Posted on 03/14/2025 4:47:32 AM PDT by buwaya
Commentary - The Philippines has, somewhat surprisingly, a well established baking tradition. The country is otherwise a standard East Asian rice culture, except for this quite important exception. Baked bread is almost universally consumed, dependent on wheat and flour imports, as the country produces no wheat.
"Pan de sal", or salt bread, is a breakfast staple, produced on that demanding schedule of the typical Euro-American bakery and distribution system, as the "daily bread" of millions. Besides this the country expects a quite large variety of other breads. The typical breakfast in the Philippines CAN seem like the European continental breakfast. Or not.
It is all of course a borrowing from Spain. However the specific types of bread produced absolutely do not map to Spanish bread at all.
In spite of millions of Filipinos in the US only a very little of this has shown up in the US. There are places, like Daly City CA, where you can indeed get pan de sal for breakfast.
In the end this is just a (very persistent) example of the cultural fusion of that earlier "globalist" world of the colonial empires.
Portugese/Spanish influence still felt centuries later. The Philippino Longanisa, also a breakfast staple, is essentially a derivative os spanish sausage as well. Good stuff!
Try the slightly crusty pan de sal if you can. Most of the pan de sal I have had was more like a soft bun...still good...but some of the bakeries make crusty pan de sal....very good.
IMHO
Pan de sal is good. Pan de coco is better.
If I get the chance!
“Portugese/Spanish influence still felt centuries later. The Philippino Longanisa, also a breakfast staple, is essentially a derivative os spanish sausage as well. Good stuff!”
And American influence since WWII. Canned SPAM is a deep set tradition... lol
I am not an expert on Filipino food but>>>>>
-They need to raise more cattle in marginal areas not suitable for grains, soybeans and vegetables. Perhaps mountainous locations
Raise more goats for meat.
-Cut way back on pork consumption that makes you dull minded. Jimmy Carter had a pigs snout of a nose. Due to ancestors being heavy pork eaters. I’ll bet many Filipinos have pig snout noses...... Yeah I know pigs are easiest to raise, eating all food scraps. Xi of China —pigs snout nose.
-Eat more poultry. Do Filipino eat lots of duck? Turkey is best as far as converting grain to meat. They should eat more roasted Turkey.... yum
-Is Philippines chasing all foreign fishing out of Filipino waters? That legally extend 200 miles out from the Philippines coast. Are CCP Chinese trawlers raiding Philippine’s fishing waters?
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