Drinkable Fruit and Chocolate Meat

Last Sunday Allan had the priviledge to preach at a American-Filipino church in Simi-Valley(Christian Fellowship Church). He has preached there once before, but I was unable to join him because I wasn't feeling well. So, as you can imagine I was quite excited to be able to join him this time.

Usual Filipino style, after the service they have food fellowship time. Various members of the church bring food to share and everyone fellowships over delicious meals. Being married to Allan now for 3 years, I have come to expect and anticipate the food at Filipino gatherings. I now recognize the different dishes and my tastebuds look forward to the variety.

One of the first things I recognized was the drink, melon. Ooo, yummy! It is drink made from cantelope. It is very refreshing and delicious - shreaded cantelope mixed with water and sugar over ice. I asked around and was able to get a recipe. I am sure my mom will love it and want to try and make it for her.

This time I also saw something I did not recognize. I saw a few different people with a bowl of looked like bitg shriveled purns. Funny, I didn't know prunes were Filipino. Then I overheard people say "chocolate meat". Oh! I know this. Allan instructed me the Tagalog name for the dish is dinuguan. The translation is "blooded". It is pork meat cooked in pork blood. I polity skipped over that dish. But when we got back to the table Allan asked me if I wanted to try. I took a small piece. I decided to eat the small piece with a spoonful of rice. And oh my! What a pleasant surprise! It was really good! Such a funny thing. I have never had such contradiction going on as I was enjoying food before. My mind kept saying, no Sandi do you understand what this is?! But my tastebuds rebelled and prevailed over my mind and said, ooo yummy! This is reallygood! Ha ha... I couldn't help but think what my doctor must say about this dish. She told me to not eat unpasturized cheese because it could be harmful for the baby. Ha ha... I am sure she probably wouldn't approve of dinuguan! I'll have to wait until after the baby comes before I have a full dish.