Hi there !
Renxkyoko Iglesias here.
It’s Christmas time, my most favorite time of the year. ( If you’re not a Christian, it’s alright, you can roll your eyes. ❤ )
But, before I talk about Christmas, let me show you what we had for Thanksgiving Day. Yeah, it’s foodie time.
Actually, there wasn’t much food, compared to last year’s. It seems we’re getting less and less food every year, but it’s okay, we do throw away so much , especially the turkey. That’s why we don’t do turkey anymore.
By the way, I cooked most of the food. Not bragging, though. Just sayin’.
Oh, wait, before I forget…. can someone please translate this? It’s Japanese. I want the exact translation, please. You’ll help me win an argument. 🙂 Thank you.
He he. I know it’s juvenile.
Anyway, the food.
Roast pork ( lechon),, with liver gravy, ham, kare-kare ( beef stew in peanut sauce,) there’s noodles ( pancit ala Malabon ) , fruit salad, potato salad, lumpia ( pork eggroll with sweet – sour sauce), and various cakes.
Pancit a la malabon. Malabon is a place in the Philippines. I think this is Malabon’s specialty. I cooked that. Do you know what’s in there ? Shrimps, flaked smoked fish, pounded chicharrones ( pork cracklings ) Napa cabbage, and the juice of pounded shrimp heads.
This is Renxkyoko’s specialty……. Lumpia ( ground pork eggroll. ) I stayed up the whole night ( and morning ) rolling the darn things. I made a lot, for us, and for our Forensic class’s assistant teacher.
Huge pastry with Bavarian Cream filling, Double chocolate cake, cheesecake, and brownies. We baked the pastry. We bought the rest at Costco.
we call the above dish Ginatan. It’s made of sweet potato, cooking banana ( saba ), taro root, rice balls, and coconut milk. And sugar, of course.
So, that’s it, our Thanksgiving Day meal.
We already have a menu planned for our Christmas meal. I am definitely going to cook my other specialty….. Paella.
And I’m looking forward to a family Christmas tradition……….. the whole family going to Chrismas Eve Midnight Mass. Here in the US, it’s at 10 PM…… in the Philippines, it’s at 12 midnight. We used to have our Christmas meal right after the Mass, but we had discarded that. My mother said it was stressful. But we do open the gifts as soon as we arrive from the church. In the Philippines, the midnight meal is called Noche Buena. So, what ‘s a typical Filipino Noche Buena ? Bread , ( pan de sal, bite-sized French bread ) with Queso de Bola ( Edam Cheese ). Jamon ( ham , glazed with pineapple and sugar, ), castanas, ( chestnuts) noodles, ( at home, it’s baked macaroni ), leche flan, ube jam, ( purple yam ) and yes, fruit cake ! These are the icons of Filipino Noche Buena. I’m going to bake fruit cake, that’s for sure. And it isn’;t like the fruit cakes that are sold here in the US. They ‘re nasty. No wonder Americans make fun of them. My recipe is delicious. Lots of rhum in it !
I actually want to have a food blog . But, I don’t think it will happen. I don’t even have time to post here. Don’t be surprised why I’m interested in food. My mother had a successful catering business in the Philippines, and if we didn’t come here to the US, she would be holding a Dunkin’ Donut francise.
Oh. 550 words, already. Time to to say bye for now. Thank you for reading and PEACE !
Happy Holidays !
.