Power players disclose their Christmas spread

Elar’s Lechon

I hope your belly is jingling, ring, ting, tingling too from all the Noche Buena food from last night and all the Christmas Day food today!

I wanted to take a peek into what the country’s top power players are eating this Christmas Day.

Here’s what’s on their table:

Turkey

Budget Secretary Ben Diokno, who must be given credit for the incredibly (and sincerely) pro-poor 2017 budget, will celebrate Christmas day with roast turkey and well-deserved exquisite wine. Sec. Diokno is responsible for the groundbreaking budget he calls the People’s Budget. Among the significant highlights is the allocation that will now allow all students who will enroll in any state university/college (SUC) in the country, including the University of the Philippines (UP), to no longer pay for tuition starting 2017.

Other highlights of the budget include an additional P1.5 billion allocated to the Department of Health’s program Doctors to the Barrios (DTTB); the fulfillment of the No Balance Billing policy, wherein indigent patients will receive services from government hospitals for free; and funding for the building of Health Department’s Treatment and Rehabilitation Centers to the tune of  P2.646 billion.

Lechon

Sen. Sonny Angara, the least trapo and the most gwapo of this generation of senators, will enjoy a yummy menu prepared by his lovely wife Tootsy Angara, the loveliest of all senatorial spouses. Incidentally, Sen. Sonny must be given credit for the PERA Law (RA 9505), finally launched just this month. It is the first private contribution tax deductible savings/pension plan where interest or earnings are exempt from tax if kept in a PERA account so that people are encouraged to save and plan for retirement. He has also filed a bill seeking the creation of a medical scholarship program to address the lack of doctors in the rural areas.

Their table will be filled with Rico’s lechon, fresh suahe and paella from Tessie Lazatin.

Former Justice Secretary Al Agra, who returns to government service under the Duterte administration as Chair of the Philippine Reclamation Authority, prefers Elar’s Lechon. (And jokes that he will drink slimming tea after!)

Cong. Toby Tiangco  shares Chair Agra’s love for Elar’s because “always crispy ang balat.” I agree. Even if Elar’s lechon is delivered in the morning and your guests devour it for supper, the balat is still malutong, complete with glistening fat underneath! But the Representative from Navotas does not stop with Elar’s lechon.

He also loves cinco jotas ham. He really loves his pork. Maybe he is making up for lost pork barrel, hehe!

Former presidential communications head Ricky Carandang also likes lechon but prefers lechon from Cebu.

Ham

Tourism Spokesperson Ricky Alegre enjoys the traditional Chinese ham with Hizon’s ensaymada and tsokolate.

Neri Colmenares, former Party List Representative for Bayan Muna, also always serves Chinese ham, but with his favorite “inubarang manok” (coconut-simmered chicken). No, this is not naked chicken but chicken cooked with ubod (banana stalk core). For dessert, they have fresh bibingka galapong.

Liloan Mayor Christina Garcia Frasco shares that their table spread would include deep fried Hoc Shiu ham … and chocolate-flavored birthday cake because Christmas Day is also her birthday. (Happy birthday to a superwoman and committed public servant.) By the way, if you are ever in Cebu, do make a detour to the Municipality of Liloan, and check out their gender-neutral public restrooms complete with wall art and, for foodies, their weekend market featuring Liloan’s best local produce. Check out all the good things happening in this vibrant corner of Cebu on Instagram at #LiveLoveLiloan

Jamon, ensaymada, tsokolate

Transportation Undersecretary for Air Operations Bobby Lim is blessed with a super gourmet for a wife.

Marivic Diaz Lim of Apartment 1B fame shares that her family’s faves for Christmas are jamon, ensaymada, arroz caldo and fruit salad.

Nana Meng’s Tsokolate

Chit Juan, Chair of the Asean Women Entrepreneurs Network, enjoys jamon with ensaymada, queso de bola, hot chocolate made using Jagna Bohol tablea and fruitcake from Milkyway.

