Pamanhikan in Manila 2004

June 27, 2004. Sunday. 6 pm. All my family gathered for Joey and his family's pamanhikan (check previous post on what this means). It's not really a mega formal and traditional pamanhikan. I worked on the proposal for several months. And as expected, I still worked on it the very last minute hehehe. It was a joyful occassion for everyone since it was the first time for them to meet Joey. Noel, his older brother, and his family represented the Bio clan.

Mama prepared lots of food -- dinuguan, kare-kare, crispy pata, lumpia... all Filipino dish since we miss these menu hehheheee. My aunst prepared some of their specialty dishes as well. Surprisingly, some of my relatives were there like Tita Lydia, Ate Nateng and my mom's close friends like Tita Panching and Tita Lita. I am so sure they wanted a glimpse of Joey.

And he was so adorable! Talking to everyone, involving himself in every conversation. They developed an instant liking on him. My sister obviously likes Joey. He is just so lovable.

After eating, we presented the proposal and made everyone laugh. Its good I am already an expert in proposal presentation so everything went like a breeze. I added jokes in betweeb to make it less serous. But Joey was shy all throughout. You can view the rest of the pictures in our album.

They were impressed that everything is almost planned. But we still left some window of opportunity for them to involve themselves like -- donate lechon? hehhee and help in doing the wedding favours.

Everyone went home happy and full. Lots of food were left that almost everyone was able to bring something home. I requested to have the ribs and the Joey had all the empanada wrapped for him. We're off to Tagaytay the following day.

What a day!


Empanada
These Latin American pastries, filled with seafood, meat, cheese, vegetables or fruit are wildly popular. Thought to have originated in Spain, where the Empanada Festival is part of Galician culture, the name comes from empanar, or to coast with bread. Variations of this form of portable meals are found in Cornish pasties, Italian calzone, or turnovers.

To begin with, the pastry shell is flour, egg, oil, lard or shortening, and a liquid, either water, broth or milk. Some recipes call for yeast or wheat germ or salt. All dough is kneaded, rolled out to size, filled as desired, then baked.

Some recipes call for browning the tops under a broiler, then baking, to approximate the look of an old brick oven. Some cooks prefer to fry their empanadas, and this is especially tasty with bite-sized cheese empanadas, or empanaditas.

Here are two recipes you can try. Enjoy!