Southern Comfort

There's always a warm, comfy feeling when you get together with relatives in a different place.

Then, when those relatives are awesome folks who you're meeting for the first time in your life, there's an added feeling of wonder and delight.

That's the feeling we got last Saturday when we met our Cebu-based relatives. Dad has been long trying to arrange this meeting, and with Alejandra in town, we thought it was the best time to do it. Not only will we meet them, they'll also get to meet their granddaughter from BCN.

Needless to say, the evening was filled with great, home cooked food, and even wonderful conversation. It was such a thrill to meet Titos, cousins and nieces for the first time! I didn't know we had uber cool relatives in Cebu!

There's always a warm, comfy feeling when you get together with relatives for the first time in a different place. And I'm sure this won't be the last.

From Mexico to Spain

Yesterday, it was all about Mexico. So today, it'll be about our other hispanic partner - Spain!

Our relatives from Barcelona flew in to spend Christmas in the Philippines. And while they were here for 2 weeks, they've been hopping around from Tagaytay to Boracay to Batangas. Ergo, we had a difficult time catching up with them.

Tonight was their last night before flying back to BCN, so we rounded them up for a nice, Filipino-Spanish dinner at Corazon.

It's always great to reconnect with our Spanish cousins. And we're so glad that they're visiting us much more often than they used to. So, while they may be flying out tomorrow night, I'm sure we'll see them again very soon.

Nos vemos!

A taste of our youth

When our relatives from Barcelona arrived in the Philippines, not only did they bring with them tons of memories from our childhood, they also brought with them a chockfull of Spanish food that we enjoyed as kids!

Among the stash were Jamon Serrano, Chorizo Iberico, and Turron de Jijona! Yummers!

The Jamon Serrano came from their restaurant, which makes it uber special. The Chorizo came from El Corte Ingles - the biggest department store chain in Europe. As kids, we'd always see Tita Evelyn and Tito Agustin lugging around bags from El Corte Ingles whenever they'd visit from Spain. A few years ago, when I went to Barcelona, it was such a thrill to go inside and explore the store. It was as fabulous as I imagined it to be.

Another favorite brand is Antiu Xixona. This brand has been around for ages! I mean, even as an elementary school kid, I'd remember how we'd receive boxes and boxes of Antiu Xixona from Tita Evelyn whenever they'd come to Manila.

Basically, Turron de Jijona is like Marzipan, albeit more oily and more solid. We always described it as "solid peanut butter made of almonds" since that's what it tastes like. It's so rich and so good, it feels like you're gaining weight just by looking at it.

Recently, I brought a box to the office, and some of my colleagues described it as: "Parang sosyal na Choc-nut!" (Welcome to the barrio.)

Seeing my cousins bring us these goodies is like a double-whammy. By spending time with our cousins, we relive our childhood. And by enjoying these goodies that they brought, we also get to taste our childhood.

In the Zone!

Before the second batch flew back to Barcelona, we decided to host dinner for them at Smoking Hot BBQ at Greenbelt 3. After dinner, we asked the kids if they wanted to check out Timezone which was on the same floor. Since they haven't been to an arcade in the Philippines yet, they decided to try it out.

Boy, did they love Timezone! We spent an hour there, and the kids kept jumping around from one arcade game to the next.

They couldn't get enough of Timezone that they had to return today - a few hours before they fly out to Spain.

You can never go wrong with Timezone.