remembered meals

Two Sundays ago because we were going to visit Papa and Mama Gonzales( Marlene's parents) and Ting(no. 1 of Marlene's 3 brothers) graves at Himlayang Pilipino in the afternoon we went to the 10:30AM mass at Della Strada and got through the celebrant's sermon without too much pain.

Therefore the eating decision was where to go for lunch rather than the normal where do we go for dinner. Since we were going towards Tandang Sora the consensus was to head to T. Morato and have lunch at Alex III something we hadn't done for a while.

However Javier insisted that there was an Alex III closer to home in the Philippine Heart Center area and he was right. There was one and it had a wide and airy veranda that reminded Didi and myself of Sunday lunch in Pasay where we grew up. Since the Metro was less crowded then we always had a strong afternoon breeze that characterized our lunches and the mandatory siesta that came after it (drool and all).

We ordered our lunch which consisted of the Aristocrat standards, sotanghon soup, pork and chicken barbecue and for Javier the combo tempura chicken barbecue lunch. Then Mikey pointed out there was chicharon bulaklak and we asked for two orders. Again this evoked memories of childhood because Papa used to buy chicharon bulaklak for Sunday lunch.

The food was demolished in due time with everybody commenting that we had forgotten how good Aristocrat barbecue was.
And that led me to say that this lunch was an Ako'y Pilipino meal. Yes an Ako'y Pilipino meal because I think only a Filipino will feel what he/she really is while eating some version of the pork/chicken barbecue. Having grown up in the pre fast foods era eating out mainly meant two things Aristocrat or a Chinese panciteria. So for my generation the Pork/Chicken barbecue was the height.

Must end my post now Javier just told me Miong our dog bit Jomar the driver and must bring him to the ER for treatment am too upset to continue. EOP