“Tindahan”, a Filipino-Asian shop which opened a year ago, does not only sell champorado mix, tinapa, sweet Philippine mangoes, walis tambo, and other products made in the Philippines.

The only Filipino grocery store in Brussels, Belgium also helps promote the most popular tourist sites in the Philippines.

Located at 8 Avenue de la Chasse, Tindahan displays framed pictures of El Nido, Boracay, Chocolate Hills, Hundred Islands, and other tourist destinations on each corner of the store conspicuous enough to be seen by the shop’s Filipino and non-Filipino clients.

This gives Philippine tourist sites exposure to people from around the world who come to Brussels, as the city is home to the European Union institutions, numerous non-government organizations, international lobby groups, and multinational corporations.

“As a way of promoting tourism in the Philippines, we posted some of the Philippine tourist sites here in the shop so kung may mga European o kung anumang nationality na pupunta rito at maging interested sa Philippines, puwede naman silang bigyan ng kaunting impormasyon kung ano ang makikita at ipagmamalaki ng Pilipinas pagdating sa turismo,” said store owner Gerry Crisostomo.

Crisostomo, who is also into clay art, puts some of his Filipino culture-themed pieces on display in the store.

One of his artworks, which depicts Pinoy barrio fiesta, was just sold to Cindy Castell, a Filipino resident in Belgium.

“He actually makes these very nice pieces. I’m very pleased to say na I’m gonna offer this as a gift to my colleague because he’s very much interested sa culture ng Philippines,” said Castell.