Light breakfast

Our idea of light breakfast varies from oatmeal, oatmeal drink or crackers to go with fruit juice, coffee or hot chocolate. Frequently, we also have bread and this is most likely either pandesal or sliced loaf. Pandesal or pan de sal literally translates into "bread of salt"and is probably the most popular and available of bread anywhere. You will see a lot of neighborhood stores or bakeries selling "hot pandesal" with even the major chains like Goldilocks, Red Ribbon and French Baker having their own version of this breakfast staple. There is even a chain, Pan de Manila, that's devoted to this bread and it is usually where we get our pugon-baked pandesal.

When in a hurry, pandesal with coffee or hot chocolate is enough (I dip mine in my drink) but on more relaxed mornings, we usually have a choice among many palaman that we have at home to enjoy our breads with. These include butter, preserves or marmalades, peanut butter and even cookie butter. I remember that when we were kids we also loved pouring condensed milk on our bread for a sweet and satisfying treat for breakfast.

Pandesal with any or a combination of butter, Speculoos or rose petal preserve. That's acai berry juice to wash down the bread with palaman.

Breads like pandesal are eaten many ways and not just for breakfast. On hot days like these during May, we even have ice cream to go with our bread. Pandesal or the regular buns are good for ice cream sandwiches and are quite popular everywhere in the Philippines.

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