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Pandesal
Pandesal: a light crusty bread that melts in your mouth if it is fresh but becomes harder than a rock if it cools down.
I write this from memory as it has been far too many years since I walked Philippine streets.Memories are fickle and terribly warped by personal experience and the narrow amount of knowledge that we all bring to our lives. But this one is true, at least to the best of my memory.
Just off the only highway leaving town in Puerto Princessa City there is a three story black and gold hotel called “The Legend.” There is nothing legendary about it. It is set between a blacksmith shop made of tin and blue tarp, and a bamboo tin shop that will make anything you could imagine out of tin. Parked out front are little wooden carts selling everything from taho to tinselas to firewood.
The Legend’s dining room was air-conditioned, and their tables covered in huge white table cloths. Both were rare in Puerto in the early 2000’s. There was a huge bundle of bamboo right in the middle of the room, and all around the walls were plants and vines.. It was beautiful, and if you ignored the mice that would scurry back and forth along the bamboo and tree branches it had a very relaxing almost posh feel. Mom and I would go there sometimes to work- her on work, and me on school.
I would always order a mango smoothie, or depending on the season a pineapple or…
