Sunday Meals

It has been six months that posts have been made to this blog. Work matters have kept me away from doing so but during the interval we had spoken about which restaurants to comment on. High on the list was a comparison between People's Palace and Silk high end Thai restaurants. We have also discovered Mickeys the German deli cum French bakery along Jupiter Street. There is also the Ice Cream Bar in Rockwell as well as the Bakers Dozen bazaar at Rockwell too. The butter cake from the Vargas Kitchen has been a favorite pasalubong for my same age friends.

There was also a WSJ writer who waxed praises on pancit luglug, crispy pata etc. Anthony Bourdain of No Reservations fame was also in the Philippines to shoot a segment about Filipino food. He also was fascinated by luglug and thought sisig was great bar chow.

However what I would like to write about are the Sunday breakfasts and dinners that my children have been putting together in the past few weeks. An offshoot of belt tightening due to the times we decided to forego eating out after Sunday Mass. Instead we agreed that Sunday dinner would be prepared by whoever felt like doing it. Cholo no 2 son and Mikey no 3 son have been the main cooks.(not yet chefs). We refer to Cholo as the Grill Master while Mikey is our Salad Master. Typical dinners we have had are grilled Rib Eye, Spare Ribs and last night Cholo bought some salmon which he pan fried in olive oil. It was simply delicious. Cholo had bought kitchen utensils like a madeleine, a real cheese grater and an attractive pepper grinder. He has used these utensils to prepare salads while Mikey put together an appropriate dressing. Cholo has also been trying to learn how to prepare pasta agli olio and last night was the closest he has gotten the formula right.
Lately Anina had discovered Goolai salad Packs which are innovative salad mixes that mixes greens with tropical fruits like pomelo, tangerine and a fruit from Vietnam called a dragon fruit. It is then topped with interesting dressings like poppyseed or strawbeery vinaigrette. This had simplified preparation time for salads.
Anina normally accompanies Cholo to the supermarket to get the Sunday stuff as she has become our Household Manager and prepares our weekly supermarket list. I still do the actual supermarketing.
Aside from the Sunday dinners Cholo is also our Sunday breakfast cook. He is basically a bacon and omelet man but yesterday inspired by the Iron Chef episode that featured breakfat meals, he put together with his omelet and longaniza home fries which were fries with cummin that gave it a different kick. There was also beans fired in longaniza fat. It was one of the best breakfasts we have had in a while.

Javier no 1 son and our film director provides comic relief while Tita Didi who is her mother's daughter makes sure we bus the table and clean after eating.

I must go now because the dinner bell has rang and must end by thanking my children for such great family meals at a fifth of the cost of eating out. One of the perks of being the head of the family. Ciao