Full-moon feasts

MILLIE: Potluck parties are fun! It brings out the best in everyone. It’s also a form of sharing one’s culinary talents and entertaining skills.

Just last week, a group of friends who normally get together for any occasion for lots of laughs and eats found another excuse to bond and celebrate the birthdays of August celebrants. The group is called Alas, a Spanish word for “wings,” as many in the group were members of a theater committee when their daughters were still studying at Poveda Learning Centre. As a fitting tribute to two lovely lady friends, Salve Olalia and Badette Supapo, both doctors, I offered to host a crab party at my home.

KARLA: So it all started with crab talk. Mom loves to entertain on full-moon nights serving giant, deep-sea crabs. We normally serve it chilled with different dipping sauces like vinegar-garlic-chili, plain patis or fish sauce and my Lolo’s favorite combination of vinegar and Aristocrat bagoong, plus new additions to the list are chili sauce, Thai sweet chili sauce, and curry sauce.

The crabs we get are sometimes one kilo each and are from Philippine seas. Mom has a supplier she met long ago in a Cebu market who introduced her to this type of crab, the alimasag, which Mom calls lambay, found abundantly in Bantayan Island. Yet another supplier says it’s from Bacolod. Tita Menchu Roman says they also have this kind of crabs in Bataan and they are known as De Colores or San Francisco.

Aside from being huge and juicy, these crabs are very, very addicting, and have captured a great following. It seems like mom has started a craze intense enough for family and friends to crave it, too. My Lolo’s good friend, Lolo Tony Meer, has crab parties on full-moon nights and serves it with fresh lumpia, garlic rice, manibalang mangoes and bagoong! Tita Marilou Magsaysay prepares it baked with lots of garlic, lemon, pepper, butter and olive oil, the Thanh Long way! Thanh Long is a Vietnamese restaurant in San Francisco that has become popular with Pinoys. Every time we visit SFO, it’s a must-go for Mom, usually the first and last stop.

When I was younger, I was never fond of crabs, mainly because I never liked “making himay” or flaking it with my fingers. I still don’t so I eat only the claws or rely on Mom to flake the crabmeat for me. Every time we would be at a dinner and there would be crabs, she would always make sure that she attended to everything I needed before getting settled and would say, “I’ll eat my crabs now. Don’t make me gulo.” Ha-ha!

MILLIE: One thing about the Alas group, they know how to party! Each one is assigned a color and because Salve’s color is green and Badette’s fuchsia, the theme for the evening was fuchsia-pink and pistachio-green. They are so well-organized that I didn’t have to do much except to ready the party venue and ensure the supply of crabs.

They even thought of entertainment: a pianist and a singer. The husbands of the Alas ladies love to sing and they provided the wine and the nonstop music that evening, so the atmosphere was so relaxing.

The ladies, led by Menchu Roman, planned the menu to complement the crabs and coordination was easy as everyone was enthusiastic about it. Believe it or not, when it was time to end the party, they even brought along disposable containers to bring home the leftovers! I was so grateful and relieved because they had brought so much food, enough for at least 50 people, and I couldn’t bear to see all that good food go to waste.

KARLA: Tita Menchu Roman, the chef of the hour, provided awesome lamb kaldereta, which is her specialty. She also cooked the kare-kare with oxtail and tripe herself. The hilabos na hipon was so fresh, it tasted sweet and juicy. Tita Malou Javate contributed a generous portion of tasty aligue pasta, which I could not resist. Dessert fare was endless with Tita Menchu’s guinataang halo-halo with cotton-ball-soft and yummy bilo-bilo, our favorite ingredient in guinataan. Tita Monette Salapantan  brought along her inihaw na baboy and an assortment of condiments like bagoong with mangoes, wansoy and chopped tomatoes, which when all mixed together was a perfect accompaniment to the inihaw na baboy.

Tita Cindy Joven brought boxes of individually wrapped homemade food for the gods and Tita Lalay Atilano brought an assortment of native kakanin, including bibingka, sapin-sapin and ensaymada. Birthday celebrant Tita Salve Olalia brought pako salad, malunggay ice cream from Betis, Pampanga, turon with a twist — with ube and langka — minatamis na saging, tibok-tibok and sapin-sapin from Susie’s Cuisine in Pampanga.

MILLIE: It is said that crabs are fattest when the moon is full because they see better and eat twice a day.  I often sit out in the garden or any open space to just gaze at the full moon. There’s an upcoming full moon today, Aug. 26. Try moon gazing, it’s so romantic!

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