We love bread. Let it be made clear, however, that bread is never a substitute for rice. Indeed, no one lives on bread alone. We also love soup, Filipino-style — tinola, sinigang, nilaga and what-have-you. But while we love to eat them both, we usually do not consume bread and soup together. They have to be separate, with one exception — the Soup and Bread Bowl at the French Baker.

The concept is, of course, far from original. Certain soup dishes in some high-end restaurants incorporate bread immersed in the soup. We lesser mortals have something of that sort, although less glamorous — bread dipped in coffee or milk. Want proof? Let’s see.

Common expressions originate from some practice. Take, for instance, the expression, “Walang matigas na tinapay sa mainit na kape” (literally, “no hard bread in hot coffee”). Every Filipino knows this figure of speech. There’s a movie of the same title. It means no matter how tough a cookie you are, you’re no match to some pretty hot coffee (say, your wife).

Got hooked on the first taste of French Baker’s soup-in-bread. We saw, while on an errand to buy some bread, someone happily digging inside the bread bowl, then observed, while standing in line waiting for our turn, the same person eating the bread bowl. How cool is that?

I mean, c’mon, there’s absolutely no dish to wash. You consume the soup. You consume the container of the soup. Perfect.

There could be a number of flavors available but we can’t say with certainty. Come to think of it, we never bothered to ask. We order the standard fare, Chicken and Corn. Throw in a Chicken Salad Croissant and we’re in business. A good conversation over some bread and soup, in a restaurant with warm lights.

French Baker could very well serve the bread bowl sans the portion of the bread carved out. Fortunately, they serve that portion as well, placed like a foam on the plate. The thick crust is golden brown, crispy. Makunat, which is lovely. Consuming it is like a journey through the various forms of matter: liquid in the middle, solid-absorbing liquid in the middle, crunchy solid crust. And the gas? Go figure it out.

Maybe we’re getting old. Or maybe we’re just sentimentalists who go back again and again to the good old comfort food. French Baker is not exactly the kind of place where the young gravitates (must be this reason, for we’re not exactly old). We’ve observed that most of the patrons belong to the older crowd (French Baker must be giving a lot of senior citizen discounts). But that’s ok because, as the saying goes, tatanda rin kayo (you, too, will grow old). When we do get old, we hope that the strong>Soup and Bread Bowl of French Baker will still be there. Tatanda rin tayo.