food and traditions

You know how when you're in a certain place, you feel you have to be eating something specific, or you associate it with a particular food?

Since my childhood, our family has observed traditions in terms of food, such as the old The Swan bakeshop near Lourdes Church (where Skin Zen is located now) after Sunday mass, or whenever we passed by the old Coney Island store at Welcome Rotonda (where Jollibee is located now) I always ordered pistachio ice cream (of course it was just the one scoop cup and very seldom because that brand was very expensive then).

Now, I've developed my own traditions. Everytime we eat at Jollibee (the favorite Pinoy fastfood of all time!!), I most of the time order N3 meal (you addicts like me definitely know what the meal consists of! hehe), and if I feel like upgrading, I add regular fries with lots of ketchup and a sundae. When I'm at Randy's in UP, he always makes it a point to buy me lumpiang togue at his neighbor's tindahan (and lately he has added kwek-kwek, siomai, and RC Cola to the list). Before the fishball stands sprouted all around Metro Manila, it used to be only in UP where fishballs etc. were the safest to eat.

When I sleep over at my sister's house in Tandang Sora, I always request for ginisang kalabasa for ulam the following day. It has become a habit for me to bring donuts for pasalubong to my nephew and niece (when Ria was younger, she would say, "ONAT!!!")...I usually buy this at Mister Donut at the North Ave. MRT station. Sometimes I get them the repacked choco mallows or choco chip cookies. At Kanlaon, Sunday morning has become sweet corn-and-kakanin time for me and my parents...I always buy this after my 6-7am service, and we would talk about updates for the week while eating.

I'm sure you have your own food traditions to share. I can't wait to develop my own with my own family in the future.