Welcome, Welcome!

Welcome to my new food blog, The Accidental Gourmand. This is a revival of my old newspaper column in Sunstar Daily Cebu many, many, many years ago. The idea of writing a blog about food, restaurants, dining out experiences and topics being talked about during meal times was a most natural thought process, being in a family of "gourmands", who make mealtimes a major activity in our household.

Both my families in Cebu and Manila love to eat out, love to try new restaurants, love good food, and simply love to eat. My days' schedules are divided into meal times - breakfast (although sometimes skippable), lunch (has to be between 12 noon to 1pm the latest) and dinner (anywhere between 6 to 8 o'clock). When the kids sleep over, there is a midnight snack of Pizza Hut's Cheese Pizza or Mcdonald's Chicken McNuggets and Quarter Pounder.

There is a buffet spread almost every weekend here in the La Vista kitchen, a smorgasbord of Melinda's cooking with occasional guest chefs like Rondic, when he's in the mood or Zhar and Rod when they have a recipe they want to share. Sometimes, we don't wait for weekends or occasions to gather together and eat, or experiment on new dishes. When the mood strikes, the Dizon family is only too willing to partake of the 'feast'. We are firm believers of the saying: The family who eats together, stays together. :)

So, imagine what sacrifice some members of the family endured during the Holy Week as we gave up food stuff we really loved. Mommy Shalene gave up rice, meat, and her favorite desserts and chocolates, Ate Rona, Japa, Elizza, Rod and Zhar gave up beef, pork and chicken, Japa gave up caffeine and rice, in addition to those, Boydee gave up his favorite breakfast staple of fried or scrambled eggs, Rondic let go of his softdrinks urges and I gave up my favorite part of the meal - dessert! Zhar and Rod joined in on the last two weeks of lent with Rod suffering from withdrawal symptoms - he got the flu after giving up sweets! Even the kids weren't exempted! Reese gave up spam and sausage and Raegan gave up gravy which she literally drinks on normal days. This sacrifice was for a total of more than 40 days. I am guessing while of course, we did it in the season of lent, some of us also had ulterior motives of losing our unwanted pounds . What better motivation was there than to sacrifice for the Lord! That's hitting two birds with one stone! (Although I didn't lose weight at all! Boohoo!)

With the coming of Easter, the countdown began! The pangs of desire started to hit most of us when Holy Week came. So, finally, when Black Saturday came to an end, the brood gathered together in the Dizon headquarters to celebrate the end of the sacrifice, each with his/her own food craving in tow.


The Gavinos brought a bucket of KFC original fried chicken and cups and cups of gravy!



Rod and Zhar brought Haagen Dazs Macadamia-flavored ice cream cake. Melinda prepared kielbasa, spam, beef tapa and rice. My dear husband ordered Melinda to cook fried egg to pair with his rice, and a scrambled egg sandwich! At the strike of 12 on Easter midnight, we celebrated!

We were so full, Boydee and I, that we slept at 3:30 am already. But all the family members never forgot the true essence of the celebration! Christ was risen; He has resurrected! So most of us went to church in time for the 10 o'clock mass in St. Pio Chapel. We thanked the Lord for having died for us, and rising from the dead to save us from our sins and to give us a shot at eternal life. We thanked Him for all the blessings He has showered upon our families. Of course, that includes the blessing of nourishment; the blessing to be able to enjoy and to afford food, glorious, glorious food! (This is, after all, a food blog! hehee....)

Happy Easter everyone!!!