Mad about FOOD

Today is Tita Honey’s 80th birthday. She is my dad-in-law’s younger sister, one of only three ninangs at our wedding, and someone we love dearly. Every December 31st, she prepares a special breakfast and lunch at her house for our clan. So this time, her children decided to throw a surprise breakfast party for her at HEAT in Edsa Shangri-la Hotel.

I had been subtly persuading my husband to take me there ever since it opened, but I had made the mistake of informing him what HEAT stands for: Healthy Eating Amazing Tastes. It’s typical of my husband to shun all things healthy, so needless to say, we’ve never been there. Until today.

I’m the type of person who does not skip the most important meal of the day. I can never go anywhere without eating breakfast. For this extra-ordinary day, I wanted to kick up my appetite for a really hearty one. I’m quite used to breakfast buffets in hotels, but I’m not sure why I felt that the choices in HEAT are overwhelmingly endless. I had set my eyes on the bread station, but even that had too many offerings. So I just settled for some Danish pastries, a cinnamon roll, a small slice of fromage (my Bea’s term for cheese; she’s learning some French in time for the showing of "Ratatouille"), and then crossed over to the cold cuts section.

My husband’s plate was, naturally, filled with food that’s heavy on the stomach–garlic rice, hash brown, bacon, ham, sausage, sardines, scrambled egg. He even had baked beans and a ham-and-mushroom omelet.  I wasn’t able to take a bite of any of those, but I had some dumplings, herbed salmon, and California maki even though I couldn’t take anymore. I didn’t even bother to see what’s cooking in the other buffet stations. I mean, just how much breakfast can an average person eat?

To make it a truly healthy breakfast experience, I ordered a pot of green tea (sans sugar) and got a few slices of fresh fruits to cap off the celebration.

Tita Honey still looks fab even now that she’s officially an octogenarian. And we’re glad that, on her birthday, she enjoyed a breakfast fit for a queen. And we, her loyal subjects, were part of it, too.

         
                    the birthday girl with my little one (in a cheongsam)

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