This column celebrates the sweetness of love, and of friendship.
Last Sunday, in the guise of celebrating the fifth year of his proposal to his wife Rhoda, Vince Aldanese invited about a dozen friends to a surprise party to celebrate the 25th wedding anniversary of their good friends lawyer Rene Puno and his wife Ann. (The party was early because the couple actually tied the knot on Dec. 21.)
With the “connivance” of the Punos’ daughter Renee, Vince (who organized the surprise lunch with military precision and secrecy) got all the guests in the private dining room of the German Club in Makati before the couple, who had just heard Mass, arrived. At 12:30 p.m., Vince even got a text from the couple saying they were sorry they didn’t think they could make it. Before the ebullient Vince could fall off his chair, they added, “We don’t think we can make it on time for the surprise for Rhoda as we are running late with the traffic in SLEX.”
At around 1 p.m., Rene and Ann walked into the room to cries of “Surprise! Surprise!” Rene looked like he thought he went inside the wrong room, like he had accidentally wandered into the women’s dressing room.
Ann was in tears. She has had many blessings to thank God for in the last couple of years. In 2006, she was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer and battled it with chemotherapy, radiation — and faith. So when she celebrated her 50th birthday last January, and unlike other mid-lifing women, she proudly proclaimed it to the world. There was a time, she thought, when she was unsure she’d make it through the month. So turning 50 was a reason for exultation.
Rene said that their silver wedding anniversary was equally momentous, because their marriage has been through several ups and downs.
“But our marriage survived because we never lost track of the fact that we love each other. I was sure of her love and she, of mine. And I was and am sure that I want to continue loving her for the rest of my life,” Rene said.
Sentimental as Chocnut
Ann, the sweet Ilongga homemaker and home-baker, grew up with the well-known chocolate-peanut treat “Chocnut” in her home province of Kabankalan, Negros Occidental. In a place where imported goods were hard to come along back in the day (hmmm, before the ‘80s), the locally made Chocnut served as one of her favored desserts du jour. Her comfort food. Reliving her childhood days, the former Ann Santa Cruz, who is now based in Manila, returns to her favorite friend every now and then, buying a pack or two of Chocnut to indulge in its nutty, familiar taste. In recent years, however, she noticed that groceries seemed to be perpetually out of stock of the candy — the reason being, according to a few helpful friends in the supermarket business, that balikbayans often buy Chocnut by the boxful to bring them home as pasalubong to their loved ones overseas. This Filipino habit piqued Ann’s curiosity as she thought to herself: “Why not bring Chocnut home as pasalubong in a reinvented form?” Thus was born the Chocnut cake.
Ann, who has been a particularly excellent baker in the business for more than 20 years (her bestselling Pistachio cake, as well as her Chicken Relleno are must-try’s!), began her culinary experimentations three years ago to create the most delicious dessert. Her Chocnut cake is a golden butter cake infused with chunky morsels of chocolate peanut goodness that crumble with each bite and explode in your mouth in a lovely mélange of sweet, almost sinful, goodness. Always one to outdo herself, Ann once again took to the drawing board to create a treat twice as nice — the Double Chocolate Chocnut cake. This rich dark chocolate-based cake with chunks of Chocnut and a thin toffee ribbon is really the perfect addition to the lengthy list of delectable treats Ann Puno’s kitchen has to offer.
Loving couples and thoughtful friends — aren’t they as sweet as Chocnut?
(For orders and inquiries, call 807-6431 or 807-2752. Look for Ann or Helen.)
(You may e-mail me at joanneraeramirez@yahoo.com)