a long merienda cena

May 25th is Marlene's death anniversary(its been six years that she's been gone) and after going to Mass, visiting her grave and lunch with immediate family, we invited siblings for merienda cena fourish.
There was quite a long discussion about what food to serve for the merienda but the only agreement was not to have chicken. This was a reminder of the time where we had potluck lunch at home to celebrate something and everybody brought KFC (because our mother loved KFC).
We ended having the following on the table, grapes, watermelon, honey dew melon, chicharon, hot spicy Spanish salami, Hungarian salami,Parma ham and several kinds of cheese from Edam to Gouda to mild and crumbly vintage cheddar. Obviously we had pan de sal, some wine and soda pop.
But the hit of the afternoon were English Bangers. We had discovered English Bangers one Saturday afternoon at Santi's Corinthian. There was a white Man asking the lady at the counter whether they had bangers and he seemed anxious that they were all gone.
I decided to try them and bought two packs of I think 8 sausages and the rest is as they say history. It has become part of our breakfast menu particularly on weekends.
Cholo the grillmaster grilled about two packs, two dozen and they were gone in a whirl. Everyone was asking for more so Cholo had to go back to the grill and finished our week's supply. Everyone loved it.
The other favorite of the day was the honey dew melon. It was sweet and juicy a real honey (cliche)
The afternoon was capped by the showing of Javier's directorial debut a short 12 minute film shot on real 35 mm film not video, entitled Opo Maam. It starred sexy star of old Vivian Velez and Nono Buencamino. We are all so proud of Javi from MDAFI. Another film called Mooncakes which was shot at home came next.
Both films talked about clashes of values, Javier's film about the senyora and the driver the other between the migrant Chinese and the Chinoy daughter. They were short clips of life and having seen the pain and time needed to film such short films you wonder how much effort has to be made for full length movies.
As Anna put it it was a long time eating but the family was happy which is what Marlene would have wanted it to be.