Christmas is here!

Just a few hours to go and we're celebrating Christmas. Mmm..more holiday eating for Noche Buena and the next few days all the way to New Year's Day. The past weeks had been busy for the tummies already, weren't they, what with all the Yuletide parties and reunions we've gone to. Haha! What Christmas food have you so far had? Me, I've had "bibingka" and "puto bumbong" (no picture of the latter though), which are among the traditional Filipino Christmas fare. Bibingka is rice cake cooked both over and under live coal and served with margarine, grated coconut, salted eggs and sugar on top. Puto bumbong, that purple, elongated native snack or dessert, is also a type of rice cake cooked inside small bamboo poles and served also with grated coconut, margarine and sugar on top. During our company Christmas party and brother's birthday celebration last week, I had lechon, too.  For the affluent, Noche Buena is never complete without this pig skewered on a bamboo pole and roasted whole till the skin turns golden brown and crispy.

Bibingka with "kesong puti" at Antonio's  (SM San Lazaro)

Lechon at brother's birthday party..

..and at our office Christmas party

My second plate at our office party. The lechon skin gives off a wonderful crackling sound at every bite.

Oh well, more holiday binge eating to come. Throw dieting out of the window in the meantime and have a detox after the New Year celebration. Now that's one wise advice. Hehe.  Hey, just kidding! We don't want anybody spending the holidays on a hospital bed, 
so eat in moderation, okay?

Have a blessed and merry Christmas!