Forgive me, fellow bloggers for being absent on WordPress. It’s been 8 days since my last reading.
Tuesday last week, I had a wisdom tooth taken out. Tuesday was my day off. I switched my Saturday off to Wednesday because I didn’t want to go to work with swollen cheek after the dental work. It was a busy day too as it was Thanksgiving Day eve. I cooked a few dishes, (my specialties) , Pancit Malabon ( seafood -based noodle dish ) and lumpia ( meat eggroll wrap ) . We used to cook all the dishes and desserts, but this time , we bought 2 dishes and cakes from our favorite Filipino restaurant and bakeshop ( Red Ribbon Bakeshop, a franchise of a popular bakeshop in the Philippines ). Funny thing is, with all that food on the table, I could only eat cakes and canned Campbell chicken noodle soup. Then I worked Friday , Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, with 2 hours of overtime, everyday ( worked from12:30 PM to 11 PM. ). Guys, it’s the holidays. Production of our dairy products is at its maximum.
As per my own tradition, I’m showing pics of our Thanksgiving spread. ( I notice that each year that passes, our holiday fare is getting simpler and less fussy. )
I cooked the Pancit Malabon . Malabon is a fishing town near the capital city Manila. It makes sense that the dish’s ingredients are seafoods ( shrimp, squid, smoked fish ) . The one on the left is Caldereta ( stewed beef )
That’s lumpia ( meat eggroll wrap )…. there’s also ham and the fried chicken from the restaurant. The fried chicken is the best fried chicken, ever. We have been trying to guess the secret spice in the chicken…. my mother thinks there’s a Seven-spice in it, and celery powder.
Lechon de carajay ( lechon kawali , roasted pork ) . The gravy is in the bottle and it’s liver sauce. You can also see the chocolate cake.
The dish above we call Laing ( pronounced lah- ing ) doesn’t look appetizing, but it’s actually my family’s favorite dish. It’s taro leaves with shrimp, garlic, onion, and ginger and cooked in coconut milk. We bought it from the same Filipino restaurant.
Above pic are desserts. There’s a tray of an assorted Filipino sweets like espasol, biko, pichi-pichi, etc. bought from the Filipino supermarket, Seafood City.
There’s banana loaf, ube cake ( purple yam cake ) , chocolate cake, and Sans Rival. Sans Rival and Ube cake are common cakes one will find in a Filipino bakeshop.
According to Wikipedia, Sans Rival ( meaning without rival ,pronounced San Reeval ) is a Filipino dessert, origin is Philippines, and is made up of layers of buttercream, meringue, and chopped cashews. Guys, it’s sooooo delicious. Foodies who love to bake should try this.
Ham/macaroni salad
Fruit Salad
Cassava cake and ube jam. ( purple yam) Ube ( pronounced oo- beh ) is as Filipino as apple pie is to Americans. I think Filipinos are the only ones that eat ube. There’s ube ice cream, cake, jam, candy, pie, ube bread filling, pastries…. geez, everything is colored purple.
Red Ribbon Bakeshop is where we buy the cakes. Those are the common cakes one can find in a Filipino bakeshop.. Brazo de Mercedes, Sans Rival, Mocha Cake, Ube Cake, mango cake, etc. Not shown here are ensaimadas, empanadas, taisans, fruitcakes , etc. Maybe there’s a Red Ribbon franchise in your neighborhood ? Or Goldilocks ? If there’s one in the neighborhood, go buy some of their cakes ( especially mango cake from Red Ribbon )
Ok, this is all for now. Have a great holiday, folks, and stay green. Bye ! !
A
Am a Molecular Microbiology student, love to read books, and I play the violin. 
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