What could be more Filipino than pandesal? One good part of living in the Philippines is being able to partake of piping hot pandesal during breakfast, or merienda. There is nothing like the taste of this rounded bread full of crumbs, about the size of a fist, which is versatile enough to be eaten with a lot of fillings, with coffee or with native hot chocolate.
Pandesal has social relevance too. Observers are fond of equating the size and price of the pandesal with the state of the economy. Indeed, it has upped its value from one peso each to about two pesos now, depending on the bakery or store. Signs of the times.
There are also gourmet purveyors of this national bread. Take for example, The Breadbag Pandesal Bar which we tried, upon a friend’s recommendation. Their neat hole-in-the-wall at the Ortigas Home Depot in Pasig is set to expand soon to Megamall and the Fort. One of the owners happens to belong to the family of the defunct Casa Marcos. Even though the once-popular restaurant is closed, they’ve kept the wood-fired brick oven used for baking their pan de sal and it’s now at The Bread Bag. You will know it differs from the others because of the texture and superior quality.
