There is bread and there is Gng. Bukid bread. The former has a list of ingredients nobody can pronounce, let alone know what each one means and does to the body, while the latter is all-natural, preservative-free, with little to no-sugar, homemade goodness. Gng. Bukid’s artisanal breads are what breads should be, in composition, taste, texture and looks.

What’s in a name, you say? Gng. Bukid (read as Ginang Bukid, country missus) “alludes to the dalagang bukid (young lass) series of paintings by national artist Fernando Amorsolo” which exhibits dalagang bukid working in the field. Dalagang Bukid Food Enterprise is the name of the mother company of Gng. Bukid.

Gng. Bukid started out of Sir Mike’s family kitchen and moved to Salcedo Saturday Market in 2004. For 12 years, Gng. Bukid has churned out thousands of high-quality and healthful products that appeal to the taste buds of the weekend market crowds, in Salcedo and in Sidcor Sunday Market.

Sir Mike or Ginoong Bukid, in his MAD Against Drugs shirt and plastic apron, ponytailed long gray hair and amiable personality, explained that Gng. Bukid’s thrust is to introduce good food to the Filipinos, food that is not laden with preservatives and God-knows-what, to encourage us to eat better.

Looking at the products on display in the stall manned by Sir Mike himself, descriptions like, “no fat, no sugar, no dairy”, “handmade”, “no sugar and no chemicals added” are predominant. One will expect that all-natural bread will not look as appetizing as the mass-produced ones, but they do. They actually look more mouth-watering than the ones in bakeshops with fancy names. Sir Mike admitted that Gng. Bukid products are pricier than most, but every morsel is worth every centavo the customer shells out.

In college, there was a food stall inside the campus called “Food for Thought”, Gng. Bukid’s products should be called “Food for the Soul”.

Sir Mike and I talked for a while and covered food, politics, Filipino culture, Metro Manila traffic and OFWs (Overseas Filipino Workers). It was an enlightening morning to say the least.

Contact Dalagang Bukid Food Enterprise through:

Phone: (02) 847-1113 / Mobile: 0916-2860900 / Email: gngbukid@gmail.com / Facebook: facebook.com/gngbukid

You can also visit ginangbukid.blogspot.com, for more information.