Nowadays, the winning prize in a main event bout has costs a fortune. We are talking of million of dollars, baby! I can’t even begin to think how P1 million looks like in bricks especially if its in US dollars lest when converted into Philippine pesos. There is something I can think of clearly, however, and it is bread.
If this blog of mine reeks of stale frothy lager ale charge it to my weekly schedule. LOL. That won’t stop me from writing about how Cebu has immortalized some boxing icons with bread named after them.
You may not know that the bread you daily dip into your coffee, no cream, please, is a “boxer.”
Most bakeries of today sell a type of bread known as Elorde, named after boxer Gabriel “Flash” Elorde. He is as Cebuano as corn and as Bisaya as Cebu Island’s southern city of Bogo where he hails from.
My mum got my name Girlie from the name Gabriel as he was the popular boxing champ who happened to live within the neighbourhood of Laloma before. Not only that, Flash Elorde is one of two baptismal godfathers of mine whom the other one is the late cycling champ- Jose Sumalde.
Elorde resembles two stylized fists that you can cleanly split to share it with a friend or sibling.
With this bread, it is like having two pieces for the value of one. In the light of our shrinking economy, Elorde is ahead of its time and has weathered the rising and falling (no pun intended) of flour prices.
The bread has a solid texture and slightly brown crust. It is especially pleasant while still warm and spread with butter. It deals a whacking left straight. This is why it is very popular next to pan de sal in staving off hunger. This is my favourite as it doesnt leave bread crumba unlikw the national bread which is the pandesal.
According to one of my late uncles, there used to be a kind of bread called Pancho, not named after the bandit but a boxer.
“It was named after the first great Filipino boxer Pancho Villa. I haven’t seen this bread on display stands in our bakeries today.”
He said Villa (true name, Francisco Guilledo) won the world flyweight boxing championship in 1923 and was “named as the greatest Asian fighter in boxing history. What a feat.”
Like Elorde, who was a chain smoker, Villa also failed to take care of his health. The latter died of a throat infection caused by an ulcerated tooth.
Whereas Elorde died at the age of 49 because of lung cancer, Villa died at 24 on July 14, 1925.
Bothered that the iconic Pancho bread will be forgotten, I asked my uncle: “Did it go the way of the dinosaurs? No one really knows what happened to the mighty bread?”
Uncle Gustav replied, “Pancho was popular in the late 1930s or maybe ‘50s. Maybe its disappearance was caused by the Filipino’s short memory.
“Elorde, being the newer concept, beat Pancho where longevity is concerned—by split decision from those who eat bread.”
I told my uncle that there’s a new type of bread that’s called Pacman in honor of The People’s Champ.
Bakers knead the dough into stylized paws, all lefty like its namesake.
Lately, I saw one bakery selling Pacman that looked like a roll with three grooves. Another bakeshop created its version: a hand proffered in a handshake after a well-fought battle in the boxing ring.
The bread has the knock out power to floor hunger, and people are starting to buy it even if it looks different from one bakery to another.
It is pretty confusing right now.
No one can forecast whether Pacman will endure or disappear due to poor image unless bakeries will finally decide to come up with a product having a uniform look, taste and texture.
The look has to be worthy of the talented Pacquiao who has beaten other prizefighters, and has proven that with humility and a good coach, former boxer Freddie Roach, he can stay on top.
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