To Celebrate

“Tomorrow you come over to our house for lunch. It’s K’s birthday.”

“Are you making goto?”

“No, it’s just lunch.”

So this was what I was expecting. Just lunch, with the family to celebrate my cousin’s birthday. I really didn’t think it was going to be anything big, because heck… her brother wasn’t even going to be there (but he has the “away at college” excuse).

I should have known “just lunch” would upgrade to a party. Nothing big, of course. The usual family was there. As were family friends. Not too many, but enough to send me back to my parents house to pick up more disposable utensils and cups.

We had just the right amount of food, which is a rare feat. We normally have too much and then urge people to bring some home, so they have baon for work the next day. At my cousin’s request, there were baked mussels topped with butter and chopped garlic; fried lumpia filled with ground beef and mixed vegetables; pepper shrimp; pork sinigang; mango salad.

No Filipino birthday would be complete without pancit. Pancit bihon, in this case, and made by my aunt. So good, I had myself several helpings.

Desserts included an ube cake from Red Ribbon; cheesecake; and watermelon. I really don’t think it was a true ube cake, it was more of a chiffon dyed purple. Macapuno filling, as is customary when making an ube cake. Whatever it was, it was good. The cheesecake was creamy and for a store bought, pretty good.