Almusal

ALMUSAL

If you love Filipino food, you know that breakfast, ‘almusal’ in Tagalog, is our jam. If you are new to Filipino food, you may also have experienced our food for the first time through a Silog. It’s Sinangag (garlic fried rice) and Itlog (egg) abbreviated together. Silogs are often eaten with our favorite breakfast protein like Longanisa, Tapa or Tocino.

Apart from Silogs, there are also other dishes we love to have for breakfast and we are here to talk about two of our favorites growing up – Arroz Caldo and Tortang Talong.

ARROZ CALDO is a savory rice porridge that is heavily flavored by chicken and ginger with fish sauce, calamansi, fried garlic, scallions and eggs as toppings. It’s often eaten for breakfast during the colder months because it warms you up.

TORTANG TALONG it’s an eggplant omelette made by grilling a whole eggplant until it’s charred to give it a smoky flavor. Our version has tomatoes, mushrooms and ground pork. It’s typically served with Banana Ketchup to balance the savory with a little sweet.

When diving into Arroz Caldo and Tortang Talong’s etymology, it’s hard not to be reminded of its colonial roots. Arroz Caldo is Spanish (ARROZ - Rice, CALDO - Broth) but the dish’s savory origin is Chinese congee (lugaw in Tagalog). As for Tortang Talong, a TORTA is an omelette in Spanish.

Although the names may be influenced by the Philippines’s colonial past, these dishes are intrinsically Filipino.

If you are one of the lucky ones that snagged tickets to TIKIM’s upcoming dinner, you will get to experience dishes that make up A Day In Our Life and will get to taste these two dishes. Stay tuned as we highlight some of the other dishes we are making.

Let us know what you think or what your favorite breakfast is in the comments below. 👇🏼

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