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.
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| Ham and cheese croissant from Le Coeur de France. Yummy! |
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| Pandesal from Pan de Manila |
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| My kids' favorite. |
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| Pesto cheese sticks are perfect with pasta. |
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| Wheat ensaymada from Pan de Amerikana. So filling! |
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| Mr. Beans bean bread. Sure to put a smile on your face. |
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| Do you know what this is called? I don't. |
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| Even hubby doesn't know the name of this one. He just buys. Hehe. From BreadTalk too. |
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| Eggstraordinary from BreadTalk |
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| Garlic bread from The French Baker. My ultimate favorite! |
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| Bread and chicken soup. Nice brekkie on a rainy morning. |
