Silog Recipes and Traditions | Kitchn

Regardless of how a lot I needed to sleep in as a child, my mother was adamant that I by no means skip breakfast. “Breakfast is an important meal of the day!” she’d say like clockwork as we had been preparing for college. As I hurried to placed on denims, already dreading the sensation of pulling chilly denim on my pores and skin, I knew my mother had already been up for an hour to cook dinner for the household. I may hear her opening a corned beef can with the tiny metallic key that comes with it. She could be getting ready mounds of jasmine rice to be tossed in sizzling oil and you may odor the grease after she fried eggs simply the best way I preferred them: crispy, brown lacy edges, and runny yolks. 

After I was rising up, I lived with my dad and mom and two sisters in a three-bedroom home in San Jose together with seven different members of my prolonged household. Breakfast on this multigenerational Filipino family was joyful. Groggy and bleary-eyed, I’d stumble into the kitchen and are available alive seeing the plates of corned beef, candy longanisa, and SPAM that would seem like magic on the desk. 

As superb as these plates sound, although, the perfect Filipino breakfast is one shared with those who I really like and care about. That neighborhood is an important factor. And so, for this package deal, I’ve tapped three contributors: Molly Olis Krost, Kristy Drutman, and Gretchen Carvajal, who’re all Filipino American creatives that I love. Their recipes present the adaptability inherent in Filipino meals, and inform the story that making breakfast for ourselves and our family and friends is a trademark of the Filipino American expertise, one that’s deeply rooted in neighborhood care. 

As a breakfast staple, ensaymada — fluffy brioche lined in butter, sugar, and cheese — has developed over time to incorporate extra distinctive flavors and components. At my childhood breakfast desk, it got here recent from our native Goldilocks Bakeshop. These days you could come throughout ensaymada stuffed with ube halaya (purple yam jam) or Nutella. 

For my pal Kristy, discovering a option to take pleasure in an ensaymada that’s gluten-free and vegan resulted on this revolutionary Enslaymada (a recipe so good it slays) that she shares together with her household. For binding and leavening, she makes use of vegan egg replacer and baking powder in lieu of conventional eggs and yeast. These moist, candy muffins evoke the flavors of a traditional ensaymada, particularly with the topping. The wealthy vegan cream cheese buttercream accompanied with vegan cheddar cheese are an ideal steadiness of candy and salty. 

Despite the fact that fiesta meals for birthdays and particular events was additionally plentiful, it was the everyday-ness of breakfast that was a consolation that I may look ahead to every morning. Whether or not it was my mother or Auntie Rina cooking breakfast for us, I may rely on sharing my favourite meats, garlic fried rice, and eggs — the elements of silog — collectively as a household. Whereas silogs had been one thing we may have on any given morning, I longed for leisurely Saturdays after I may drink within the sound of my relations gossiping and laughing for hours with out having to fret about faculty or work reducing our meals brief. 

Throughout some weekdays, after I didn’t have time to eat an enormous breakfast, I cherished the nice and cozy pandesal my mother would typically thrust into my hand as I hurried to catch the bus. This yeasted roll was a staple from Valerio’s Metropolis Bakery — our go-to Filipino spot on the town. 

After I had a pair additional minutes earlier than I needed to go away for sophistication, my dad would minimize the pandesal in half, throw the slices within the toaster, butter them simply the best way I preferred it: malangi, the Kapampangan phrase for “dry.” I needed the butter to be utterly melted earlier than he added a sprinkle of sugar on high of the slices. After I’d take a chew, the sugar would hit my tongue first after which salty butter drenched into the topmost layer of bread for the end. Different occasions, I’d dip a complete roll in my sizzling chocolate and eat it in a succession of soggy bites whereas my dad would do the identical along with his pandesal and low. We’d sit collectively like mirror pictures of one another, with dribbling bits of bread soaked in our drinks of alternative. I made it a private problem to not lose the final chew of bread within the depths of my mug. 

Pandesal is made for versatile breakfasts. Whereas my household and I had our personal methods of consuming the bread within the morning, there are such a lot of totally different takes on a pandesal breakfast. In her household, my pal Gretchen has a beautiful silog plate recipe that features a candy Pandesal French Toast handed down from her mother. Every slice of custardy bread, browned to perfection, is drizzled with sweetened condensed milk. I really like that it doesn’t take lengthy for the pandesal to go from the frying pan to the desk. Not solely is the Carvajal plate piled excessive with the particular French toast, however additionally they have extremely juicy pork sausage patties or longanisa to associate with it. 

