Bread!

In Manila, there is a bakery in every corner. It is a custom to have the local "Pan de Sal" with coffee for breakfast. People line up to buy a bag of bread as early as the crack of dawn. There are also sweet rolls, cheese bread, cupcakes, "pan de coco" (coconut filled), lipstick and ube breads, and "kababyan" (sweet muffins).

It was while I was driving around town that I followed the familiar freshly-baked bread smell. The vanilla and butter aromas led me to a Mexican bakery here in Oakley--the Panaderia La Michoacana. It seems that bakeries are popular in Mexico, too. I was led to their showcase with rows of colored and festive bread and pastries in unusual shapes and texture. For 50 to 60 cents a piece, I was giddy over 30 varieties of sweet breads like the conch-shaped “conchas,” horn-shaped “cuernos,” cream cheese and jalapeno-filled “bollios,” or the brown-sugar cookies shaped liked pigs. I also found my favorite churros filled with custard, chocolate, or strawberry, doughnuts, muffins, bisquits, pink cookies, apple or pineapple-filled empanadas, and bread pudding, among the yummy selection.

So I piled a couple on a tray and sampled Mexican-style breads. The churros were a treat, different from the ones we buy from the Disneyland carts. They are heavier and sweeter and the fact that they were custard-filled was heaven!

The pink cookies had the taste and texture of polvoron, how interesting. The empanadas, though, were bready, not flaky, like I am used to.

Overall, it is a discovery that I will put on my list. I have to go back and try the other varieties. For the price and the exotic experience, Panaderia La Michoacana is an overlooked gem of a bakery.