First: thanks to Marvs for the topic of today’s entry.

Second: If you’re kind of squeamish, feel free to skip this entry.

So today my boss brought some bread from the nearby bakery for us at work. He lives in Marikina, and there’s an abundance of bakeries where they live. He even used to bring us this gigantic pan de sal that looked like the kind of bread that Jesus and his disciples ate back in Jerusalem. Seriously. One time when he brings one again I’ll take a picture.

So anyway, he bought us this bread:

I know everyone who grew up in the 90’s or 80’s (or even earlier) knows this bread. I’m sure you’ve seen this at one point at your small bakeries, and has eaten them at some point, too.

Anyway (again), my boss brought some of this earlier at the request of Earl (I think) and that got all of us munching happily on the bread. I wondered if the red part has some flavor, and apparently there was, but because I’m not much of a cook, I can’t explain that.

But that’s not the point. The point was, at some point during the afternoon, some of us got wondering what this bread was called. I knew it was called something weird, true to the Pinoy style, but I couldn’t remember what it is. Apparently, my teammate Grace knows, but she was keeping mum because it’s really not someone with a queasy stomach would want to know.

Then I asked Marvs and Cors, who I was chatting with earlier, and then Marvs gave me the answer:

Pan de regla.

To those who don’t know what regla means (and again, I warn those people who have queasy stomachs, because you may be grossed out after this), it’s menstrual blood. As in period (hence the title of the post, in case you didn’t get it). To quote (from the source of the photo):

Why Pan de Regla, you asked? Look closely. Red coloring right smack in the middle of bread that looks like a female sanitary napkin.

Trust Filipinos to have a weird sense of humor and call it like this. The real name of this bread is kalihim (loose translation: secretary). The bread is sweet and the red part is moist and sweet, almost like monggo, but not quite (told you I’m bad with flavors).

…I just realized my choice of words may not be right.

Oh. I think that’s the reason why I’ve been wanting to throw up ever since this afternoon. :-& Ugh.

But don’t get me wrong, this bread is good. Classic Pinoy afternoon snack, up in the line of spanish bread (yum yum). But I think I’ll try to forget the name of this one the next time I eat it. Maybe I dwelt on it too much.

11/30.