Excelente Ham, C. Palanca St. (Echague), Quiapo

A screeching halt. Worse yet, fingernails on a blackboard. How could fond memories of childhood ham be so different from the current reality? Have my taste buds changed? Did they change their recipe or ingredients? Was it a bad food day? I’m not sure what the problem was, but I would say that being “underwhelmed” is an overstatement. I was on C. Palanca (formerly Echague) Street today, near the Quiapo market and Ils de Tul (Ilalim ng Tulay) looking for plates for the restaurants and noticed that the ham purveyors of old were just across the street. A few vendors seemed to have closed for business for good (though their signs were still there) and only Excelente Hams were open for business. After a few hours of picking out plates and glasses, I crossed the street and entered the large Excelente store, devoid of any customers whatsoever, and for some reason was transported back some 40 years or so. It just had that 1950’s or is it earlier feel to it. And I figured that anything that had lasted so long must have pretty good stuff…

My first question was did they have bone-in ham that they would slice by the kilo. The saleslady just looked at me funny, and said they didn’t have bone-in ham. Huh? Is that right? Instead, there were lots of boneless little hams probably 1.5-2.0 kilos in weight. I perused the offerings and zeroed in on some sliced ham, with pineapple marinade/sauce, the classic sliced ham that they sell to this day… Worried that it looked a bit like death warmed over, I decided to buy just 1/4 kilo worth. Next, I purchased some ham scraps (for fried rice) and while these had a deeper, richer color, they too looked an odd shade of red-gray.

Other trays on display out in the open held mixtures of little hotdogs and scraps of ham and bacon, a kind of nitrate melange, if you will. :)

But looks can be deceiving, no? So I hoped taste would trump looks when I got back home.

Back at home, plated nicely, I took this photo of the sliced ham with pineapple sauce. I tasted a large piece and immediately thought of slightly moist shoe leather. Not quite so tough, but clearly not so pliable either. It had no distinct flavor. It was neither too sweet, nor salty nor pineapple-y. It was really quite the non-event. I couldn’t believe it. At PHP700 a kilo (up to PHP1,000 for other types of hams), this was less appealing than even say a supermarket pre-seasoned tocino. How odd is that? How can a Chinese ham with such a good and long reputation be so non-descript? It’s almost as if the hams were washed. I know they weren’t, but that’s what they tasted like to me.

Next, I tasted the scraps, which indeed had better color and flavor, but it still was totally unremarkable. Hams are normally PACKED with flavor, and this just wasn’t doing it for me.

At the store, I spied bags of ham skin chicharon iand purchased one, thinking the idea was brilliant, and the flavor from the typically intense ham rind might make a brilliant chicharon. Back at home, it photographed well, was a dark golden to black color, with a very light texture. I braced for the flavor punch, but instead thought a big fat huh? They were blander that the pale chicharon you can buy in malls these days.

I’d like to think that bright side means they may not use any MSG whatsoever, but I still think the most glaring problem was the complete lack of character, depth and complexity of flavor of the hams. I have purchased local Majestic hams often over the years, and I am always on the lookout for their bones, which they sell separately, and I think the comparison between the two brands of ham is like night and day. Night and day. This is how Majestic describes their hams on their website “traditionally cured in oak barrels, smoked in aromatic wood, aged for full flavor and cooked in selected spices” and that seems to jive with the product they sell. I wonder how Excelente would describe their process. Please tell me I went to the wrong Excelente store, that this is their discount, shortcut outlet, that they hide superb hams elsewhere on the archipelago. Because, yipes, these were not worth the whopping PHP700-1,000 per kilo price tag!

P.S., I suspect that this store must make 70+% of its annual sales in the weeks running up to Christmas, and that many sales are of small 1-1.5 kilo boneless hams. And maybe during the holidays they do make bone-in ham. But they didn’t have any today. Yup, just confirmed by googling videos that they do have bone-in ham during the holidays, and the shop is crazed in the weeks before Christmas, but I suspect the rest of the year things are pretty quiet.

Excelente Ham, Inc
155-157 Carlos Palanca Sr. Street
Quiapo, Metro-Manila
733-6355 and 733-6360

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Marketman

Marketman is a well-traveled management consultant who loves buying, cooking and eating good food. Read more »

65 Responses

  2. Looks like dodgy ham to me; tsk, tsk, Inang used to buy from Excelente, too. She made sopas with the bone and it was really nice…My father’s favourite hammy joint was Adelina’s in Kalentong. I used to walk past their store everyday on my way to and from work and they really had the hams hanging in their store. There were times I couldn’t resist buying a couple of slices just to reminisce the Christmas days with a whole lovely ham.

