My Christmas day festivities began with the buffet luncheon at Mango’s. They started serving at noon, and I arrived a little after 1 p.m. The place was packed, and every table was full. I had made a reservation for two but hadn’t been able to find a date to accompany me. I was fully prepared to just bail and eat elsewhere, but then I spotted a seat reserved in my name.
I went through the buffet line and got about the last of the turkey, some ham, and several other side dishes.
I had three beers with my meal. I didn’t go for the pie (pumpkin and apple) dessert because I was feeling quite full, unlike my Thanksgiving experience. At one point as I sat there, the bartender asked me why I looked so sad. Hmm, I wasn’t feeling any sadder than usual; I guess it’s just my natural resting bitch face.
After my meal, I headed up the highway to It Doesn’t Matter. Along the way, I observed that about half the bars were closed for the holiday. It was also much earlier in the afternoon than I usually start drinking, so others hadn’t opened it yet.
IDM was open, but there were very few customers present. One of them was my pal Chris, and I sat with him and chatted some. My regular waitress Agnes was absent, so I didn’t feel obligated to buy lady drinks. Chris decided to go for a massage, and I was bored, so finished my third beer and left.
Next up was Cheap Charlies. My regular back rubber Eunice went to work with her talented hands, and Jonalyn, a girl I crushed on once without reciprocation, took a seat beside me. Beers and lady drinks were our modes of celebrating the birth of Jesus Christo.
I saw Hot Zone was opening across the street, so I finished my third beer and said my goodbyes. I had a 500 peso voucher coupon from the SOB to use. I got there right when they opened, and the dancers were still working on their makeup. A food buffet was also being offered, but I was still full. The Belgian chocolate guy came in, so I bought 500 pesos worth and shared it with the girls. Four beers later, my coupon was done, and so was I. At Hot Zone. Next stop, Wet Spot.
Again, not much happening in the bars on Christmas. I bought my regular waitress a lady drink and enjoyed two more beers. It wasn’t quite eight o’clock, but given my early start, I was feeling no pain. Plus, I had that fruit salad waiting for me at home. Alas, when I exited Wet Spot, there was not a trike to be found. Oh well, I’ll just hoof it down the road until I find one. There’s another trike stand next door to Alaska Club, but it was empty as well.
Desperate times call for desperate measures, so I went into Sloppy Joe’s and had another beer. After I finished that one, I saw an available trike and grabbed it for the ride home.
So, if you are keeping score at home, that makes sixteen beers in seven hours (at least, that’s what I remember). Not bad for an old fucker celebrating Christmas alone.
This morning I got a message from a guy I know who lives in Angeles City now that he was in town and had a gift for me. So, we met up at Harley’s on Baloy for a bit.
Today’s Hash is our annual Candy Run. I’m still not clear on why we are doing it AFTER Christmas, but candy is dandy, and I’m sure the kids we see will be happy for the sweets. 18 Kilo Ass is once again playing the role of Santa Claus.
And we’ll all be dressed in red.
And that’s pretty much where things stand as of now.
There's got to be a morning after If we can hold on through the night We have a chance to find the sunshine Let's keep on looking for the light Oh, can't you see the morning after? It's waiting right outside the storm Why don't we cross the bridge together And find a place that's safe and warm?
Ach! No photos of the Belgian chocolate?! Oh, how you torture me.
That shrimp appetizer on a baguette looked bizarre. It looked as if it was trying to be a crostini, but crostinis use much thinner (and crispier) slices of bread. How do you get your mouth around that? (That’s what she said.)
Aunt Pat’s Recipe World Famous Fruit Salad
Question about the name of the fruit salad: I can kind of see putting the word “Recipe” where it is in the name, but you’d think “Recipe” should go at the very end. I’m not saying the name, as it is, is wrong, but it does feel a little weird. So my question is: how did the name come to be?
Oh, yeah: in that other post, when I saw that picture of coconut (for your fruit salad), I thought, “Damn, that sure looks like squid.” Which led to imagining squid in my fruit salad… ick.
Sixteen beers. Either you’ve got a ten-gallon bladder, or you’ve been omitting a chronicle of all the restroom trips for reasons of taste.
Yeah but really that’s 8 beers because you drink that 2 percent watery stuff. Proof of its relative weakness can be found in the fact that you are able to accurately recall the score. Sixteen pints of real beer and you wouldn’t remember to know where to reach when you went for a piss.
Dan, you are right, no question about it. Zero is 3% alcohol. I went to a Hash in Baguio that didn’t have Zero, so I drank San Mig Light which is 5%. The difference was staggering (pun intended)! I wound up hugging the toilet that night. I’d have to slow WAY down if I were drinking real beer for sure.
Kev, Sorry, I’ll try to remember to get a pic of the chocolate next time. It doesn’t look like anything special, but it does have a great taste.
I think the close-up photo of the appetizer makes it look bigger than it was–at least it fit fine in my mouth. I’d never seen anything quite like it, but now that I’ve read about crostini, I can see the resemblance.
As for the fruit salad name, I never put much thought into it. As a child, I always looked forward to my Aunt Pat’s fruit salad at Thanksgiving. I never tasted anything quite like it and was always disappointed when I’d order a fruit salad somewhere and find it was made with Cool Whip or something similarly sweet. The secret to Aunt Pat’s recipe is the sour cream base. So, when I started making my own, I just thought of it as Aunt Pat’s recipe. Then when I moved to Korea and brought a batch to a work party and everyone loved it, I declared it “world famous.” And no one should dare call it ambrosia, so the name evolved to make that clear. And that, my friend, is the origin of “Aunt Pat’s Recipe World Famous Fruit Salad.”
Yeah, squid is not going to be in the mix. The coconut and marshmallows are the last thing I add, and their purpose is to sweeten it up some. The dried coconut I used to buy in the bag works much better than the just scraped-out innards I’ve been forced to use here. Still, traditions die hard, so I make do with what I can find.
As for urination, it’s odd, but for the first couple of hours of beer drinking, I usually don’t pee at all. So, six or more beers at 12 ounces each still makes for a big bladder. But once I take that first piss, I am a frequent visitor to the comfort room for the rest of the night. Go figure.