Pandesal eases homesickness

PINOY BUNS Light and salty pandesal is standard Pinoy breakfast fare. Inset: Prime Obon-Laput and her husband Edmund, posing with their daughter, are making sure overseas Pinoys in Thailand still get their daily pandesal.

PHITSANULOK, Thailand—Filipinos abroad miss many things from the Philippines, from “balut” to San Miguel Beer. But overseas Filipino workers and their families in Phitsanulok have a taste of home thanks to a Filipino teacher here who ventured into baking the most sought-after bread by fellow Pinoys: the light and salty breakfast bun, pandesal.

Prime Obon-Laput, 33, a college instructor at Phitsanulok College and her husband Edmund, also a teacher at Padoongrasda School, ventured into the small-scale Pinoy bakery, to augment their income as teachers.

“At first, we just wanted to make pandesal for our own consumption, but most of our friends requested us to sell the pandesal,” Prime says.

A family business

Back in the Philippines, Prime’s family owned a bakery—La Prima Bakery in Sariaya, Quezon. When her father came to Thailand in 2011, Edmund asked him to teach them how to bake pandesal for their own consumption.

“Pandesal is very much a part of a Filipino’s breakfast. We missed it here, so my husband wanted to learn how to bake it,” Prime recalls.

At that time, they didn’t have an oven, so they waited until 2013, during Prime’s father’s third visit in Thailand to teach Edmund how to bake.

On September 2013, Prime and Edmund started baking pandesal. Their friends who got a taste of it wanted more. So they decided to bake more for sale. Every Wednesday and Friday they bake pandesal.

Aside from pandesal, the husband and wife team also bake pan de coco and Spanish bread, both Filipino favorites. They also bake cakes on a per order basis.

Actually, baking pandesal is a “labor of love” for Prime and Edmund.

“We are not making that much profit, we just want to give our fellow OFWs a taste of home,” Prime explains.

As of now, they only cater to fellow OFWs, since they have limited time to bake due to their full time work. But in due time, they are planning to sell their bakery products to Thai people.

Online sales

To sell their products, Prime and Edmund use the social media site Facebook to advertise and collect orders.

“It’s very effective. People can see the pictures of our pandesal and other bakery goods. I also post the time of availability.  FB friends then place their orders through Facebook.” Prime explains.

Labor of love

“The primary reason we bake is for our kababayan here to at least have a ‘taste of home’ through our products. We only bake bread during our free hours since we both have full-time  teaching jobs,” says Prime. The two also have a daughter.

“We cannot really venture into this business, as a sole source of income. Yes, we do get some profit but it is really exhausting.  Still, we continue to bake because we both find satisfaction in baking (we both love cooking and experimenting on  foods).

“It is also an avenue for us to meet friends, to see each other when they pick up their orders. We have little chats with them, how they have been doing, etc…  It’s not only about the money that we can earn but the joy of  knowing that every bite reminds them of the Philippines and somehow eases out their homesickness. That’s profit enough for us,” Prime ends.