Let’s get this party started

Back in my old flat, I used to entertain friends with dinner, drinks, some karaoke singing and friendly games of Uno! or mahjong. These dinner parties often lasted to the wee hours of the morning. Since moving to this new flat and returning from Manila, I tried to resume this activity, with varying degrees of success. The fact that I’m living with somebody makes this task easier somehow. I was glad to discover that my room-mate likes to host these type of gathering as well.

I organized the first dinner during the first week of my return from Manila. Vic was away on a trip that time. I cooked for the first time a new version of adobo that I learned from my mother while in Manila. I paired this with Kapampangan Chicken Asado, which I can cook with my eyes closed. For the second dinner, Vic was already back. We had planned a pasta dinner, where Vic would prepare salad and garlic bread while I would prepare two sauces for the pasta. I, however, ran out of time and ended up making just the bolognaise, not the alfredo. But still, our friends had a good meal.

This time, we decided to have a Korean dinner because Vic wanted to try the Korean beef stew mix he bought in Manila. I originally wanted to prepare Korean Chicken Stew, something that I often cook, but Raymond promised to bring grilled chicken so I decided to make some panchan (side dishes). I made pickled cucumbers, seasoned baby bok choy, and seasoned bean sprouts.

I intended to take photos of the food because they looked good when we served them but we were all too hungry to do it. When all of our friends arrived, we noticed we were an even eight. After eating, I took photos of each pair–some of whom are really ‘couples’ and some are, well… simply just not.

Let’s start with couple number 1, wearing coordinated shirts and smiles:

Then here comes couple number 2, with their coordinated buff bodies (but with differing amounts of hair–joke only, R!):

Followed by couple number 3, who vehemently deny that they planned to coordinate their outfits for the night:

And, finally, (odd) couple number 4, whose only claim to being coordinated is the collar on their shirts:

The post-dinner chat was very interesting, even if we didn’t have alcohol to ‘lubricate’ our decorum and sense of modesty (?). We drank green tea and coffee like the proper ladies that we are. I mean, if not for the absence of prayers, bible lessons (and women), this dinner would’ve been easily mistaken for a Couples for Christ meeting. We were certainly gossiping.

Before the party wrapped up, we took the requisite group photo. Judging from our poses, it is quite obvious that we had our favorite soap opera characters in mind while this was being shot. Do you agree?