Despedida Weekend for my brother's family

Our send-off party to our brother N, his wife S and their daughter Baby S was held 3 weeks before their actual flight to Toronto where they will now be based. For some it might seem a tad early, but the event planner (me!) thought it would be good to have this early when they are not yet stressed out. Am sure that the few days before the actual departure will mean last minute errands for the family. And also, SIL's birthday, along with her twin brother is the following week, so that would be an altogether different event. The week before their departure might be a challenge to organize especially if they have not finished packing, disposing of things they are not bringing and buying things that will be too expensive to buy in Canada.

The event is a weekend in town -- an overnight stay at the condotel BSA Tower (108 Legaspi Street, Makati CBD) right across Greenbelt 5, Baby S's favorite mall. We rented two 2-bedroom suites and 2 studio suites for the C and L families. We had potluck food consisting of Casa Armas' cuchinillo. Conti's prawns thermidore and chicken ala kiev, Cyma's roka salata, Heaven's barbecue, Baliwag's buttered fried chicken, Red Ribbon's pancit palabok and homemade ribs. For dessert, there were several flavors of Gelatissimo's gelato,a Red Ribbon cake. Amber's pichi-pichi with cheese and Paquito Mas' mini cakes. Needless to say, we were stuffed with so much good food!

E cooked breakfast the next morning before everyone went out to enjoy Greenbelt.

I highly recommend balikbayan families to stay at BSA Tower's suites. They let you bring in as much food as you want, they also have cooking equipment such as a stove and a microwave, a full-size refrigerator, a rice cooker and an electric kettle. You can also have food delivered from nearby fast food and fine dining restaurants. Balikbayans can therefore easily entertain guests while they are in Manila. And the location is very,very convenient. You have MiniStop a few steps away, Rustan's and Landmark groceries a 5-minute walk away. Greenbelt's shops and restaurants are right at the doorstep!

Don't believe the bad reviews at Trip Advisor.

To N and family: We will miss you so much, but we look forward to visiting you really soon!

BIL's 40++th

Brother in Law J's birthday celebration came around 2 weeks late because he had a birthday concert on his birthday, and was busy the days after. BIL and my sister invited us to their cozy home for lunch. They prepared a delicious Greek-themed meal of Greek salad with Feta Cheese and BIL's version of Shepherds Pie and Grilled pork chops. Desserts were our birthday gifts. Pictures courtesy of my brother N and his new Lumix LX3 camera (Did I say the camera model right, Bro?)

BIL and sister T preparing the buffet table

Greek Salad

Remnants of the Shepherds Pie (buti umabot si brother, mauubos na!) Birthday Cake #1 Strawberry Cheesecake from Conti's

Birthday Cake #2 Chocolate Cake from Celine's and Baby S practicing blowing candles
Family Picture

Barkada "Lechon Night"

Our dear friend RW was in Manila and another dear friend MNC just celebrated her big 29th birthday, so the barkada had to get together! We had the get-together at the main house of the Z's sprawling estate. MNC treated us to Sabroso Lechon, admittedly the best tasting lechon I've ever had! I can still imagine the taste up to now. Thanks, MNC!

We also ordered Kare-kare, Laing, Grilled Squid and Fruit Salad from CCME. The Grilled Squid was a disappointment though. Fortunately, CCME agreed to a refund the day after (That's what I call good customer service).

As always, we had a great time! Also saw our newest "pamangkin", Baby E, and she is so adorable! Unfortunately, it was way past her bedtime when we took pictures so no pictures of Baby E here.

CCME Homemade Foodstuff Co.

On special occasions at work with my team, we arrange for food delivery from CCME (Tel. Nos. 9282765,9299598,0920-4615445), which offers a wide variety of dishes at a very reasonable price. Last Tuesday, we ordered the following (One order serves 20 people):

Lechon Kawali – my favorite, yummy! The pork skin was really crunchy (2 kilos at P550).
Beef Steak - also good, tender beef slices with lots of onions (P645)
Shrimp Tempura – more like breaded shrimps, but good enough (P720)
Chop Suey – very good, with young corn, mushrooms, chicken liver and the usual vegetables (1 gallon tray at P280)
Rice – (1 gallon tray at P95) for 20 people, we ordered 2 trays

With drinks, the meal cost around P132 per person (there’s a P100 delivery charge). Very reasonable, I must say, and we definitely enjoyed the bonding!

Other dishes we have tried that are also really good:

Beef Lengua in Salsa Blanca – ox tongue in creamy white mushroom sauce (1 gallon at P730)
Beef Lengua Estofado – ox tongue in tomato and red wine (P730)
Beef Roast (P645)
Chicken Pastel - crusted creamy chicken,sausage, mushroom and potatoes (P565)
Fish Fillet – with mushroom dip (2 kilos at P625)
Seafood Medley (1 gallon at P680)

Take a look at their mouthwatering, expansive and reasonably priced menu at http://homemadefoodstuff.com.

Happy Birthday, Dear Friends!

