Bread winner

“Let them eat cake!”

That arrogant statement could never have been uttered even if we had a woman that pompous (was it really Marie Antoinette?) during the Spanish era. To begin with, we didn’t have cake.

Maybe she could have said: “Let them eat ‘kakanin’ (rice cake)!” “With ‘budbod’ (topping).” Or perhaps: “With ‘niyog’ (grated coconut).”

Although cake had been served in European royal courts for about a thousand years, that baked product didn’t get to be popular in this archipelago until the American period. If we ever had cakes in the ancient times, those would have been mooncakes since our islands were already doing trade with China even before the arrival of the Spaniards.

But bread had been around for a long time. Historians always say the Spanish colonizers brought with them the sword and the cross. They forgot to mention bread.

Since we are not a wheat-producing country, bread had always been for snacks. While some Filipinos eat bread for breakfast, nothing beats the good, old sinangag (fried rice) for most Pinoys.

Filipinos, however, should appreciate bread more. It is a handy meal – for picnics or if one is hungry and in a hurry.

In the 1970s, the Philippine government (with aid from the United States) started distributing “nutri-bun” in public elementary schools to combat child malnutrition. Nutri-bun was a bread fortified with Vitamin A that proved essential, especially for children with dietary deficiencies.

When I was doing a game show with Arnell Ignacio, Alessandra de Rossi and the late Joy Viado, we got to talk about nutri-bun during a break in the shoot. I had heard about nutri-bun, but never got to have a taste of it. But Arnell and Joy had and they said nutri-bun served as a nutritious snack during recess for a lot of school children.

According to them, nutri-bun was a compact bread that was so heavy, it felt like one swallowed a paper weight after consuming the entire bread. It tasted good, too, so they claimed.

Nutri-bun, incidentally, was never sold in the market. It was distributed only in public schools — for free.

While nutri-bun was being given away as part of a government program, there was a new bread variety that was being sold by enterprising businessmen who were cashing in (actually exploiting) on the popularity of a rising star who also came from the ranks of the underprivileged. The name of the singer-actress was Nora Aunor.

Nora had become so popular that she became the top endorser of the early 1970s. She appeared in a Coca-cola commercial and sang its jingle. She also endorsed Dial soap and was actually shown taking a shower in the TV commercial. Of course, the shot was only from shoulder up.

Those who couldn’t afford her services decided to make money off her anyway. Bakery owners started coming up with their own versions of pan de Nora. How was it different from other breads? Pan de Nora was baked to a brownish hue (Nora was a famous “kayumanggi”) and had a single raisin on it strategically placed on the lower right side of the bread. That raisin was supposed to be Nora’s famous mole.

There were different varieties of pan de Nora — depending on the bakery. Some were soft, but dry. There were also those that were on the coarser side. The only common denominator was the ever-present raisin. Without the raisin, it wouldn’t be pan de Nora anymore.

Not surprisingly, some wise guys also came up with the idea of selling pan de Vilma — after Vilma Santos, of course. So, Nora and Vilma weren’t only rivals on TV and in the movies. The competition reached all the way to the “panaderia” (bakery).

What was pan de Vilma like? It was a simple round bread and nothing much — as boring as that.

In her teens, Vilma had yet to shed off her baby fat. And so, her face was round. Bakeries capitalized on that. How did it taste? Basically, the same as pan de Nora, except that it didn’t have a raisin.

Pan de Vilma was less popular and had a shorter shelf life. As Vilma matured, her face took on a different shape. She actually became more radiant and beautiful — and gone was the round face that she had as a teenager. So, there went pan de Vilma.

Pan de Nora stayed longer in the market, but soon also disappeared from bakery shelves. Why? Because there was nothing outstanding about its taste. All it had was the raisin to represent the mole so identified with Nora Aunor.

Pan de Nora didn’t become a classic like the pan de sal (unofficially the national bread) or the pinagong — so named because it resembles a turtle’s shell. Or perhaps the pan bonete (a bread shaped like a bonnet). Pinagong and pan bonete, however, are mostly sold in provincial bakeries.

But the pan de regla is still all over bread stores in Metro Manila. It is called pan de regla because it has a sweet dough stuffing in red that looks like a dried-up remnant of a woman’s monthly cycle.

And how can we miss out monay? It is still a very salable item in bakeries. The only difference is that today’s generation has stopped using it as a euphemism for the female genitalia.

How did all that start? Maybe because monay has a cleft conveniently placed in the center of the bread. That’s the most clinical explanation I can offer.

But going back to pan de Nora. It was actually overrun by the hot pan de sal craze of the mid-1970s. At 10 p.m. — two hours before curfew time — neighborhood bakeries sold piping hot pan de sal and that became a fad for a couple of years.

The practice became so popular that D’ Big 3 Sullivans even came up with a song titled “Hot Pan de Sal.” Why, even Nino Muhlach — at the peak of his career as a child wonder — also had a movie called Peter Pan de Sal.

Forty years later — and now that Nora Aunor is gone — Kamuning Bakery came up with its own version of pan de Nora. Established in 1939, Kamuning Bakery was purchased from its original owners by writer and real estate broker Wilson Lee Flores.

Although Kamuning is no alien territory to me, I’d never heard of Kamuning Bakery — until Wilson started marketing his new business aggressively. As soon as I made my first visit, I got hooked on the establishment’s pan de suelo (really dense and heavy) and the ube pan de sal. The bakery also offers the best pancit palabok that side of town.

When I heard that Wilson came up with his own version of pan de Nora, I drove over to Kamuning Bakery and bought a whole bunch of the bread, which was named in honor of the superstar. The bread comes in pairs, both of which have raisins — again, to represent the mole of Nora Aunor.

There are two versions of pan de Nora. One is slightly lighter in color than the other. I was thinking: Why don’t they just name the lighter version pan de Charo? Charo Santos also has a mole, after all.

Pan de Nora is sold at P25 a pair. Not exactly cheap. But then, Kamuning Bakery is no ordinary panaderia. Its products may be more expensive than other bakeries, but it prides itself in the quality of its baked goods. Its breads have a finer texture compared to other bakeries. The secret is in the dough.

In fact, it is the dough that makes pan de Nora a good bread. And compared to the pan de Nora of old, the Kamuning Bakery version has a sweet dough filling.

However, in the taste test I conducted, not everyone was happy with the filling: Most of them found it too sweet. Maybe they can add a little bit more milk, egg and butter to the sweet dough filling, while lessening the sugar.

But as for me who has a sweet tooth, I can eat pan de Nora every day, except that I don’t want to be overloading on carbs. I can have it as an occasional treat though.