#8 Lopez Jaena Street
Jaro, Iloilo City
+63 (33)329-0862 / +63 (33)329-0864
When K and I were traveling from the airport to Urban Inn in La Paz (where we stayed while in Iloilo), I noticed the Original Biscocho Haus outlet and immediately told myself I won't leave Iloilo without buying some pasalubong from there. A day before we left, K and I visited some churches, including the Jaro Cathedral. With the address of the main branch written in my little notebook, I asked some people at the Cathedral grounds how to get there. One security guard told us to just cross the plaza and we could see from there, so we walked.
The Original Biscocho Haus came to life in 1975 and was owned by the late Dr. Carlos Guadarrama and his wife Therese. The business was passed on to their children and for three decades of existence, the company has expanded and branched out to different locations. (Information sourced from HERE)
This being the main branch, it carried a whole lot of products, and I felt like a kid inside a toy store - all were good and I got "food struck" and had a difficult time which products to take. Their food items were placed in different cabinets and wall dividers - labeled for easy identification. One very minimal problem though was, they didn't place all the same products in one place; although they have segregated most products by name, seeing bags of biscocho in different cabinets made me a little confused if I already have it in the basket or not.
K sat in the bench while I shop, and in the end I got about 16 products in my basket. Sharing all 16 items in one blog post would be kilo-metric long, so I am going to divide it in 4 posts. That being said, my post for Food Friday this month will be about the products I took home from this pasalubong shop.
Biscocho (p48). Bread toasted with butter and lots of sugar. From what I know of, Biscocho is a by-product of left over bread (toasted before it goes stale), but this being a very well known product, I doubt if they use left over bread. It was very crunchy yet soft... very buttery and sweet; perfect for morning coffee. Of course, this could be a good snack item as well.
Biscocho Principe (p25 - 5 pieces per pack). This being a small pack made me place it in my basket. I was intrigued how it compared to the well known Biscocho, and giving it a taste, I realized this tasted more of toasted sponge cake. Think of toasted mamon, and you'd get the idea how it tasted.
Butterscotch (p48 - 10 pieces per pack). Before traveling to Iloilo, I have already searched about different food pasalubong from this part of the country, and this seemed to be the next popular item to the Biscocho. It was my first time to taste this food, and tasting it, I kinda regret not buying more bags of it. It was really good. Very chewy and a little sweet, I ate it after meal as my dessert.
Mango Butterscotch (p50 - 10 pieces per pack). It had bits of mango in it (possibly dried mango?), so this one had a little hint of tang, but still good like the original one. I actually prefer this one because it's not outright sweet. My siblings loved the other one, though. I guess I really don't have the sweet tooth.
Will continue with the line up of items next week.
*** Jenn ***
I come from a family who loves cooking and eating. I never had any formal training in cooking and that I taught myself how to cook based on the handed down recipes, but I could say that I can cook good food. In 2008, I started documenting my food trips for my