Good Morning, Pan de sal!

One early morning in Palo, Leyte, last week, me and my friend Sidney Snoeck went to look out for a Pan de Sal, that famous Pinoy bread that we Filipinos have used to eat for breakfast. We didn't know anyone in Palo, so we were complete strangers here. But I tell you, it was the very first time I saw a tall Belgian look for a pan de sal one very early in the morning in a remote village in Leyte! However, a bakery was nowhere to be found anywhere near.

By a stroke of good chance, we found a man on the road holding a small plastic bag of pan de sal. So Sidney--who neither speak Tagalog nor Visayan-- said "Good Morning!", and then asked the man in English where he bought his pan de sal.

The man smiled and said "Good Morning!"

Sidney smiled too, and realizing that the man must have misunderstood him, asked again--this time pointing to the bag of pan de sal-- "Your pan de sal...where did you buy it?"

The man again replied: "Good Morning!"

Exasperated because of the communication gap, Sidney turned to me and said "He doesn't understand me! Dennis, can you ask him where he bought the pan de sal?"

So I asked the poor guy in Visayan: "Haen nimo pila ang imo nga pan de sal?"

"Good Morning!", said the man again.

Sidney smiled, rolled his eyes, and shrugged his shoulders... but now I get the idea...

The man indeed, actually bought his pan de sal in....Good Morning Bakery, just a few hundred meters from where Sidney and I were standing.