A Happy Easter BBQ Party!

After weeks of abstinence, fasting and sacrificing, most Catholics celebrated the Easter Sunday with going to Mass, Easter egg hunting and...eating!

And so, my fellow Filipinos in Seoul and I just had to stick to the tradition!

My first stop was the Myeongdong Cathedral. Of course! Easter Sunday is the most important holiday in the Roman Catholic Church calendar, and this feast day should not be missed by any Catholic. On the Cathedral grounds, the church organizations sold Easter Eggs, the parishioners waiting to get inside the church were lining up by the church doors, and tourists were busy taking photographs. I actually volunteered to take a picture of a Pinoy couple. I made sure their photograph together turned up well.

After Myeongdong Cathedral, I rushed to the Pinoy Market in Hyewha-dong to get the banana-cues I pre-ordered from a Pinay vendor, Junila. Junila's Filipino delicacies are especially yummy and her fried lumpia is the best in the market. Her covered stall is the one nearest the Catholic church, and I told her that I will feature her in this blog soon. After I got the banana-cues, which were mainit-init pa (still warm!), off I hurried back to Hannam-dong on the Blue Bus 140. Fortunately, the smell of caramelized fried bananas did not waft throughout the bus. Otherwise, the other passengers would have asked me where I got my yummy delicacies. Ha-ha-ha! I had to meet up with the Sabados at the Hannam Catholic Church so I could ride with them to the Nardos residence in Itaewon, where we were having our barbecue party.

Everyone brought dishes to our Easter Sunday party: kare-kare, shrimp curry, inihaw na baboy (grilled pork chops) and sausages, pork barbecue, beef tapa, pasta, baked shiitake stuffed mushrooms with cheese, tomato slices with salted egg, eggplants with bagoong and a few more dishes, whose names I forgot but whose taste my tongue could definitely remember. Ha-ha-ha!

And if there's a Pinoy party, there are always Pinoy desserts: biko, puto kutsinta, cassava cake, creme de fruta and of course, banana-cue. Well, there were strawberry cakes, too, but the delicacies were already too much to handle!

But the most fun was not always on the table, it was outdoors, where the kids did some Easter egg hunting, Easter egg-relay race and musical chairs. Although everyone brought prizes for the games, the kids got more interested to join when they learned about the cash prizes.

Thanks to Seoul's spring weather, everyone had fun on our first outdoor party of the year! Spending time with family and friends is definitely memorable, especially on Easter Sunday!

Happy Easter, everyone!