I am 62 today

Today I celebrated my 62nd birthday and decided to give myself a free day and not work nor think about it. I run some errands and had lunch at John and Yoko in GB5 which is basically Sumosam with prettier waitresses in boots and mini skirts. Anina asked me whether I was going to watch a movie. (Wednesday is when they change movies in MetroManila and in slower times I would normally take the day off and watch the newest movies particularly one that I figured would not run too long because it was good but not commercial), no movies today, I told her I was going to buy something for myself. That I did, I bought myself a wireless mouse that did not work when I got home to try it.
In the meantime I had texted my children I was going to Mass at Della Strada at 6pm and would treat them for dinner with Gian and Mimay and of course Tita Didi at Chelsea in Serendra (if we could get a table).I asked Cholo to reserve a table but was told their allocated tables for reservations were all booked. (policy seemed to set aside a number of tables for reservations and the rest for walk-ins). After some hemming and hawing we decided to try for Chelsea and then go for a second choice if the place were full. We agreed upon Chelsea because there was general agreement that the last time we had a meal there it was special.(mainly the spare ribs)
Anyway after Mass with Javier and Mikey and passing for Anina at the Ateneo where she had read two of her poems to students to celebrate Humanities week, we got to Serendra at about 730pm.Cholo was already there and told us Chelsea was full. (I also have to mention that Mikey is auditioning to be a DJ at RJ Underground and did his first stint today from 9to12 this morning)
We settled for Balducci an Italian restaurant that normally not full when we passed by it. I later found out it was owned by the people who used to run the LOpera in Jupiter. We had their appetizer plate, tuna carpaccio and prosciutto with melon which was above average for our Filipino standards(my norms for Italian food were distorted when I took a business trip to the north of Italy in 2006 and had several meals in real trattorias and the food was simply superb, almost divine). I had a seafood soup that was excellent and had rack of lamb. Cholo had pasta with Italian sausage and truffles,while Anina had minestrone and the seafood platter. Javier had a pizza while Mikey had the onion soup and a seafood salad. Didi and Gian arrived later and they both had onion soup and picked on the appetizers and the pizza. Service was quick and attentive from a pretty waitress with a pleasant disposition with a legion of waiters bringing up the food because we were on the loft. The general consensus was the food was very good and Balducci will be included in our list of choices when it is time to have a special meal.
But that's not what I want to tell you about. Its about three songs that the restaurants trio played for us after they sung Happy Birthday to me which we had requested .The three songs are La Vie En Rose, Usahay and Historia de un Amor in that order. It struck me that each song represented a phase of my life and someone who was special to me. My children knows what La Vie en Rose represents,it is Marlene who loved this song. Marlene and some of her friends took formal voice lessons to be able to sing this song and her friends serenaded her with this song in the last week of her life. At the same time when we were newly married we discovered the Little Sparrow Edith Piaf and shared a life long passion for her music. Anina and I watched a very good bio movie of Edith Piaf last year during the Euro Film Festival and I know Marlene would have loved it too.
Usahay represents Cebu and my attachment to Cebu City. I worked for three years from 1966 to 69 when SMC put up its Mandaue complex and I see this time as my passage to adulthood. Although I had lived by myself when the company sent me to Germany for three month training for the Mandaue project, living in Cebu in a house with the other project engineers was how I became an adult. Later in my career I went back to Cebu( in 1989) to manage the Coca Cola business of Visayas and it was memorable in many ways as it was the first time I was assigned to run a business and have real profit responsibility. Usahay was something you heard in the bars and beer gardens we used to frequent in our younger times and listening to it today floods me with warm feelings.
Historia de un Amor makes me remember my father who was a good tenor. Although Vesti la Giuba or la Donna E Mobile is what he used to sing to us. Historia de un Amor for some unexplained reason evokes images of Papa mustache and all. Furthermore the lyricism of the words of the song in Spanish makes me remember his love for the Spanish language and I think I am a better person because I can speak Spanish.(I guess learning another language not your own adds dimensions to your personality that would not be present if you did not)
So today on my 62nd birthday I rediscovered these three songs and why they have been part of me for a long time. Maybe next year I will talk about Barbra and Johnny Mathis and why I like them. I had a good birthday!