Our dear friends SC and LBF just had their "Big _0th Birthday" and we celebrated with a dinner at JV's condo. SC and LBF prepared a sumptuous buffet of smoked salmon salad, spaghetti carbonara, chicken pastel and salpicao from Conti's, home-made breaded fish and shrimp, and barbecue. MS brought the birthday cakes, blueberry cheesecake and chocolate cake, and other desserts such as pichi-pichi (with cheese, yum) and sapin-sapin. Our dear friend DL and husband RL, who are based in New York, joined us through Skype:)

My One and Only Free Saturday

My classes for the new term start on September 13 and I will be handling two classes. My Saturdays will be packed with a class at 9AM-12NN and another one at 1:30PM-4:30PM. For the next few months, my Saturdays will already be filled, so I wanted to spend my only free Saturday well.

What better way, than to spend the day with good friends and family? My college barkada planned another Salcedo Market day yesterday so I can join them as the market is only open Saturdays, 7AM-2PM. So after a good workout at home, I left to meet the girls at JV's condo. Turns out only JV and I will be able to do the marketing. The irony of it all? We were both on a diet. So, the smell of all the good food in the market was sheer torture to us. We vowed we would return when we've already achieved our goals. For ourselves, we bought mushroom dumplings, fresh lumpiang ubod to complement the green salad we planned to eat for lunch. For the rest, we bought the usual Ineng's barbecue, lasagna, lechon paksiw, guinataang kuhol, paella negro, spicy squid, siomai, hakaw and chicken relleno.

LB with son P, and SC joined us for lunch. It was a relaxing lunch, filled with updates about our lives. Of course we talked about the girls who were not present (haha! I'm kidding of course).

Sorry, no pictures! We were too busy eating and talking:)

In the evening, I, together with E, went to my parents' house for dinner. My Mom prepared this delicious salad of tofu, mushrooms and bell pepper especially for me! How sweet noh?:)

Oh Goody!

Just paid my nutritionist a visit and she said that a Goolai salad pack would not be over 200 calories even with the fruit vinaigrette dressing. That means that I can even eat 3 or 4 packs a day and I wouldn't go over my allowed daily calorie intake. Of course I'll only have two, and can even have a piece of bread to go with it. This isn't so bad after all!

* Goolai salad packs are available in selected Rustan's supermarkets.

Barkada Reunion Part 6

This day's main event was to go to Salcedo Market to buy our food for the day. We planned to spend the whole day at JV and DV's posh and spacious condo unit in Makati. (Parang outing, pero sa Makati condo ang venue). I wasn't able to join the "marketing" because I had a class up to 12nn, but when I got to the condo unit, there was so much food on the buffet table and the dining table. I can only remember the following: beef salpicao, a special kind of adobo, barbecue, 2 kinds of paella, 2 kinds of lasagna, grilled tilapia, bacalao, ginataang "escargots" , laing, and a number of other dishes that escape my mind now. (Girls, feel free to add to the list!). I had to go back to the buffet table a number of times, haha! On my way to the party, I passed by Powerplant to buy chips and dessert. I bought Sugarhouse's Cashew Toffee Cake which was featured here. And it was good!

We spent the day just chilling, watching DVD's and of course, non-stop eating and chika.

We all had dinner together, more of the food from lunch plus steamed siomai, squidballs and bagnet. And then some singing on the Magic Sing, until the husbands said that it's time for their Boys' Night Out. Us girls couldn't agree more, it was after all time for us to talk about THEM! The girls decided to stay in the condo(are we getting old???) , looking over pictures of the past 20(!) years and sharing stories.

I loved spending the day with my dear friends. It was the last day we were seeing DL who will be leaving for New York with her husband on Tuesday. And so, this is the last of the Barkada Reunion Series, but definitely not the last of spending time with my dear friends!

Me Time

I have today all to myself. After my 9-12 class, I went to the Corinthian Hills Clubhouse intending to buy groceries at Rustan's Fresh. When I got there, I decided to have lunch at UCC Coffee Shop. They now have Filipino meals and I had their Beef Tapa Meal (P259 with egg cooked the way you like it fried rice and coffee). I went to Santi's Deli next to buy my dinner for tonight. I decided on Salami Milano (P105 /100gms), Salami Tre Torri (P123/100grms), two kinds of cheese: Roquefort Marival (P218/100gms) and Fourme D'Ambert(P178/100gms). I also bought Turkey Pate (P79). With crackers or bread, these would last us 3-4 meals. Then I went to the grocery for other household items.

I really wanted to sleep the whole afternoon because I slept so late cramming my lecture. But when I got home, I started to watch "What About Brian" episodes and couldn't stop. I've already watched three episodes straight. I would most probably watch the rest of Season Two after this break. It's raining, I hope there won't be a brownout tonight!

E, uwi ka na, I miss you!

A Surprise Birthday Party

My barkada and I had so much fun planning a surprise birthday for one of ours:-) It was such a surprise that MN, our "victim" had already eaten dinner when we arrived with all the food, haha!

We brought sumptuous food for the party: JV brought paella and pata tim, as well as a Red Velvet Cake made by "Ginang Bukid" (which she later realized translated to Mrs. Fields in English!) all bought from the Salcedo Market. MS brought rellenong bangus from Pixie's, PZ had Savory Fried Chicken, LB had Pansit from Pansit Malabon Express (the pansit malabon had kani slices, yum!), SC brought the drinks and sweet corn, and I brought barbecue from Inihaw Express.

We had so much fun!!!