where the whole clan was and then some...
Featuring the usual and welcomed holiday suspects such as this tasty ham...
and my dad's special roast beef...(gravy sold separately)
along with my mom's pancit bihon...
and for the big guns, embutido (Filipino mini pork meat loaves/sans egg).
Supporting roles includes thee meatball skewers from Bert's bro...
plus my savory mushroom and caramelized onion and Swiss cheese puff pastries (with the newfangled cilantro leaf as decor)...
as well as my SIL's beefy mac and cheese,
her famous smoked fish,
and what almost stole the show, her Pork Ribs Sinigang (tamarind flavor)...
This soup was enjoyed by all - chock full of okra, bok choy, pepper leaves, eggplant (that's an ingredient I normally don't put in my sinigang), mild peppers, and of course, pork ribs that were falling off the bone!
The desserts had their special set up. At the far far left and moving to the right: cassava cake, cheese cubes and crackers (no "bola" of Edam cheese this time; I was kind of disappointed), my dad's fruit tray, Cassava tarts in the basket from my aunti, my lemon cream cheese bars, butter cookies, peanuts, and my red velvet chocolate chip cookies mixed in with chocolate cookies with cherry chips.
Here's a closeup of that cassava cake. Looks like someone was hoping to get the corner for later (it wasn't me, I swear)!
We love these handmade cassava and coconut tarts which is one of my aunt's specialties. She makes these for all of the special occasions.
Lunch was one big eating marathon which segued into dinner, but in between, we caught a show at the local movie theater. Along for the movie were Bert, my sis, her oldest boy and my two older nephews (20+ years old) and their younger sis (17).
Nothing spells out "good and clean and wholesome FAMILY FUN" than a Tarantino movie!
Yeah baby! "Django Unchained"!
The movie is everything you could hope for the holidays! Featuring over the top performances by Leo de Caprio as the charming but evil slavemaster Calvin Candie, Jamie Foxx as the badazz title character, Christoph Waltz as Django's dentist turned bounty hunter mentor, and Samuel L. Jackson (channeling a foul-mouthed Uncle Ben'ish slavery apologist house slave). Even Don "Sonny Crockett" Johnson iappears as a Colonel Sanderesque slavemaster, "Big Daddy"! The music was pretty good, using the original music from the original Django, by Luis Bacalov, three instrumentals by Ennio Morricone (whose name is synonymous with music in Spaghetti Westerns) plus a few rap songs (one featuring Jamie Foxx himself), and James Brown's oft' used "Payback" remade as "Unchained" (very cool!).
If you
But seriously, it was great to see Tarantino back in fine form (he even shows up in a cameo!). His homage to the Spaghetti Western genre comes in the form of this slavery revenge tale. Like the Jews killing Hitler in "Inglourious Bastards", you will have to suspend your belief in historical accuracy big time.
The writing was sharp, the story line a bit predictable but highly anticipated. Just when you think it's done, there's even more action to jolt you in your seats. One of my favorite scenes was when these marauding Klansmen are arguing over how they can't see out of the holes in their masks. There's also a surprise cameo in there as well, by Jonah Hill. Now it's not a surprise any more. This scene rivals that of the Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson scene in "Pulp Fiction" where they're riffing on Big Macs and the "tipping scene" in "Reservoir Dogs".
For more background on the Django movies, check out David Walker's posts from his Spaghetti Western achive below:
"Django or everything you need to know about Django but didn't know you needed to know"
"A Few Dollars for Django and Django Kills Silently"
For more info on the Spaghetti Western genre, I go to my favorite source, David Walker (creator of Badazz Mofo) who's written a book which you can download (if you have a Kindle, sadly I don't):
Ghetto Manga review (which links Walker's book) and the BAMF's Spaghetti Western archive.
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