“Have you ordered from Pablo yet?” our neighbors asked with a mischievous smile. We were having dinner at their house catching up on neighborhood news.
“Who’s Pablo?” we asked.
“Our neighbor who sells paella.”
A small pause. “Wait, he sells paella . . . from his house?” we asked confused.
“Yes! He actually lives right across the street from you! We used to be able to run to him for last minute orders but he quickly became so busy that he now requires advance notice! Well, he’s also a pilot so he only takes orders for the weekends.”
Another brief pause of disbelief. “A pilot that sells paella in his spare time?”
“Yes,” they laughed. “Pablo Piloto Paellero! Que raro, no?!”
*
A few weeks later, we placed a paella order.
Gathered around his delicious paella, family and friends discussed this Pablo character with a lot of befuddled vigor. “I still don’t get it! No lo entiendo! Why is he doing this? As a pilot, I can imagine he doesn’t need to.”
“Must be a passion,” I volunteered.
“Sure, but he could indulge his passion by having family over for lunch. Why make it into a business?”
The concept of Pablo, the paella-peddling pilot, just didn’t compute with these people. A side-hustle, particularly a laboriously manual one, is a very foreign idea in these parts (“If it were a consulting side-gig, maybe I’d understand it better.”) Also, governed by a strong dedication to leisure and socialization, weekends and work never ever mix (“Bosses don’t call on weekends. Saturday lunch is the absolute latest they would dare call.”) Pablo the weekend warrior was a very rare breed in Spain.
*
I thought of the Philippines, the land of the home-based enterprise. Where the national past time is tossing around ideas of what new discovery from the outside world can be replicated, baked, or imported and sold from home. Where every iconic ensaymada, caramel cake, ube-cheese pandesal, sushi bake, creative pie, you-name-it likely began with a sparkle of an idea, a home oven, and a hustler who said “why the heck not?”
In the Philippines, home businesses are a source of creative expression, entrepreneurial adventure, and communal gastronomic advancement. Additional income is often the cherry on top. To the delight of customers, the number of home businesses exploded in the pandemic. During the dreary days of quarantine, they fed our bodies, our economy, and our sanity. They are our modern-day ‘bayanihan’.
*
After our lunch, Pablo came over to pick up the paella (pan). I greeted him at the door and told him how much we enjoyed the paella, and how thrilled I was that he was open for business. He asked where I was from. I said I was Filipino.
“Oh, my wife is Filipino.”
And at that precise moment, everything clicked! It suddenly all made sense! Of course! The only way to explain this maverick Spaniard entrepreneur was a hustler Filipino wife!
Photo credit: Manuel Mouzo