Friday, February 27, 2009

Pan de Manila


We have church activities every night for this week. I took advantage of this feeding my soul and feeding my craving for pan de sal. It has been a long time since I had some, pan de sal, that is. Good thing Pan de Manila is on our way home.

For four nights already since Monday, we are regular customers of the bakery. The store servers already know us, as well as the parking attendant (the "barker" in other words).

The brick oven is said to taste better because it preserves and seals in the aroma of the dough. I have to say this is true. I was in the food industry for so many years. There are a lot of factors for a crust to be able to hold the heat. But talking about ovens, crusts were crunchier when the company was still using brick oven. It holds the heat longer compared to the automated oven that replaced it.

Customers can actually watch how the bakers load and unload doughs as the oven can be seen from the glass panel.


The doughs are ready for loading. I wonder how many minutes they stay there. This area is near the entrance and it's along the road - dusts and all. The heat inside the oven takes care of all the foreign bodies I suppose. :)


I have not tried all the other breads they offer. Next time maybe.


We tried their garlic butter and peanut butter. We bought the smallest bottles just to check if we will like the taste. We love them both! Garlic butter has parsley which adds to its flavorful aroma. It's more expensive than the peanut butter though.


My daughter loves the peanut butter! For three straight days, she brings peanut butter sandwich to school. Normally she tires of food easily.

We already consumed three bottles for four nights. The biggest bottle which we bought on Wednesday night will seem to last till today, Friday.


Our favorite peanut butter is Skippy and this one from Pan de Manila tastes as good. Creamy and the sweetness is just about right. You won't cringe from too much sweetness. My husband does not want peanut butter to be refrigerated. He wants them on room temperature for easier spreading. It's tastier that way too, a little melted.

As for pandesal, they are good while still hot which is about ten to fifteen minutes from the time we buy them. They come in two sizes, small and big. I'm alright with the taste but my husband is looking for the crunch in the pan de sal's crust.


Aside from the peanut butter, all of us love their Chocolate con Leche! According to its packaging, they use muscovado sugar. Aside from bringing back the feel of the old Manila (just look at their paper bag), they also adhere to all natural ingredients, no preservatices, which most of us, consumers, prefer.

Pan de Manila as I see it is successful in bringing all complementing products in one store, open for 24 hours, and adding in other product innovations - pan de ube, pesto and cheese bread, pesto wheat loaf, etcetera. The people manning the bakery are nice too, at least in the branch near our place. They have ready smiles, neat and very accommodating.

Have a feast on other Food Friday entries. Happy weekend! TGIF! :)

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Definitely a must visit place! parang sarap ng feel ng atmosphere jan ah. Happy weekend!

agent112778 said...

im not a fan of pan de manila, but a last xmas, a cousin gave us a jar of maggo jam and i love it

my entry is here

Great day for us Food Friday Eaters :)
Thanx for the Visit :)

Unknown said...

this is great with brewed coffee...favorite merienda namin sa office.

Anonymous said...

we usually buy our bread here nun sa Pinas pa kami.. ayan na miss ko tuloy, hehe...
happy weekend!

Anonymous said...

Hmm... looks like I need to visit this in the future. Parang maganda nga ang ambience...

Anonymous said...

I love Pan de Manila (sa Mindave ba ito? hehehe)

I have tried the garlic butter and we do that at home too

Try the wheat loaf, masarap at malambot at di dry :)

Anonymous said...

we love their products, too!
... specially their hot choco. :)

thanks for playing again, Lynn
happy weekend! :)

Anonymous said...

GIZELLE, Well it feels like an old style bakery serving hot, soft, tasty pan de sal and more. :)

JAY, I must try the mango jam then.

LUNA MIRANDA, Right, the pan de sal is perfect w/ brewed coffee.

CARYL, Baka may magfranchise ng Pan de Manila where you are. :)

ISKA, Hope you do and try the spreads and bread.

JULIE, Sige, next time I'll buy the wheat loaf.

MAIYLAH, Kami rin, we love the hot choco! The best!

Zeee said...

Wow! Pan de sal is one yummy simple and hearty bread! We always have some with pancit or tocino as our midnight snack! hehehehe

i♥pinkc00kies said...

my family loves their pandesal.. :)

the pesto wheat loaf is good too!!

Lynn said...

u8mypinkcookies,

That's a nice nick. :) Anyway, thanks for your comments. Obviously, you're a foodie too. I checked your Blogger profile but it seems you don't have a blog hosted by blogger.
Hope next time you visit you can put your name and URL so I can return the visit. :)

Cris Viguilla said...

i love their big pandesal and peanut butter. and the native ambiance of their stores.. it makes me proud seeing how pandesal played an important in Filipino culture then and now. how I wish there is a branch near us.. Although I get to visit their Roosevelt and Timog often and sometimes their Commonweath and kalayaan ave branches. we love it as merienda especially during rainy season! their pandesal wth sardines and hot choco!

i♥pinkc00kies said...

we tried their peanut butter also & loved the crunchy one! :D

you gotta taste the macapuno tarts that they have.. yum yum!