Bread Talk – Part 2: Rene's Bakery

“Bread baking is one of those almost hypnotic businesses, like a dance from some ancient ceremony.  It leaves you filled with one of the world's sweetest smells... there is no chiropractic treatment, no Yoga exercise, no hour of meditation in a music-throbbing chapel, that will leave you emptier of bad thoughts than this homely ceremony of making bread. “

                                                                                                                  M.F.K. Fisher

                                                                                                                 The Art of Eating

                           

That’s my friend Dita in the picture.  She’s a baker at Rene’s Bakery Shop on Ester Lim Drive in Panglao Island.  This is where I sometimes buy most my bread and cold cuts for dinner. 

Dita bakes quite an assortment of bread on a daily basis.  Some are shipped to their restaurant on the 4^th floor of the BQ Mall, Rene’s Swiss Gourmet Shop & Restaurant.  

Some of the bread she bakes: hard roll at 12 pesos, soft roll at 7 pesos, bretzel at 10 pesos, yanille sweet at 30 pesos, taisen at 30 pesos, German loaf bread at 120 pesos, and rye bread at 60 pesos.  They also have pan de leche (sliced sandwich bread/tasty bread) at 30 pesos , but you have to place your order a day in advance to get one.

The cheeses, cold cuts, and sausages are priced according to the weight they’re packed in.  For an extra charge, they can prepare a sandwich of your choice, for you to enjoy outside in their garden gazebo.  

This is also where, to my amazement, I discovered pastrami in their chiller.  Pastrami is of Romanian specialty that was introduced to the United States during the wave of Romanian Jewish immigration from Bessarabia and Romania in the second half of the 19th century.

Pastrami sandwich on a roll with mayo and mustard was one of my favorites in New York.  When much younger, whenever my cousins visited Manhattan, I’d always take them to either Stage or Carnegie deli to have them try this sandwich … and they seemed to love it.

For inquiries, you may call their landline at 038-502-9149

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