Joanne's gifts

Joanne is a long-time friend of mine even when we were both still in the Philippines. She's a nurse and we were both working in the same clinic before. She is in Philadelphia now. Knowing my plight here (far from any Filipino store), she sent me these goodies before Christmas. My hubby liked the Otap (I had a fun time teaching him the proper way of pronouncing it. "Honey, not ow-tap. You say it as o-tup." He got it on his second attempt. Hurray for him!) The boys loved it too. We had only 3 of them left by morning of the next day. The Mang Tomas sarsa and Jufran ketchup also became staples for my kids, esp. the older one. They really preferred the sweet taste of banana ketchup over the sour tomato ketchup. I used Nestle cream for fruit salad, but I reserved the macapuno for buko pie (due to kusina accidents; I will post about them later).



Of course the Datu Puti Vinegar (made from coconut) will also find its way to chicken/pork adobo. We have started consuming the misua (that from Ting was also out), especially during these cold winter days.



Thanks a lot for these (and other) Christmas gifts that you sent, Joanne! We really enjoyed them.