Shadow

Of breads and pastries

I’ve heard of V&W pastries before from my sister in Manila who asked me to bring her some on one of my trips there.

She was insisting it was from Bacolod as the friend who made her try it said it was gifted by someone from here. Of course, I never brought her any as I had no idea what she was talking about until last Thursday when my friend, Minnie Chua, invited us to have lunch there.

Truth is, Minnie invited Anne Tiongco and Cathy de Mesa, VMC colleagues who are based in Manila but who were in town for the week. Anne then invited me, so in effect I was really a lunch crasher who had a good time with old friends, especially Cathy whom I had not seen since the pandemic lockdown.

Victoria Zayco and William Espina of V&W.*

We had a nice time playing catch-up to talk about Minnie’s retirement as president of VMC and Anne’s recent trip to Paris, as well as what keeps us all busy nowadays.

Anne Tiongco, Cathy de Mesa, Minnie Chua and me (l-r)*

V&W was the perfect place to be with friends as it is just a small joint with a table good for five people who would have to make reservations to dine in. Yet, the place was quite busy as customers, including Grab drivers, come and go to pick up their boxes of pastries.

V&W stands for Vanessa Zayco and William Espina (no relation to me), co-owners of the establishment. Their dine-in experience offering was just an added extra as their main business was breads and pastries. They are known for their melts-in-your-mouth ensaymada, the cheese rolls, their strawberry cheesecake and a friend told me, one of their best sellers is their carrot cake.

Minnie was already there when we arrived and had ordered a kettle of hot chocolate with churros on the side. It was just heavenly! It was so thick yet it dis not have the bitterness of chocolate nor the creaminess of milk and it was not that sweetened so dipping churros coated with sugar was just a perfect mix.

We practically ordered everything from the menu as there were just seven items listed and they were all heavenly.

The eggs benedict were cooked to perfection and the yolk just oozed out as you sliced through it. I learned that’s how you test perfect eggs benedict that way from watching all those cooking competitions on Netflix.

You can have the option of eggs benedict served with salmon or with bacon on top of V&W English muffins and both are delicious but I prefer the salmon better as the saltiness just mixed well with the rest of the sauce.

Their freshly baked sourdough Panini with various cheeses and pastrami was also great and though we even shared the order, by the time we were done, it was literally food coma. So before leaving the place, we had to order the recommended vanilla beans coffee to awaken us from the stupor of filled and satisfied tummies.

It makes you wish that Vanessa and William would seriously think of expanding their dine-in offering as their food are a must-taste experience.*

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