I LIKE bread. I used to have only sandwich, pastry or bread for breakfast. These days, though, I usually have a little pancit (most of the time Pancit Bihon or Pancit Miki-Bihon) with my sandwich because I need extra energy throughout the day to personally take care of my husband Raff, who has had a second stroke in June 2019 and is still confined to the bed. But, still, what completes my breakfast is the sandwich. It could be anything from peanut butter and jelly sandwich to tuna with Parmesan cheese sandwich.
But the higher purpose of having bread constantly in the house isn’t my sandwich. It is that bread is one of the important ingredients that go into my husband Raff’s tube feeding formula. So, more than a week ago, with Luzon thrust deep into the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) or lock-down, I biked around our subdivision in Cainta, Rizal, looking for loaf bread to buy but could not find any (Laguna had just announced the province’s own lock-down). I panicked. But good friend Bel Castro of Enderun Colleges came to the rescue. I met Bel several years back, on a trip to Singapore upon the invitation of Singapore Tourism Board (STB) Philippines to cover the vegetarian food scene in the Lion City. There were actually four of us journalists in the Singapore trip that time, but Bel and I were the only ones who had a vegetarian itinerary. We shared a tour guide, and our schedule of daily activities were exactly the same. By the time we left Singapore to head home to Manila, we were very good friends.
Anyway, Bel responded to “the shortage” of loaf bread in Cainta following the lock-down of Laguna, which is where the factory/commissary of a major bread manufacturer is located. She asked Chef Rae Aldrin Lim, her former student and founder of Conspire Bakery, to offer reprieve, and he gladly provided bread. All six huge loaves of freshly baked bread that provided more than what Raff’s tube feeding formula required. So, one morning, I decided to make Kani Sarada Sandwich using ingredients from the ref, including Chef Aldrin’s soft and delicious loaf bread. Had it for breakfast for two consecutive mornings, and it was pure bliss with every mouthful.
4 pcs. kani (crabsticks)
1 pc. small cucumber
1 pc. ripe mango
pinch of salt
2 pcs. Green Ice lettuce leaves
1/3 cup Japanese mayonnaise
4-6 slices loaf bread
1. Blanch kani in hot water for a minute or two. Fish out and shred.
2. Grate cucumber into strips. Drain.
3. Peel and slice mango into thin strips.
4. Season with a little salt.
5. Tear lettuce into small pieces and add to the kani, cucumber and mango.
6. Add Japanese mayonnaise and mix gently together.
7. Use as filling for two to three sandwiches or enjoy as a salad. Or simply layer kani, cucumber, mango and torn lettuce leaves on bread, pipe with Japanese mayonnaise, cover with another slice of bread, and enjoy.
