NOCHE BUENA SERIES No. 3

I’ll be quite honest. I have been dreading to write and release my portion of the Noche Buena series. Not because I dislike writing or talking about food/tradition, but because of the grief I live with from the death of my parents. Noche Buena and Christmas were special to my family solely because of my mother, and a close second favorite of hers was New Year, with my father’s birthday in between on the 27th. My nuclear family did the whole midnight mass thing when I was a kid, but as the years passed, less and less of us went.

That’s the thing, though. Traditions evolve and traditions end or are placed on pause for a while. I learned this early on since my family hadn’t had a holiday all together, in one place, since I was a child. My parents very quietly executed anything we did as a family, so we hardly documented anything let alone take pictures or write down recipes. All of this has made me very self-conscious throughout the years because of the cultural and societal expectation to have holiday memories.

All this reflection has made me both regretful, that my family wasn’t sentimental enough to document our traditions nor hold on to them while my parents were alive, and appreciative of the creation of new traditions. My partner, now fiancé, and I have enjoyed Dim Sum on Christmas every year, for example. Before the pandemic, we were making a trip to Vancouver BC a winter holiday tradition. And now, new and old friends are sharing and creating new memories for me to reflect as I continue to take steps forward into the holidays of the future.

Everyone has their own experiences with the holidays, and cultural tradition doesn’t mean homogeneity. Togetherness during the holidays can mean with family, chosen family, and/or with oneself.

With Love and Hope,

Nori

NOCHE BUENA SERIES No. 2

Noche Buena is one of my favorite holidays because I have such fond memories of it growing up. When I was younger, it’s relevance was tied to the excitement around opening gifts and all the Catholic “duties” leading up to that probably fueled the anticipation. I remember the preparation that our household would be in — making food, ensuring we’ve covered all the gifts for family members, decorating the house — it seemed exhausting. It wasn’t always so fun because my mom would typically be stressed out, worrying, cooking up a storm to make sure it was perfect. I am sure many of you can relate.

For Noche Buena, we’d have extended family members come over for dinner with the centerpiece often being surf and turf — Roasted Prime Rib and Roasted Garlic Crab with Garlic Noodles (adapted from one of our favorite San Francisco restaurants since the 80’s, Thanh Long). After dinner, we would all head out to Midnight Mass (a very long and tedious affair) and then come back to the house, open gifts and eat some of my favorite snacks like Jamon, Queso de Bola, Baked Macaroni, Russian Salad, Pandesal, Embutido and my favorite — Tsokolate.

A favorite memory from my teenage years was when my sister and I would pretend to go to mass (I drove separately in my car), then come back and have the house to ourselves. We would use this quiet time to wrap gifts we had for our family because we procrastinated and also get a head start on snacking. At the time, we thought we were being sneaky but I am sure our parents knew what we were up to.

As I got older and moved away, living in different cities for work, there were times we could not make it home to the Bay Area. My partner, Brandon, and I had to make our own traditions. There were times when we traveled, or had friends over and we celebrated by going out to dinner and out to our favorite bar. However, during the last few years, we have both pulled heavily from our childhood food memories. I would make some dishes from my Filipino childhood and Brandon would make tamales he learned how to make from his Mexican grandmother. We’d have our favorites which helped when we were away from home last year.

Over the next week, I am going to share some of my family recipes that I’ve had to learn how to make. Hope you find some inspiration for your own Noche Buena.

❤️Tricia

NOCHE BUENA SERIES No. 1

Growing up in the States, Noche Buena meant staying up till midnight with the family before gathering to open up the mountain of presents and then feasting afterwards. Right before I graduated from high school, I was fortunate enough to be able to celebrate the holiday season in the Philippines. There, Noche Buena meant attending Simbang Gabi (Night Mass), a 9-day series of masses leading up to Christmas. I remember attending the Christmas Eve service before heading over to a relative’s home and being welcomed with enough food to feed a battalion.

For Noche Buena, some traditional dishes include lechon, ham, keso de bola, some kind of pancit, crema de fruta, fruit salad, and various kinds of kakanin, predominately bibingka and puto bumbong. Every family has their own take on what they like to include. The majority of our family gatherings in the States included a pretty varied menu—the dishes differed depending on what people wanted to make at the time and how much time they had to prepare. If someone was short on time, they could always bring something from Goldilocks or Red Ribbon, Filipino chain restaurants that were easily accessible in the Bay Area. Desserts were always the first to be outsourced since they could be the most time-consuming to make so there was often an ube roll cake or sansrival from Goldilocks tempting me from the table.

The one aspect of the meal we did not take shortcuts on was the display of various meats. The responsibility of this would usually fall on the person hosting to ensure that the meat would be freshly made and eaten straight from the grill or oven. Sometimes, there would be roast chicken or maybe a ham, but there was usually always inihaw na liempo and galbi, a latter addition. I have no idea how or why galbi was added on, but it’s delicious and easy to prep so I can understand why it has become a mainstay.

Over the next week, I’ll elaborate more on some of my food memories and my spin on these dishes. Can’t wait to share with you, and I hope that you in turn will also share some of your memories with us!

🖤Jane