Obamania: Pinoy cooks up Obama pandesal in LA
Obamania: Pinoy cooks up Obama pandesal in LA
PASCKIE PASCUA, Philippine News
City officials and Filipino community leaders formally launched the bread on Barack Obama's historic inauguration. AP photo
LOS ANGELES — Call it any way you want - gimmickry in enterprise or hilarious hard sell - but a businesswoman has concocted the "Obama Pan de Sal," her way of paying tribute to the first US President of color.
The Obama Pan de Sal is available in two kinds: the plain, bite-size rolls and the buns stuffed with chicken adobo, cream cheese, sweet peas, raisin and carrots. The bread is touted as being 100 percent whole wheat flour.
Top city officials and Filipino community leaders in San Diego formally launched the bread named after President Barack Obama last January 20, the same day of his historic inauguration.
Filipino baker Wilma Fernandez Ventura, 43, the self-proclaimed "apolitical" bread creator, told Philippine News that the Obama pandesal is their gift to the new president.
"This is our way of recognizing history. He is after all the first African-American President of the United States," Ventura said.
Ventura is the owner-manager of The Original Richard’s Bakery, a 20-year-old bakeshop, located at 3400 East Eighth Street in National City, south of San Diego. With a 20 percent Filipino population, this city has one of the biggest concentrations of Filipinos in America.
It appears that the top officials of National City and San Diego took the birthing of Obama Pan de Sal a serious matter. The bread was formally launched with Mayor Ron Morrison, Councilmember Frank Parra and Assistant Chief Cesar Solis, the highest-ranking Filipinos in the San Diego Police, in attendance.
Two media outfits – the regional television affiliate of MSNBC, Channel 7/39, and the San Diego Union-Tribune – had listed the Obama Pan de Sal launching in their events calendar.
"This product is not about division, it’s about diversity," the Philippine Village Voice-San Diego quoted Morrison right after he cut the ribbon to open the ceremonial box containing a dozen Obama Pan de Sal. Later in the ceremony, Ventura distributed them to guests.
So how are sales so far?
"A lot of people are talking about it—from as far as Chicago and New York to England!" says Ventura. She has taken orders from those places since the first story about her wonder bread hit the Internet.
Usually eaten during breakfast, pan de sal is the most popular yeast-raised bread in the Philippines. It is a rounded bread made of flour, eggs, lard, yeast, sugar, and salt. Some pan de sals come plain, others have meat and vegetable stuffing.
The taste and texture closely resemble those of the very popular rolls of the Dominican Republic called Pan de Agua and Mexico’s most popular type of bread Bolillos. These breads all use a lean type of dough and follow similar techniques that were learned from Spanish or Spanish trained bakers early in their history.
(The Original Richard’s Bakery is located at Nordan Plaza, 3400 E. Eighth St., Suite 114, National City, CA. 91950, beside the popular Conching’s restaurant. It can be reached by phone at 619.472.1530 or by email at richardsbakery@yahoo.com) - Philippine News
PASCKIE PASCUA, Philippine News
City officials and Filipino community leaders formally launched the bread on Barack Obama's historic inauguration. AP photo
LOS ANGELES — Call it any way you want - gimmickry in enterprise or hilarious hard sell - but a businesswoman has concocted the "Obama Pan de Sal," her way of paying tribute to the first US President of color.
The Obama Pan de Sal is available in two kinds: the plain, bite-size rolls and the buns stuffed with chicken adobo, cream cheese, sweet peas, raisin and carrots. The bread is touted as being 100 percent whole wheat flour.
Top city officials and Filipino community leaders in San Diego formally launched the bread named after President Barack Obama last January 20, the same day of his historic inauguration.
Filipino baker Wilma Fernandez Ventura, 43, the self-proclaimed "apolitical" bread creator, told Philippine News that the Obama pandesal is their gift to the new president.
"This is our way of recognizing history. He is after all the first African-American President of the United States," Ventura said.
Ventura is the owner-manager of The Original Richard’s Bakery, a 20-year-old bakeshop, located at 3400 East Eighth Street in National City, south of San Diego. With a 20 percent Filipino population, this city has one of the biggest concentrations of Filipinos in America.
It appears that the top officials of National City and San Diego took the birthing of Obama Pan de Sal a serious matter. The bread was formally launched with Mayor Ron Morrison, Councilmember Frank Parra and Assistant Chief Cesar Solis, the highest-ranking Filipinos in the San Diego Police, in attendance.
Two media outfits – the regional television affiliate of MSNBC, Channel 7/39, and the San Diego Union-Tribune – had listed the Obama Pan de Sal launching in their events calendar.
"This product is not about division, it’s about diversity," the Philippine Village Voice-San Diego quoted Morrison right after he cut the ribbon to open the ceremonial box containing a dozen Obama Pan de Sal. Later in the ceremony, Ventura distributed them to guests.
So how are sales so far?
"A lot of people are talking about it—from as far as Chicago and New York to England!" says Ventura. She has taken orders from those places since the first story about her wonder bread hit the Internet.
Usually eaten during breakfast, pan de sal is the most popular yeast-raised bread in the Philippines. It is a rounded bread made of flour, eggs, lard, yeast, sugar, and salt. Some pan de sals come plain, others have meat and vegetable stuffing.
The taste and texture closely resemble those of the very popular rolls of the Dominican Republic called Pan de Agua and Mexico’s most popular type of bread Bolillos. These breads all use a lean type of dough and follow similar techniques that were learned from Spanish or Spanish trained bakers early in their history.
(The Original Richard’s Bakery is located at Nordan Plaza, 3400 E. Eighth St., Suite 114, National City, CA. 91950, beside the popular Conching’s restaurant. It can be reached by phone at 619.472.1530 or by email at richardsbakery@yahoo.com) - Philippine News
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