2008 New Year Clan Reunion

My father's extended family (basically the family of two brothers,my father being the younger brother ) has had a New Year's reunion for almost sixty years now. It used to be held in our Tito Nanding's home and all of us elder cousins have fond memories of these reunions mainly because of the impromptu baseball games we played in the yard(a lot of us were baseball crazy) and the loud and raucous conversations about anything under the sun.
That house is now gone and we have been holding the reunion at home for several years now. This year we held the reunion on January 6 because one of my brothers (Jaime) who lives in Pittsburgh was here for a visit with his family but was spending New Year in Boracay with his wife's (Evelyn) family coming back only on the 5th and leaving on the 7th. So we decided to move the reunion to the 6th.
We are a large family. My uncle had eight children, six sons and two daughters. My father had nine children, six sons and three daughters. Out of this second generation there are forty one grandchildren. And there are nine great grandchildren already.
For this reunion our head count was sixty four hungry people.
Although traditionally it has been a potluck setting I decided to set the menu and asked Mitay and Tess (Mel's wife) to prepare something. Eyo(Pepot's #2 son) texted about what to bring for the lunch and I asked him to bring dessert.
The menu we put together was inspired by the innovative Filipino dishes you get at Sentro 1771.It included the following:

• Appetizer Tokwa't/Bangus Bellies
• Soup Corned Beef in Tamarind Soup
• Salad Mitay's Green Mango Salad
• Entrees Anna's Roast Chicken
  Pork Barbecue from Dannylicious w/Reyes BBQ sauce
  (Dannylicious is a BBQ place in the Proj 4 that is a local
  favorite)
  Tess's Gourmet Tuyo
  our version of Rated GG (galungong in garlic oil)
• Rice with choices of adobo sauce,tuyo sprinkle or ground
  chicharon
  

• Desserts Mila's Chocolate Cake to die for
  Desserts from Conti's
  Fruits in Ice Cream
  Of course we also had Majestic Ham, Queso de Bola Marca Pato and the usual fruits Pinoys put on the New Year table. To top this Trina brought real chicharon laman from Cagayan de Oro that was so treacherous but heavenly.We consumed ten packs of the chicharon
  
  

To explain to Dulce the cook how to prepare the Corned Beef in Tamarind Soup and the Rated GG I had to show her the web pages from the Chateau 1771 web site. But she got it because we had a meal wipe out. The buffet table looked like a typhoon passed through it after the meal.
I was so happy that all enjoyed the menu we put together. Happy New Year to All.

Oh Bayabas, where have you been all my life?

CAFE ADRIATICO, Eastwood
A cozy resto with the prerequisite wooden walls, and furniture --- with picasso-esque sketches of familiar Manila scenes (circa when papa was growing up: "That's what they do to make chocolate eh anak!"), Cafe Adriatico is decent. Except that since we seem to come early (lunch!) and stay at the second floor, it smells (1) kulob (2) like a clean public bathroom. Hello exhaust fans? Or even just open something! Or maybe close the bathroom door. The service is solicitous, but when your waitress at the bar answers your aging father with, Sir, anong gagawin ninyo sa banyo? when he asks for its location ---- you think, "Ay, I'm in Tita [insert name here]'s house." No one else would ask that question. Actually, I don't think my relatives would either. Though my father's response (Jijingle lang ako hija,) was apropos. Enough about that.
What I would like to rave about is their use of bayabas or guava! You have to try their sinigang na bangus sa bayabas. The soup is just incredible! It's sour, but it's dare i say it ---- malinamnam or if you want to be a snob, it's umami (japanese snobbish word.) It's just sarap (GO TAGLISH!) The second time we were there, it was New Year's Day, and we had just gone to mass (with a jesuit who refused to use the missalette. TARAY!) and gone to visit mom at Loyola. And Mikey ordered (1) Mao's Chicken Salad which was really good and (2) Lechon Asia! Now this was the dish. Imagine really tender meat under the crisp balat (but I don't eat balat) AND guava sauce. so salty and juicy, plus sweetish sourness. Wow.
The gising-gising was good, though the spicyness was uneven. Not that I'm complaining, at least you're able to rest from the heat.
A pretty good meal to start the year. Now i must learn how to cook with guava.