5 Fiesta Food Must-Haves (aka Rep. Teddy Casiño's surprise party)

Location: House of Representatives

I don't think I have ever been a part of a surprise party so it was fun when Team Teddy (which I am a part of) decided to organize one for who else but Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño who turned 43 yesterday.

We wanted it simple and affordable but also interesting so we decided to go with a Pinoy Fiesta theme, in line with Rep. Casiño's "Buy Pinoy, Build Pinoy" advocacy. Trivia: Rep. Teddy is also the chair of the Congressional Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Development (SBED).

And yes he was surprised, especially after seeing his son Emilio (his other son Elian is in school) and wife Ruth. He didn't know that we've been sending out invites since last week.

Now before I go to the Pinoy food... Let's go to the cake first.

We went with cupcakes since cupcakes are fashionable right now (not to mention affordable) and we had a cake/giant cupcake with Rep. Teddy on top. Thanks to our baker queen friend.

Emilio loved the cake. And so after blowing the candle he took the large Teddy and had three large bites. Now there goes Teddy's nose, ear and arm.

5 Fiesta Food Must-Haves

1. Pancit - What fiesta (or birthday party) wouldn't have pancit? Besides Team Teddy's catered food, we also asked supporters and friends to bring pinoy delicacies (pot luck mode. That's how Jesus fed 5,000 people. :p) And so we had at least four types of pancit.

There's palabok (left) and bihon (right) from Team Teddy, Little Quiapo pancit guisado from our consultant Mervin, pancit Malabon from Kabataan party-list Rep. Mong Palatino and pancit habhab from Dsource, one of our partners for the Free and Open-Source Software Act.

Besides representing long life, pancit is also filling, affordable and relatively easy to cook and so it's a Pinoy party staple (if there's no pancit there's probably spaghetti).

2. Kakanin - Kakanin is basically rice-based dishes but I hope you don't mind if I include other Pinoy desserts.

We had two kinds of puto, one (egg puto/Puto Bulacan from Ka Daning's town) from Anakpawis Rep. Rafael Mariano and a cheese puto. We also had biko, buko pie courtesy of Colette's and special Peachy-pichi bought from Arny Dading's (you've got to try it! The best pichi-pichi ever) courtesy of Gabriela Rep. Emmi de Jesus.

And it doesn't stop there. We have three types of sapin-sapin from Gabriela Rep. Luz Ilagan (Dolor's sapin-sapin is yummy!), Ladlad party-list and Boy Abunda. :) Go rainbow rights!

3. Barbecue - there should be meat. And barbecue is easy to eat without utensils. Thank you to our partners in the solar industry.

And before I forget, we also had dinuguan to match the puto. :)

4. Lumpia - lumpiang shanghai is also a staple, though not really an authentic Pinoy food. If not lumpia then another type of finger food would be necessary. This one's courtesy of fellow Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares.

5. Lechon - Yes, there should be lechon if you have the budget. Luckily for us, our friends at National Economic Protectionism Association (NEPA) sent us one. But the lechon (Note: this was bought from Lydia's Lechon) was stale. Sorry to say this but some of the parts were a little green according to those who saw it. Ugh. Shame on you Lydia's Lechon! Good thing we did not open it at the buffet area.

Sigh. Oh well. Lechon or no lechon we had fun anyway.

The Cebu Fairtrade Network also sent us banana chips and mango & calamansi puree. The red one is tasty Nutri juice (camote tops) from our caterer.

Girls only

Team Teddy: One big happy family

Check out more pictures at the Teddy A. Casino FB page. Here's Rep. Colmenares, Ka Satur, Speaker Belmonte, Rep. Tupas and the birthday boy.