Valentine’s day with mom

Mama loves two kinds of Filipino movies: corny romance and corny slapstick. And because I “tag-alog” with her to watch them, they’ve begun to grow on me (see, the corny puns have already surfaced).

We watched “A Moment in Time” with Coco Martin and Julia Montes. It’s about this “mahirap” boy named Patrick (“mahirap” is Tagalog for poor) who falls in love with a “mayaman” girl named Gillian (“mayaman” means rich) on the LRT (one of Manila’s train systems).

Long story short… **SPOILER ALERT**

…Patrick randomly calls Gillian “baby”, Patrick finds out Gillian killed his mom in 2010, Gillian goes to school in Amsterdam but doesn’t smoke anything, and then Patrick rides a bike to Amsterdam. Here’s the trailer (beware of kilig-attacks):

**SPOILER OVER!**

After the movie we went for some halo-halo, a Filipino dessert made with shaved ice, evaporated milk, and any number of sweet beans, fruits, and more, served in a bowl or tall glass with a spoon. “Halo” means “mix” in Tagalog, which is what one does to the dish after it is served to combine the ingredients together to enjoy.

The great thing about the spot we went to, Buzz Cafe, was that their entire menu is derived from ingredients grown and made on their own farm in Bohol. Their own version of halo-halo is made from fresh fruit and coconut meat, topped with their house-made ube ice cream, and drizzled with honey from their own bees.

The cafe also has this neat little nook which I believe they just added, chock-full of honey and house-made goods like ube jam, kamote (squash) muffins, and malunggay spread (from my most favorite vegetable ever, the nutrient-rich Moringa oleifera).

To top off our valentine’s day outing, mama and I watched the end of a talent/dating game show that took place at the mall entitled “Love2Date”. We had just made it to the final portion of the event where someone was serenading three couples. I had a hard time figuring out what the event was about, but the singer was good!

Hope your valentine’s day was just as corny and organic!