Though my brothers are no experts at the kitchen like my parents are, they still know how to cook some dishes. Biboy did the cooking on three separate days. He made the carbonara last thursday and the pork with broccoli last night. Tonight, the new dish is prawns topped with his special sauce. Meanwhile I did all the eating. Hyuk! Hyuk! Hyuk!
We also tried Nestle’s new ice cream sensation – Heaven Belgian Bliss. A real yummy taste! 
Three days to go and everyone starts to buy candles and flowers for their loved ones who passed away. We will be visiting the cemetery on November 1st probably at 8 a.m. then leave before noon to avoid the incoming traffic.
I remembered reading an article in The Philippine Star that’s related to Halloween. I found this article quite entertaining. Somehow, it made the approaching Halloween season less scary.
It rained for a while last Monday, October 20. Just in time for the end of the MassKara celebration. Mayor Bing declared Monday a special holiday for Bacolod because the Charter Day falls on a Sunday. It was also the start of semestral break for some college levels.
We went back to Hda. Alejandria last saturday afternoon at the height of the MassKara Festival. It was Lola Racquel’s advance birthday celebration. Her birthdate is October 20. I requested my brother to take the street dance photos for me while I was away. My in-laws planned an afternoon snack because they had separate appointments to do the next day.
Since October 1, Araneta-plaza is transformed into a huge street party starting at 5 p.m. Several vendors line up the street to sell street foods, toys, masks and other souvenir items. This lasts until the wee hours of the morning. Kiosks surrounding the public plaza also offers goods, souvenir items, bounty foods and nonstop drinks.
Pagkatapos naming pumunta ng MassKara Village, mawawala ba naman ang kainan? Di na kami nagpaliguy-ligoy pa, umupo na kami agad sa Shakey’s. Malapit lang kasi sa exit ng Robinson’s eh. Buti may natira pang isang mesa kasi sobrang dami ng tao sa mall. May job fair pa sa fountain area.
This article gave me a confusion of the exact location of this year’s MassKara Village. We couldn’t find it in SM City. Even the mall guards didn’t know about it. We were led to the AAB Mask Exhibit instead. Jeanette later told me that the village exists but it is not opened until the 6th. A tv ad confirmed this information but it is located at Robinson’s Place contrary to what I had read in the newspaper. Or could it be another MassKara Village at SM on that day only?
I saw an ad of Pietro Kaffee’s 1st year anniversary with a buy one take one promo on their varieties of pasta and a 20% off on their hotdog special until the end of October. This suits papa’s birthday celebration because pasta is his favorite. I made a beeline way to SM south wing in search for Pietro Kaffee. It is an Italian coffee shop that offers hot and cold beverages, cakes, pastries, pasta and pizza among others. This is also another chance for us to try new goodies.
As I went downstairs to have breakfast yesterday, I smelled another luscious foods coming up. Mama had cooked pork adobo, bihon, fried chicken and fried tilapia but she reserved the latter 2 for dinner. I bought the quarter chicken myself the other night because of the thigh part. It is my and Biboy’s most favorite part including the chicken butt.
I saw the bihon and thought of Lyn. It’s her favorite. I asked mama to pack some for Lyn. She added two slices of humba or pork adobo to go with it.
Since I have posted pictures of foods lately, I decided to capture my mom’s cooked food for a change. Tonight, we had shrimp and tofu. Poor mama had to eat tofu only because of her allergy. However, we, excepting papa who has diabetes, shared the fruit salad from SM supermarket. There are wide varieties of fruits to choose from then they will add the milk mixture and weigh your selected fruits including the container for P110 a kilo.
Hindi ito maskara na ginawa para sa MassKara Festival. Matagal na daw itong nauso sa Manila dahil unang lumabas ito sa GMA 7. Sa katunayan, pinag-aagawan daw ito ng mga mamimili sa Divisoria. Dahil sadyang konserbatibo ang mga Bakolenyo, hindi pa gaanong marami ang tumatangkilik dito. Pero sa kasalukuyan, may iilan na ang bumili at gumagamit nito. Hindi kaya parang parati kang nakasilip sa may bintana pag suot mo ito? Hihihi…
I saw from a local newspaper that SM MassKara Village was opened on the 1st day of the MassKara celebration. I was expecting that I could see a similar village held in Robinson’s Place last year. Jeanette and Biboy had asked 2 mall guards for the location of the village but none of them heard about it. As we searched for it, what we saw was a mask exhibit at the cinema lobby.
You read it right! An eat-at-all-you-can chicken inasal for 150 pesos per head only at Bacolod BLC Chicken Inasal. It was the former Acacia Grill in 17th St. It was their 3rd anniversary yesterday when Biboy, Jeanette and I had our lunch there.
Before we headed for BLC, Biboy came from a tree-planting activity and Jeanette hadn’t eaten dinner since the night before. And I’ll skip meal that morning to ready myself for a more hearty lunch, right? Wrong. I had my usual breakfast at home. I’ve learned from past buffet I’d gone to. Taking your regular meals trains your stomach in digesting more foods. I’m not sure of it but it worked for me yesterday. Hahaha!
Blog-tag has been started by Jeff Pulver as a game for a Virtual Cocktail Party. The purpose of the game is for your blog readers to know you better. Jeff Pulver’s version only shares 5 things about himself that few of his friends know. Since the blog-tag has really gone a long way, the list of things that you can share with your blog readers have also been increased. If you think your blog readers need to know more than 5 things about you then you can always choose to have a higher number. Same rules still applies.
Iba ang binabalak bilhin pero iba ang binili… ‘Di ko kasi matiis si Bob’s eh. Kumakaway na sa mga alaga kong bulate. Hihihi… Syempre bumili rin ako para sa parents ko. Pasta para sa papa ko, chocolate cake naman para sa mama ko. Sa akin ‘yung paborito kong cheesecake!
Today is the start of Bacolod’s month-long celebration - its 29th MassKara Festival and the 70th Charter anniversary. MassKara is simply derived from the words “mass” meaning many or multitude of people and the Spanish word “cara” meaning face. It is also synonymous to mask in the local dialect.
A short history
The festival began during a time of crisis when the sugar industry as the lifeblood of the City was at its lowest after the introduction of sugar substitute High Fructose Corn Syrup from the U.S. As history relates, it was also a time of tragedy. A Negros Navigation luxury liner M/S Don Juan carrying many Negrenses collided with a tanker and sank killing about 700 lives. Thus, to cover up the gloomy feelings, they held the festival and created masks with smiling faces because Bacolod is also known as the City of Smiles.
