Happy Birthday Chino!

We had a 3-part celebration last week for my brother's 27th birthday. :)

Sunday, January 9

After hearing mass, we decided to order food for lunch. We ordered the KFC bucket meal, the Christmas Bucket Feast, as Jaoey insisted, because he wanted the chocolate decadence cake that comes with the meal. :) I wasn't able to take pictures, though, because I just thought of it as an ordinary lunch, until daddy lit a candle on the cake and sang a birthday song. And so my brother's birthday celebration begins. :p

Thursday, January 13, my brother's special day!

Every time our birthdays fall on a weekday, we do the celebration on weekends. But my dad still makes sure that we still get to celebrate it on the day itself. He would usually cook sumptuous dishes which the whole family would feast on.

Since it's a weekday, my dad and I had to work and Jaoey had to go to school, we just planned that the rest of the family (my mom, Gia, and Chino) can just eat out for lunch, and we'll just have the celebration at home after work. Unfortunately my dad was caught up with some things that day and had to work overtime, so the celebration was moved to Saturday.

I kinda sensed that my brother was upset and I also knew how my dad would really want the celebration to push through that night, so on my way home from work, I called up my mom and had them dress up for a little dinner treat. :) Since the car was with my dad, we just chose to dine at Max's which is just a few blocks away from our house. :)

A desserts section is what welcomed us when we entered the restaurant. Gia and I went straight to the cakes and bought one Chocolate Moist Cake which was served a few minutes after we were seated.

Max's Chocolate Moist Cake - Php 399

The Birthday Boy and his Birthday Cake :p

My mom and Gia took charge of the orders. Fresh Lumpiang Ubod was Gia's request.

Fresh Lumpiang Ubod - Php 53 each

Drinks were served soon after. Here are a few photos of us while waiting for the rest of the orders to be served.

Mommy and Jaoey

Gia and I

Pancit Canton and Max's Fried Chicken are what we usually eat whenever we dine at Max's. So I wasn't surprised when the waiting staff served these next. :)

Pancit Canton - Php 298

Max's Fried Chicken - Php 372

Since I am not really a fan of spicy dishes, it really didn't make me drool over the Sizzling Tofu. Bits of chili and red and green bell peppers were very evident in the dish so I really hesitated in trying this out. The rest of them seemed to be enjoying the tofu a lot so I also gave it a try. And, oh well, I immediately fell in love with it on my first bite! :D It wasn't that spicy as it may have seemed. The sweet and sour sauce actually balanced out the spicy kick. And I also loved how the tofu was done, the tofu was crispy but it still maintained its softness inside. This is now one of my favorites! *drools*

Sizzling Tofu - Php 166

Jaoey was playing with my camera and took this photo. He also specifically instructed me to post it here in my blog with the caption 'this is what happened after dinner'. :p

This is what happened after dinner. -Jaoey

We all enjoyed the dinner. I also felt how delighted my brother was. Happy birthday kuya! :p

MAX'S RESTAURANT (Antipolo Branch)

83 Circumferential Road, San Jose
Antipolo City, Rizal
Philippines
+63 (0)2 6962222
+63 (0)2 6965260

Saturday, January 15

Daddy was up early to prepare another luscious lunch feast. :) As you may have noticed, we've had Kobe Chicken during our past feasts so daddy decided to have turbo broiled crispy chicken this time. The chicken wasn't fried at all but it was very crispy! I prefer this over the regular fried chicken, since this it not oily and is a lot juicier.

Turbo Broiled Crispy Chicken

We also had our all time favorite Bagnet and Crispy Pata! :p

Bagnet

Ever heard of cholesterol? We haven't! Haha!

Crispy Pata

We haven't had Pancit Canton for quite some time so daddy decided to cook one for Chino's birthday. I love how my dad does his pancit canton. It always has loads of ingredients, from cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, and cabbage, to beef, pork, squid balls, and liver! He would also add in shrimps and mushrooms sometimes. Hmmmm... yummmmmmy!!! And as he would always say, the noodles just serve as the sahog haha!

Pancit Canton

To balance out all the fats, daddy also prepared the Lumpiang Hubad, fresh veggie lumpia minus the wrapper. :p

Lumpiang Hubad

Fresh vegetables like carrots, sayote tops, cabbage, and turnips are sautéed in butter and is made more delectable with my dad's secret recipe sweet sauce, ground peanuts and minced garlic.

sweet sauce, garlic, and ground peanuts

My sister's boyfriend also joined us for lunch and bought these for Chino. :)

Donuts from Jeff :)

Things may not have worked out on my brother's special day as planned, but he was more than happy for having not just one, but three celebrations! Thank God for all the blessings!