Now doesn’t that title sound incredulous? That many calories is the equivalent of a single human being gaining roughly 140 pounds in five days! Mobilizing for our recent trip to the beach seemed a bit more challenging than usual. We had a relatively simple menu planned, but for some reason, it required the logistics of a military battle… We thought it would be nice to have the families of our crew out for the long holiday and the total head count numbered 18-20, which also included ourselves and our guests. That meant putting out roughly 300 meals (not including meriendas and snacks) and THAT is a whole LOT of food! Despite trying to buy roughly 30-50% of our main ingredients in the local markets, we still had to bring several coolers and milk crates of food and I regret not taking a photograph of our provisions, it was a shocking mini-mountain worth of stuff!
To do this trip the Marketman way, the menu was roughly mapped out in advance for the 15 meals, with 3-5 meals listed as “from the market†and determined after early morning trips to the local market. Then extensive lists were put together to ensure that we had the right ingredients packed and in a sufficient volume. To make things simpler, our prep work started at least two days prior to our trip… in this case, we made beef tapa, pork tocino and even two kinds of longganisa from scratch and chilled these – easy breakfast fare. We also had to bring several types of dried fish for days of abstention (a bit of an oxymoron on this trip, except that we ate no meat on Friday). We also pre-made spaghetti sauce and froze this, a time consuming sofritto for the paella, mixed our spice rubs for barbecues, roasted red and yellow bell peppers, and baked brownies, chocolate chip cookies, pound cake, etc.
Many of the main dishes were simply grilled, but even that required nearly an entire sack of charcoal! We consumed nearly 40 gallons of drinking water, 70+ liters of softdrinks and nearly half a sack of rice! We also managed to make several desserts while at the beach… leche flans, mango sorbet, mango ice cream, coffee and mangosteen ice cream, “silvanasâ€, trifles with broas, blackberry popsicles, etc. We had triumphs and disasters and triumphs out of disasters. I am now reviewing roughly 400+ photographs that I took of the food on this recent trip, and it shows an amazing variety of dishes. But much more important than the volume of food were the memories created… a terrific weekend for all, a chance for kids to play, swim and eat for days on end, and adults to relax and be pampered all around… that’s in-between the serious task of consuming some 350,000+ calories! Stay tuned for some two dozen posts on how Marketman & Family did our recent beach holiday! And a Happy Easter to All!
25 Responses
happy easter! looking forward to your posts!
When I cook for large groups of people I like to make spreadsheets with really detailed instructions (i.e. start mashing potatoes at 8am, place turkey in oven at 2pm, boil pasta at 5pm, etc etc). Happy Easter!
I’m sure all the hard work paid off! It was very nice of you to invite your crew and their families for the holiday! Looking forward to your up coming posts!
Happy Easter all!
Happy EASTER!!!!
i have been preparing canapes crudites for my boss i just write down what i need .. preparation etc then voila no panic,.. HAPPY EASTER MM…
Happy Easter dear MM and family! I am sure that your vacation with your crew was well worth it, culinary disasters and fatigue and expense notwithstanding. Of such are memories made of.
Hah, I now wish I were a member of your crew! Sarap mo palang maging boss!! Er, you wouldn’t be needing an editorial assistant slash copy editor slash writer sometime soon, now would you? Heehee!!
Happy Easter to everyone! :-)
Happy Easter MM and family and your readers!
happy easter to all! :)
Happy Easter sa tanan
whoa! andaming pagkain!
Happy Easter! I’m going for a 1 month US trip and i have listed a 30 days menu for the food that i will cook and got most of the recipies from your website.
Happy Easter to you , MM and Family! Happy Easter to the readers as well!
Bubut, good luck on the trip, you probably won’t have to cook for 30 days, there are so many choices for ready to eat meals and produce from the groceries and markets there… but I am flattered that you found many of your recipes on this site. :)
Happy Easter! Wow, that’s a lot of food and cooking indeed!
Looking forward to future posts.
Marketman, is that lisianthus flowers I see on the last pic?
I used bundles of that with purple cabbage roses and white roses for our “Last Supper” karo in Nueva Ecija for the prusisyon.
Tricia, yes they are lisianthus. Wow, where did you find purple cabbage roses? The ones I have seen in Dimasalang were wickedly expensive…
Wow! Where did you get those big crabs? I normally don’t see crabs that huge unless I go to King Crab resto. Happy Easter!!
cecile, all three types of crabs, curacha, alimasag and alimango were purchased at the Nasugbu market from sukis who were advised the day before that I would be needing oodles and oodles of crab… :)
Happy Easter, everyone!
hey, MM, I didn’t see easter bunny eggs… are those preserved for the upcoming posts or do you guys don’t do that out there? Or maybe the kids have outgrown these stuffs now? tsk, I was thinking you could’ve drafted wicked easter egg designs… :p
sometime lurker… at 12 going on 21, this was the first year EVER since The Kid’s birth that we skipped the easter eggs… I do have posts of eggs in previous years, however.
Your first crab picture the very first picture and the top one is odd looking and never had them. They must be good and look meaty too.
MM, I get the purple cabbage roses from King Louis warehouse in Quezon Ave. Is P80 a piece wickedly expensive? I choose the really big ones.
Tricia, at PHP80 each that is a STEAL. I have to order some for an event I have to do in a few weeks, thanks for the tip. Many of our milflores/hydrangeas are coming from King Louis (the potted outlet), so getting the cabbage roses will be a cinch if they still have them! Many thanks indeed…
MM, look for Madeline. I order from them my flower requirements for any event we have at home. Belles of Ireland, snap dragon, astromeria etc.
If you order a few days in advance, you get it fresh from Baguio. I think their truck comes on Thursdays & Sundays.
Waling is just nearby. Their eucalyptus bunch is a better deal than dangwa’s. So is the xanadu leaves.
OMG, MM thanking me??? This is a huge boost to my ego hahaha!