Deadline all the time

Adobo, green mangoes on offer

By Joel Guinto
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 08:56:00 01/29/2008

ZURICH, Switzerland (via PLDT) — For Filipino workers and immigrants here, the Philippines is just a train ride away.

Their link to their homeland is this enterprising Filipina’s store-cum-restaurant.

Either they discover it through fellow immigrants and workers, or while passing by on board the tram, a train that cuts through the Zurich city proper and suburbs.

At the Golden Asian Store, Filipinos, and sometimes, even the Swiss, satisfy their cravings for Philippine cuisine such as adobo, caldereta, kare-kare, and pancit.

Beside the restaurant counter is a mini grocery that sells green mangoes and Filipino brands of canned goods, instant noodles, condiments, and even beer, like Red Horse.

“It does not feel like a business, because here, I meet with my kababayan [countrymen]. We’re like family in this place,” said storeowner Eppie Balagasay-Escopete.

Over meals and karaoke sessions (the restaurant has a “magic sing” set up), patrons talk about their problems, mostly financial and cultural differences with their Swiss spouses, Escopete said.

Posters of the Kris Aquino film “Sukob” and the Vic Sotto starrer “Enteng Kabisote” are plastered on the store’s walls. Escopete also helps distribute subscriptions to The Filipino Channel (TFC) as well as audio and video compact discs by Filipino artists.

Escopete moved to Switzerland in 1991 to take up her masters in political science upon the prodding of her sister. It was also here where she met her husband. She opened the store in 2000.

“This was a grocery for the first two years, but because of the demand from Filipinos, I opened the restaurant,” she said.

“Here, it’s like you’re in your own country. You’re at ease,” said Elizer Lorina, a regular customer who hails from Palawan province.

Escopete’s customers sometimes serve themselves, and even help in the cooking.

Another regular at the Golden Asian, Joy Felder, who is married to a Swiss man, scooped some rice and poured adobo over it while Escopete was talking to reporters.

“They put their payment in the cash register by themselves too,” Escopete said.

Felder later helped Escopete’s two Filipina staff, Lucy Cordizal and Amparo Octubre, prepare some “palitaw,” or boiled rice cakes, in the kitchen.

Escopete said her Swiss customers liked adobo, pancit, caldereta, kare-kare, and ginataang gulay.

“The Swiss people like their food spicy, so we put a little chili,” she said.

Aside from food, religion also binds the Filipino community here. Many of Escopete’s patrons are members of the Jesus Is Lord Movement of evangelist Eduardo Villanueva.

Escopete, a relative of Eastern Samar Governor Ben Evardone, said she plans to return to the Philippines by 2013, possibly to pursue a career in politics.

View article as posted on INQUIRER.net