So we made one up. We decided to spend Christmas Eve on the beach! How cool is that? When I was younger, my family spent a few Christmases in Boracay and Pattaya so I definitely loved the idea. This time we went to Montemar Beach Resort in Bataan. As expected, there were only a handful of people there. We had the whole place to ourselves... well us, Mark Gil, Cherry Gil, and Gary Granada. Harhar. I digress.
We had an awesome Christmas Eve! I finally got some much needed R & R. How could I not with a view like this?? It's the perfect place for some meditation, a little soul-searching... and a bit of drinking. Teehee.
That was our Noche Buena. :) Christmas without the usual ham and Queso de Bola, which we intentionally left at home, was kind of liberating.
Lemme fast-forward to Christmas day.
I started my day right with this...
MMMMMMM. The breakfast of champions. Bacon, sinangag, and scrambled eggs. Bacon rocks my world. It really does. Yuri knows how to cook awesome bacon. A man after my own heart. He cooked me this same breakfast when he was still courting me three years ago.
Fast-forwarding again to Christmas Day Dinner.
We checked out of the resort at 1 PM and then drove straight home. We napped for an hour and then drove off to my parents house.
This was the main event.
Curacha crabs flown all the way from Zamboanga. All 20 kilos of it. I had been waiting for these crabs for weeks now. So yeah, I had hairy crabs for dinner. LOL. a.k.a. Cockroach Crabs according to my dad. I apologize for this hastily taken picture. It was too mouth-watering. I had to get my hands on it as soon as I could. My mom served 10 kilos of Curacha crabs. Each crab weighs at least half a kilo. By the end of the night, I managed to stuff myself with 5 kilos-worth of Curachas. Oops.
Oh and you absolutely cannot eat this without the famed Alavar Sauce. It's a thick coconut gravy made with aligue (crab fat). For me, aligue is the end all and be all. It's like crema in a well-made cup of espresso. It's the only reason why I go through the trouble of picking through these crabs. Erm especially since I'm allergic to them. So imagine how mind-blowing it is to have the Alavar Sauce drizzled on top of the fresh aligue. *sigh* Words fail me.
On to the Best Supporting Roles.
I'd have to nominate my all-time favorite Royce Champagne Nama Chocolates. Read more about Royce here.
My second nominee would have to be the Leche Flan Cake.
It's basically a chiffon cake with a creamy leche flan topping. A nice balance of lightness and creaminess. This cake sort of reminds me of Estrel's Caramel Cake. Estrel's cake is waaaaay better but the Leche Flan Cake makes a decent substitute.
My holiday pig-out season is far from over. Today we cooked up a decent dinner feast for some relatives who came over for a belated Christmas day dinner. We had Assorted Cold Cuts, Fresh Garden Salad with Strawberry Vinaigrette, Roast Chicken ala Yuri with Oregano and Old Bay, Mashed Potatoes, Mushroom Risotto ala Michelle, and some Pan-Fried Dory in a Sesame Thai Sauce. In a few hours my hubby and I will be driving to Baguio for an extended vacation. Strawberry Taho here I come! I swear I'm gonna get back to biking after the New Year.
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