Appeal to Kind Hearts: Fund our Annual Christmas Drive

Hi guys! I have been an absentee blogger due to the fact that I had 3 subjects this term and the months leading to the Holidays is the busiest here at work. But anyway, this blog entry is not a blog on a recent food trip or travel, but a sincere appeal to kind and generous hearts this Christmas.

It's been a dream of my Mother to give "gifts" to unfortunate families during Christmas. And last year, this dream saw realization when we got to do our first ever Christmas drive my Mom wittily called PANSSTTT! She called it that because we gave pancit canton (and all ingredients involved in the cooking plus some fruits and powdered iced tea) to unfortunate families near our subdivision in Cainta, Rizal. You can read about my entry last year here (120 Families Served on Christmas Eve)

Through the help of our Parish (San Antonio de Padua Parish) and Dess (the lovely lady from our subdivision who coordinated it all) we were able to distribute these Noche Buena goods to about 120 families. Here are some of the pictures from last year's Christmas Drive. Seeing the smiles on their faces that Christmas Eve was the best! Ang saya na makita sila na masaya to get the goodie bags! :)





By the way, Dess made sure that families we were giving these goodie bags to HAVE ABSOLUTELY ZERO MEANS FOR A NOCHE BUENA! Dess knows the place well since she volunteers for the Church, and knows the people by name. :)

Through the help of our kind donors, we were able to put up enough money to buy all those things for the pancit canton, and we got a little more than we expected so we got buy them fruits and iced tea. Our donors ranged from our relatives (here and abroad), my friends (barkada and work), and other kind-hearted people. We made sure that they SAW where their money went, hence the proper documentation (with accounting pa yan ha!).

So now let me appeal to all of you guys reading this blog entry. It doesn't have to be a huge sum. As of this writing, my Mom has been able to collect funds from our relatives from the States and a friend of hers from work donated juice packs.

For those who want to donate, please leave your name and e-mail address so I could send you details on how you can extend your help.

Thank you very much guys! Let us help those people who will, in no way, have a decent Christmas dinner with their families. Let us be reminded that this is THE TIME of the year to show how blessed we are that we have so much, and it is time to give back.

Please help us spread the word! To my fellow bloggers, I hope you can help me get through some more people. I'm not as big time a blogger as you guys, you guys have a wider reach, so sana you can help me with our Christmas Drive.

THANK YOU SO MUCH! The red poster above, you can use to help promote! :)

For queries on how to donate please e-mail me at: mtc(dot)dumana(at)yahoo(dot)com.

The Much-Awaited Barkada Reunion

This has to be said, I am iffy with Capampangan food. But when my college barkada called for a reunion and asked around for a nice place to meet in, I said ABE in Serendra. Seems like Taguig's the new reunion place for my barkadas, my high school barkada had our Christmas get-together over at Burgos Circle.

I also wanted to change my mind about Capampangan food, so what better place to do this than ABE.

In Capampangan ABE means friend, and this was also the nickname of Emilio Aguilar Cruz, a Capampangan writer and painter.

Good thing we made reservations because the place gets PACKED with huge groups of families and friends eager to have dinner. There were people waiting in line, and some were even getting rejected already. It's that much of a HIT!



The inside of the restaurant is just yellow and the space was a bit cramped. But they made it a place to display the works of Emilio Aguilar Cruz - his painting were there and so were other photographs of him.


Everyone in our group was STARVING. So we ordered A LOT because we left Steph in charge of ordering.

Pork Binagoongan

Green Mango and Bagoong

Binukadkad na Pla-Pla

Lumpiang Ubod

Knockout Knucles. WE SUPER LOVED THIS! :)

AND KARE-KARE A LA BISTRO.

Remember the last kare-kare I ate and RAVED about it? Well this is just like it! I remember sopping up the sauce..it just lacked the peanut bits but it was really good! :)

Yes, I realized that Capampangan food's good. Nothing to be scared of anymore.

After the heavy dinner, we all trooped over to the new Starbucks near St. Luke's Medical Center. It's the latest store with a DRIVE-THRU! Here are some of my pictures. Come meet my DLSU barkada.








