On the Subject of Grocery Store-Bought Bread...

One thing to know about Jojo and I is this: We both love our bread! ;-) Admittedly though, Jojo's tastes are very different from mine. Jojo likes white bread and steers away from whole wheat, rye, and the like. I, on the other hand, prefer bread that is out of the ordinary. The only similarity we have is that we both like our bread soft. So we're really not too big on baguettes.

With varying tastes, it's very rare to find bread that we both like. When we go grocery shopping, we'd have to buy 2 different loaves of bread to suit our individual tastes. With our latest finds, we don't have to do that anymore. Now we just buy one loaf of bread and fight over it! ;-) Hahaha! ;-) Let us share with you three of our latest finds. I think you'll love them too! ;-)

Elsie's Garlic Bread (78 pesos)

We were at Shopwise Libis and Jojo happened to be craving for garlic bread. He remembered buying this garlic bread from Makro which he absolutely loved. He had been looking for it for a long time but couldn't find it anywhere else. We decided to just check the aisles at Shopwise and just get any garlic bread from there, all the while crossing our fingers that it's the same garlic bread that he bought from Makro! He didn't remember the brand so he just picked out the one that we saw -- Elsie's Garlic Bread.

When we got home, we excitedly opened the package and tried it out. Since we like our bread soft, we just popped a few slices of it in the microwave as opposed to the oven toaster. It only needed to be heated for about 20 seconds. Jojo took one bite and from the expression on his face, I knew. It was the same Garlic Bread from Makro! Each slice had a generous spread of butter. I'm not entirely sure where the garlic taste comes from since there are no visible garlic slices anywhere. But the bread is soooo soft with just the right kunat (or ductility??!??) from the crust. Good stuff, I tell ya! And trust me. It's impossible to eat just one or two slices at a time! ;-)

Marby's Cheese Loaf (40 pesos)
Why are the good ones hard to find?!?? We had the same problem with this. We bought a loaf of Marby's Cheese Loaf from the Metro Grocery Store at Market, Market. We just wanted to try it out. After all, I'm a sucker for anything with cheese. And each slice had huge swirls of cheese! Jojo liked the fact that the bread was so soft too. It seemed like it was just taken out from the oven! Between the two of us, that loaf of bread lasted us less than a day! It was that good!

Since then, we've been keeping an eye out for it everytime we go grocery shopping. And everytime, we always end up being disappointed. Marby's Cheese Loaf is always "out of stock," as the salesladies at Metro Grocery Store always say. We checked out other grocery stores too and they never have it, either. That is, until we chanced upon it at the Waltermart Makati Grocery Store. There were only two loaves of it left. So of course we grabbed them both! ;-)

We love Marby's Cheese Loaf because it's a great breakfast if you're on the go. Just eat it as it is. No need to heat it up or spread anything on it. It's tasty as it is. Kind of like Spanish Bread in "sliced bread" form. ;-) Loooove it! ;-)

*Sorry I don't have a photo of this. Jojo and I wolfed it down before I could take a picture . ;-) I'll be sure to update this post with a picture after another trip to Waltermart Makati. ;-)

Pan-a-Cup Malunggay Bread (32 pesos)

Malunggay or "Moringa" is the new fad. It used to be virgin coconut oil on everything! Now it's malunggay -- on everything. ;-) In our home though, I doubt that our love for malunggay bread will just be a fad. I love it and contrary to what people may think, it is NOT gross. Sure, the bread may have specks of green in it, but despite that, it's very good! Just don't mind how it looks. ;-)

I have to admit though, I had the same reaction when we had malunggay bread the first time. We were at Kape Isla at Bonifacio High Street. They serve malunggay bread there with different fillings. I took a bite and I instantly loved it! It has a very very slight bitter taste which is similar to rye bread. I don't think I would like it on its own. But it goes well with a chicken salad filling, BLT, cold cuts and cheese, and lately, I discovered -- with Kaya jam and butter! Its slight bitter taste, for some reason, complements everything! The bread is soft as well but I enjoy it better when its toasted.

Wanting to create the same sandwich experience from Kape Isla, we bought Pan-a-Cup's Malunggay Bread at Metro Grocery at Market, Market. It had the same taste as the one at Kape Isla except that it's in pan-de-sal form. It's been about three weeks now and I've been eating it everyday for breakfast! And I still can't get enough of it! ;-) What I do everyday is I slice it in half, then toast it in our panini grill. After about a minute in there, I take it out and spread some Kaya jam (Nonya Kaya from Bread Talk -- 120 pesos/jar) and spread butter on top of that. Wow! They go soooo well together! And it's a healthy breakfast that's easy to make! Just make sure though that your butter is the fat-free kind. I use Magnolia Gold Lite spreadables.

So there you go...We love our bread so for sure, Jojo and I will be trying out all other different kinds too. We'll add more to this list if we discover a few other interesting ones. Keep posted! ;-)