Thursday, January 28, 2010

What's for breakfast in Manila?



A heart attack on a plate, that's what is. But if you're going to die over breakfast, might as well do it with pork that's been cured in pineapple juice and a fried egg.

Tocino is just one of the many meat products served for breakfast in the Philippines. It's most often served with rice and a fried egg, thus earning its place in the silog cannon.

Silog is a combination of the word sinangag (meaning fried rice) and itlog (egg) and is used to refer to any of the myriad of breakfasts that are served with rice and egg. The rices vary--sometimes they are garlic or pineapple fried rice and other times they are plain, served with a bottle of banana ketchup or sweet hot sauce.



So the meal pictured up top with tocino is technically called "tocino, sinangag at itlog" but is lazily shortened to "tocilog." Other commonly-served silogs include: chixsilog, hotdogsilog, burgersilog, nuggetsilog, bangsilog and baconsilog.

I have to admit that I've ordered tocilog more than a few times over the last few weeks. It's a delicious, if artery-clogging, alternative to wheat germ and probiotic yogurt--not that you'd be seeing any of that schlop in the Philippines.

2 comments:

  1. That expression "dog eaters"- does it refer to Filipinos or Malaysians? Have you tried canines yet?

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  2. They eat dog in lots of countries in Asia, but it's not popular in many of them. I haven't tried it.

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