The Christmas table

During the holidays I'm the cook and baker in the family.

- ANA MARIE PAMINTUAN

Among my most requested dishes and desserts are callos, paella, lengua con setas, chicken salad, fruit salad, cathedral window jelly, lemon torte and food for the gods.Pre-COVID pandemic I prepared meals for Noche Buena and then Christmas lunch for up to 40 people, mostly relatives.

The lengua was mainly for my partner, who ate it for Noche Buena and then hoarded the remaining slices for himself alone, to be slowly consumed throughout the week until New Year, when he would eat anything I prepared - usually Chinese dishes like pata tim and glass noodles with Chinese-style stewed pork leg, for good luck and long life.

He liked ox tongue that's tender but with some bite left in it a balance I had perfected through proper boiling time. The best tongue used to come from New Zealand, but these days Tagaytay produces high-quality beef and ox tongue.

Apart from the slices of ox tongue, my partner would sneak a few pieces of food for the gods into a bag that he would hang in his closet, away from my sight lest I remind him of his blood sugar level and confiscate the sweets.

His contribution to the holiday spread were most of the 13 types of round fruits that my mother put in a bilao or winnowing basket for the New Year.