  3. I agree with you MM, across the street is the store of johnny tan. Sin Kian Heng emporium they have good deals there and its almost a one stop shop for resto supplies. i tell you its better to buy it there than go to special item stores in divisoria which sells idividual items like cake pans, etc…

  4. ils de tul… LOL! i love majestic ham, have never tried excelente. i will probably not drag myself to their branch after reading this post.

  5. I have been a student in the Belt for the last ten years and you should see the throng in Excellente come the holidays. I think thats the only time when they bring out the bone-in hams, fresh, trays and trays of porcine legs. I think the quality would be different too come that time. But during normal days, production i think is at its barest, so the quality suffers too.

    I have bought a pack of that “ham chicharron” thinking hey why haven’t we smoked chicharron before? My bites answered me right away. I think the fat has been rendered off the skin while roasting making it completely dry as a chicharron. What do you think? That would make a wicked addition to ginisang monggo if it worked.

  7. That melange of hot dogs and sliced ham just looks vile. Is it for human consumption? Why would they mix hot dogs and ham in a big pile like that?

  8. i often here this store from my mother whose father (my lolo) used to buy scraps of ham when they were still young.

    i thought of buying some during last christmas but i held back because it’s pricey.

    it’s a good thing i read about your comment. it’s a fair warning for me :)

  9. chrisb, hahaha, I knew someone would pick up on that observation. Frankly, I am not sure what it’s meant for, maybe breakfast fare? I know I couldn’t feed that to our labrador, the food coloring and nitrates would be a problem for her… But then again, to be fair, I didn’t taste the the melange, so I cannot speak with certainty. :)

  13. I guess you’re right. It might taste good, who knows? It just looks so wrong hahaha

  15. James ham, white bread from D’Bakers and mayonnaise is the perfect Bacolod ham sandwich.

  16. Childhood memories are deceiving, well at least it seems that way about food. My husband always raves about his childhood faves, but when we do get to eat them at the on-site place he seems to recall that “mas masarap noon” bakit kaya? I tell him that between then and now his palate has grown up and matured. So what tastes good then may still taste good to others, but HIS tastebuds remember otherwise…

  17. “How could fond memories of childhood ham be so different from the current reality?” The same way organic creatures degenerate, gradually over time. Happened to ensaimada and pan de sal and it will happen to any product in the hands of merchants who only care about profit abetted by a clientele whose only consideration is low price. Sad thing is, the young adopt to it and form their food memory based on it. That’s how certain treats come to mean different things to individuals. Yet more pig parts fertile for experimentation, MM.

    Another product I really long for that I use to pick up around that area was pata-jamon. Deboned pigs legs, stuffed with more pork, cured, aged and retailed thinly sliced over ribbons of green papaya.

  18. @MM and chrisb, the melange of hot dogs and hams makes sense, at least, here in the Nordic countries because we have a breakfast fare called pytt i panne; sort of bubble and squeak but in hodgepodge form. We can buy cut offs from salamis and hams here, too, but they are packed separately.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyttipanna

  19. Footloose: Ambos Mundos (with 2 fat black boars guarding the restaurant) in Sta. Cruz, Manila still has pata jamon with agre dulce and papaya ribbons. My mother says that was the ‘sinaluma’ style when she was young.

  20. is James ham still operating?? My mom used to order a leg in from them in October, and it never lasts until New Year with us…I loved its super saltiness with plain bread…

  21. @lee: that i totally concur…. especially when the ham is nearly charred (tigi), +scrambled eggs +bakers bread +mayo = will turn out a most delicious croque Negrense,,,

  22. hmmm…. had a similar situation with baby food, I remember waxing poetics about any kind of gerber products because it was one of my favorites as a kid (say about 1-2 years of age?). Fastforward 15 years into the future I tried buying some just for the heck of it and frankly, they were B-L-A-N-D! Then you remember that everything you ate as a kid must have shared the same taste spectrum because it was like golden honey for me back then hehe! :)

  23. @stella: yes they are… ~P800/kg i think (but that price was last December pa)

