Calasiao Puto’s Sales Spike Last Yuletide

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

CALASIAO – A vendor of the renowned puto (steamed rice cake) Calasiao said that income daily of each of the stalls here spikes exponentially in December 24 last year to January 4 this year.

ORDINARY DAY. The stalls of the renowned steamed rice cake (puto) of Calasiao during an ordinary day. Last Christmas sales here were brisk as vacationers from Manila and other places bought the products that they brought back to their homes. MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

“We are earning P10, 000 to P15, 000 gross sale a day,” Lud Lamiste, a saleslady of Honoring Stall, said.

She cited that in an ordinary day sales of the famed sweet, moist and chewy crown sized rice cake is sluggish.
“We could sell only more than a thousand of pesos a day”.
This burgeoning town mayor Mark Roy Macanlalay said many patrons of the rice cake who were vacationers that came from the North particularly Baguio City made a side trip here.
 “Many of them before going home to Manila passed in our town after they brought the famous Bonuan Bangus in nearby Dagupan City,” he stressed.
He brushed off observations that with the opening of Tarlac-Pangasinan Express Way (TPLEX) motorists bound to the North would shun some routes like in Camiling, Tarlac that pass this town.
“For me the express way could help as it could speed up travel”.
The four lanes Private Infra Development Corporation’s owned TPLEX in Urdaneta City has been opened to the public for free from December 20 last year to January 20 this year.

Meanwhile, if the TPLEX bode well to puto vendors here, some restaurant owners in Barangay Carmen, Rosales mull to close shop.
A restaurant habitué named Herma told Northern Watch that the opening of TPLEX made business there lethargic.
“Some of the restaurants there used to have a gross of income of P20,000 a day”.
But with the opening of the express way daily revenue becomes nil, motorists no longer pass the highway in Rosales.
“From Panique (Tarlac province) going to Pangasinan there are no respectable eateries motorists could drop by, thus the restaurants in Carmen become a draw. But with TPLEX reaching Urdaneta City travellers no longer pass the town”.
A monstrous traffic snarl last December 26 frustrated many motorist there when they have to bear a vehicle’s gridlock in Sison, Pangasinan that made travel from Manila to Baguio City became a 12- hour grind.