08/17/2025
Feeling the Homeland while living in Toronto
By Willie Jose |
August 15,2025
Though we are thousands of miles away from the Philippines, we Filipinos, who live in Toronto and elsewhere in Canada, feel as if we have not left our home after all, and the country of our birth.
Why?
Well, let me tell you how most of us spend our days making a living in this newly adopted country.
For example, every morning, we watch TV Patrol newscast, thereby keeping abreast of whatever big happenings back home; we don’t miss the episodes in the ABS-CBN TV series Batang Quiapo, Incognito, Bridge of Love, Pangako Sa Iyo, Passion de Amor and the weekly Maalaala Mo Kaya. And for our breakfast, we usually have pandesal, with the matching Ligo sardines or Lily’s Peanut butter spread. And for lunch, we usually prepare dishes such as Adobo, sinigang na baboy, and pritong tilapia. As we begin eating, the ubiquitous Patis, Marca Pina soy sauce, Jufran or UFC Ketsup will always be on our tabletops as dips.
If we are not in the mood to prepare our food, we can go to Max’s Restaurant, Kapitbahay, Remely’s, Casa Manila, Little Manila, Wendy’s, or Aristocrat.
We are slowly adapting to our new environment, and being homesick is now a thing of the past because we are presently living in a real home setting where we always see some familiar things that constantly remind us of our Homeland.
With today’s technology and fast mode of transportation, we have remained connected with some familiar things back home such as the airing of popular ABS-CBN and GMAs TV shows right in the comfort of our homes, the flooding of the Filipino brand products in grocery stores and even the staging of live entertainment shows and concerts, with all the popular singers, performers, actor and actresses being flown in to town to rub elbows with their fans.
Indeed, these all-familiar things are virtually our support system that makes our living in this part of the world much easier to bear, though we are far away from our friends and relatives.
For those kababayans who decide to stay at home to watch movies, they can easily purchase Filipino CD movies sold in sets of three for $10 in some malls in the city.
In the next few years, Canada will be a haven for more Filipinos immigrating here.
In the 2021 census, the Filipino Canadians numbered 957,355, or 2.58 per cent of the total population. This figure shows the growing population of Filipinos in this part of the globe.
With the increasing number of Pinoys in this country, the chance of seeing them always is excellent—we will encounter them in the subway trains, bus stations, grocery stores; we will meet them in the malls while they line up at either Tim Hortons or Starbucks coffee shops. And there will be more chances of having little chats and greetings with them, together with our infectious smiles, Kamusta na kayo. Saan kayo sa atin ?
On the business side, we will be seeing more restaurants set up, more entertainment shows launched, more remittance centers established, thus, sending money to our relatives is just a phone/fax away, and more real estate agents will be flooding the community to entice Pinoys to buy condos in Makati, Taguig, Manila or Quezon City.
One time, I had lunch at Kapitbahay restaurant on Lawrence Avenue in Toronto, and I had kare-kar with the matching bagoong, and for my dessert, I had a glass of Halo Halo. While eating, I was also watching GMA’s noontime show Eat Bulaga on the restaurant TV screen.
Some Pinoy restaurants have a mini-grocery store stacked with products that come from the Philippines: Rufina Patis, Marca Pina Soy Sauce, Mang Tomas lechon sauce, Jufran catsup, corned beef, Del Monte products, Skyflakes biscuits, Star margarine, Kropec, Ligo, and Pito Pito tea. There are some bakery products too, such as pandesal, monay, empanada, ensaymada and desserts such as bibingka, biko, p**o and kutsinta.
And to whet your taste buds, these restaurants have different viands to choose from: bopis, caldereta, mongo, paksiw, tinola, menudo, crispy pata, pritong tilapia, galungong, and pansit.
Some everyday household items such as walis tingting, walis tambo and tabo have found their way into some Filipino convenience stores in the city.
While we are adjusting to the Canadian way of life, we can also stay connected with our close friends and relatives back home at any time by using today’s technology, such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, Skype, and FaceTime. Keeping in touch and chatting with them is something we all need to stabilize ourselves emotionally.
But suppose we are both emotionally and physically tired after a hard day’s work. In that case, our kababayan massage therapists are now doing home services. If we feel some aches and pains in our body, the so-called hilot, our traditional therapeutic massage, is a good option.
With all these life amenities, what more could I say, except that we are now enjoying a good life in Toronto.
