a bread affair

i had wheat bread and cream cheese spread this morning. with hot coffee at hand, i started my usual morning feeding ritual by smothering two slices with spread on one side each, slap them together, fold it to make a thick, rolled bundle, dunk it in coffee, tap it a few times to avoid dripping coffee all over the place, and devour the bundle in two bites. yum! if i have time i usually repeat the process twice or thrice, or more until i get stuffed or when the clock strikes 8:30am, whichever comes first.

i remember growing up watching my batangeuño father rip open a pandesal with a fork, stuff it with whatever's on the dining table (egg, fish, mango, peanut butter, etc) and do the whole coffee-dunking process. almost everyone in his clan does that, and so the habit was eventually picked up by all of us in the family.

i had my first experience of being ridiculed for my bread-eating habit in my freshman days at the university dormitory. my new visayan friends couldn't stop laughing at how i would dunk almost all kinds of bread in coffee, milk, or juice before popping them in my mouth. i guess oreo's milk-dipping commercial doesn't have much airtime back then.

when my girlfriend introduced me to hazelnut-chocolate spread some years ago, i got addicted to it but treated it like any other spread and ate bread with it like the way i do. that was until a friend showed me how to really enjoy it: spread a generous coat on one side of the sliced bread, balance it on your fingertips, and let the spread stick to the roof of your mouth when you bite into it. the sensation is somewhat heightened when you wash it down with coffee.

i just found hazelnut-milk spread and some bread in the office fridge. i'd like to try that one-slice-one-sided-spread approach, but my fingers can't balance so well -- and i believe that a bread will fall with the spread-side always facing down. ^_^