  24. Not surprising about the quality of Excelente hams during these days. People would rather spend their money on beaches and resorts during the summer ;-). And our family only buys at Excelente during the 2nd week of December because Christmas week is terrible, “di mahulugan ng karayom”, according to my pure Tagalog lola. Plus the fact that it’s Quiapo, we’re always careful about the crooks who will take away your Christmas bonus straight from your pocket or at times straight from your bags! The quality of their ham during the holidays are pretty much decent (@ P950/kilo last year, boxed in red carton that looks like the boxes for Tikoy, heehee) compared to the frozen hams you will find in the groceries (from P200 – P450). One product that is also a hit for our family is their Kikiam (@P80/piece last year). We only buy the bacon scraps for Carbonara and sopas or molo soup. Whoa there Marketman, this post made me miss my lola who passed away 3 years ago and the Christmas reunions me and my balikbayan cousins would spend in the Baguio resthouse.

  25. @Mimi, yep, that was one of my sources, a couple of other resto’s carried it too.

    @Tonceq, that’s pure pap.

  27. Perhaps the quality really is better around Christmas. We bought some really good bone-in ham about the second week of December, and preferred it to Majestic which is a little saltier to me. At that time, they had LOTS of ham to sell. Maybe they produce less during off-peak season and recycle the old stuff into the scraps?

  28. illes de tulle? that made me laugh. how about…madamoselle, media mo me botoi? sorry, i just can’t resist adding that. i like ham a lot. i enjoy making one during christmas time ….

  29. The quality of the bone-in ham for the past 5 years or so has been terribly inconsistent. My dad gets it every year during Christmas and if you get it early in the season it tastes really good. It was a tradition that we all looked forward to (Majestic for regular days and Excellente on special occasions). As a child I couldn’t stand the saltiness but as I got older I learned to enjoy it. Unfortunately they seem to run out of the better quality ones as you get nearer to the 24th and start selling the blander / improperly prepared ones. Last Christmas we got a whole leg at around the 23rd and it was awful. It had no character at all.

  30. Shouldn’t the quality of the hams be better when the kitchen is not busy? I assumed that quality suffers due to mass production but Excelent proved me wrong. I’m still a Majestic ham fan (for salty ham) and Honeybaked ham fan (for sweet ham) but will probably bribe a Bacolodian (?) friend to bring me some James ham soon. All this talk about hams makes me want to sing: it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

  31. MM, Since you are now officially in the porcine culinary business, maybe an MM ham, with your excellent flavor palate, is in the future?

  32. ay magpo-promote ako! i hope you don’t mind marketman.

    if you are in bacolod, you should try my father’s ham. he claims it to be better than the popular james and majestic brands. he is a foodie like @marketman who has made charcuterie his hobby. it is still a hobby for now, but i believe he’s quickly building a respectable clientele through word of mouth.

    do try 1 leg and i’m sure you’ll like it. we use a lot of ham bones in our family recipes, so we definitely know our ham.

    this is his home number. give him a call, it will make him really happy. =p

    Enteng Maramba
    (+63) (34) 432-3635

  33. we used to buy at Excelente but my dad switched to New City Grocery ham, it is actually a grocery and they have bone in ham everyday sliced to order, i remember him bringing it home to the province everytime he has business to do in manila sometimes half a kilo or if his budget allows a kilo and the pineapple sauce separate, up to this day it is just new city grocery ham for us. it is also in quiapo it is that street fronting quinta market

  34. My memories of Excellente goes way back in the early 70’s. It has been a part of our Christmas & New Year family traditions since then. I remember when the place would be jam-packed with people during the busy holiday season. The hams (bone-in etc) would be piled up high in one part of the store. The floors were so greasy and slippery that it was easy to slip & fall. Stretched above close to the ceiling were a few criss-crossing clotheslines with clips attached. This was their efficient method to slide the bills from the selling counter over to the cashier (the owner herself). These memories are so vivid to this day. We always buy the traditional salty Chinese ham in syrup and never the kind with the pineapple. The traditional Chinese ham was what motivated us to brave the holiday season in Quiapo at the peak of the holiday season. I guess whether they have changed their formula or not, Excellente will always remind me of the festive holiday seasons. Thanks for the memories!

  35. Maybe just a bad batch? Anyhow, Adelina’s is my favorite ham in Mandaluyong. I wonder why the sudden interest in ham? Here, i get my ham (if i am not able to make one using a gammon joint) from the food hall of selfridges during the holidays.

