[Photos courtesy of D. Guevarra.]

And so it happened that the much-ballyhooed bash at a beach resort was eventually cancelled and instead, a dinner for friends was held at our rooftop flat. Dennis, with Sunder’s help, magically transformed our dull and bland rooftop with some plastic greens.

We set up the buffet table outside but a last-minute drizzle and dust-storm made us move the same table indoors. Just as well, it made for a really intimate ambience, he he.

I cooked up a storm, so to speak, with a lot of help from friends MeAnn (kare-kare to die for), Jenny (pansit molo par excellence) and Dex (heavenly palabok).  Joyce and the Tatoys (Bel and Tess) were angels, as they helped cook up the storm even more. We managed to come up with fried fish fillets, fried chicken wings and macaroni salad. We chopped up celery and cucumber to go with baby carrots. We were supposed to blanch camote tops and serve ensalada (with sliced tomatoes, onions and boiled eggs drenched in sweetened vinegar) but we didn’t find the time.

Dinner was supposed to be at 7 but we were able to serve it instead at 8. Bad.

There was a deluge of cakes – from the home-made mouth-watering ube cake, to delights from the best cake houses this side of town – Baskin-Robbins ice cream cake, chocolote mousse cake from Le Gourmet and strawberry-topped cakes from French Corner, King Pastry and Saadeddin. Someone even took the time to have his greetings on one of the cakes – how thoughtful!

That was just dessert and I have to add that there were also Philippine mangoes, ice cream, turon, ginataang halu-halo and palitaw. 

Everyone we invited and who we hoped will come, came, with some even bearing gifts.

And so it was another memorable celebration. That it was with friends made it even more so.