Dinner at home with ECY Friends

March 24, 2017 Friday

With only a dozen guests, I was only the one who prepared the food because caterers required a minimum of 50 people. To have them come and serve for 12 px would cost me a lot of money which may not be worth it. So I just went to the market, bought some crabs, shrimps, etc. and prepared food with the help of my maids and two waiters. Easy lang to prepare Filipino dishes. I also bought kare-kare from Barrio Fiesta rather than cooking it myself. Although I am sure my kare-kare would taste better (yabang).

As usual, I used the kitchen island as my buffet table.

I bought lanzones, longan, chico and two kilos of prawns from Farmers Market.

The day before, I bought 4 or 5 pieces of pork pata. Boiled them with pepper, salt, garlic, onions, for an hour. The next day, I brought them to a restaurant for frying. I paid P800 for their cooking oil and service. We only have small burners and frying this many patas would be difficult. But the downside was, by the time the guests arrived, the skins were no longer crispy. Next time I will no longer cook crispy pata. I’ll just buy from a restaurant an hour before guests are expected to arrive. That way, the skins would still be crispy.

Green mango with alamang and salted eggs. I bought the alamang from the market and taught the kusinera how to cook it the way I wanted it.
Edmund said the bananas are ugly, Wala daw bibili nun. Those are organic and free from our banana trees.

I asked the waiter to chop the crabs. I couldn’t stand watching him do it, he looked like he was afraid of the crabs.

The crabs were medyo payat. Although I chose them one by one from their cages, there were not too many to choose from. Siguro kasi it was already almost noon time when I went to the market. Napagpilian na.

What’s a Filipino fiesta without gulaman at sago? This is also my American- born nephews’ favorite drink. It cannot be absent or else they would look for it. My sister makes the best gulaman at sago.

I boiled the sago the night before in melted panutsa (brown sugar) to make them a little chewy.

Anyone can make this very easy stuff. It just needs sliced gelatin, water, ice, sago (tapioca pearls). You may choose to add a drop of banana essence or vanilla or pandan flavor. If you want pandan flavor, it’s better to buy a few fresh pandan leaves from the market. Wash thoroughly because mud / soil are sometimes lodged in between the leaves. Lately there are nicely packed gelatin powder sold in markets (imported from China but the distributor’s company name is only the one appearing on the package), don’t buy that. Buy the one from the Philippines. sometimes I just buy the cooked ones, yung korteng cups.

Edmund with his golf buddies– Rolly Valdez, Boy Tan, Roger Crespo.

Det came with a Tiffany-looking gift box. I took a picture beside her Hermes purse.
I asked if her gift is perishable. I didn’t conclude right away that it’s a Tiffany gift. We all recycle boxes and wrappers right? So it’s safe not to assume that the box matches the contents.

The day before, I also bought two kilos of salmon belly and a kilo of salmon head. I instructed the cook to prepare the ingredients for the sinigang, to slice the gabi, sitaw, talong, etc. Come 5:30 pm, I thought she cooked the sinigang already, when I checked, she was still boiling the salmon. Halos madurog na. It’s such a waste of cooking gas and an unnecessary contribution to global warming. Kulo ng kulo for nothing. It’s such a waste. I ended up dumping all the ingredients altogether. It’s very easy to cook sinigang na salmon. You can do it in 10-15 minutes. No need to palambutan yung fish unlike meat. Isang talbog lang luto na yan. Just season to taste. Especially meron ng sinigang mixes. If you want real sampaloc fruit, you just need an extra 5 minutes to boil the sampaloc and to squash them.

Det and husband Elmer

I had no idea that I’ve met the guy wearing a blue shirt a couple of years ago. He is RJ Rizada, who used to play for the FEU varsity team. I didn’t know that we’ve met before at the Strongman Shooting Range in Quezon City. After dinner, he said “Tita, kayo yun nagsu-shooting range…?” Oh my God! Oyen and I were so surprised. Yes, we remembered, one time, Oyen, Nyke and I went to this airconditioned gun shooting range. We met a group of tall young fellows from FEU team. I gave one my business card. Baka kako gustong bumili ng kotse. Sya pala yun. Weird because a few days ago I thought of them. Saan na kaya kako yung mga batang iyon. Kung they still go to that place. He is good friends pala with my husband. Small world. He’s joining the Golf Week too. Edmund told me RJ is a very good golf player.

Det is the proud mom of Bea de Leon, the star player of the Ateneo women’s volleyball team. Last time I saw Bea, she looked like she was already 6 feet tall. She will grow taller still because she’s not even 20 years old. Hala, her boyfriend should be 6’4. Bea’s older brother, Loel, runs a Kinder-K12 school in Quezon City in the morning and helps his dad with their other businesses in the afternoon. Mabait at masipag na bata.

to be continued