Carne-val
It's not unusual that I have to reschedule a Meatwave due to weather, illness, scheduling conflict, etc. When that happens though, I can usually get things back on track within a couple weeks, so it was pretty frustrating when Carne-val, originally scheduled for late May 2026, kept having to be moved constantly due to rain, excessive heat, and other commitments that got in the way. It wasn't until October 16 that I could finally make it happen, and to get it in I had to do something I've never done before too—hold a Meatwave on a weekday. It was well worth the wait though because this special Friday night cookout had an amazing spread along with karaoke fun mixed in.
I had crafted the menu for this one by April, and in mid-May made the first dish of dynamite lumpia and the froze them. Lumpia shanghai is a must at most of my in-laws events, and it's so popular it's often the first dish to disappear. I had never even heard of the "dynamite" version of this ubiquitous Filipino spring roll until a trip to Asheville in 2025 where I first encountered this lumpia variation that adds a hot pepper into the equation. I immediately fell in love and found that this was a relatively well known thing that I had just never come across before and knew I'd be making for a Meatwave at some point. It wasn't just me too, my guests gobbled these up and the few vegetarian ones I had left at the end of the night were eagerly taken home.
My second dish were these sinigang wings, which I saw on a menu at restaurant that I didn't end up eating at. The idea intrigued me though and I crafted what I imagined sinigang wings would be by first coating them in a seasoning made primarily out of powdered tamarind soup base. After being grilled, I tossed them in a butter and tamarind sauce that also had a bit of hot pepper and sweet brown sugar mixed in. These wings were good and had a bit of the sour tamarind flavor, but it wasn't as in your face as I thought it was going to be. That probably made them more universally liked though since the sourness of sinigang can be divisive at times.
Next up were adobo pork belly burnt ends. Chicken abodo was the gateway food into Filipino cuisine for me, so I'll always have a soft spot for it even if I don't cook it often anymore. However, given the choice, I'll always get pork belly adobo over chicken because the luscious, soft fat makes the dish all the better and the pork's richness gets put in check by the heavy vinegar presence. I took that idea and transformed it into a barbecue creation by giving it the burnt ends treatment and the results were outstanding. It was even better with some garlic fried rice alongside.
On the same Asheville trip in 2025, I got a chance to eat at the excellent Neng Jr's, and one of the standout dishes we had was whole hog pancit. So I emulated that and made this mashup of NC and Filipino cuisines, and while my pancit canton was nowhere near as amazing as it was at Neng Jr's, I do think what I produced had that feel of a tray brought to a family gathering or party, which was a win in my book. I made a vegetarian version as well with no meat, and for me the whole hog really made the dish something special and complete.
Finally I made these chicken inasal sandwiches. Since inasal is probably one of the most well known Filipino grilled foods after sticks of barbecue, it keeps making appearances on my menus over and over again. I think these sandwiches were my favorite incarnation so far because the calamansi mayo and tangy and crunchy achara combined with the brioche bun transformed an already delicious chicken thighs into something even more exciting and extra tasty.
The afterwork aspect of this Meatwave considerably condensed my timeline for cooking, keeping me so busy while the sun was still out that I had no time for people photos. As the sun started to set though, I was able to grab some shots of new Meatwaver Dolly sitting on Bryan's lap.
And then a photo of her buddy Dotty. After those couple photos I scrambled to get the karaoke set-up and encountered technically difficulties that made it close to completely dark by the time we were able to start singing.
I caught Kristin, Christina, and Chelsea hanging out on the terrace right as the last bit of sun left for the day.
By then, it was full on karaoke time and we have Jenny, Annie, Bryan, Meredith, Evan, Dotty, Kristin, and Kellyn here all enjoying the show.
Getting this Meatwave done felt good, but it also went be too fast and was hectic in a way that I couldn't enjoy myself as much as when it's spread out over an entire afternoon. So I'm really hoping the weather stays warm enough so we can get one more cookout on the books in November, and if I get lucky, maybe a December weekend might be just cozy enough to squeeze a fifth cookout in, which is number I try to hit each season.
