{"id":5639,"date":"2019-08-14T04:36:28","date_gmt":"2019-08-13T18:36:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/?p=5639"},"modified":"2019-12-28T15:40:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-28T04:40:00","slug":"pan-de-sal-the-philippine-national-bread","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/?p=5639","title":{"rendered":"PAN DE SAL, The Philippine National Bread"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Neria Nidea-Soliman <\/strong>
as seen on the June 2019 issue<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In commemoration of our forthcoming Philippine Independence Day\nCelebration on June 2019, I am most obliged to write about our most popular\nand most loved Pinoy Pan De Sal <\/em>which is also called Pan de sal Almusal <\/em>or\nAgahan <\/em>(breakfast bread). <\/em>To our Filipino Spanish grandparents, the pan de\nsal <\/em>is also known as Salt Bread. Every country has a nationally-identified\nbread: Croissant in France, Focaccia in Italy and Sour dough for the\nAmericans.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pan De Sal <\/strong>is the traditional Filipino bread made of flour, eggs, yeast, salt and sugar. It is the most popular yeast-raised bread in Manila and all the regions of the Philippines. The raw bread is shaped by rolling the dough into long logs and cut into 2 inches in length. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This bread is also called the \u201cBread of the Masa\u201d being the most popular of\nall the hundreds variety of Filipino bread.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Food critic Doreen Fernandez<\/strong>, who was my professor at St. Scholastica\u2019s\nCollege Manila, made a review of my first book in 1986. She said: \u201cpan de\nsal i<\/em>s the bread of our history, the core of our culture, at the heart of our\ntastes.\u201d Furthermore, she said that \u201cnowadays, the battle is on for the best\npan de sal <\/em>in the market.\u201d Indeed, the Filipino ingenuity is challenged to\ncreate the best pan de sal <\/em>in the Panaderia <\/em>(bakery).\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pan de sal <\/strong>means \u201cbread of salt\u201d in Spanish, where a pinch of salt is added\nto the dough. It was introduced to the Philippines in the 16th century during\nthe Spanish Era as the Spaniards\u2019 answer to the French Baguette. The\noriginal pan de sal <\/strong>was made with wheat flour, so it was hard and crusty\noutside, airy and has a pillow soft texture inside, a far cry from the doughy\nbread we have these days.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pan<\/strong>–de<\/strong>–sal <\/strong>is Portuguese in origin and the most popular bread in Portugal to\nthis date. Today, Manila boasts of having 196 flavours or recipes of pan de\nsal. <\/em>I was talking to a nun while l was in Legazpi City recently who made\nmention that her favourite bread is the Malunggay Pan de sal<\/em>. She is Sister\nRegina B. Sampaga, MCST <\/strong>of the order of the Missionary Catechists of St.\nTherese of the Infant Jesus. She reckons that it would be best if the\nmalunggay leaves are fresh, not dried. I agree with her if only to keep intact\nthe nutritive value of a green leafy vegetable that is high in vitamin A.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I met the good Sister with her Mother Superior during a birthday celebration at the prestigious Rebustillo Residence attended by no less than the Bishop, priests and the grand matriarch \u2501 my artist relative Delia Napay Rebustillo <\/strong>of Albay along with her daughter Dehna Sevilla <\/strong>and the latter young secular priest son, Fr. Sevilla. \u03a9 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Neria
Neria Soliman<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n



Neria Nidea-Soliman<\/strong>, a resident of Sydney, is a Bicolana from Legazpi City, Albay. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Nutrition and Food Science from the St. Scholastica\u2019 s College in Manila. Among the books she has written are Magayon, a Taste of Bicol and The Chef\u2019s Best Mate. She was Food and Beverage Manager of Mayon Imperial Hotel in Legazpi, Albay and a past president of the Philippine Community Council of New South Wales <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Neria Nidea-Soliman as seen on the June 2019 issue In commemoration of our forthcoming Philippine Independence Day Celebration on June 2019, I am most obliged to write about our most popular and most loved Pinoy Pan De Sal which is also called Pan de sal Almusal or Agahan (breakfast bread). To our Filipino Spanish […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":5645,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,54],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5639"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5639"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5751,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5639\/revisions\/5751"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}