RED LETTER DAYS

Juan Pablo the Youngest will have the distinction of completing two years of senior high school without stepping into an actual classroom, a feat he accomplished with honors and appreciated with a Tuesday sinadag of kappukan na kambing, dinakdakan and air fried Vienna sausages; a virtual occassion attended in shorts and slippers, and celebrated on Thursday with leftover sinigang na litson, guising-guising, sisig and adobong bibe.

Then Howard Hamlin got pickled in Albuquerque in his 35-year old fine and rare Macallan whiskey so Pugad Baboy hied off to South Triangle's piece of Japan on Friday where the newest graduate of the tribe was indulged with tuna and salmon sashimi starters before wiping clean a below expectation plate of assorted katsu, a sweet pot of sukiyaki nabe, a tray of flaccid karaage and a bento box of delectable unadon that were digested with cold Kirin Ichiban malt beer.

Three days before the 24th year of receiving his birth name, Juan Gabriel the Oldest was informed that Nacho Varga got burned while being smuggled on a galleon from Mexico and brought to Intramuros where the clan scoured for traces of him in the wedding train of a bored bride at the San Agustin Church, the Manila Cathedral's non-functional walk through metal detector, Binondo's temperature check station and at the celebration of the Eucharist in Sta. Cruz.  

Nacho was not at the Batala brewery of Intramuros but perhaps incarcerated in Fort Santiago where Kuya Pepe's ghost told the Phantom Biker that he seems to be back to shooting churches in Intramuros and Binondo so why not eat noodles too while there, like perhaps an excellent al dente pancit canton that outshone Barbara's delicate adobo and usual silog dishes, or Awi's bihon pata, all bones and no meat so almost vegetarian and therefore easily eclipsed by a sizzling oyster omelette, salt and pepper tofu and even the stuffed shrimp that is not.

It was the Romans who painted both post-commencement and pre-birthday as huge red letter days with the colors of a superb hand-rolled spinach and mushroom pasta, an oven-fresh tutta carne artisinal pizza, an overwhelming graze board of cheese and cold cuts, a bottle each of Triennes red and chardonnay, and an atonement of Basque burnt cheesecake to apologize for spilling the glass wine in a floor of sourdough.  

And it was Sonora Smart Dodd who eventually settled the Sandpiper class suit and dressed the family in scarlet festals for an early breakfast of a wispy Bicolano lechon and Ilocano-grade igado, dinakdakan and pinapaitang kambing at the Sidcor Sunday Market to send off Nanay and Balong to Nueva Ecija via Baliwag Bus, Bulan to Sta. Cruz through LRT 1 and the Phantom Biker to Jakarta in PR 535.    

So Better Call Saul who had a crushed toe that might not get shoed cured with three days of counterpain mediation in the bike trails that also fixed the leaks in the roof and plumbing of the other house in Bakal 2...