Last week we had back to back dinners at home, one at our place and another for my mom’s BFF at her lovely home. But let me warn you, the images below are not an accurate representation of our home cooked meals. Ok fine, save for the steak and the occasional lobster and food, we don’t really pull out the good china.
Since childhood, my family always valued good food whether made from scratch or restaurant bought. And probably like every other Filipino family, food is the ultimate form of courtesy, affection, and usual overcompensation device for such  issues as lack of attention (as a child), lack of entertainment (at a party, unless it’s karaoke), or lack of subject matter (just keep your mouth full so you don’t have to speak!)
My much loved aunt from Chicago arrived with a nice big box of pasalubong for the entire family: an entire case of Maine lobsters!!! Being seafood addicts, we welcomed this wholeheartedly. My mother insisted, it must be surf n turf night!
The surf part being taken cared of, the turf was not any more difficult to procure either. Our main freezer is almost always stocked up with entire ribeye roasts which I/mom/sibling usually travels with when returning from the States. We buy it in bulk, and go to the nearest palengke  to get the butcher to slice them up.
  The result of steaks presence in our lives translates to the following dishes:  Ribeye and broccoli, ribeye bistek tagalog, salad with ribeye, and ribeye salpicao.  It’s a bit insulting, I know. So I could never order steak at a restaurant without feeling the tinge of guilt which sounds a lot like my mother, whispering “you could just have steak at home…“. And I usually do. Unless it’s Peter Luger’s. But I even made the compromise when I moved back to manila to constantly stock up on their steak sauce.
So homemade dinner #1 looked a lot like this:
simple buffet line (that’s simple for us)
Rice Pilaf
aka. leftover rice from restaurants and whatever was in the fridge
Ze crustacean friends aka Lobsters with Lemon+butter+patis sauce
  Ribeye with a peppercorn gravy care of
Chef Stephen
(NO, we do not have a chef at home. Sometimes lang.)
Banana Truffle Turon
Bananas + chocolate truffle wrapped in rice paper and deep fried to a golden goodness
My plate of Ribeye, Lobster and White Asparagus spears (BEFORE)
and AFTER (hee hee)
THE VERY NEXT DAY…
We headed a few houses down to mom’s BFF’s home for another homemade meal.. this one not as casual as our homemade dinner the previous night looked. Maybe we should be more formal, no?
 It was for her big birthday, and had a delicious meal to show for:
 Tomato Basil Soup (nice and light)
Oriental Crabstick Salad w Sesame Dressing
Grilled Chilean Seabass with a veggie Risotto and asparagus spears
(Because we thought this was the final course, we, the children, stammered and bitched that it was such a tiny portion we needed to go in the fridge to ease the pang of unending hunger. Little did we know that we were just being delayed for the grand finale)
Ribeye (AGAIN!) with creamed spinach, Potatoes Au Gratin, and Pasta Primavera
Dear God, please forgive me for my gluttony, and for the next few picture that will come to be remembered as the never ending dessert plate…
Chocolate cake with creme and raspberry compote
The caterer’s birthday chocolate cake
And Auntie BFF’s kid’s Caramel Cake
May my tummy rest in peace, Amen.
To dream about Peter Luger’s Steak. Click steak
To read about the legendary Hizon’s Caramel Cake, head to cake
To chance on a dinner at my house… call me!