Bread and breakfast

Bread may just be bread - good to eat and available just about anywhere. But if you come to think of it, bread is something so interesting. According to Wikipedia, bread is one of the world's oldest foods. Reading this, the Holy Bible came to my mind. During our Lord Jesus Christ's earthly life, He ate bread. One of the great miracles He performed even involved bread. Remember the "Feeding of the 5,000" where that great number of Jesus' followers were fed after the Lord prayed over just five loaves of bread and two fish? Even in the Old Testament, God's chosen people, the Israelites, ate bread.  When there was drought, God told the prophet Elijah to hide himself near a brook east of the Jordan and said He had commanded birds to supply him with food. And so the prophet did as he was told by the Lord and ravens brought him meat and bread morning and night. What an amazing story!   
Fast forward to the present, here in our part of the world, bread has become wildly popular, so much so that even bakeshops from other countries are doing brisk business here. Notable are the "invasion" of BreadTalk from Singapore, Bread Story from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia,  and Tous les Jours from Guri, South Korea. These are in addition to the good old specialty bakeries that have been existing here for years - The French Baker 
and Le Coeur de France, among others. 
Meanwhile, you ought not to forget our very own Pan de Manila where one can get pandesal - the true blue Pinoy bread - hot and fresh anytime of the day. With bakeries all around, Could it be that bread is soon to take over as the Filipinos' staple food in place of rice? In urban areas, possibly. And why not? Bread is perhaps the most versatile food in the world. One can have it for breakfast, lunch or dinner. You can eat it on its own or put all sorts of things in it to make it a sandwich. Bakers make bread using various types of flour such as wheat, rye, barley malt and cassava, and put in a lot of different ingredients such as fruits and meat, so that breads come in all sorts of shapes, colors and flavors. Hmm..lovely.
And there is possibly a thousand varieties of bread the whole world over. Personally,  I love bread, too. It's perfect for breakfast, paired with a strong cup of brewed coffee. My hubby loves bringing home bread as pasalubong. When he does, the kids and I either eat it at breakfast or take it as baon to school or office the next day. Sometimes, I take home bread too. When it's from Pan de Manila, Le Coeur de France or French Baker, the kids know I brought it. When bread's from BreadTalk or Pan de Amerikana, they're sure it's from dad.  

Ham and cheese croissant from Le Coeur de France. Yummy!

Pandesal from Pan de Manila

My kids' favorite.

Pesto cheese sticks are perfect with pasta.

Wheat ensaymada from Pan de Amerikana. So filling!

Mr. Beans bean bread. Sure to put a smile on your face.

Do you know what this is called? I don't.

Even hubby doesn't know the name of this one. He just buys. Hehe. From BreadTalk too.

Eggstraordinary from BreadTalk

Garlic bread from The French Baker. My ultimate favorite!

Bread and chicken soup. Nice brekkie on a rainy morning.

The heart of France

I looked up over the weekend the meaning of le coeur de France and this was it (the title of this post), I found out. Why the sudden interest, you might ask. Well, I was so smitten by the ham and cheese croissant at Le Coeur de France, that is why. Hehe. It's just the way I like it - flaky and crusty. It was so delicious I'm still daydreaming about it. Haha!. By the way, my daughter and I were at this branch inside Times Plaza at the corner of UN and Taft Avenues just before church service last Saturday. We arrived in the area quite early and were buying time so I decided that we have coffee. We were both still feeling full from our late lunch and didn't want to eat anymore but since I saw a coffee-and-croissant pairing on the menu, I went for it while the daughter ordered a cappuccino frappe. Unfortunately, said the server, their whipped cream was unavailable so my daughter settled for iced cappuccino. 

When our orders came, not one but two croissants came when I asked for just one. The server explained that it was "buy 1, take 1" for their breads starting at 3 p.m. Was I delighted at my sudden good fortune! Haha! And it was happiness take 2 at first bite of the croissant. My brewed coffee, while being good as well, was too strong for me so I requested the server to dilute it with hot water and to give me more creamer, which she graciously accommodated. (Hmmm..good service - a plus point!). While I was leisurely sipping my coffee, I asked my daughter to buy me a notebook and a bottle of toasted garlic from separate stores inside Times Plaza. I took this opportunity to sip her iced cappuccino and I loved it too. Hehe.       

Ham and Cheese Croissant

The dream!

Love, love, love!

Brewed coffee is served with a cookie

Iced cappuccino

Last Saturday was actually our second time at Le Coeur de France, the first being last February but it's only now I'm blogging about it. Then, we ordered their Treat for 2 meal (P320) consisting of a serving of Pasta Salad, Double-Decker Sandwich and two glasses of iced tea. Well, I urge you to try the mentioned pasta for your own gastronomic pleasure because it's lip-smackingly delicious! To me, it tastes like cheese pimiento spread mixed with pasta and you might just agree. Also, it is served on a bed of fresh, crunchy lettuce. I think it's quite a unique pasta dish coz I haven't had anything like this elsewhere. As for the sandwich, it was yummy too. I think (if my memory serves me right) it had deviled egg with veggies at the bottom and tuna with cheese at the top layer. Le Coeur de France is now one of favorite places 

for coffee and more. I hope to be back there soon :-)

Pasta Salad

Triple-Decker Sandwich

Iced Tea