CALEA DREAMING

Calea is Bacolod City's sweet-tooth haven!

Well, maybe not all people are born with a sweet tooth (or teeth :D) -- but I am. Born and raised in Negros, the sugar capital of the Philippines, I think my love for sweet foods is uncommon for people born in the province. Bacolod's sweet delicacies are just heavenly! Piaya and Barquillos of Bong-Bong's, Napoleones of Roli's and Pendy's, and the best of them all --- cakes and pastries of CALEA! *salivating :) 

A wide-array of Calea's mouth-watering cakes. (photo by thepoortraveler.net)

Calea's cakes are an old-time favorites in Bacolod and the best "pasalubong" and gift for your loved ones. I don't know how they make their cakes. They all just taste savory and gratifying. The simple looks of their cakes are already scrumptious that you can't easily decide which one to dive in. And once you take a taste of it, you can't help but look forward to eating the other ones on the chiller. :) What makes it more awesome, is their prices. Where can you find a slice of cake that tastes sooo yummy and yet is sold in not more than 100pesos? Only in Calea I guess. Their prices range from (depending on the cake flavor) 75-95 pesos ONLY.

But why am I dreaming of Calea cakes? Well, it's because I've already moved to Dubai last summer. And man! I'm telling you, before I left? I made sure I took a slice of Calea cake everyday. Their cheesecakes are just the best! Blueberry, fruity, white chocolate and oreo cheesecakes are my favorites. And not to mention their tiramisu, ice cream cakes like mud pie and the famous imported chocolate cake.

Well, it will take many years before I could get another slice of heaven, and yes, it definitely sucks! But to patch my cravings for the meantime, I will try to make my own blueberry cheesecake when I get all my ingredients.:D 

For those planning or taking a trip to Bacolod, (of course you cannot miss out our famous Chicken Inasal) don't ever miss taking your dessert in Calea. And oh! don't forget pairing it with a cup of coffee -- hot, cold or frozen, or try their granita (it comes in different flavors). Or else, your trip to Bacolod is incomplete.

I came across this write-up and I'd like to share it to you. It's about....well, what else? Calea cakes!:) (I don't know the author. He/She did not put his/her name.)

SWEET DEATH

At any minute, I could die.

They have me surrounded–hundreds of them. They pile on top of each other, standing like giants. Oh, like leviathans and behemoths of Bible times!

They stare down at me with pride as if waiting for certain victory, waiting for my inevitable surrender. I shake and tremble. Never have I seen so many of them at any one time.

I shake and tremble more–like when one gets a panic attack. You overbreathe, you sweat, you know the end is near.

All around me people are waiting in line. All around me and just like me, people have succumbed to the sweet temptation that brings them death. Yes, death by Chocolate, by Blueberry, by Mud Pie.

I am in Calea, the mecca of sweets in Bacolod. It’s the last day of 2009 and I’m here to pick up the Oreo Cheesecake I ordered weeks ago. I stare at skyscrapers of cake boxes like I would whenever I’m in Ayala Avenue in Makati.

“Oh, that pillar of cake boxes over there, that must be ‘The PBCom Tower’,” I say to myself while looking at the tallest pile of them all.

I overhear an elderly woman saying she came all the way from Iloilo just to experience the miracle of flavors here. Back in my mind I think: Ah yes, the final pilgrimage to the temple of sweets. She’s here to die.

True enough, we are all here ready to be bludgeoned by a mass of Sans Rival, smothered in caramel, and savagely slaughtered by sugar and all its relatives. I am convinced that if superb taste and quality could kill, Calea cakes would top the NBI’s Most Wanted list.

I pick up my box now.

Whew!

Inside this box is my killer.

It looks innocent and sweet if you look at it closely. But, yeah, most serial killers are like that, they say.

Well, if that’s what truly awaits me, guess I don’t have much of a choice. Sweet Death.