TravelswithCharie

Boodle fight Far away from California and longing to celebrate Thanksgiving, I decided to invite a few close friends and family to my Thanksgiving luncheon. I had never had a boodle fight meal and had wanted to experience it so I decided to have a boodle fight on the beach at Bitoy's. It was so nice of them to accommodate my group with less than 24 hours’ notice before the event. And the result was everything I could have hoped for. I had reserved for 10 people and this is how much food we got.  It sure was a table of plenty. We had oysters, shrimp, milkfish, chicken, eggplant, okra, fried banana, green mango, tomatoes, shrimp paste and rice. I had also brought with me the alimasag (baby crab) we bought at the beach in Ivisan the day before. Guests brought several kinds of dessert including guinataan* , brazo de Mercedes and various kinds of Philippine kakanin (delicacies) . Needless to say, we lingered over lunch and slowly savored what was on the table before us.

How terrific to be invited to Thanksgiving dinner. We spent a leisurely day free from worrying if the thermometer has been released by an overstuffed roasted turkey. On our way to dinner, we passed by Best Buy and saw people camping outside the closed store. These people must have had their dinner early or at the store's parking lot. They are serious shoppers who want to be the first to enter the store tomorrow when it opens at 5 a.m. and avail of the bargains on the first and biggest shopping day of the holiday season. It's been a cold night and it's unimaginable how they can sleep at the parking lot on Thanksgiving evening. Our dinner table was filled with all the trimmings and more but before digging into the turkey, honeybaked ham, prawn cocktail, mochiko with Chinese sausage, cranberry, cheese and crackers, mocha cake, leche flan, apple pie, cashew nuts, and an assortment of chips, we said a little prayer of thanks. And it was this: "Thank you Lord for this wonder