in the comfort of his beautiful home and backyard...
All of the educator GF's (KD, her daughter KDD, TORC, D), along with Bert and TC attended. We knew many of the other guests, most of them educators of all levels (grade school to the university level)., from teachers, administrators, counselors (me!), his former colleagues and of course friends...
The last time we were at his house, TC wasn't born yet. That was a good 14 or 15 years ago. He got rid of a pool in his back yard, covered it up with wood slats, incorporated a water feature, and these "floating" steps". We all admired his hanging succulent garden...
All of his plants (including his grass) are drought resistant. He and his late wife were role models and mentors to me when I first joined the association 20 years ago.
As befitting such a special occasion, this called for special occasion food - a lechon (roasted pig)!
It was funny seeing the white people ooh and ahh at it. A few older ladies were commenting that they'd never seen anything like it before. I guess they've never been to a Filipino or Mexican party then.
For dessert, our friend had this really boss ice shaver for the halo halo later that night.
It was cool seeing these old school woven plate holders too! I haven't seen those in years. As a child, I remembered thinking that a Filipino party was "fancy" if they had these!
Here's a brief rundown of the food - Lumpia, of course.
Sariwang lumpia - this was "fresh" lumpia, meaning that it isn't fried. The filling is different too - garbanzo bean, sweet potatoes, carrots, celery, lettuce, pork, and shrimp. It is normally wrapped in wax paper, but whoever they ordered this from wrapped them in foil. Not pictured is the garlic sauce accompaniment.
Potato/egg salad:
Shrimp Ceviche (served with tostada shells):
Pancit - the noodles were bihon. This was an unusual version that utilized Chinese long beans and red pepper slivers. Very different.
He hacked up the pig in the kitchen then brought out some of the meat with attached crispy skin.
Like a moth to a flame, I had to have some of that skin. This was one of the best lechon I've ever had. The skin was like crackly glass and had a beautiful layer of fat underneath.
I went back a few times for that skin...
OMG, that pig was laid bare within 30 minutes!
Here is the fresh lumpia deconstructed. It was a bit unwieldy to eat, falling apart once unwrapped.
Turon (banana fritters) - We liked this long, thin, and ulra light and crisp version.
Baked bibingka:
His "fire" feature in the garden - in the day, all you see is just sand. This was gas powered and quite impressive when on.
Even though we were going somewhere else for dessert that same evening, he insisted that we try a few cups of his halo halo with freshly shaved ice. Included were red beans, ube ice cream, green kaong (palm nuts) pieces of leche flan, and topped with rice krispies. We only had a few spoons, because we really wanted to save some room.
This was a refreshing version with a variety of textures and flavors within. I don't think he included evaporated milk, but it was fine having the milky ice cream mix with the shaved ice.
Up next, a sweet detour before heading home. We just had to satisfy some cravings and also indoctrinate TORC into our honey brick toast obsession, heh heh.
4 comments:
Those wooden paper plate holders brought back memories for me. I wonder if they're collector's items now!!
It's funny seeing the reaction of people when they see a whole pig or even a whole fish served to them.
hi darlene - same here. i haven't seen those in ages. my parents never had them but we would see those at other people's parties.
Growing up Filipino, i guess it didn't faze us seeing whole pigs and fish, huh. We had to eat that stuff and it was no big deal!
Mmm, roasted pig. So good! I think we still have those wooden paper plate holders hahah!
Yeah man, that pig was good! Your parents must be old school to have those woven paper palte holders!
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