Stories & Photographs by Jofelle Tesorio

  AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS:  If someone asks about Dutch cuisine, the standard answer would be mashed potatoes with sausage topped with gravy or deep-fried fish fillet called ‘kibbeling’. And that ends there. It is the perceived ‘nothingness’ of the Dutch gastronomy that has paved way to the immense popularity of Indonesian, Indian, Chinese, Suriname, Japanese, and Thai food in the Netherlands. Every city has restaurants and takeaways that offer ‘orientalist’ food. But what is missing in the Netherlands is recognition of the Filipino food. The Dutch don’t have any idea about the Filipino dish unless they have been to the Philippines or married to a Filipino.   The two Filipino restaurants, both located in The Hague, mostly have Filipino patrons (and their Dutch partners or friends). There is no Filipino equivalent yet to sushi , satay , pho , roti or pad Thai – popular dishes that are easily identifiable to an Asian country.  So when Dutch couple and missi...

The story of El Nido in the Philippines like any other beautiful tourism destination is a tragedy of commons - everybody wants a piece of it, there are winners but a lot more losers. It is such a beautiful paradise with picturesque limestones cliffs, crystal blue oceans, colorful coral reefs, endless white beaches straight out of Robinson Crusoe expedition - everyone wants to live there forever. When Covid19 struck, there's nothing much they could do since the community depended so much on tourism. The industry that generated so much wealth became standstill. Tourism is now back after almost two years of lockdown. There was a respite which could have been a chance for El Nido to self-heal and recover from over-tourism. Now the fast decay of El Nido with systemic problems on planning and waste management continues. Everybody wants to benefit from El Nido tourism but not all are pitching in to make it more sustainable, making everyone including tourists responsible. However, not all...