Now Showing
Opens Mar 20
31°C
Partly cloudy
Tue
27°C
Wed
27°C
Thu
27°C

Powered by WeatherAPI.com

USD $1 ₱ 55.61 -0.0650 March 19, 2024
March 18, 2024
3D Lotto 9PM
379
₱ 4,500.00
2D Lotto 9PM
1125
₱ 4,000.00

How Much Would a Complete Noche Buena Menu Cost You?

DTI’s posters showing the SRP of Noche Buena ingredients are all over the supermarkets. Assuming the prices are followed correctly, how much will you approximately have to spend for your Christmas feast?

Noche Buena is the traditional pre-Christnas feast that's eaten just before midnight and right after the family comes home from Simbang Gabi. To celebrate the upcoming holiday, Pinoy families usually prepare a grander-than-usual meal and invite friends to partake on the special feast.

Noche Buena menus feature hamón, quezo de bola, and pasta. The more privileged can afford to include lechon and relleno in the spread.

And because the demand for these items are huge during the Christmas season, prices also tend to skyrocket. To combat opportunistic retailers, the Department of Trade and Industry recently put up posters showing the SRP of Noche Buena ingredients all over the supermarkets.


Click to enlarge

Assuming the prices are followed correctly, how much will you approximately have to spend for your Christmas feast? Here's what we found out in our sample computation:

1. Sweet Christmas Ham

Advertisement

Preparation: Little to none; ready-to-eat

Christmas Ham, or hamon, is the star of the Noche Buena feast. Christmas hams are extra special because of their sweet, sugary amber coating. These festive balls make a decadent treat meant to be shared with loved ones.

Budget: P203 for 700 g of pear-shaped cooked ham loaf

Splurge: P777 for 1.5 kg of cooked ham

2. Bibingka and Puto Bumbong

Preparation: None; ready-to-eat

Bibingka is a Christmas staple, traditionally made from rice flour, clarified butter, sugar, and egg yolks. This is cooked in a clay oven in between hot coals. Before it is served, more butter or margarine is spread generously on top, followed by desiccated coconut meat and sugar. Puto bumbong on the other had is a sticky purple rice roll, steamed through bamboo tubes, wrapped in banana leaves, and served with a swipe of margarine or butter, grated coconut and sugar.

Budget: Approximately P100 (One piece bibingka regular, two servings of puto bumbong)

Splurge: Approximately P350 (Two pieces bibingka espesyal, two servings puto bumbong)

3. Queso de Bola

Preparation: None; ready-to-eat

Internationally known as Edam cheese, the Pinoy queso de bola is sliced up and customarily served with pan de sal. No family really finishes up a ball of queso de bola on Christmas Eve. This cheese is a pretty good investment because it has a long shelf life and can last even beyond the Feast of Three Kings.

Budget: P150 for 300 g

Splurge: P445 for 700 g

4. Relleno (stuffed chicken or fish)/Embutido (pork meat loaf)/Morcon (beef meat roll)

Preparation: At least two hours

A Noche Buena table is never complete without any of these three. All these require intense and laborious kitchen preparations so they are usually reserved for special occasions like Christmas Eve.

Budget: P100 for a store-brought embutido roll good for 4 people; P150 for fish relleno

Splurge: around P500 for beef morcon; at least P700 for chicken relleno

5. Lechon

Preparation: None; ready-to-eat

Lechon is a Spanish term for roasted whole suckling pig. Because of its expensive price tag, it is a dish most often reserved for holidays and special occasions like Noche Buena.

Budget: P595 for 1 kilo of lechon belly roll

Splurge: at least P5,000 for a whole lechon

6. Paella

Preparation: One hour; if store-brought, ready-to-eat

Paella instantly brightens any Noche Buena table. This dry or sometimes sticky rice dish of Spanish origin is a free-style combination of meat, seafood, and vegetables. Paellas can be done at home by a skilled cook, or can be brought from a restaurant for a more hassle-free experience.

Budget: P500 for a serving good for 5

Splurge: at least P1000 for a restaurant take-away that’s good for 6 people

7. Pasta – Spaghetti

Preparation: 30-45 minutes

In a Filipino home, any kind of joyous celebration requires a noodle/pasta dish. Festive Christmas usually requires a festive platter of spaghetti.

Budget: P250 for home-cooked spaghetti (Ingredients: pasta, spaghetti sauce, cheese, ground beef, and hotdog)

Splurge: P700 for home-cooked spaghetti using premium meat and ingredients

8. Macaroni Salad

Preparation: 30 minutes

Ingredients: chicken, pineapple, ham, macaroni, and cheese

For some reason, mothers love creating macaroni salads during Christmas Eve. It doubles as an appetizer or a palate-cleanser before attacking the dessert table.

Budget: P200 for a small serving

Splurge: P500 for a grander serving with premium ingredients

9. Fruit Salad

Preparation: 25 minutes, then chill for 3 hours

Fruit salad is a colorful assortment of fruits combined with different types of syrup and cream. It’s a staple dessert in a Noche Buena table, usually served when a few moments before midnight.

Budget: P200

Splurge: P400

10. Leche Flan

Preparation: This will take at least 4 hours from preparing to chilling.

Leche flan is egg-based dessert custard served on celebratory occasions like Christmas Eve.

Budget/Splurge: P200

Noche Buena Feast's total approximate cost (without drinks)

Budget: P2,498

Splurge: P10,572

The computation cited above is just an approximation based on the current SRP of Noche Buena ingredients and current average prices of ready-to-eat Christmas meals. Of course, the number could go further down the better you budget and prioritize your menu. To save on some costs, you might want to consider picking dishes that are quite festive but are not in demand during the holiday. After all, Noche Buena is not really about putting specific items on your dinner table but about enjoying the company of your family as you wait for the most joyous occasion of the year.

 

Share the story

Advertisement
Advertisement

Recent Posts

Hot Off the Press