How We Dine is How We Live Event, organized by Socialoftas
June 27, 2024 – Kražių gatvė, Vilnius, Lithuania. The third and final Philippine Independence Day celebration for the month of June happened during this event, “How We Dine is How We Live”, organized by Mr. Kamal Karibou, the brains behind Socialoftas and The Language Cloud.
Merienda Filipiniečių Užkandžiai was again invited by Kamal to host the dinner for his event, for the second time. The first event being Merienda’s first social engagement in 2023 (link here).
The How We Dine is How we Live event accommodated a total of 32 participants including a mix of Lithuanians, Africans and mostly Europeans, and some Filipinos. Merienda was invited to showcase some Filipino dishes which we commonly eat in a regular basis (not those we eat during fiestas) including, munggo stew (vegetarian option), chicken adobo with white rice, homemade salted chicken eggs with tomatoes, mango ensalada, and corned beef hash with potatoes. I have decided to bring these dishes for the dinner event because I wanted to emphasize the ingenuity and creativity of the Filipinos, using simple ingredients and making a simple but spectacular dishes with them. It shows how we Filipinos can elevate dishes using pantry ingredients, which our families will appreciate and love.
For desserts, we offered buko-pandan salad (no dairy), classic puto, ube and pandan flavored puto with cheese, assorted flavor of filled pastillas, and different flavors of lengua de gato.
Before we began eating, I had to tell them some historical facts about each dish, if any, including their ingredients and its significance to Filipinos. It was really amazing to know that plenty of Lithuanians and other foreign nationals were so interested to know more about our dishes, as very little is know about the Philippines, our culture, and especially about our food, in this part of the world.
After a shared meal, we played the “polvoron game”. I introduced 12 participants to a tasty snack and dessert – the polvoron, which is a Filipino shortbread cookie with toasted flour, powdered milk, butter, and sugar. Game participants were asked to recite a Filipino tongue twister while eating their polvoron, and everyone had loads of fun! After that, many sang their hearts out to some karaoke. Some guests went home with some prices and sweet treats as well, in addition to a great and hearty meal. Before we ended the event, we also had a mini concert featuring Middle Eastern traditional musical instruments, a chance for all of us to enjoy calming Arabic music and tunes.
Some photos and YouTube video link below:
A short video of the event below:
