Portuguese stuff & Rubio's

A few weeks ago, TC's school had their Multicultural Day for the 2nd graders. Last year when she was in 2nd grade, me and a group of the other Filipino American parents did the booth for the Philippines. If I may say so myself, I think our booth was one of the best there last year. We had not just one table, but five (3 were ours) so that we could properly display many of the items borrowed from the PASACAT dance company and the various families who helped out.

I will never forget last year's Multicultural festival because that was the week my hair started falling out. My first chemo was in early May last year. I went for about 2 and 1/2 weeks thinking, "Hey, it's not so bad...I still have my hair!". Then the third week of May rolled around. I was stressed out over the booth and trying to get everything together. Later that week, my hair felt "different". For example, after I'd brush it, it felt kind of limp and lifeless. My hair didn't "react" the same way when I flat ironed it. The biggest telltale sign was the hairs falling out without resistance when I ratted some parts of my hair. It was the wierdest thing too when I'd flip my hair or brush it back with my fingers and a whole clump would just fall out. I was terrified that my head would be bare by the end of the day. Okay, that's an exaggeration, but I was still kind of freaked out that people would notice that I was "shedding". Seriously, if you held onto a lock of my hair and pulled slightly, it would separate from my scalep easily.

The decision to shave it all had been brewing in my mind for the past few weeks that month. The Multicultural Day was on a Thursday. The next day, I went to my hairstylist and had my head shaved. My daughter was with me and took photos of the whole process. I still had some hair since my stylists didn't shave it bare, but just with maybe 1/4 of an inch left. I looked like GI Jane. Anyways, I can't believe it's been a year already!

Back to the topic, this year, our neighbor across the street was going to have a booth for the Multicultural Festival. Although she is Mexican American, her husband is Portuguese (but born and raised in Angola, a former Portuguese colony in Africa). She needed help to man the booth so Bert was kind enough to help her out. She had her lesson plan prepared, the decorations for the booth and was wearing a native costume of her husband's hometown in Portugal (actually his parents' hometown). Bert educated the kids about soccer player, Cristian Ronaldo.

Here is a basket of assorted food items from Portugal - Linguica (sausage), canned sardines packed in oil, a loaf of bread, olives, cheese (I wasn't able to find out what kind it was), and grapes...By the way, the grapes were fake.
Our neighbor also ordered a few dozen of this brand of Portuguese soda, Sumol. Although there are a lot of different flavors, she chose the Passion Fruit to serve the kids. She also gave us a couple of cans! Tastes like Hawaiian Sun brand soda...which is a good thing! Super sweet!
On another day, Bert, TC & I were running errands in the Eastlake area. I had a few coupons for Rubio's so we went there to make use of them.
We used a coupon for a new food item that Rubio's was inflicting upon the public, I mean, offering to its customers - The All-American Taco. I had a 'buy one, get one free', and Bert had one as well. We decided to give it a try even though one of my students told me he didn't really like it. The "All-American Taco" is basically a hamburger in a tortilla. Bert was watching them make it and it was a half a ground beef patty with cheese that they grill. They they put it in the flour tortilla along with chopped lettuce and tomatoes. As you can see, the photo on the display does not resemble the actual food item itself!!!!
The verdict? It was good for a try but I don't think we would go back to order this. I prefer their regular fish tacos much much better.. Well, TC liked the All American Taco because she likes cheeseburgers and this was the bastardized Rubio's version of it.