A TOAST to Justin and Selina “Selma” Romualdez, a happily married duo, and foodies forever!
Yes, they share a love for food, glorious food! Their story began with a beautiful friendship spanning a decade — from being classmates in CIE to graduating together in Northwood University, Florida, with dual degrees in Business Administration and Marketing Management.
Sun.Star Cebu (SSC): What is the culture of food that each of you grew up in?
Justin Romualdez (JR): “I was raised in the US at a time when the McDonald’s sign was adding yet another billion served.
Most of my friends had brown bags with peanut butter and jelly, or PB&J as they call it, an apple, and a snack pack. But I was the different kid in the lunchroom. My Mom, despite owning a fast food franchise, made sure that I had a wide variety of good food, such as gourmet pizzas, Buffalo wings, and steak sandwiches. Occasionally, we would have beefsteak or adobo with rice, which was always the object of everyone’s curiosity.
“After moving back to the Philippines, my Mom began studying various cuisines. She went to Italy and Spain to learn Mediterranean food and toured Southeast Asia for Thai and Indonesian food. My dinners were her experiments.”
Selina Romualdez (SR): “Both of my grandmothers had a passion for cooking. We were raised to love food and most of all, appreciate where it came from. We would gather every weekend and each family would showcase their different dishes. Our comfort foods consisted of callos, lengua, kalderetang kanding, binagoongang baboy, and there was lechon every Sunday.
As I was a little girl, I would watch my grandmother as she performed her gastronomic wonders and later on I began to experiment and learned to cook on my own.
SSC: What are your favorite foods?
SR: It is difficult to choose just one. We both have been privileged enough to taste an array of many cuisines. For instance, we have eaten foods from different regions of Italy (from Tuscany to Emilia Romagna), authentic Spanish delicacies, over-the-top African cuisine, genuine Vietnamese food, and a lot more. There’s so much good food from each country. Why choose when you can eat them all?
SSC: Justin, what do you consider the specialty of your clan?
JR: My Mom didn’t have to travel far to come up with her specialty, binagoongang baboy. This is everyone’s all-time favorite. The original recipe belonged to my great grandmother, Dona Brigida Zialcita-Romualdez. She passed the recipe to Auntie Cecilia Romualdez, who then passed it on to my Mom. My grandfather gave it the seal of approval and said it tasted exactly like the original. The recipe can be found in the cookbook of my mom, Cooking Lessons by Beth Romualdez, which may be purchased at any National Bookstore. Proceeds from the sale go to the Beth Romualdez Fund, which provides free mammograms for indigent women. Other favorites are Italian, Thai and Vietnamese.
SSC: How would you come up and prepare for yourselves the perfect breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner?
JR & SR: Our perfect breakfast would be the hearty American breakfast. A stack of French toast with pats of butter melting on top and maple syrup. We’ll have loads of crispy bacon and golden hash browns. For our eggs, we like omelet au fromage.
One of our favorite cuisines for lunch is Japanese. It’s always fun to eat and after a heavy breakfast, you can get pleasure from a wide, yet light, variety of sushi and sashimi.
We let our conscience go during afternoon snacks. We could be watching a movie, shopping, enjoying the great outdoors, or just chilling at home.
Nachos and chocolates are always in order!
You can never go wrong with a nice Italian dinner. Just change the portions and you can go from family style to a romantic dinner for two. Quattro formaggio pizza and tartufo pasta and South African Shiraz make the perfect combination. End the meal with gelato on a waffle cone or tortino al ciocolato caldo to wind the day down.
