Pavino's Bakery, a local, long standing panaderia in Lucban makes the best local cookies and breads this side of Mount Banahaw. I have been ordering Pavino's specialties for many years and made sure I dropped by on my last visit to Lucban.
While broas (ladyfingers) is the specialty of the house, I much prefer Pavino's other cookies most specially their very thin and crisp apas -- golden brown, sugary and utterly addictive.
The camachile cookies, shaped like the camachile fruit, are also very good and have a slight buttery taste. Pavino's sells these cookies -- the broas, apas and camachile in both plastic packs and tin cans.
All the baking is done on-site, right behind the storefront. There are trays of fresh baked bread and cookies that give off a maddeningly delicious aroma.
I am wracked with indecision as I view the variety of breads and pastries lined up on the counter -- ensaimada, cheese rolls, butter cake slices, brownies, native rice cakes like espasol, puto ... I want to buy everything I see!
In the end, I stock up on packs of pinagong, a Quezon specialty. This bread is so called because its shape mimics a turtle's shell. Pinagong is a dense, compact type of egg bread that's rather heavy but utterly divine. Heated in the toaster oven and slathered with butter, it makes for a filling breakfast treat.
Pavino's and I go a long way back. For more than fifteen years, they have been the source of Christmas gifts that I give to just about everyone ... friends, family, officemates, clients, suppliers, neighbours, etc.
I always order their apas -- those thin, crisp, sugar dusted cookies. They come in gallon tin cans which Pavino's wraps in colourful Christmas wrappers.
Maligayang aPasko ... salamat sa Pavino's!
Thank you for sharing this very informative and entertaining content. Hope you could visit our breakfast bakery in the future 🙂
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