The Scumbag Spammer Returned but Was Exorcised (hopefully forever!). Superman Returned and Was Welcomed Back. And I've Returned as well from my vacation. Back to the loving and enthusiastic yaps of my dogters and to my phlog-pals and to the wonderful company of my gourmandizing friends in the Grub Club. Last weekend, we took over a newly opened restaurant deep inside Horseshoe Village in Quezon City that is named (for now) Lemuria, owned by the charming Marina Bru Schroeder. The heavenly fare was concocted and prepared by Chef Golda May. Ahh, it's good to be back!

True, it was a work day. But we all played hooky, donned
red shirts (red being the color of good luck and joyful
celebration in Chinese culture), and drove all the way from
the suburbs to Quiapo just to spring a happy-birthday
surprise on Janice! We could've been mistaken for off-duty
dragon dancers as we walked towards Chinatown for a
wonderful lunch at the Lido Restaurant, just off Ongpin.

It's time for the first of our biannual trek to the north
side of the metropolis and indulge in the traditional
and authentic Chinese Lumpia, with ingredients that
were specially chosen and flown in from the mainland!
The ritual of putting your own lumpia (egg roll) together
required proper attention in between a lot of laughing
and chatting; otherwise you'd end up with one big
soggy log! So instead of photographing the steps as I
had to put all my concentration on making my lumpia,
check out Janice's Lumpia Assembly 101 in her blog
to give you a better idea of how it's done. (Just scroll
down to midpage where the entry is.)

"Cousin" Janice has every reason to smile as she holds
up her Nokia N90. Tonight's dinner is in her honor.
We saluted her triumph as the very first winner of the
Mobile First Time Filmmakers contest that was launched
last September by the Discovery Network Asia and Nokia!
Bravo, Janice!!! Bongga-wagi ka! Here's to your next film!!!

... after months-long hiatus since the Goldpersons left
and whom we miss very much! The venue this time is
LaVigne Bistro and Titania's Wine Cellar on Yakal St.
And in true Grub Club fashion, we ordered as much as
we could eat so that everyone got to taste everything.

South Beacher Janice proves that one can have her
cake and eat it, too!!! ;-)

(In the background, Bonbon hands Loy his fork, crying
"Quick, get me a piece before she eats it all up!")

One white (Chardonnay) + three reds (Merlot, Cabernet
Merlot, and Shiraz) ... all excellent! And complemented
well with the salmon, foie gras, and spicy sardine patés
that Chef Ed had prepared.