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!

Lechon for lunch at Sabroso

Yesterday, Friday, was a bit busy for me although I didn't go to work. First, I had to bring the new puppies to the vet for their first shots. And then it was time to go to the dentist for my.. ugh..dental extraction. In between, it was lunchtime and what better way to spend the last hour before sitting on a dentist's chair and having two teeth extracted than to eat.. lechon (roasted pig)! We (my daughter was with me) were on our way to the clinic on E. Rodriguez Sr., QC when I saw Sabroso Lechon at the corner of Tomas Morato and on that instant decided it to be the place for lunch.

Outside, the lechon on display was so inviting with its glistening golden brown skin that to me, elicited a delicious, crackling sound. Hehe. Inside, I fell in love with the ambiance of this hole in the wall. The interiors evoked a feeling of nostalgia that I felt like I was 60! All around were pictures of old Manila and in a quiet corner, there was this music player that uses vinyl records (a phonograph?). Lovely. But like anywhere I eat, there were hits and misses. I found out when we placed our orders, that there was no steamed veggies (the only vegetable item on the menu) to go with our lechon (to lessen the guilt!).  I didn't want to order another pork dish to go with our lechon (There's no fish, beef or chicken here). And neither was there tanglad tea to wash everything down. Grrr. I wanted so much to try their lemongrass tea that not many restaurants offer. Oh well, better luck next time. 
And I wish they'd cook more vegetables! 
Anyway, we ordered 1/4 kilo lechon which was more than enough for me and my daughter, plus rice and Coke. Our three puppies were so happy to get their share of lechon, which, by the way, was flavorful (what Sabroso says in their slogan is true!) and the meat is tender although not all the skin was crispy. I liked too that their pork had little fat and it's even organic! Wow, lechon that's healthy! Now I feel less guilty. Hehe. Sabroso, for me, deserves a second visit. I would want to try their sisig and dinuguan and hopefully, their tanglad tea.  
How's the tooth extraction afterward, you might want to know. Hehe. My dentist was a darling! I didn't feel a thing and it was over in the blink of an eye! An hour later, I was eating ice cream at the mall.  Haha!

Beautiful. Yummy, too!

1/4 kilo lechon, P180.

Free soup that couldn't decide whether it's of bulalo, tinola or sinigang,

I told you, it's organic!

I love the old-world feel of the interiors.

The four-legged kids love lechon too!

Our minipin pups relaxing at Sabroso Lechon after their shots at the vet's clinic . They were quiet before our orders came. But once lechon was served and they smelled its aroma, they couldn't keep still anymore.