French Baker has been in the country for 20 years. Its originator Johnlu Koa is perhaps the most engaging entrepreneur we have met. You can talk bread with him the whole day, as he goes through the process of putting up a bakery, studying each type of bread and even getting into its medicinal attributes. To date they have some 37 outlets, with an ever-expanding selection, every time a bright idea comes to the mind of Johnlu.
He introduced to us their latest product, the whole grain bread (P120). A product of research that took four years, he calls this a breakthrough because this is a dense loaf, full of seeds (sesame, sunflower and flax) and grains with essential vitamins, minerals and nutrients. Whole grain bread contains complex carbohydrates that are digested and released into the body as sugars over a long period of time. Thus, one does not get hungry quickly. It has zero trans-fat, is fiber-rich, bromate free and unbleached.
“Whole wheat” and “whole grain” bread implies that the entire grain or the whole kernel of wheat is used to make the flour and none of it is milled away during the milling process. To strictly qualify, the bread should be made of 100 percent whole wheat flour without even a touch of white flour. This flour must have 100 kernels including its bran, endosperm and wheat germ.
Johnlu has also opened Lartizan (from the term L’Artisan), a bake shop adjoining Mickey’s Delicatessen on 144 Jupiter corner Orbit Street in Bel-air, Makati. Here, customers can see how a bread is made, from the working table to the proofers to the oven and ultimately to the shelves and the dining tables. They’ve got a long list, from a variety of loaves to croissants to quiche. The latest addition is the madeleine au miel (P35), a milky little bread which can be taken with or without a dip. The Delicatessen is a good source of processed meat, including the juicy Nuremberger pork sausage, selling at P480 for six pieces, P580 for eight and P680 for ten. Except for the jamon serrano, all products are made by the company, from meat butchered right in their own ‘back of the house’. We are happy that they have veal in their sausage selection.
We are pleased when we see enterprising men and women doing well in their respective businesses. One such person is Rowena who started selling tarts in a little store along the highway leading to Tagaytay. It has now expanded to a little restaurant giving full dining service to motorists coming from and going to Tagaytay City. Rowena’s Tarts is an ideal place to have a meal. Last year the diner started offering salads and pasta dishes with the innovative concoctions of her daughter who studied Culinary Arts. Today, a cook imported from Davao does his magic with dishes unique to the Tagalog region. The traditional bulalo has very tender meat (P350), the dinuguan has long chilis to give it a kick (P250), the pinakbet is topped by the crackling lechon kawali (P180) and the daing na bangus is “ma-tiyan” (P350).
From the shelves, which are full of products that Rowena sources from all corners of the country, we found a selection labeled Aling Ponyang’s of C&C Foods from Nueva Ecija – kesong puti dips, fruit and vegetable spreads in olive oil, shrimps with coconut milk, Bicol express, calamansi sauce, and ginger sauce, which could be the alternative to Chinese sauces. They start at P100 each. There are many more items to take home and enjoy.
When buying fruits along the road, do not get from the first vendor you encounter. On the way back from Tagaytay, we stopped by one selling mangosteen selling for P200 a kilo, while we knew the price had gone down to P120 in Manila. A few meters away, the seller was more realistic, offering it for P140. We bargained, and got it for P110 a kilo. Speaking of mangosteen, a reader sent us an e-mail, saying this fruit is now sold in Divisoria at P60 a kilo. Great! Although we would have to factor in the cost of petrol and the time spent going to Divisoria. Thanks, anyway, dear reader.
We are grateful to Judy Araneta Roxas and her staff for making us a part of the beautiful Coffee Table Book, “The Araneta Center,” in memory of her father, J. Amado. Good shopping memories of the New Frontier Supermarket and Aguinaldo’s will forever be etched in our mind. A correction though: we did not go to the University of the Philippines. We are a Philosophy graduate of the University of Santo Tomas on the old España Street.
E-mail comments and questions to: lydia_d_castillo@yahoo.com