  36. Hi everyone, good hams take months to cure and create. And while highly seasonal in the Philippines as they are associated with Christmas, there is no reason I can think of that one wouldn’t have a single good cured bone-in ham on display at your flagship, and apparently ONLY store. Slicing off the bone would mean you could even stretch the life of that single bone-in hame for up to a week on display if properly covered to prevent even more moisture loss. So I am thinking it is the total lack of demand for the higher quality product that drives the company to only offer what they had on offer. We enjoy hams all year round in our home, and it is not only a seasonal specialty. Oddly, I have found that hams purchased in U.S. South and shipped to Manila are FAR, FAR cheaper and often, in my opinion, TASTE BETTER than many local hams on offer. I just happened to be in Quiapo yesterday (which I rarely do at all) and happened to see the excelente store so that’s the only reason for the post… :) Thanks for all the tips on other ham purveyors, will have to try them when I get a chance to do so…

  37. Just checked prices… top quality southern style bone-in hams in the U.S. are currently running PHP500-600 per kilo compared to hams in Manila at PHP900-1,200 a kilo! Even if you had to stick the U.S. hams in a box and send it over, you would still save money overall…

  38. We’ve also been disappointed with Excellente Ham. For the price, their hams are underwhelming, tasting like the commercialized processed meat “hams” at the groceries.

    I also love Adelina’s Ham in Mandaluyong, but for the past few christmasses we’ve taken to ordering hams from SLERS in CDO. (They offer bone-in hams in Davao during the Christmas season). SLERS hams are very fatty (a lot of fat “marbling”) but we love the smoked flavor and are not too expensive.

  39. those pictures are gross! i mean, even if the ham tasted superb, the way the slices were arranged and lumped together are a total turn-off. this is shocking because my parents always swore by excelente, although majestic became increasingly more visible through the years.

    it’s a pity when established brands that have been painstakingly built up through the years change their formulas and their quality, and end up with nothing else but the brand. tsk, tsk…

  40. My Mom loves ham and I would like to send her some now and then. Aside from the canned variety, is there a U.S. brand or type that would last a month in a box while being shipped?

  41. ECC, in the cold months of winter, where the ships travel for most of the trip in freezing weather (conatainers on decks exposed), Sister has actually sent us soutern hams in balikbayan boxes that turned out VERY nicely. But you risk spoilage if they are in heat for a long time. Alternatively, if you find a reasonable airfreight carrier, that would still be more economical than buying them here. As a final alternative, whenever we manage to get to the states for a visit and have lots of room in our luggage on the way home, we stick a 13-15lb ham or two in our luggage! They last for months more in the fridge at home before cooking…

  42. ils de Tul.. So funny.only you MM can make anything sound classy!!

  44. Do you have a ham brand or website I can order chinese ham in the US? Virginia ham tastes different than chinese ham. I have tried virginia spiral ham its very different. even the one from costco. I like the bone in so I can cook macarino soup with the left over bone. Thanks, now if I can find chinese style fresh lumpia the bay area.

  45. I like Plaza ham. And last year we got a bone in sweet ham from Davao via Poco Deli. Our ham usually lasts until New Year’s , but that bone in was wiped out on Christmas Day. I don’t really fancy the salty chinese kind.

    Echague Bakery for hopia and the like should be right beside that. Got my 5qt Kitchen Aid from New Sin Kian Heng across Excelente for around 16k-17k when it was going for 23k at the malls.

  46. Thanks for the tips, MM. I also put Honeybaked ham in my luggage when I visit every two years or so. I’ll try sending one in a Balikbayan box next winter.

  47. Excelente ham and Marca Pina queso de bola! Part of our Christmas fare while growing up. Brings back so many memories. But I’m sad to hear that apparently the quality of the ham has deteriorated. Wag naman sana. Excelente has been Excelente for as long as I can remember. So is Vienna Bakery and its pan de bonete and French bread. And yes, that yummy hot hopia mongo in that other bakery a few steps away, midway in the block. ((Ha! I commented on several of your posts in one go, MM!) Tread lightly and gingerly among the tinderas and their bilaos full of wares, they occupy most of the sidewalk! I remember when my contact lens popped out unceremoniously on that sidewalk; my friends and I had to literally stop foot traffic while I went down on my knees (almost) looking for the errant lens. Ugh. I sterilized it pagdating ng bahay. You cannot imagine how grimy that sidewalk was, and still is , I bet.

