Balikbayans and their Pasalubongs

We Filipinos have the tradition of bringing something back home whenever we visit or come from another place. This is the pasalubong tradition. It feels like a mortal sin not to bring one from a trip, whether it's domestic or international 😂 As an OFW, I practice this, and it gives me pleasure to be able to share with family, friends and even colleagues what we have here in Sweden, and vice versa from the Philippines.

Typical pasalubongs would be chocolates and something sweet, or something luxurious like bags, shoes and perfumes. (Grimacing at the thought of the expenses 😜). I sometimes succumb to these common gifts but what gives me more delight is to bring something that my recipients would not be able to find or buy in the Philippines. My usual go to Swedish pasalubongs are Ahlgrens Bilar, pepparkakor, knäckebröd and of course, the ever famous Cloetta Kex Choklad from Linköping.

So what has been the craziest pasalubong you've ever brought to the Philippines? 

During our last visit to the Philippines, Zach carried with him along a green grocery bag containing three loaves of PågenLimpan bread 😂 Why Limpan? It was because Ninang Ni jokingly asked to bring Limpan with us. She loved the bread so much when she came to visit Sweden that she almost always brought it up whenever we spoke with her.

"Didn't Dadah loved it, as well? Why not bring one along for her also?"

Of course, it needed to be hand-carried. Zeke was so embarrassed to carry the bag with the loaves in it, that he explicitly said before we left the house, "I am not carrying the bread!". He always smiled sheepishly when we had to go through the xrays 😂 But Zach lovingly took care of it. He was even proud to bring it! I guess it also saved him from going hungry when I decided not to get food during our layover at Amsterdam, thinking they will serve dinner 30 minutes from our take off but ending up serving it 2 hours later. Oops! 😂

The surprise and grateful smiles were all so worth all the embarrassments. And mind you, they were actually heavy. It was definitely all worth it.

Now we're thinking of what other crazy pasalubongs we can bring the next time we come visit Philippines 🤔 Any thoughts?