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May
13
Pinoy Place
Filed Under Consumer Concerns, Food & Drinks, In the News, Migrant Life, The Philippines
For the latest Philippine news stories and videos, visit GMANews.TV
Saw this news feature clip on the GMA News website in February, and featured it on e-Notebook, my side blog. It’s great to know that there’s a big Filipino eatery-cum-grocery store in Zurich.
Golden Asian Store, which opened in 2000, is a meeting point for Filipinos (Pinoys), who are craving for Pinoy food specialties like adobo, pancit, or kare kare. It’s owned and managed by Zurich-based Filipino entrepreneur Eppie Balagasay-Escopete.
In the TV interview, Escopete said that her regular customers (mostly Filipino women) visit her store to buy — and cook — tuyo and daing (dried fish), food items that the latter can’t really cook in their Swiss homes because of restrictions imposed by their Swiss husbands and/or neighbors (read: something to do with fishy odor).
The eatery-cum-store serves not only as a haven for Switzerland-based Filipinos, where they can have fresh servings of their favorite Filipino food, or where they can scour for Pinoy brands (e.g. canned/bottled goods, packs of instant noodles, green mangoes, and even Pinoy beer). It’s also a meeting place where members of various Filipino groups converge and discuss plans to raise funds for special projects of kababayans back home.
There are reportedly 43 Filipino groups in Switzerland. These groups aim to “preserve Filipino culture and traditions” while striving to “integrate in the Swiss community.”
On top of being an eatery, mini grocery store, and an all-purpose meeting hall, the Golden Asian Store is also a refuge of sorts for Filipinos, who need to discuss personal issues with their compatriots in an environment of love and trust. It’s here where these problem-laden Pinoys find a piece of home away from home.
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8 Responses to “Pinoy Place”
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The place must be like an oasis for Filipinos in the cold desert of Switzerland
This is such a good thing especially for Filipino expatriates like you, it keeps home closer and soothes those longing feelings. I hope every foreign town with Filipino population should have a place like this, and our government should look into this kind of institution. It’s a major plus for you and of course for the whole nation, as remittances keeps coming in from abroad.
Nice to know that you have Pinoy stores in Switzerland. It’s nice sometimes to be able to just drop and have many choices for a filling Pinoy lunch or dinner
Here the stores are multi functional - restaurant, take out, grocery, door to door shipping, money remittance, balikbayan boxes, video rental..atbp 
George, wow, what a simile.
Dunno why, pero nauhaw ako after reading it (LOL).
Major Tom, unfortunately, there’s no Pinoy store or restaurant in our small Swiss town. But we do have a lot of Asian stores here and in other Swiss towns/cities. I pretty much doubt it if the Philippine government can look into matters like the establishment of Pinoy stores in every foreign town or city, where there’s a huge population of Pinoy residents (I think this is more a private sector initiative). Our government officials can’t even attend to more important matters in our homeland.
BW, there are Pinoy establishments in big Swiss cities like Zurich, Geneva, and Basel. Unfortunately, I live far away from these places. I bet the multi-functional Pinoy stores there are must-visit places for Pinoy immigrants like you. Do they have karaoke joints there, too?
Karaoke joints? Yep and if you sing well, people will dance to the song
LOL. Typically Pinoy.
Thanks for sharing this info. I hope to find this store in the future. So far, I am still in search of Mendoza’s Spanish Sardines…
You’re welcome, Sining. Hmm…Mendoza’s Spanish Sardines…I have never heard of this brand. But then again, I’m no sardines person.