Family Dinners

Mamita called everyone to her house in Bonifacio Street for dinner last night. She is leaving for Cebu this afternoon, and then for Beijing on Saturday to visit tito Papao, tita Chona, and the kids a second time around in 6 months.

Gatherings at Mita's house is something we all look forward to almost every week. She is a perfect host. There's always fish and chicken on the buffet -- fish for those on a diet (and in this Lenten Season, there are many of us in the family abstaining from meat) and fried chicken for the kids (which, ultimately, the adults finish).

For dessert, she usually gets candy or chocolates from the little fridge she keeps upstairs in her room (which is loaded with so much goodies, I want to call it the Witch's cottage, with reference to the classic storybook, Hansel & Gretel). However, she came from Tacloban on the same day so she served us instead, one pack of pastillas she bought from Carigara. Now, the pastillas from this little unassuming town some 45 minutes away from Tacloban is so good, I wonder why it's not heaping loads of money for its recipe makers. While it's very good, it's also very elusive. You can't buy it anywhere but only at the home/store/carenderia of the one who makes it; and you can't buy it at any time of the day. I wish I can tell you how to nail them at the right time, but I'm not sure. I guess, you'll just have to be lucky.

The best thing about the gatherings at Mita's house is of course, each other's company. We (by this, I mean Mita's Ormoc-based sons and the families) actually live within a [scream's] earshot away from each other in Cogon. But we take this nearness for granted that we never really take the time out to see each other. Mita's beck and call to her home or to the beach in Seguinon, Albuera or to tito Bingcol's resort is a break from our respective bubbles. Over food (lots of food) and chatter (lots of that as well), we gather our individual lives and piece them back together like a puzzle. When it's complete -- oh look -- we are family again.

The Ormoc-based brothers tito Lito, tio Bingcs, and popsy (sans the roadtrip manager, tio Perok who disappeared out of the evening's blue) discuss our upcoming roadtrip in the northern part of Luzon in April with Mamita (whee!).

The in-laws: mother (married to Mayong), tita Rina (to Perok), tita Judy (to Bingcol), and tita Ems (to Lito) have a discussion of their own.

Gotcha mother! Always eating :DIf you excuse from your diet to eat pastillas, better make it Benny's Special from Carigara to make the fresh calories worth an add to your scale. (Benny Monte Alegre, Brgy. Binongto-an, Carigara, Leyte, #09205660603)

That's how it looks before and after I shove them up my mouth. (Carigara's pastillas are my favorites sweets; I don't eat it menudo style.)Tita Rina and her baby Ben.Two-year-old Ben, lost in the midst of women talk (I understand Ben, they don't exactly speak your mumble-jumble language noh?). Menu for the night: dinuguan (Pork Blood Stew), kilawin (bold guess: pork and beef rind?), spare ribs (which I didn't get to enjoy in virtue of my no-pork-no-beef Lenten promise), bihud (fish roe sauteed in onions, garlic, and tomato sauce), grilled fish, and Nang Inday's pancit.

Nang Inday, mayordoma of Mita's Bonifacio Street abode, and cook of my favorite versions of dinuguan and pancit!

The kids: newly-freed from school and ready to live it like how it should be at SUMMERTIME!!!Peter, Bieni, Andre, Rica, Kyra and Josh (and Maica -- NOTE: no longer a kid.)I hate doing this, but my feet always lead me to Mita's scale each time I find myself in its presence. (Last night, it read 135 lbs)
Marvin -- who just had his first prom and first prom dance with Alyssa -- and Alyssa, soon-to-be high school graduate (and a valedictorian(!!!) at that). In June, she's off to the blue courts of Ateneo.
Mita's Massage Chair (we loves!!!)... And here is the famous Witch's cottage. My current favorite from this trove is a chocolate-coated biscuit from Marks & Spencer. Wherssit?
Toys generally are a load of fun and make full of sense (if not always to adults, then at least to kids for whom they are made). This one, which baby Ben brought to dinner last night, tops my list as of the moment. It's a plastic box with 4 rectangular blocks each reflecting four different images of either the head, the eyes, the mouth or the body of a cat. You can twist and turn the blocks to create a cat that is friendly, angry, nervous, amazed, or (supposedly) 196 other states of emotions.
This one looks like it needs to poo.