Sugar capital, indeed
The Good Life
Jul 25, 2011
With Calea in its new, beautiful house, the sugar rush in this sugar capital is up a few notches, further proving Bacolod’s supremacy in the sweets department.
Edible tourist attraction: Calea's chocolate cake. *
Together with Felicia’s which opened just three years ago, Calea should play an important part in positioning Bacolod as truly the sugar capital of the Philippines and even of Asia. Finally, sigh, we can talk sugar without having to talk quota, premix, or worse, kwartels and social justice. We can talk and eat, close your eyes and shiver at the goodness, of one of mankind’s enduring indulgences.
Cakes as tourism pulls, why not? I remember sometime back, a visiting cultural worker handcarried Calea’s imported chocolate cake, indeed sat it on his lap for most of the time, in the 18 hours that he journeyed from Bacolod to his home in upland Abra, taking plane, bus and tricycle. I also recall how, recently, a group of Manila visitors sat at Felicia’s and refused to leave until it was time to go to the airport. Instead of seeing the bandstand and other spots their host had prepared for that afternoon, they saw French Macaroons and Chocolate Rhum Cake and Ensaimada de Madrid.
Indeed, there are people in Manila who’d order our chicken inasal, lechon and cakes to be flown for their parties and this should be something our tourism department can look into: food, especially the ones carrying our cultural stamp, are very powerful tourism tools. Maybe give these businesses tax breaks?
Felicia's broke the scene with cakes in new design and size.*
People are looking for the namit and the lain gid ya, the delicious and the different, and we should cash in on that. Our inasal is one people outside of the province yearn for, although there are plenty of places offering it now in Manila. Our lechon is another. And while there are cakes and cakes in Manila, there is something in many of the offerings in Calea and Felicia’s that is different, so different in fact that it can qualify to be a tourism landmark, although it is edible.
Edible landmarks – that is one powerful peg for tourism many countries have been successfully playing with – sushi and sashimi in Japan, the succulent fruits, and even fried insects, in Thailand, the noodles in China, the spices in India . Many of the great cities of the world has something in their plates they have been selling to the rest of us. Bacolod can serve them cakes.
Calea, of course, has been a phenomenon, rising, I remember, from that little side store in a gas station to an icon in Bacolod’s culinary scene. In the two decades or more that Calea has been serving us cakes, there have been plenty of stories about the lengths to which people would go for its cakes. Those who want to see how popular their cakes are can go there on Dec. 23 and 30 and 31 and see the madness people have for cakes. I think it closes on the first few days of the year to give its people time to rest, the only business I know that does that.
Felicia’s on the other hand opened just three years ago to happy reviews, with Good Friend C, certified foodie, describing one its offerings thus: “This one has a soul!” Of course, Felicia’s was already offering the baked delights of the late Sony Cometa for many years now : fruit cakes, ensaymadas, pili bars and clusters, almondettes. Three years ago, it went full steam with other cakes and pastries and the rest, as they say, is history.
Interestingly, Calea and Felicia’s have their beginnings in family dining tables. They were built on strength of the Bacolenos’ love for food. The people behind them may have been sent to culinary schools or cooking classes but they began as members of food-loving families; their sense of taste and culinary styles honed by the everyday fare on their dining tables. In a sense, these eating places are but an extension of these family dining rooms where good food was served, meal after meal after meal.*
Calea: Premium Cakes and Pastries in Bacolod - Sugar capital, indeed
Originally Posted by monsky28
Reply With Quote
