Salazar Bakery is one of the landmark bakeries in Ongpin, Philippine's Chinatown, mostly remembered by children of the fifties and sixties. I have been quite curious about this place for a long time now, having awakened a curiosity of how my mother's childhood must have been. I imagine her passing here on her way to and from school, riding a calesa (horse-drawn carriage of the local kind) and smelling the freshly baked goods.

Having to rely mainly on stories and hearsay for so long, I decided that it is finally time to visit the infamous place and somehow get in touch with my roots. As pictures do say so much more than words, I took as much photos as I could and clicked away to the embarassment of my companions. Enjoy!

Prepare for eye candy as we roam around the store's contents of different flavored cakes in loaves and individual slices, plus other sweet breads and pastries.




Boxes of ooey, gooey white and brown sugar Tikoy.


Rows of mostly imported packaged goods like jellies, seeds and cookies.


Pre-packaged Ma-Chang (Sticky rice triangles enveloping tasty meat, beans and mushrooms) and dimsum for one's convenient lunch or dinner.


Their FAMOUS, flaky-shelled hopia with original mongo, black mongo, pork, ube and lotus cream fillings. They come in small and regular sizes.


I left Salazar's with tons of heavy arm-weights of food and a much lighter, slimmer wallet. Strangely enough, I still had that spring in my step and a wistful, goofy smile on my face.

(Posted in the now dormant www.delightfulafters.blogspot.com last August 1, 2006)

With my continuous search for the quintessential butter cake, I have come across the several worse of the lot, but once in a while, I stumble upon a finalist. My weekends, as I can not say enough, are spent watching food--watching, playing, eating, nibbling, cooking and baking food. The latter is my number one pasttime.

As you will see below, I have had too much time this past weekend spent on thinking about food.

These are the light vanilla cupcakes I baked...


...which I topped with smooth strawberry buttercream in pastel pink and sprinkles, shavings or mini domes of white chocolate.





The flavors are sweet and subtle yet present, just like the pastel color combination, which I deem most appropriate for the 5th birthday of the little girl I gave a box of these to. :)

(Originally intended for June 1, 2007 posting.)

It's been put off for so long, but I finally reached the point where I really had to speak up for myself.

Unfortunately, I discovered nobody really listened or cared about what the difficulties I went through.

And so, I gave up optimism, waived the white flag and signed a piece of paper with a 30-day effectivity.

Hah!

This form of retreat has been the most gratifying experience. I felt like a ton of 'sama ng loob' lifted from my shoulders the moment I gave that paper to formally resign from my post.

It's liberating--a feeling I haven't felt for a long, long time.

If you still haven't felt it, let me say that I'm no-holding-back kind of happy at this point in time. :)

As I get a bit of personal time back, I have decided to go on and start a new journal to chronicle my thoughts once again.

I've truly missed blogging.