Daisy Calabia is the entrepreneur behind Dubai's Bibingka & Paratha. JONATHAN YBERA/EXPAT MEDIA

Long before she became a respected food entrepreneur in Dubai, Daisy Calabia was a young girl balancing a basket filled with peanuts, mangoes, and quail eggs on her head as she walked through the streets of Olongapo in the Philippines. “I was a food vendor when I was younger,” she tells Expat Media with a smile. “I also sold talbos ng kamote in the barrio. My mother taught me everything. I was eight years old when I started.” Her early lessons in entrepreneurship were taught not in a classroom but in the open-air markets of Luzon. By age 10, Daisy was already traveling from her home in Dinalupihan, Bataan to Olongapo City — a 30-minute bus ride away — to sell food. The youngest of six children, Daisy’s entrepreneurial streak showed early on. Armed with a flat woven basket called bilao, Daisy sold peanuts, chicharon, mangoes, and quail eggs until she graduated from high school. The money she earned helped pay for her education. “Since I was in first year high school, I’ve been supporting myself,” she says. “My mother taught me to stand on my own two feet.” Her mother, Inang Fely, became her lifelong role model. “She didn’t even finish Grade 1 but she had incredible business skills,” Daisy says. “She would go to the market with an empty basket, no money, and still come home with goods to sell. Vendors trusted her word and she never broke hers. That’s what I learned — that trust is more valuable than capital.” Her mother’s mantra still guides her today: “Buntot mo, hila mo. Sungay mo, buhat mo.” It means, “You are responsible for your own life and success.” After high school, Daisy moved to Mariveles, Bataan, where she worked in a factory to save for college to study Industrial Engineering. “I never stopped working. I wanted to be independent,” she says. Her perseverance eventually brought her to the corporate world in the Philippines, where she worked various jobs, including as an industrial engineer and purchasing supervisor. But destiny had bigger plans. When her mother’s medical expenses grew, Daisy decided to work abroad. “I was the only one among my siblings who didn’t want to work overseas,” she laughs. “But I went because I wanted to help my mother.”

Finding Bibingka & Paratha

With the help of her older sister who was already in Dubai, Daisy arrived in the UAE in 2010 to work as an industrial engineer in Jebel Ali. “I didn’t like my boss. He was too touchy with the staff. I resigned after a week,” she says. Her older sister was furious, but Daisy’s principles were unshakable. From there, she jumped from job to job — customer service, purchasing, marketing — often teaching herself new skills along the way. But her biggest turning point came when she was wrongfully terminated from her managerial position at a restaurant business. Daisy filed a legal case and won. Her employer fled the country, but the victory gave her a new mission. “I told myself I don’t want to be an employee anymore. That’s when I decided to start my own business.” After winning her legal battle, Daisy opened her first café in Umm Al Quwain with the help of a friend who trusted her without a business plan. “She was the first person to believe in me,” Daisy says. “She just said, ‘Go for it,’ and gave me capital to open Face Cafe.” That cafe became the springboard for her next venture — Bibingka & Paratha — in Dubai’s bustling Satwa district. The concept was born from observation. “I noticed that when Filipinos dine out with non-Filipino friends, their friends sometimes don’t find anything familiar on the menu,” she explains. “So I thought: why not offer both bibingka and paratha? That way, everyone has something to enjoy.” The mix was a hit. “Now it’s funny,” she says, grinning. “The Filipinos order paratha and the foreigners order bibingka. Americans and Canadians love our ube biko and halo-halo. Mexicans love kutsinta, but they laugh when they hear the word puto!” Daisy honors her mother’s legacy through her work. Bibingka & Paratha has become a gathering spot not just for Filipinos but for people of all nationalities. And in a country where cultures meet at every corner, Daisy has found her own way of bringing people together: one plate at a time. MAM/Expat Media

Quick fire questions

Guilty pleasure in the menu? Coffee! Strangest request a customer has ever made Put more coconut in the bibingka. But, actually, it’s not too strange. Filipino dish you’ll never get tired of cooking Definitely bibingka! Go to comfort food after a long hectic day It’s still coffee and bibingka! I’m really a coffee lover. Weirdest food combo you secretly love Paratha with palabok sauce. It’s nice. You should try it! Favorite spot in the UAE to do absolutely nothing? Dubai Island. That’s where we hang out. Three items that’s always in your kitchen pantry Coffee. Coffee and coffee! Coffee. Milk. Soy Sauce. Your bare minimum in food Rice with soy sauce. Most overused phrase you say at work Sinabi ko na sa ‘yo eh! (I told you so!) What would your apron say if it could talk? Stop making coffee! Favorite OFW life hack you’d swear by Don’t buy things you don’t need. Song that instantly makes you feel like a boss Just Another Woman in Love. What’s your superpower? I’m always seeing tragedy as an opportunity. Visit Bibingka and Paratha Cafeteria in 14A Street, Al Bada'a, Dubai, order online or call +971545452716
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