Our trip to Pampanga was actually meant as a market research trip to the province’s oldest bakery in Guagua, La Moderna which is located in Plaza Burgos. But by force of habit, whenever we head that way we make a snack stop at Cinnabon in San Fernando for the usual coffee and donuts. Forewarned that we’d be having lots of bread where we were headed, we settled for small bites and beverages.
We reached Guagua by mid-day, met by Butchie and Angelo of the Narciso family, who founded the bakery. The store had many breads (of course) but we were immediately led to the second floor where a spread of typical Pampanga dishes was waiting for us. At the end of the table was bringhe, a glutinous rice dish cooked in coconut cream with raisins and slivers of red bell pepper. Beside it was what is called "Kalitiran" simply because that’s the specific beef cut used. Butchie gave it a new treatment by using olive oil and adding mushrooms. They had stuffed bitter gourd (ampalaya) with ground pork, shrimps and carrots. Prawns kept their natural flavor, simply steamed and served with a salad of cubed tomatoes, julliened green mangos and bagoong. The day’s piece de resistance was bangus sinigang sa ayabas, with the perfectly blended flavors of the fruit and seasoning.
Then came the breads and pastries, all sold in the store below. Baskets came one after the other, we could hardly choose which to try, but we sampled most. Seldom seen biscuits these days were all there–Masa Podrida, the Filipino version of shortbread; Sampaquita, tiny melt-in-the-mouth cookies made of milk and eggs; San Nicolas, a biscuit introduced by the Augustinian Friars named after the patron saint of children; and to-die-for empanaditas, their popular pastry filled with yema-cashew. And happily, they have gorgoria (gulguria in Laguna), bite-sized dayap (lime) glazed fried bread fritters. Of the new collection, they have sans rival, sylvannas, petit fours, brownies, and many more.
We went to their kitchen, a massive hall with men and women assigned a particular bread/biscuit to make. There are no digital stoves, only the old-fashioned type. La Moderna has just completed its 60th year, a long way from when Pablo (Mang Ambo) and Sisang Narciso, pioneer entrepreneurs, established the bake shop in Sta Rita, transferring later to Guagua. While sticking to tradition in taste and flavor, the shop has grown and developed using modern technology to improve flavor and prolong shelf-life. They have bakers that have been with them for years and years. Manilans need not go to Guagua to get their products. They are available at 637 Wyoming, East Greenhills, and at the Saturday market in Salcedo Village. They can be reached at tel 724-8959 or fax 726-0288.
In the course of this visit, we met Amity Young, who is a sort of food broker. She does not actually prepare (cook) the products she sells. She sources them out, such as bread from La Moderna, and keeps an inventory ready for distribution. As orders are by bulk, we reckon, this may be a good opportunity for anybody to be a sub-distributor and make some money right at home. Her inventory is extensive, from siomai, to barbecue, pancit and even tempura and stuffed chicken, the latter filled with rice, meat and veggies, costs P450 each, with a cooked weight of about 1.3 kilos. Call her at 0917-468-8217.
As this was a food trip, we did have some stops on the way back. First at Susie’s for the famous tibok-tibok, then at Nathaniels on the Gapan-Olongapo highway in San Fernando. This place has become popular among Manilans for its Buco Pandan Salad (P140 for a small box, which could be good for four people), pancit and siomai, the latter in boxes of 10 and 20. But we found the staff a bit distant and distracted, and true to what we were told, they have some weird customer policies.