Last night my friend threw a party and had enlisted me to help with the food (among other things, I prepared gravlax, one of my favourite party foods, pictured above). We were expecting about forty people and about thirty showed up. Most of the people had already eaten; as you can expect, we had plenty of food left over. One of the guests put it bluntly: "there are usually only chips and unhealthy things at these events." Not in the Philippines. Back there, if you are invited at 7pm somewhere, you can be sure there will be tons of food, all the more during the holiday season. Filipinos love to eat and hospitality equals loads of different types of foods. Going to a party where nothing but chips are served is absolutely unheard of. People are rather trying to outdo each other in terms of the most lavish spread. Things are different here in Europe, at least in France. I remember going to a friend's birthday party once and I was excited about the food we would have. We were served some cold appetizers to begin and i was saving my appetite for the main course, when all of a sudden it was time for dessert! I will not be one to judge which is the better of the two, probably a healthy in between is best… except for celebrations, where abundance is still de rigueur as far as I am concerned. Only problem is, there are so many things to celebrate all year round!