From Manila to Amsterdam: Pinoy bakery sells out ube treats, adobo croissant

AMSTERDAM, the Netherlands — When Mimosa Ayuste had coffee at this Romanian-owned café in Amsterdam, little did she know that her business dreams will come to life. It was after the owner told her that the café was up for sale, a chance that she did not let pass her by. 

Last September 18, she opened Manila Bakery Amsterdam to locals, tourists, and especially to Filipinos who miss the sweet and savory pastries they have grown to love back home.

“I think this is my calling,” Ayuste said.

Ayuste’s premium bakery boasts of ube delicacies, such as ube pandesal (white bun), ube cookies, and ube ceremonial matcha latte. Another hit is the sapin-sapin, the colored rice cake layers topped with desiccated roasted coconut called latik.

The other hit Filipino bread is the putok (stuffy white bread with granulated sugar toppings), the ube ensaymada, and the popular Spanish bread. Not to forget the frozen halo-halo that Ayuste sells year-round, with it selling out very quickly during summer in the Netherlands.  

But the best-seller is the filling adobo pie, a laminated croissant stuffed with fine floss of the signature Filipino chicken adobo (soy sauce-based stew). 

The Dutch-Filipina baker explained her shop specialty is guided by the Manila Bakery Amsterdam’s tagline: “Filipino heritage, European craft.”

“I make all the products from the Philippines with a twist. For example, I have this chicken adobo pocket. It’s adobo but I put it in a laminated croissant. I have also mango sticky rice in a laminated croissant. And also, our leche flan, I put it in a base croissant. So, everything is with a twist, para rin ma-avail ng ibang lahi (so that non-Filipinos can also enjoy).” 

The growing demand for the Philippine ube also did not deter Ayuste for offering ube-based products. Ayuste imported from the Philippines about 400 kilograms of the root crop even before opening her bakery. 

“We’re from The Hague, and we just came here to try Manila Bakery. For me, the best one is the chicken adobo bread,” Filipino overseas worker Chris Concha said.

“I ordered a lot of things. But for me, the best one is the corned beef pandesal, they served it hot and warm and it was really tasty,” Filipino student Alexiya Torroba said.

“For me the best one was ube pandesal, and I made it my baon (lunch food),” Dutch-Filipino worker Leah Remular, said.

Torroba and Remular said they both enjoyed the ube latte, which mixes matcha and milk with actual ube halaya (solids) instead of ube powder or mix.

Ayuste claims that she feels the support from the many Filipinos buying her goods. But she is also happy that even non-Filipinos are patronizing her from even outside the Netherlands.

Despite the success of her bakery, she does not have any plans to branch out yet. “I want them to have a reason to come to Amsterdam at dito sila magkita (so they can gather here). It’s also funny sometimes because… these people who have not seen each other for eight years, ten years, then they just bump into each other here and they love the feeling. Ang sarap ng feeling na rito sila nagkikita-kita. (It feels good that they reunite in this place.)”

There have been requests for her to open in Paris, France and in Madrid, Spain. “But we’ll see,” Ayuste said. 

Born and raised in the Philippines, Ayuste was a chemical engineer back home. She acquired her Dutch citizenship and has been living in the Netherlands for more than two decades with her Moroccan partner and her teenage daughter who have been helping her run the family bakery business.

Her message to Filipinos in Europe who plan to build their own businesses: “Gawin niyo pero dapat matapang kayo. Dapat malakas ang loob niyo. Wala kayong takot kasi hindi ito biro. Akala ko noon uupo lang ako at magkakape habang ako ay nakatayo, but it is not (the case). Iyung demand is too high. I cannot sit down because my line is always long. 

 (“Do it but be courageous. You should be gutsy. Be fearless because this is serious. I thought that I will just be sitting and having coffee while watching. But it is not the case. The demand is too high.”)