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Oy! Ever since arriving here for vacation, I’ve been doing a lot of eating!

Last Sunday evening, the day that I had arrived, the entire family went to San Jacinto restaurant to help celebrate both Tita Josie’s and Donna’s birthdays. There were 18 of us there – not the entire kaboodle (Tito Joey, Tita Gina and Dani were in HKG). We feasted on a 12-course Chinese lauriat…times 2! Tita had ordered 2 of everything for the entire family, so there were a total of 24 dishes on the table! Needless to say, we were rolling out of there, since the food in San Jacinto is quite good!

I don’t know if I can remember all twelve course, but I’ll try – we had Bird’s Nest soup, a platter of Chinese cold cuts, glazed beef w/ kropeck (shrimp chips – YUM!), salt and pepper prawns (and when I mean prawns, I mean the large ones that we have here in the Philippines, not the small “prawns” you get in the US), Pancit Guisado, Yang Chow fried rice, Pata Tim, Lapu-Lapu in ginger sauce, ground beef in cabbage cups…god, I can’t remember the rest…you could say I was in a food coma after that!

And every morning, for breakfast, I’ve been indulging in sinangag (garlic fried rice)! Yum! I haven’t indulged in this on a daily basis in ages!

Oh yes, I finally even got a chance to have lanzones! It wasn’t sweet – it was a little tart, but I still enjoyed it! I have not had it in more than 20 years! Ah! Life is good!

Ah! I’m finally in Manila! After a 3-year absence of not visiting, it’s good to be back home.

Yes, home. I can’t help it – when I’m in SF, I always miss Manila. And when I’m here, I miss SF a lot. It’s crazy, but I think I can call both places home…unless I can find another place that has the qualities of both!

The trip was uneventful, to say the least. Although, I did get upgraded to Business Class, thanks to mom’s connection at Philippine Airlines. I got some really good pictures as we took off.

Even though I was in Business Class, the seat was still uncomfortable – especially for a 15-hour direct flight. Thank God my brother gave me a sleeping aid – I slept for about 12 hours of the flight (although I still kept fidgeting since I couldn’t find a good position to fall asleep in). I only was awake for the dinner that was served after we took off, and breakfast that was served just before we landed (mind you – it was heaven – garlic fried rice, bacon, sweet cured Filipino pork (tocino) – YUM!)

I landed in MNL at 4:20 a.m., and was out by 5:00 (cleared immigration, got my bags, and cleared customs in about 20 minutes – the shortest I think that I’ve experienced).

And now I’m enjoying the nice warm weather! Not too humid, but mind you, just enough humidity to make my skin feel naturally moisturized! No need for creams, since my skin doesn’t look scaly/flaky!

And the food – my god! I’ve been enjoying it since I got home here in Vernida. I had bought some freshly made bibingka and puto bumbong this morning after church, and they tasted heavenly after not having some for ages!

And not to mention the bananas! Oh my gawd – so many varieties just hanging at the fruit peddlers’ stands. I had me some La Tondan and Sabah today, and they were bursting w/ flavor. Unlike those generic chiquitas that you get in Safeway or Albertsons. The La Tondan has what I would describe as a complex sweet and sour flavor. The Sabah, while not good raw, was excellent just served parboiled, and in one case, served as banana fritters.

I can’t wait to get my hand on the other varieties of bananas, as well as the other fruits that I’ve missed. I’ve already indulged in mangoes as well – the Philippine kind that’s smoother than canned peaches but tastes hundreds of times better than the champagne mangoes we get from Mexico while in the states.

Bummer – I just missed the lanzones season – it would have been a blast had I got to taste some. Pity I missed it by a few weeks.