Maraming Salamat Po!

Mah-rah-ming Sah-lah-mat Poh means "thank you very much"!

Many, many thanks to the TRCS community, for coming out tonight for our Filipino Fiesta. Thank you for allowing us to welcome you into our "homes" and for partaking of our Filipino culture. Thank you to Jim Stonebraker for help with our graphics, and color posters, and color photo exhibit! Special shout out to Hannah Li of our PTA, without whose valuable advice, and encouragement, and wisdom we would not be here tonight!

BIG SPECIAL Thank you to the Filipino business community, right here in Queens, for their contributions to our dinner tonight: Perlas ng Silangan (Pearl of the Orient) Restaurant, Renee's Kitchenette, Phil-Am Foods Grocery Store along Roosevelt, as well as Phil Am in Jersey City, RFM Foods for Selecta Ice Cream. Thank you to Romy and Amy Dorotan, for reintroducing Filipino food to the world in a beautiful way. In Manila, thank you to Popsie, Marlon, and Rose, for helping to secure (and hand manufacture!) our decorations, t-shirt uniforms, sungka game boards, and sipa pieces. Finally, thank you to Marketman for allowing me to reproduce his recipes here (visit his site you will enjoy it: Market Manila). And to all those prolific, interesting, inspiring Pinoy bloggers out there, food blog or not, thank you, you keep me informed and entertained, and always hooked up to the pulse of the Philippines.

BIG THANK YOU and BIG HUGS to the TRCS ProudFILIPINO Families for your invaluable assistance, contributions, hard work, and enthusiasm, in making our first event a huge success! That was pure bayanihan in action!

Hanggang sa susunod, or 'til next time, and sa uulitin, or let's do this again!