Lechon and pancit and lumpia! Oh my!

A few Saturdays ago, I had mass amounts of Filipino foods. Two rounds of brown eats in one day made for a very full and very satisfied brown girl.

I was invited by my aunt to partake in her hometown's fiesta. She's originally from a province in the Philippines called Abucay in Bataan. This is pretty close to where my parents are from in Pampanga, but they speak Tagalog instead of Kapampangan. The day started off with a very Catholic mass and lots of singing in Tagalog. (I was surprised I knew how to read it and remembered some of the words to certain songs.) Then a procession with this GIANT Virgin Mary:
I wasn't kidding...Ate P, do you miss this? Literally 3 feet tall.

For any big Filipino celebration, you can count on having lechon as a main course. For those of you not familiar with lechon, it's pretty much a whole roasted pig. Mmm pork, the other white meat!
Totally donezo. Crispy and delicious.

Here was my plate.
The pancit isn't the normal pancit I've been posting about before. This is still a noodle dish, but I believe the Kapampangans call it "pancit palabok" so it's made with a different kind of sauce and the noodles are almost spaghetti-like. Then the crab dish is kind of like a crab quiche. This was by far my favorite because I absolutely love crab even though it's a pain to sift through to get all that meat. Thank goodness my aunts did that already for this dish. Then, there's the meat from the lechon with a gravy-like sauce. I call it a sarsa which I think pretty much just means sauce. Lastly, there was the calgareta that my uncle made. Not sure if this was beef or lamb, but this was my second favorite. (Sorry lechon). From my uncle's recipe, he said it was really simple because you can now buy a powdered mix that's specifically flavored for calgareta and then you just add the meat with potatoes, bell peppers, hot peppers, chickpeas and tomato sauce. Sooo good!

After these eats, I was off to make the regular pancit I make for my friend's graduation pot luck dinner. We also had some lumpia as well.
Pretty good spread, huh? Everyone brought something to the table.
This was a more Americanized plate as you can see with the salad and the tri tip. The salad was really good. It was spinach with candied walnuts, brie cheese and this poppy seed dressing. (Don't worry, I took several lactaid pills for the soft cheese.) Tri tip was beautifully pink. Then you have your standard pancit and lumpia that always makes an appearance. Then lastly, there was some siopao that the celebrant actually bought. Although they were packaged differently. I believe these were Chinese kind and were advertised as Bao Buns. Same dif.

Pretty good Filipino eats in one day ey?

Oh, lastly, here are photos of dessert. I can't recall where they're from, but so good! This chocolate one was for the celebrant. A beautiful and rich chocolate cake.
Congrats again S-bomb!

This teeny one, was for my friend who does not like chocolate. The debate's still out about letting him in the food circle. JK...hehe...His cupcake did look delicious as well.