Some of my early childhood recollections are about buying rice cakes (puto) and sweet breads from vendors who sold their goods inside the military camp (Ft. William McKinley,now Ft. Bonifacio) where we used to live.
These forerunners of the food delivery guys we see nowadays really worked hard to make an honest living. Then, the cost of these snacktime treats were about 5 to 10 centavos each. But that was during the time when the dollar -peso exchange rate was P 1 = $2! So you could buy a lot already with 5 centavos!
Anyways, these vendors were the highlight of my day! I looked forward to hearing the bread vendor with his goose horn or the puto vendor with his familiar " Pu-tooo, kutsinta!" cry, as they announced their presence.
Since I didn't know anything about money yet, I think Mom just gave me coins to hand over to the vendors and they would ask me to choose what I liked and gave me what my money could buy! I guess because I was only 4 years old they were probably willing to give me a bargain for my money.
I don't see any bread vendors around anymore, but I was told that there are still puto vendors around.
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