Bee is for BLESSED ...: Back from "Tokyo" ...

This past Saturday, my family threw a surprise belated birthday party for Tito Charlie (birthday was Oct. 20) and for Mao (birthday was Nov. 1). They both thought the party was for the other ... they didn't realize until Mao arrived that the party was, in fact, for both of them (poor Tito Charlie had to clean and set up for his own party! lol).

Since my family is a big fan of "themed parties" we collectively decided to have a Japanese themed party -- both in food and attire. Tita Bot -- the party planner extraordinaire -- went crazy with whatever Japanese paraphernalia she could find at Chinatown (ironic, I know). She bought us all robes and chopsticks ... she wanted to go all out and buy actual kimonos with the obi sash (you know, the pillow on the back), but they were kind of pricey. She instead decided for a more "casual" look (and by casual I mean sleeping attire) ... which was fine by us since they were super comfortable. Ms. Zoe, however, lucked out somehow with her very own kimono + obi sash ... it was adorable beyond words. Seriously, the kid could wear a potato sack and make it fabulous =). The boys ended up dressing up as "sushi chefs" by tying a bandanna around their heads =).

In addition to the clothes, Tita Bot also transformed her living room into our very own private room in a swanky Japanese restaurant. She is soooo incredibly talented when it comes to providing the perfect ambiance to our crazy parties =) ... she must have been a party planner in a past life.

Another piece of the puzzle was that we all had to cook a Japanese dish for everyone. Tito Ton created a sukiyaki station (yum!), Jay and Jeric made chicken katsu with Japanese curry, mom made shrimp and vegetable tempura and two different tofu dishes, Tita Bot provided the sushi (bought from Costco ... but it's ok, since she took care of all the decorations and wardrobe), the Salcedos provided the mochi ice cream and baklava (which isn't anywhere near Japanese, but since it was so delicious, we all let it slide ... hahhahaa) and me and Mike made a panko-seaweed-crusted cod with ponzu sauce. Sounds pretty legit, right? Too bad I almost botched the entire fish!!! I got the recipe from Tasha's mom and tweaked it a bit to make it more "Japanese" and I was super excited to make it for everyone (I was still coming off the high from my delicious sinigang) ... Mike helped me prepare it and we decided to bake the fish right before the party started so it would be extra fresh. Tita Bot was kind of hesitant about cooking at her house (she hates the cooking smells which is why 98% of their meals are prepared at my mom's house) but I assured her it wouldn't make the house smell bad (it's not like I was deep frying the fish or anything) ... we baked it for about 25 minutes and it looked absolutely gorgeous ... for some reason, I decided to broil it for a little bit to make it extra extra crunchy. Well, that "little bit" ended up being way too much because when I glanced over at the oven two minutes after putting it on the "broil" setting, I saw that my perfect fish had turned completely BLACK. Talk about cooking FAIL!!! In my panic, I quickly opened the oven door and black smoke came screaming out of it!!! Within 30 seconds the entire house was consumed with a grayish cloud that smelled like burning tires and the smoke detectors went beeping away! I was MOR-TI-FIED! I tried not to panic and for some reason Mike and I ran our fish outside onto the balcony (not sure why but we both felt better oddly enough) ... after I composed my embarrassed self, Mike and I started scraping off the burned crust. To our surprise, the burned parts easily came off and revealed another layer of panko flakes that were nice and toasty but not burned -- leaving our fish still edible and my ego somewhat saved =) ... PHEW!!! Lesson learned: If something looks done, it's done. No need to try to get extra credit and get all fancy!

With the food ready to be eaten, it was time to par-tay! Everyone loved each other's dishes (including mine) and it was fun to pretend we were in Tokyo enjoying a great meal. We cracked open Tito Ton's huge bottle of fine sake to wash down our meal. Mao and Tito Charlie looked like they had a blast and we all had fun playing with Zoe, of course. Zoe ended up not napping at all (the girl loves to entertain her guests) and lasted until midnight!

Picture taking, of course, consumed the evening as everyone was excited to model their outfits and pose like a Japanese person (whatever that means .... actually, in retrospect, a lot of the poses could be seen as borderline racist, but we weren't making fun of the culture, but rather, we were honoring it =) ... )

The Japanese-themed party was a huge success and we all went to bed that night thinking of what our next theme will be ... African? Korean? The possibilities are endless.

The next day after mass, Mao treated everyone for dim sum at Empress for her final celebration day for her 28th birthday.