Friday Night Dinner

Nomads like us tend to be adaptive to the environment we live in.  We embrace differences in culture and try stuff out, as we don't want to miss out on the experience.  The idea is to try things at least once.  We do this particularly with food.  Some people cringe at the sight of blood soup, balut, sashimi or steak tartare.  But nomads are more open and, without any judgement, seizes the moment.

Outside of the carpe diem matra, though, they are people just missing the environment they are accustomed to.  There are times when we wanted to bask on our comfort zone and not have to tiptoe around other cultures.  I am particularly lucky because I have my fellow Filipino family with me.   When I come home, I can relax, stop trying to adapt, become comfortable speaking my own language and be who I really am. 

It is a different story though for my friend, Pat who is married to an American.  Her struggle to remain true to herself is far more difficult because she has to culturally adjust even at the comfort of her own home.  She therefore cannot just cook a meal like she did from back home if her husband does not like it.  Some Filipino food could admittedly be an acquired taste.  

Often Pat would come to our house on a Friday night just to hang out.  But mostly because she's craving for Filipino food.  Just like today where she chose to hang out and mentioned she's craving for asado. 

Sweet-salty Asado

Munggo guisado with shrimp and swiss chard

We devoured on the mixture of sweet-salty goodness of asado and neutralized it with the ever-nutritious munggo guisado (sauteed mung beans with shrimp and swiss chard) with very little words in between.  We all let out a sigh of contentment and happiness while recalling how we never really liked munggo until we left the country.  It brings a nostalgic feeling of childhood that somehow transports us back home.  To complete the all-Filipino meal, I served some bibingka cupcakes from baking mix (with salted eggs and cheese on top).  

Bibingka Cupcakes

Yeah not from scratch :-(  .  Would have been nice to have them on banana leaves too.  One of the compromises of being a nomad in this particularly secluded place is not having all the ingredients you need.

Then we capped the evening with a glass of cabernet.  Not sure how that all mixes up together, but we were all happy for sure.