Our Christmas Break 2011 Series includes :
- En Route To Pinas
- Day 2 : Ulingan, Tondo
- Day 5 : Malacanang Palace
- Day 5 Part 2 : The Legarda Mansion / La Cocina De Tita Moning
- Day 8 : Bisperas Ng Pasko Sa Ulingan
- Day 11 : Our Students’ Wedding
- Day 12 : We Went To Farmville!
- Day 14 : Our Celestial Weekend at Hotel Celeste
- Day 19 : Our Big Binondo Food Wok
—————————–
Foreword : You might need a glass of cold water when you browse this post. You have been warned, haha! 
*Most dishes are NON-HALAL too. Obviously, this is another gastronomic entry however, allow me to remind you again that I am not blogging food exclusively, but family and fun too. Go ahead, indulge and feast your eyes!
—————————–
The Christmas season in my country is all about family togetherness, friendly celebrations and homecoming particularly to those Filipinos who are residing and working abroad. Yuletide is such a perfect time for all those fun pursuits. It’s such a big blessing for us to be able to come home again after almost 2 year of being an expat-family here in Penang. Our hearts and stomachs remain loyal to the Philippines indubitably.
The following photos with brief descriptions essay some of the fantastic digestive feasts we savored with our families and friends during the entire 21 day-break (including holidays and weekends) we had in Manila. Don’t ask me about their calories, we’re not counting, haha!
At Via Mare in Greenbelt 3, Tina, Gabby and I enjoyed Filipino dishes….
Crispy Binagoongang Baboy served with Pakbet side dish (Crispy Pork Belly with Shrimp Paste and veggies).
Via Mare's Beef Caldereta was Tina's choice; sarap!
Our late-lunch-heavy-merienda included…
Wild Mushroom Soup for Gabby
Puto Maya : glutinous rice served with panutsa syrup and riped mangoes.
Gabby's personal preference : Shooters-a trio of guinumis, mais con yelo and halo-halo. The kid has his own taste, do you agree?
Via Mare's famous Bibingka : buttery, fluffy and served with salted egg (or kesong puti) delicious!
It’s only every Yuletide season when leaves of poinsettias become vividly red; lovely, aren’t they?
And poinsettias are lovelier at the facade of Manila Peninsula.
…where Gabby was overwhelmed with holiday cheers
…where we dined with one of our good friends of almost 2 decades, LG who also stands as one of Gabby’s dutiful godparents.
At the LOBBY of the Manila Peninsula, dinner included another set of Filipino favorites…
Kare Kare (Ox Tail and Veggies in Peanut Sauce served with Shrimp Paste) : one of my favorites!
Pancit Guisado
Lechon Kawali
And an Oreo-flavored sundae dessert for Gabby
Moving on to our other indulgence, at the Podium in Ortigas, we were treated to a Chinese dinner by my dad-in-law at …
I am proud to belong to a beautiful family…oh yes, that’s something to be proud of!
Must have soup…
then a prawn dish selected from the menu by my sister-in-law.
And despite no one’s celebrating a birthday (except for Baby Jesus!), must have Birthday Noodles…
Tender slices of beef and mushroom on a bed of broccoli’s always a winner for me.
Hakao or shrimp dumpling cannot be missed.
Our beloved kid ordered Four Seasons to wash down everything. Have I told you he has his own taste? 
Gabby and his cousin, Raphael loved the dinner.
Then one lovely weekday afternoon, we found ourselves in the middle of Ayala Triangle in Makati City.
At last, after having a long thread at the inbox in facebook, we finally arranged a meet up with our good blogger-friends around the area of their offices in Makati City. The lunch was set initially at Banapple, however the place was packed, so we had to look for Plan B : Wee Nam Kee.
It’s our (Tina, Gabby and I) first time to dine at this Singaporean-inspired food place, where Hainanese Chicken Rice is the bestseller.
Hainanese Chicken cooked two ways : Steamed and Roasted; sarap pareho! And we ordered LARGE! haha
Dyan, one of the most bubbly blog buddy I have suggested we try Cereal Prawns when we visited Singapore last year. However, we didn’t have the chance back then, and luckily, it’s available to sample at Wee Nam Kee. Another yummy!
Here are our pretty lunch dates at Wee Nam Kee :
Tina & Gabby with blog buddies, Marian, Dyan and Grace
And we had another version of Birthday Noodle. Sarap din!
Two days before our flight back to Penang, I attended to the invitation of Ivan Man Dy of Old Manila Walks a personal FREE Big Binondo Food Wok along with other BIG TIME food bloggers (read : For the nth time, this may be a food post but I am not into an exclusive food blogging). After that almost 4 hours for pigging out at Manila Chinatown, I hurried to meet my family and my sister-in-law with our Med school classmates and great friends, also godparents to Gabby –doc Shiny and doc Mitch at Peking Garden, TriNoma Mall in Quezon City.
At around half hour past 6 in the evening when I arrived, they’ve already ordered and all I had to do is eat. But because I just came from another food trip, I was still satiated and had more appetite in catching up with them and our lost times.
On our table at Peking Garden :
Forgive me, I failed to get the names of the dishes from the menu; as I mentioned, I arrived when there were already food on the table.
Spareribs, obviously. It tasted better than it looks.
Fried chicken that’s nothing special to rave about.
They also selected Yang Chow Fried Rice and yes, Birthday Noodle again. However, if I can call the attention of Peking Garden with this post, or the concerned diners in the TriNoma branch, then I’d like to ask them the reason why their waitresses have to get the used plates from their diners’ table IMMEDIATELY, as in, IN A SNAP, iyong tipong hindi pa tapos kumain, kinukuha na ang plato. Why? Never do that to your paying customers, okay? I believe it’s disrespect. Why in a hurry? May lakad kayo? LOL! I swear, of all the food places I’ve featured here on my blog, my family and I will never set foot in Peking Garden TriNoma ever again, seriously.
—————————–
There was no lack of excitement in all the moments amidst gastronomic feasts we shared with our families and friends. Our vacation was made complete with such wonderful experiences. We look forward again to another holiday when we can extremely stretch the time to bond with our love ones.
OPINION COUNTS…