Hidden Treasure: Emong's Malunggay Pandesal

On our first morning in Legazpi City, we woke up craving for hot pan de sal. The receptionist at Tanchuling Hotel where we were staying recommended Emong's Malunggay pandesal...so we walked for about 15 minutes, asked for directions for  3 times, until we reached the fork along the road of Rizal St. in Legazpi city and found a bakery with an incredibly long line!

Emong's Malunggay Hot Pan de Sal along Rizal Ave., Legazpi City, Albay

At 6:30am, this place had about 20 people waiting for their turn to buy those freshly baked malunggay pandesal.

Freshly baked Malunggay Pan de Sal

As we waited, the delicious aroma of baking bread made our tummy churn even more.
Finally, our turn came. the counter was manned by 2 ladies: one gets the cash, the other bags the pandesal. Another lady is tasked to take the baked breads out of the oven and replacing them with next batch of doughs. Inside, i could see about 6-7 bakers busy kneading the dough, cutting them, placing them in baking pans…I realized, for a store that only sells one product and operates 24 hours a day, this business must be really doing well…

When the bag of pandesal was handed over to us, we couldn’t wait any longer.  We got one each and bit through it --- ahh…now we got what the fuss was all about!

...crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, hot, fresh, and not quite anything like we’ve had before…this malunggay pandesal had us begging for more. We had to go back the next day to stock up for our trip to Donsol, Sorsogon. We even considered going back to this place before boarding the bus back to Manila the next day!!

Just how good they are? Everytime I hear someone planning to go to Bicol region, I ask if they'll pass by Legazpi City and if they could get me some of these.