Former Senator Bongbong Marcos’ charming wife Liza Marcos shares that they simply have ensaymada and tsokolate. “But the ensaymada has to have lots of butter & cheese on top and it has to be gooey in the middle. In other words, super fattening!!”

Spanish Christmas

For Barbara Apraiz, Executive Director of La Camara, the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, Christmas is a long day of eating.

Their Christmas menu includes Jamon Iberico, chorizo, gambas, and oysters to start; turkey, capón de Cascajares, chicken with truffle for mains; and polvorones for dessert. “Most of [our] desserts have Arabic influence since Spain was under the Arabs for some years many centuries ago,” she shares.

All these are paired with wine, cider, and Spanish champagne from the Cataluña region.

Eating continues the following morning when they will have Roscón de Reyes or “king’s ring.” But what is fun about this cake is the tradition that comes with it. The baker hides two things inside the cake: A figurine of a baby Jesus and a dry bean. Whoever finds the figurine is crowned “king” or “queen” of the celebration, and whoever finds the bean has to pay for the next year’s roscón.

French Christmas

For a French Christmas celebration, I asked French Master Chef Cyrille Soenen.

Because “the food and wine must be at par with the celebration”, their menu would include fresh oysters (because this is the best season for oysters);  lettuce tossed with walnut oil or hazelnut; foie gras; and a nice terrine of game from the previous month “that we keep only for Christmas.”

This would be followed by  fish or seafood, “usually with champagne sauce and caviar”; chapon (chicken raised especially for the holidays), usually served with chestnuts, turnips, beetroot, apple or pear, a little Boudin Blanc, and garnished with blood sausage; lamb; and “a nice cheese … maybe a Brie de Meaux stuffed with truffle.”

Dessert would be Buche de Noel and “some chocolat served with Armagnac or calvados.”

Christmas Day chicken galantina in our ancestral home

It wouldn’t be a French menu without wine pairing. Chef Cyrille explains: “For the wine: Champagne first; followed by  a nice white; and for the red, a Bordeaux wine, always Margaux, of course!”

Pampango Christmas

Chef Sau del Rosario shares their Capampangan Christmas tradition: “It’s a tradition in the family. Every 24th of December, we celebrate the Noche Buena and my grandfather’s birthday in his house in Angeles City. Each year, lechon stuffed with Arroz Valenciana aka bringhe becomes the symbol of love, unity and prosperity. I happen to be in charge of cooking and providing the most awaited centerpiece of the buffet during Christmas” Lucky family!

Gourmet Christmas

I also asked some of the country’s leading gourmets what they have on their Christmas table.

Conrad Calalang, the famous Bulakeño gourmet, emunerates his Christmas favorites: Chinese ham from Jinhua, Zhejiang, China; Pampanga ensaymada; aged Reypenear Gouda cheese from Holland; and hot chocolate eh from Balayan, Batangas.

Nina Daza-Puyat, the beautiful daughter of culinary icon Nora Daza, shares, “My Daza cousins get together on Christmas Day after noontime mass at my house celebrated by our cousin Fr. Fidel. It’s usually a potluck lunch where the menu varies from year to year, but two staples are my Lola’s Russian Salad and my mom’s Chicken Relleno. If the theme is Pinoy, we always have inihaw na baboy but it has to be paired with Talong sa Gata, another family favorite from my Lola’s Samar roots.”

Glenda Barretto, hailed as the “doyenne of Philippine cuisine”, has the following on her menu: Baked fish in salt crust, Pavo Embuchado, pasta with spicy tuyo, bagnet salad, and frozen mango cake.”

As for our family, we begin Christmas Day at the Reyes ancestral home in Sta. Maria, Bulacan, with pan de sal stuffed with kesong puti and suman antala with cocojam paired with Nana Meng’s Tsokolate. Lunch includes chicken galantina and the obligatory lechon.

And all day there is Tita Cory’s fruit salad and prayers of thanksgiving for another wonderful year and the gift of Jesus.

Wishing you all a merry belly and very Merry Christmas!