Romana’s sweet and nutty pleasure
It seems,
I am comfortably aware; a perfect metaphor for much of Mangaldan’s food
diversity. From meaty gracious to going nuts.
One of the
things I’m always looking at as I travel is the stories that are yet to
unfold. And if there’s a regular feature, a common thread wherever you
go, it’s that the best chronicles come from the most challenging backgrounds.
And it is without doubt that the greatest, most beloved, and iconic dishes in
the pantheon of gastronomy originated with the hard-pressed, hardworking
people—all of them began with the urgent need to make something good and
reasonably sustaining out of very little.
Romana De Vera is an example. She is the woman behind the peanut brittle enterprise, and from whose the brand name is used. In 1958, she made peanut brittle just for the family and friends but started cooking for a townful of hungry mouths when demands were realized.
Filipinos like
peanut brittle (sugar-coated legumes) that are hard to bite and addicting to
eat—my own childhood version of chocolate. Romana looks deceptively simple;
thick, rough chunks of brittle with large, whole peanuts that shatter easily, and
tastes awesome—it is buttery and caramelly at the same time, and the peanuts
definitely add that extra layer of greatness to the package.
Serving
consumers for the past 5 decades, Romana still maintains the same homemade
quality it was known for. The only choicest ingredients and meticulous
procedures are used and observed.
From peanut
brittle, they’ve also branched out to manufacture other Filipino treats which
now include peanut adobo, greaseless peanuts, homemade peanut butter, Spanish
chocolate, ube halaya, etc.
So when you
finally succumb to its temptation, and it’s unlikely about minutes later that
you realized you’ve already eaten half the container, do not worry. Because the
guilt you feel doesn’t take the edge off your enjoyment; it is just that good.
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