2 days ago I was looking for something online (I can't remember what it was) when I clicked on a blog about a Filipino restaurant specializing in tapsilog, that's short for tapa, sinangag, itlog, which means seasoned thin sliced beef, garlic fried rice, fried egg. If I translate tapsilog in English it would be beefricegg, nah, it doesn't sound right, it only works with Tagalog, haha. Anyways, the blogger goes to ethnic restaurants around San Diego, eats and writes about the resto and the food. He has written about Vietnamese, Malaysian, Slovakian, Russian, etc. The menu on the wall reminded me of the regular girls-only outings I had with friends when I was working in Manila at ADB. We usually went out on a Friday afternoon after work. Before going to the theater we stopped by the open eateries at Greenbelt (this was in 1985-87) where they served all the silogs: tapa, longaniza (sausages), tocino (Filipino bacon), fried bangus (milkfish), etc. We shared a very large table with strangers, sitting in very long and very narrow bangko (banquette/bench) that seats 12 people. Today I made pork longaniza, origin is Spanish but have a very distinct Filipino taste: sweet, slightly sour, garlicky, yummy. These are usually eaten with salted native vinegar, a salad of diced green mangoes and tomatoes with a little fermented micro-shrimp paste. I didn't realize I ran out of sausage casings but was not willing to postpone making them so I made them hubad (naked). They are delicious, just not so good to look at. Silogs used to be breakfast fare but carinderias (small scale eateries) in Manila started serving them anytime of the day and why not, when it's so Sarap!
