Philippines / Metro Manila / Dining / Pastry & Bake Shops

From the tiny neighborhood bakeries to the large bakery chains with better quality baked goods, to the specialty, up-market pastry shops with freshly baked breads or an array of mouthwatering cakes and pastries, one can find in the metropolis what it takes to satisfy one's sweet craving.

Spanish influence is evident in many of the names of local Filipino baked goods, though the actual product differs from the Spanish original. For example, the ensaimada here, with its small size and topping of butter, sugar and grated cheese, differs from the original ensaimada from Mallorca and Menorca, Spain, which is lighter in texture, coil-shaped also, but flatter, and sometimes up to about 2 feet in diameter. In fact, Dulcinea, the only Spanish pasteleria in the metropolis, attempted to popularize the authentic ensaimada, but the Filipinos preferred the local version. Other Spanish-inspired Filipino sweets include lengua de gato, polvoron, leche flan, and brazo de mercedes.

But those who come across a pastel, will not find a cake as in Spain, but a rectangle of glutinous rice with a savory filling, wrapped in a banana leaf and steam cooked. Dulcinea, however, does produce the authentic Spanish tuna or chorizo pasteles, which are savory-filled pastries.

One of the most startling items the Westerner will ever see in any bakery display case is the ube cake, whose screaming purple color is only slightly offset by touches of white cream frosting, or by macapuno, a kind of young coconut preserve. The ube is a root crop whose natural purple color intensifies upon cook-ing. Since it cannot be directly incorporated into cake recipes, ube ice cream is used.

Not until 1986 when the government relinquished its monopoly on the sale of flour did many local quality pastry shops and bakeries spring up to meet the demand of the increasing number of West European visitors, expatriates, and well-traveled af-fluent Filipinos.

Before then, the major outlets were La Suiza, founded by a Spanish couple, and Swibak, after "zwieback" or melba toast, founded by a Swiss. Both produced a variety of European-style pastries and baked goods.

The best pastry shops and bakeries are found in the major shopping districts of Makati. Most of the 5-star hotels have an elegant coffee shop serving a selection of fine pastries and other desserts, from an in-house bakery which also sells for take-out. The Manila Midtown Hotel offers a limited selection of excellent and very competitively priced danish and doughnuts in Maxim's for take-out, but dining in requires a beverage purchase, in large hotels often priced three times as much as the pastry.

Among the 5-star hotel bakeshops, those in the Mandarin Oriental, the Century Park Sheraton and the Holiday Inn offer an exquisite variety of home-made designer chocolates, using imported Swiss chocolate, various local and exotic nuts, assorted liqueurs and other fillings. They are available by weight or in attractive gift packages. The bakeshops in the above named hotels also offer the best whole grain breads.

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Pastry & Bake Shops

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