New ways to enjoy French Toast

MANILA, Philippines — Always agonizing over what to serve for breakfast? You are not alone.

Most busy moms, especially those with school age children whose baon they have to prepare, have the same daily struggle, as they always want to send their kids to school with only the best tasting and most nutritious baon ever. 

Filipinos are so used to having fried garlic rice with fried egg and a protein, such as tocino, tapa, longganisa, daing na bangus, and fried danggit that they did not consider any other breakfast to be as satisfying. But slowly but surely, they are starting to consider other types of breakfast for variation. American or Western breakfast of cereals with milk, bread, butter and jam, sausages and scrambled eggs have through the years become a staple, too. So with Chinese congee with assorted toppings, fried garlic and chopped spring onion.

French toast is slowly making itself known as an ideal breakfast fare, as well. French toast is slices of bread, most particularly thick loaf bread, dipped in milk and eggs then fried to a light golden toast on each side, sprinkled with cinnamon (and sugar, for Filipinos!), then eaten with sausages, scrambled eggs or anything you just about desire.

The French actually do not call it French toast. It goes by the name pain perdu, which means lost bread, because you can make French toast with old or stale bread, although it is always best with fresh, new bread, of course! Food historians believe that French toast dates back to ancient Rome, thus it has an Italian origin. They also believe that it came to be as a result of people not wanting to waste food, in this case, bread. So they developed a recipe that would make leftover bread not just appetizing but delicious, too. History would also say that French toast may not be referring to the French people or French cooking at all, as the term “to French” means “to slice” in the Old Irish language. This could very well mean “sliced toast.”

French toast is, in fact, more associated with American breakfast.

In modern times, French toast is what it is, and you can use thick loaf slices, regular loaf, or flavored loaf, baguette, batard, burger bun, pandesal or any bread you desire.