Otago Daily Times

Flavours of Philippine­s

Filipino couple Dan and Ana Valencia are on a mission to expand Kiwis’ knowledge of the sweet and savoury delicacies of their homeland and provide the desserts their fellow countrymen love at Christmas, they tell Rebecca Fox.

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IN the Philippine­s every neighbourh­ood has a panderia, or bakery, where people go daily for their bread and sweet or savoury treats.

It is what Dan and Ana Valencia hope to recreate in Dunedin.

‘‘It helps to bring us back home. When you eat fresh bread it is feeling like being back home,’’ Dan says.

‘‘It’s very nostalgic,’’ Ana says. Dan, a baker, has always wanted to open his own bakery and has been working towards that goal since he worked after school in a FrenchFili­pino bakery in the Philippine­s.

‘‘I started out in highend bakeries doing Filipino and European bread.’’

The Philippine­s has a strong baking culture, having been colonised by the Spanish under Magellan in the 1520s. It remained a colony until 1898 and many Spanish and Catholic customs and cuisines were adopted and adapted by Filipinos.

Christmas is an important season in the Philippine­s calendar starting from September when the ‘‘Ber’’ months (months ending in ‘‘ber’’) set in. They put up colourful lanterns or ‘‘parol’’ with colourful Christmas lights in homes, streets and businesses which symbolise the spirit of Christmas.

‘‘Children visit houses singing Christmas carols or known as ‘‘caroling’’ during Christmas seasons. They are using handmade tambourine­s, drums, guitars and other musical instrument­s and sing their hearts out in exchange for money or sometimes Christmas goodies.’’

Another tradition is attending nineday morning Masses or ‘‘Simbang Gabi’’ from

December 16, which begin at 4am.

‘‘Filipinos believe that your wish will come true once you completed the nineday Masses.’’

Christmas parties are organised by groups from schools, workplaces and even households, where people showcase their talents, play

Christmas games and exchange gifts.

Noche Buena is celebrated after the last Mass on Christmas Eve with family and friends going to their homes to wish each other a blessed Christmas.

‘‘Most households have festive Christmas foods on the table to celebrate what most Filipinos believed in as the birth of Christ.’’

Panderias can be found in most neighbourh­oods.

‘‘In the Philippine­s rice is the main thing but the second option is breads. Filipinos really love breads. If there is no rice we eat bread for breakfast, lunch, dinner or sometimes as a midnight snack — more carbs,’’ Dan says.

He remembers not wanting to miss school, as he would miss out on the bakery treats he got there.

One of those is the popular bakery item pandesal which literally means ‘‘bread of salt’’ and is simply made from flour, water, sugar and milk.

‘‘Most breads are a Spanish thing like pan de coco, coconut bread, or the empanada.’’

During Simbang Gabi traditiona­l Christmas delicacies are sold in the streets or outside churches.

‘‘They are sweet treats such as the Bibingka, a type of baked rice cake traditiona­lly cooked in a terracotta oven lined with banana leaves, and Puto Bumbong, a Filipino purple rice cake steamed in bamboo tubes.’’

One of the highlight foods on the Christmas table is desserts such cakes, leche flan, purple yam (ube halaya) and other Filipino delicacies.

A couple of years after graduating from college, Dan left the Philippine­s for the Maldives, a popular destinatio­n for young Filipinos to travel to for work.

‘‘We were living the lux life. The weather is similar to the Philippine­s.’’

He worked there for six years in resort kitchens and it is where he met Ana, who was working in sales and marketing for a resort. Each year they would save up their holidays and go back to the Philippine­s for a month.

‘‘It’s a busy place with all the tourists.’’

A friend living in New Zealand and working for an Italian restaurant in Dunedin recommende­d Dan as a pizza chef to his boss so they came here.

‘‘He told us New Zealand is a very good place. We like the life here, you can relax here.’’

A year later he was lured to Christchur­ch to work in a Filipino bakery but the idea of opening his own place was too great. They decided to return to Dunedin to do it as there was no other Filipino bakery they knew of.

‘‘My wife loves Dunedin.’’ Given his background in highend bakeries, Dan wanted to take that approach to his own bakery, combining it with traditiona­l Filipino recipes.

‘‘Local bakeries back home do it all by hand, mixing the dough. I’m doing a modern way of baking. I have a dough mixer, a machine to prove. Iuse modern technology, hightech equipment, even alone I can do a lot of stuff.’’

One of the key ingredient­s in Filipino baking is purple yam, which Dan buys in grated and frozen. It is a very versatile vegetable which Filipinos also use in savoury cooking.

‘‘It’s very popular in the Philippine­s. We are using it in desserts. Here we mix it in our breads and pastries.’’

The yam, a tuberous root vegetable indigenous to the Philippine­s is similar to kumara. It is boiled with milk and sugar if being used in sweet dishes and heated slowly for 1520 minutes, until it becomes sticky and sets when cooled. Then it is used as fillings in doughnuts or cakes.

Other traditiona­l breads Dan is making are ensaymada, a briochelik­e soft bun with cheese sprinkled on top, which is one of his favourites, and cheese bread, a denser, milkier bread topped with cheese.

‘‘It’s sweet and savoury mixed together. Once you start eating you need another one. One is not enough.’’

Aware that many of their offerings are new for Dunedin, they are also making more easily recognisab­le Kiwi favourites but with a twist. They make filled doughnuts with a purple yam mousse with white chocolate ganache on top and a mangocream filling with a Graham cracker. They also fill their ensaymada with salted caramel and the popular Asian red bean paste, as well as purple yam.

‘‘We like doing something different, unique. We still have lots to invent.’’

On the savoury side Dan has been making empanada, the Spanish version of a small meat or chicken pie, an easy to eat in the hands, filled pastry.

Ana’s contributi­on, other than being front of house, is making the leche flan, a creme caramel dessert made with egg yolks, milk and sugar and a purple yam latte.

‘‘In the culture in the Philippine­s, when all the family members get together it’s the leche flan they’re looking forward to after the main dish. Our mothers, grandmothe­rs made it traditiona­lly,’’ Ana says.

It became popular in the Philippine­s as it did not need to be cooked in an oven, which many people did not have, and it is cooked easily on the stove top.

‘‘Back home my grandma cooked it on a charcoal stove, you put the steamer on top. Everyone could do it,’’ Dan says.

To avoid wasting the egg whites from this dish, Dan turns it into meringues which he uses to decorate his purple yam and mango cakes.

‘‘I feel like when I am making the cake it is my resting time. I feel relaxed when making cake.’’

Once establishe­d they hope to hire staff to help out and believe their experience with workers themselves will ensure they become part of the family.

The reaction from customers so far has been positive and people are happy to try the different flavours.

‘‘It’s all new for them, so one by one, my wife is explaining to them so they get more familiar. Each bread has a story behind it. I’m very glad the community is embracing us.’’

As for them Christmas is about love, giving and celebratin­g the birth of Jesus Christ so to be able to share that through their Musselburg­h bakery is special to them.

‘‘As Filipino, we love food. We make sure that every Christmas there’s a feast to be shared not only with our family but also with the other people.’’

 ?? ?? Purple yam (ube halaya) is used to flavour many of the Valencia’s baked treats.
Purple yam (ube halaya) is used to flavour many of the Valencia’s baked treats.
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