In my most recent article, I mentioned about going back to featuring food and dining in a series since the Peñafrancia draws near. Fiesta is always synonymous to fun and food. Though breads and cakes may not be considered as staples for fiestas, they have already been part of the Filipino (including the Bikolanos) food list. Especially with bread which is considered to be of western origin, it has been there as either for breakfast or merienda. For breakfast alone, even if we still have our rice or fried rice, we still make it a point to have some bread on the table. Even the national government has made the pan de sal’s price as a barometer for the average Filipino’s purchasing power. Cakes, on the other hand, have always become a part of celebrations. From birthdays to weddings, or as desserts and as something to go with coffee, cakes have a special place in the palate and hearts of the Filipinos. For the rapidly urbanizing Nagueño and Bikolano, breads and cakes are food items they cannot live without. As the pace of life becomes faster and faster, the typical panaderia which used to open only in the mornings, has changed its business hours to include the whole day, offering particular types of breads and variants in the afternoons and early evenings. Before, you only get to visit the cake maker to place orders for cakes on special occasions; now you can easily get one in varying styles and flavors either as gifts or as part of the food prepared for the celebration. In my first article for this paper, I mentioned about Naga’s changing social scene and how the booming businesses like malls and shopping center contribute to what sociologists call from Gemeinschaft to Gesellschaft.
And one recently opened business establishment that contributes to this is Nagaland E-Mall. Until the present, a lot of shoppers find the escalator and elevator rides some sort of amazement. And then, there is the growing group of people who are becoming a part of the newly-coined word “mallers” or the aficionados of going to the mall for pastime or just having the habit of “malling” to complete their days.
Last year, only the first two floors of Nagaland E-mall were opened to the public. With a few food, product, and service stores opened to answer the buying and shopping needs of its customers, the mall wasted no time, effort (and money) to complete its line of offerings for the Naguneños and Bikolanos. Now, a little more than year since it opened, the third floor is in full use with a recently added Department Store, and the fourth floor almost nears full occupancy with an extended area for the department store showcasing its home furniture and fixtures, otherwise known as Homeland.
Over the weekend, another feature or attraction was added to the mall. This time, a new bakery opened at Nagaland E-Mall offering new choices when it comes to bread and cakes. Called as Bread Stop, this bakery has for its product lines the following: croissant (from plain to chocolate and with stuffings like ham, cheese, ham and cheese; and bacon), muffins (blueberry, strawberry, choco, and corn), Danish (blueberry, peach cream, choco dips, and cinnamon), pies or turn overs (chicken, tuna, and beef), bread rolls (almond-topped raisin, asado, and crusty), buns (chocolate, chicken, raisin cross), bread varieties (raisin, monay, pan de ciosa, tutti frutti, Japanese salad bread, Hawaiian delight, Sweddish tea ring, Taiwanese style, milky way, walnut struessel, butter scotch cinnamon, and pineapple struddel.
Aside from breads, it also has cookies (oatmeal, and choco chips), cupcakes (choco, and cheese), brownies, rocky road bar, ensaymada (regular, special, macapuno, and ube); and cakes (black forest, French chocolate, rocky road, carrot, chocolate mousse, chocolate gatue, crema de fruta, almond torte, chocolate surprise, mocha butter cream, ube roll, chocolate roll and mocha roll).“It’s a way of completing the product and service line of the mall, especially when it comes to food and dining,” says Catherine Enrile, Managing Director for Operations of Nagaland Development Corporation, the company behind Nagaland E-mall, Nagaland Hotel and its many other subsidiaries. Even she herself has to earn culinary arts degree from a number of schools in Manila like the Asian Baking Institute. But knowing that young as she is in running a mall, a café, a fastfood (Sizzling Republic) and this new bakery Bread Stop, Cathy recognizes the need for consultants which she gathers from around the country and even from those outside the country. She has consulted with a few experts from Bacolod, Davao and many other places including the ones in Manila. It was mentioned during the blessing and inauguration of Nagaland E-Mall that they had consulted on mall construction and management with experts from other countries in Asia.Going back to the new bakery, it opens and closes following the operations hours of the mall. When asked about the “identity” that it wants for Nagaland Bread Stop, Cathy says she wants it to be known as a “specialty” bakery. This she made sure by offering some choices and variants that no other bakery, at least in Naga, would have. And of course, she wants it to be known as “affordable.” Cathy also emphasized about taking into consideration not just what is called the “art of bread making or baking,” but also the “science” part of it. This she meant by focusing on the ingredients being used for the breads and cakes which she mentions to be of “imported quality.” Also part of this is paying attention to the “shelf life” of the bread, considering both the need to refrigerate it or not. Customers are also given full access to choosing their breads and cakes, and put them on individually issued trays and tongs, making it more hands-on and quite a delightful experience. One can say that with this new bakery around, a whole new experience of flavors or tastes, of discovering ways of eating bread, cakes and others is being offered to the new and emerging Nagueño and Bikolano of the post millennium.
As I usually do with my other articles, allow me to invite you to try what Bread Stop offers. Buy and eat some breads and cakes. Enjoy.