da tomāto

loved ordering in from max's restaurant. food would be delivered hot and in 30 minutes. then again, i did not order later than 6:30pm... until new year's day... new year's day, we called before 8pm and asked for 2 orders of lumpiang shanghai and 1 order of veggie lumpia bites. the veggie lumpia bites were delicious {not umay -oily like i had before). both lumpiang shanghai orders were lukewarm and soggy: one order tasted ok, the other one was sour and inedible. sad. next time i want food from max's, i will not call later than 6:30pm.

a few days before christmas, we had guests who cooked lunch for us; they were really nice. i wasn't in the kitchen but i heard they brought their own spices, curry and were excited to see turmeric in our pantry (good thing too because we didn't know how to use it). basically, they worked with flavors from south asia. they cooked shrimp, chicken kebab, beef and fried rice with pineapple (that i didn't get a chance to take a picture of). food was delicious and spicy -- loved it.

Yumm... chicken liver from last night. Only 3 days until Christmas. It's been a busy week and I think it'll be like this until after New Year's. It's a good kind of busy; lots of excitement with just a hint of stress. Before you know it, another day's done and you're down for the count at bedtime. It rained today. Had leftover chicken liver {delicious!} for brunch. Opened a few presents {not mine} after dinner. One was a set of stainless steel fork, spoon and chopsticks in a neoprene zippered pouch - it was cute; the pouch was cute. We started planning for Noche Buena . That's only 2 days away. I saw a couple of Christmas gift baskets with food here so the staples are pretty much covered - ham, cheese, pasta. Can't wait.

someone told me that jollibee's sausage-"silog" was the most substantial meal on their breakfast menu. i want to try the corned beef next. we had an appointment earlier. we were out the door by 6 a.m. and arrived early for our thing. the thing was done in less than an hour. on our way home, we bought jollibee takeout because no one wanted to cook breakfast. we were home by 9:30 a.m. i ate and then i slept. it was a productive morning.