''Pan de regla'', also known as ''kalihim'', is a

Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...

bread Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour (usually wheat) and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cultures' diet. It is one of the oldest human-made f ...

with a characteristically bright red, magenta, or pink

bread pudding Bread pudding is a bread-based dessert popular in many countries' cuisines. It is made with stale bread and milk or cream, generally containing eggs, a form of fat such as oil, butter or suet and, depending on whether the pudding is sweet o ...

filling made from the torn pieces of stale bread mixed with milk, sugar, eggs, butter, and vanilla. It is known by a wide variety of local names, most of which are humorous. It is a common cheap bread sold in bakeries in the Philippines. It is usually eaten for ''

merienda Merienda is a light meal in southern Europe, particularly Spain (merenda in Galician, berenar in Catalan), Portugal (lanche or merenda) and Italy (merenda), as well as Hispanic America, Philippines (meryenda/merienda), North Africa (Morocco), ...

''.

Names

Most of the names of the bread are deliberately humorous and vulgar. Its most common name, ''pan de regla'', translates to "

menstrual The menstrual cycle is a series of natural changes in hormone production and the structures of the uterus and ovaries of the female reproductive system that make pregnancy possible. The ovarian cycle controls the production and release of eggs a ...

bread" due to its color and appearance. This is also referenced in other local names like ''alembong'' ("flirty"), ''bellas'' ("beautiful

omen An omen (also called ''portent'') is a phenomenon that is believed to foretell the future, often signifying the advent of change. It was commonly believed in ancient times, and still believed by some today, that omens bring divine messages fr ...

), ''ligaya'' ("happiness"), and ''pan de borikat'' ("prostitute's bread"). Its second most common name, ''kalihim'' ("secret"), is because the secret of the bread is that its filling is actually made from the previous day's unsold bread. This is also the source of the name "everlasting bread". Other more descriptive names include ''pan de pula'' ("red bread"), lipstick bread, floor

wax Waxes are a diverse class of organic compounds that are lipophilic, malleable solids near ambient temperatures. They include higher alkanes and lipids, typically with melting points above about 40 °C (104 °F), melting to giv ...

bread, or ''kabukiran'' ("farm

read Read Read may refer to: * Reading, human cognitive process of decoding symbols in order to construct or derive meaning * Read (automobile), an American car manufactured from 1913 to 1915 * Read (biology), an inferred sequence of base pairs of ...

Description

The defining characteristic of ''pan de regla'' is its filling, which is actually a

. It is made from torn pieces of stale bread mixed with milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla extract, and a bright red, magenta, or pink

food dye Food coloring, or color additive, is any dye, pigment, or substance that imparts color when it is added to food or drink. They come in many forms consisting of liquids, powders, gels, and pastes. Food coloring is used in both commercial food p ...

. The mixture is refrigerated for a few hours so that the bread absorbs the liquid. It is then cooked slowly in a pan while continually stirring until it achieves a chunky paste-like consistency. It is allowed to cool before being spread unto a thin sheet of dough which is then folded into a flattened cylinder. The cylinder is cut into sections and baked. Some variants of ''pan de regla'' do not use stale bread, but instead use flour to make the filling. The red dye can also be left out, resulting in the natural brown color. The process to make ''pan de regla'' can be easily adapted to make other types of breads with different fillings, including ''

pan de coco Pan de coco, literally "coconut bread" in Spanish, is a Filipino rich sweet roll that uses sweetened shredded coconut meat (''bukayo'') as filling. See also * Asado roll *Pandesal *Pan de monja Monay, also known as pan de monja, is a dens ...

'' and ''

pan de monggo Pan de monggo, also known as monggo bread, is a Filipino bread with a distinctive filling made from mung bean or adzuki bean paste. The bread used can come in a wide variety of shapes and recipes, ranging from buns, to ensaymada-like rolls, ...

''. It is also commonly adapted to make breads with fillings like ube,

buko pandan Buko salad, usually anglicized as young coconut salad, is a Filipino fruit salad dessert made from strips of fresh young coconut (''buko'') with sweetened milk or cream and various other ingredients. It is one of the most popular and ubiquitous F ...

, or pineapple. In these cases, the fillings are dyed different colors or are not dyed at all.

References

Breads Yeast breads Southeast Asian breads Philippine breads {{Filipino food