Just a little story about us, we all got together when we were in 3rd year in DLSU. We were all majoring in Mass Media. This group was the first barkada I had my first road trip with when we went to Pagudpud. We went on countless overnight trips and numerous nights getting wasted! But hey, after 7 years and despite us being busy with our own "careers" we're all still together! :)


Dinner at:
ABE
Serendra, Bonifacio Global City
Taguig City, Metro Manila
Tel. No. 856-0526

A Strictly Filipino Family Affair

I find it so fitting that I am writing a blog entry about Manila and Luneta Park on December 30, Rizal Day. Find this as my way of honoring our national hero on his day. Oh and I also ate at a restaurant celebrating Jose Rizal's characters in one of his novels. But more on Jose Rizal later on.

A day after Christmas, we took our trusty helper out to Manila because she wanted to see the fountain show at the Luneta Park. Since it's going to be her last Christmas and New Year with us, we decided to make it a little special for her.

After hearing Mass at Sacred Heart in Makati, we headed on over to Aristocrat near Malate Church for dinner. Although our home-cooked meals have been very good, we were getting kind of tired of eating pancit over and over again!

I'm not really sure if I'm the only one who thinks this is true but Aristocrat is like THE restaurant for Filipino families. It's been around since forever, and it's almost a sin not to eat there during one's lifetime. We've had one too many family reunions there too, when our balikbayan relatives come home and start craving for Filipino food.

Since it was a day after Christmas, everybody was still in a festive mood, so the place was packed to the brim. Since there was just the 3 of us, we had no problem in getting a seat.



I also loved their Christmas which was at the center of the restaurant.

For our starters, Mom and I got soup to warm our insides. The night air here in the Philippines has been really nippy, almost everybody I know is sick or about to get sick.

Mom had the Sotanghon soup. She would almost always order sotanghon soup if she sees it on the menu!

I had Cream of Mushroom.

Despite it's lack of glamor for the camera, it was really good. It was served hot and had ample mushrooms in it.

For the main course we all had what made Aristocrat famous the world over: BARBECUE! Mom had Boneless Chicken, I had Pork Spareribs (for a change), and Ate Dor had the popular Chicken Barbecue.



Paired with Aristocrat's very own Java Sauce, it makes one if not THE BEST chicken barbecue there is here in the country.

After the huge dinner, it was time for us to go Luneta Park to walk around and burn the chicken meal. Luneta Park is a very historic site in the country becuase this is where our national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal was shot on December 30, 1896. The 0 kilometer marker, which serves as a marker to all the cities in the Philippines, is also found here.

When we got to the park, it was just like Aristocrat, it was PACKED with families picnicking and just sitting around. It was like the whole of Manila was there! Kids ran around, parents slept, and vendors milled around, as the park's sound systems blasted Christmas carols.




I don't usually go to Luneta randomly, maybe I'm just a bit snooty that way, but I have to admit I enjoyed being there that night. It was a totally different Sunday night family affair.

Like us, everybody came for the fountain show. It only lasted for about 10 minutes but it was cool. The kids enjoyed it, especially when the lights changed colors. We weren't kids, but it was actually cool! Ate Dor of course LOVED it since she begged for us to come down to Manila just to see this! :)



Walking around the park, we noticed these blue and pink lights that kept flying up in the air. They were these slingshot toys the kids were playing around with, I was so intrigued I bought from this boy who was selling them for P15.


The kids were having so much slinging those things in the air. And when we finally got the hang of it, Ate Dor and I actually had fun with it too! So fun I bought 10 of these things to give to my college barkada for our reunion the following night.

Sometimes it really is the simple things in life that prove to be FUN and I think it keeps you grounded! Since we're all used to heading over to the malls and going to the Luneta Park was something of a relief. It's nice to see Filipino families bonding complete with their their pots filled with food, rice cooker, and plates. You just get to feel how the family is still the most important for us Filipinos, and you just can't help but be proud of it. And I sure was glad to be among those Filipino families in the park that night! :)




We ate at:
The Aristocrat Restaurant
432 San Andres St. cor. Roxas Blvd., Malate
Manila, Metro Manila, Philippines
Tel. No. 524-7671 to 80