at the Flying Fox Bar, about 4 miles out of General Luna, opposite a small jungled mountain. Every evening at dusk, like clockwork, a colony of flying foxes sets out from behind the mountain to forage across the island. First, one, then two; then more and more, until hundreds are streaming across the sky in the semi-darkness.

They're big fellows, too. I haven't yet got a good photo of the fly-past, because of the lighting conditions, but you can see some of them that I kept as pets, here. They're not the most charming of animals, possibly because I obtained my specimens from the mananggutay, the man who climbs coconut trees every morning to tap the flower sap for tuba wine.

All my pet bats were alcoholics with hangovers. They got to the fermenting sap before the mananggutay, and were pissed as farts when he picked them up, comatose on the ground next morning.

Sorry about the diversion; back to Viktor. Every Sunday, he hosts a special open-buffet lunch; eat all you can. Price ? P175 - roughly $4 per head. It's the major weekly social gathering for the foreign community in General Luna, and sometimes even further afield.

His menu is, usually:

Roast, crispy-crackling pork or ham
(or sometimes both; Viktor cures his own hams)
Deep-fried chicken
Lambay - blue swimmer crabs
Local Black-Lip pearl oysters
Potato salad
Camote tops salad
Tomato & onion salad
Local cucumbers, pickled

Sometimes he throws in a few boiled camote (sweet potatoes) as well, but the final crowning glory of the meal is Viktor's German Pancake.

This could only be presented by a Bavarian; it's an impossibly rich and delicious pancake stuffed with chocolate sauce and ice cream.

I rely on Viktor's Famous Sunday Lunch for a weekly distillation of the town's gossip.

If you ever come to see our little island, please visit Viktor's Famous Sunday Lunch.

I don't get a commission for this, but sometimes Viktor pops me an extra oyster or two.