In my red glasses: Winner Wednesday: Part Deux

Who doesn't love Filipino breakfasts? I certainly do, though for health reasons I don't eat it everyday (fruits or honey oats with almond milk are my usual go-to meals). But during those heavenly, glorious moments where I get to eat anything with -silog at the end ("si" is the shortened term for "sinangag" or garlic rice, and "log" for "itlog" or egg), be it longsilog ("longganisa" is a garlicky, oftentimes sweet sausage), bangusilog ("bangus" or milkfish), tocilog ("tocino" or sweet cured pork) or the best of them all (although my college freshman self would disagree, because there was a period where I ate nothing but tocilog for lunch at CASAA) TAPSILOG ("tapa," not to be confused with the Spanish "tapas," is cured/dried beef that can be either fried or grilled), OH MAN, I become giddy like a pre-teen in a 1D concert. Or maybe just regular ol' me in a Walk The Moon/John Mayer/Jason Mraz/Hanson concert.

The different "-silog"s

Photo by Norm R.

One particular memory I have is of weekend mornings where my Mama, who is not really a cook (but she is awesome in a lot of other things, and her specialty dishes and desserts are guaranteed hits at parties) would make for us the BEST TAPSILOG EVER. I have been dying to eat something similar to her take on the ubiquitous tapsilog (it actually spawned all the other -silog versions) but alas, every time I badgered her she tells me that her recipe got lost a couple of years back. *sigh* *grumble* Yes, that was from my protesting stomach. I remember how my older borther and I would fight over the crispy small pieces that had a higher marinade/sauce:meat ratio. Mmm. (Same goes for when my friends and I eat at Honey Pig hahaha) Her version was sweeter than usual (I most definitely got my sweet tooth from her) and cut into smaller portions, which made the meat pieces all the more tastier. And ahh, the garlic. This kind of food should not be eaten alone, lest you want other people to ask if your breath spray is named "Eau de Garlic" to which the appropriate response would be a long and breathy "OHHHHHH YEHHHSSSSSSSSS." I always say, it's better to stink as a whole group than by your lonesome because there is ~~stench~~ strength in numbers! :)) Thanks to the power of the world wide web and through my excellent and unparalleled detective skills (jk) I was able to track down the exact recipe for my Mama's tapsilog! I literally had to fight back tears of joy when I found it after a long and arduous search during my lunch break last week. Here's what I typed in:

Yes, I have a link to The Last Unicorn on my browser.

*facepalm* SO OBVIOUS. The first result was the one I used because it asks for copious amounts of sugar (usually it's only 2 tbsp. as opposed to this recipe's 6 tbsp.) and well, it just clicked. Ahh, serendipity <3 *cue music from a romantic movie* And as they say, the rest is history. It was all gobbled up by my friends in my church group, SFC. They were girls. They were girls with an insatiable appetite for Filipino breakfast food hahaha. Here it is (I can hear you say "finally, Julie, we were waiting for this for so long." Or you might not have read any of the above and skipped to the recipe, for which I will be very disappointed because I poured my heart, blood, tears and neurons into this blog post. *cries* Just kidding.):

TAPSILOG

(say it with me: "tap" like in "tap water" but faster + "si" like the Spanish word for "yes" and "log" like dog but with an L)

Many, many thanks to pinoycookingrecipes.com for making my taste buds happy <3

Garlic Fried Rice / Sinangag (scene-na-ngag)

(the simplest way is to fry a lot of minced garlic until it is about to get crispy, add salt, then add day-old refrigerated rice (this makes it less sticky))

Fried Egg

(I add a bit of water to the egg and cover it so that the resulting steam will cook the top part but the method below is an easier way to make sunny side up :) )

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb beef sirloin, thinly sliced

Marinade:

3 1/2 tbsp vinegar

2 1/2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp salt

6 tbsp white sugar

1 tsp ground back pepper

1 head garlic, minced

cooking oil for frying

Cooking Directions:

Combine marinade. Stir well.
Arrange meat in a container or ziploc bag.

I used a freezer bag since it's thicker than the regular kind. No marinade mess :)

Pour marinade. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Turn at least once.
Fry until brown. (I covered it during the first half so that the beef cooked more evenly, plus the marinade seeped through the meat for a longer time which made the beef tastier and more tender)