  48. I personally know the owner of Excelente ham, last Christmas he send me at least a kilo of their ham, as a gift. Excellent taste!, can’t even compare it to Majestic Ham, I asked my staff to check and buy me a kilo for my parents and “in laws”, but my staff reported that there’s long queue, that was December 23 2010! I wonder what happen to Excelente

  49. That’s sad to hear. I last ate Excelente ham several years ago and remember tasting it side by side with Adelina’s and Majestic, and I remember liking Excelente the most.

    There is no excuse to offer substandard products during off-peak season.

  51. I also have fond memories of Hopia from Quiapo so when i had the chance to go there i dragged my husband to the hopia store of my youth… lo and behold, the store looked like they hadnt cleaned it since my youth… the round trays of hopia on display inside the glass cabinets had german cockroaches crawling on them… when i pointed to the young man manning the counter, he simply picked with his bare hands the cockroaches and didnt even bother removing the “soiled” hopia…

    now, i only buy hopia from eng bee tin , not as fresh but at least with some semblance of quality control

    ive passed by those ham stores too and even from afar they already looked dingy so i didnt bother to come in anymore

  52. You can’t beat Adelina’s ham at Kalentong, Mandaluyong, year round it never changes.

  53. The Plaza Ham is the best for me! :) I’m glad that they now have a branch in Rustan’s Makati (4th Level). :)

  54. My friends and I made a “field trip” to Quiapo last September (low season also?) and it was my first time to visit Excelente. They were quite excited buying several kilos of ham but I just had no guts to buy! It looked “too preserved” to me. I also saw that pile of scarylooking hotdogs and scraps- very unappetizing.

    I like the Pine Ham of Cagayan de Oro– it maybe pricey compared to the other ham stores in CDO but the taste is a lot better than the others! :) Actually, I hate it when some people discourage me from buying something by telling me, “You buy xxx instead– it’s cheaper.” I don’t buy with my wallet, i buy with my tastbeuds! hahaha! Pine Ham also sells chicken ham and turkey ham. Hmm… it’s time to buy again during my next visit. I hope I will still like it. It’s been a year since I last bought ham over there. Hehehe…

  55. this post is kinda funny i was thinking of eating ham the past 2 days, lol… is it really that bad this time of season? maybe theyre curing all year long then selling the boned hams during xmas… hmmmm im now more interested on the emporium of utensils mentioned above…

  56. where is kalentong is adelina’s ham? any landmarks? maybe ill try to take a trip.. is it available in supermarkets?

  57. hi there guys…i believe that every people has different tastes buds, like what they say, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”..same with the taste..are you guys take a brush of your tongue. I just bought a ham from Excelente and it tastes good like other ham. There are also times that some of their product are out-of-stock cause i believe there are what you called seasonal products and if ever you need it i think you can talk to them and have a reservation of what you need…whatever..i still love Excelente !!! yummy, yummy,….yum yum

  58. MM, do you have any ham recommendations here in Cebu? We didn’t want to buy the prepared ones at the supermarket and preferred something better

  60. I am surprised you haven’t heard of Garcia’s Ham….. they are the same owners of Garcia’s Meats that you see in the supermarkets. Their ham is the best! It is always the anchor dish of our Noche Buena and New Years dinner. Garcia’s( E. Rodriguez New Manila QC) has been around for years. When we used to live in New Manila our cooks used to buy all our meats from them.Their ham has the right saltiness and sweetness in its taste. When my Dad was still with us he would order two of the leg hams and keep it for himself in the ref in his room. He would have it delivered all the way to our home in Makati every year. Every year we continue to buy the ham and it brings back memories of my childhood with him. We now have our own families and we continue to the tradition with our kids. ..Traditions are still alive and well…… Merry Christmas

    they were also written about byhttps://spankyenriquez.blogspot.com/2006/09/lola-sallys-bon-voyage-food-trip.html

  62. MM, I grew up on Excellente Ham and just from the looks I can tell those are not what we buy that will meet our expectacion. Excellente ham unfortunately has seasons like waiting for the right time for really sweet and juicy mangoes or lanzones. And in the summer it’s like any other ham but at Christmas time there’s nothing quite like it. Try sampling again closer to Christmas maybe the festive season brings out the best in everyone including the ham.

  63. Indeed, such a disappointment. Plus, their ham easily gets spoiled. Try Lolita’s Ham…….I would say it’s still the best. Have been buying from them for a long time now and the flavor is very consistent. Christmas is just around the corner and ham is definitely a must in our shopping list.

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