Pandemic Birthdays

Birthdays and anniversaries used to mean family day and eating out. But with the continuing threat of COVID19, it's just family day for now. The eating "out" is now eating "in" a combination of home cooked meals and food deliveries. These occasions have become more special because it gives us a reason to visit family members that we are unable to see on a regular basis anymore. Plus the simple fact that we can go out and see the streets of the metro is already a milestone. It's like breathing fresh air! 

Birthday Pancake

Nanay had her birthday recently and my siblings and I agreed to celebrate it with a get together. We set it on the weekend after her actual birthday at my youngest sisters' place. She and her family lives just about 5kms away from us. As a safety precaution. we all tried to limit our outside-the-house-errands within the 2 weeks prior to the big day.

We arrived at my sister's place early in the morning. Nanay was welcomed with colorful balloons, a cute Happy Birthday signage on the wall and a resounding happy birthday song from all of us. My sister and her fam also prepared a sumptuous breakfast of bacon, hotdogs, scrambled egg and rice. Partnered with a cup of steaming hot coffee and bam! 

A little while later our pre-ordered taho also arrived. It comes with a glass of sago (tapioca balls) and arnibal (sugary syrup). It's been a while since we had taho so this was really a sweet treat. 

Giant Taho


Lunch was the big feast. We had food from Amber consisting of pancit malabon, pork barbeque, chicken lollipop and pichi-pichi, homemade dinuguan from a good friend of mine. and Cookieccino cake from Conti's. 


We already have a history with Amber, as we have been patronizing their food as far back as mid-2000s. And they have never failed us so far. The food is great and reasonably priced. My personal favorite is the Pancit Malabon and pichi-pichi.   

A good friend of mine and her hubby started their dinuguan business late last year and I have been meaning to order from them since. It took half a year before it finally happened but it was worth it. My family and I love it. Personally, I like that the meat was too soft that it was almost shredded and it doesn't have big chunks of pork fat. Will definitely order again. 

Coockiecchino by Conti's Bakeshop & Restaurant

What is a birthday celebration without a cake? Conti's Cookieccino has become a family favorite since it was launched last February in their Valentine's Day campaign. I think we've had it 4x already since then. It was a joy to see Nanay blow her birthday candles on her specially requested cake. 

As per Conti's website, Cookieccino is described as, "Delectable layers of coffee chocolate sponge and velvety cream with cookie dough on a butter cookie crust, decorated with Lotus Biscoff." Can you say that again? Coffee + Chocolate + Butter? Okay, you got me!

In between meals, we took time catch up each other about kids and school, health including COVID19 and vaccinations, work/working from home, and life in general.  

On the other hand, the kids spent most of the time playing computer games. My son doesn't get to play much because we do not have a game console at home so we let him play to his heart's content when he is with his cousins.  

We capped off the day with dinner which practically was a repeat of lunch which we didn't really mind it was good food all in all. Looking forward to doing all this again soon. Hopefully, these precious moments will occur more frequently as it was before COVID19. 


Giant Taho

Ninong's Special Dinuguan

Amber

Cookieccino Cake by Conti's


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