Since transferring to Brooklyn in 2017, lengthy gone are the times of breaking bread with my household each morning. At my loneliest, I yearned for a silog that would make me really feel like my dad and mom’ kitchen desk wasn’t truly throughout the nation. Perhaps like Patrick Star, I may take the reminiscences of dwelling a stone’s throw away from the folks I really like in California — a spot I known as residence for 22 years of my life — and drop it someplace proper within the coronary heart of New York with only a combination of rice and egg.

When Jollibee opened in Hell’s Kitchen in 2018, I couldn’t anticipate an opportunity to lastly purchase silogs as a result of I didn’t actually have any Filipino eating places in my neighborhood that served breakfast fare. The truth that there could be a Jollibee inside strolling distance of my workplace in Manhattan was a deal with! When my dad and mom didn’t have the power to cook dinner after Sunday morning mass, they might take us to our native Jollibee to get silogs within the morning and Filipino spaghetti for dinner. I strolled proper in a single morning considering I may order breakfast earlier than heading to work. 

I requested the cashier if I may get the tapsilog — tapa (marinated beef), sinangag (garlic fried rice) and itlog (sunny-side-up egg). Seems, they’ve a restricted menu at this location and solely promote fried hen and spaghetti, even at 9 a.m. Though I’d usually by no means say no to Chickenjoy and the spaghetti loaded with banana ketchup and sizzling canines, it was too early for this combo. Dejected, I retreated again to my workplace on an empty abdomen.

It was then that I noticed one of the best ways to fulfill my silog cravings could be to cook dinner a Filipino breakfast at residence. Earlier than that fateful morning, I’m ashamed to confess that I used to be too lazy to even attempt to make something Filipino. Part of me had a defeatist perspective that something I made would by no means reside as much as my household’s cooking. 

As a result of not even Jollibee may assist me, I mustered the braveness to make tocino from scratch utilizing a recipe I discovered on-line. After letting the pork shoulder remedy in a vat of soy sauce, brown sugar, and pineapple juice, I braised the marinated meat and the cooked tocino — dripping with fats — was so tender. It may not have tasted precisely the identical because the frozen, store-bought cured pork my dad and mom purchased for our household breakfasts, however it was nonetheless scrumptious.

Despite the fact that I had the tocino, sinangag, fried egg, and diced tomatoes tossed with spiced coconut vinegar, the ritual of breakfast didn’t really feel full with out anybody to share it with. In my coronary heart, cooking a silog may solely really feel proper if I had multiple mouth to feed. I lastly understood {that a} massive a part of why I cherished a Filipino breakfast was that I by no means felt alone whereas having it. 

I couldn’t wait to feed my boyfriend, Jason, this tocilog I used to be so pleased with and to take photos to ship to my mother and pop. He’d by no means had it earlier than however devoured each chew, sharing that he loved the best way the acidity of the vinegar juxtaposed the saltiness of the tocino. I beamed with pleasure.   

After I visited California in June 2021 for the primary time for the reason that pandemic began, I used to be in a position to convey Jason to fulfill my dad and mom. They didn’t know a lot about him apart from the truth that he’s Polish American — he’s truly Lithuanian however they by accident confused the 2 — and raised Catholic (music to my mother’s ears!), so I used to be anxious to expertise what it could be like with him additionally staying at our home. 

Once we ambled down the steps for breakfast, my mother emerged from the soiled kitchen (the out of doors kitchen the place she does all of the frying) holding the acquainted parts of silog, besides there was one thing new: kielbasa! We loved our “Polipino” (Polish Filipino) silog, rice and all, collectively as a household that day. 

Within the Filipino diaspora, there may be a lot cultural crossover in our meals. My Ate Molly can also be no stranger to those fusion meals. She has a beef Tapa Matzo Brei with Atchara recipe that superbly encapsulates her Filipino-Jewish heritage. Tapa, soy-marinated beef that’s thinly sliced, is the final word savory Filipino breakfast meat. It’s pleasant to eat a chew of Molly’s tapa with a Jewish Passover favourite: matzo brei. The atchara — composed of pickled papaya, carrot, and inexperienced bell pepper — lends a bitter observe that not solely cleanses the palate, but additionally makes you need to eat extra. 

Kielbasilog and the numerous iterations of the silog components have taught me that the perfect half a few Filipino breakfast is that there are not any guidelines. You may combine it up with no matter you might have readily available. When you have additional rice within the fridge, you possibly can fry that with oil and garlic. When somebody brings ensaymada as an providing, you place all of them out for folks to take pleasure in with their espresso. Breakfast will be as easy or elaborate as you’d like. Whether or not which means munching on pandesal or a ripe mango with a smattering of leftovers from dinner the evening earlier than, silog isn’t a lot about what you make, however who you eat it with. 

After I see my household — whether or not it’s my chosen one which I’ve made in New York or the individuals who I grew up with — across the desk for breakfast, I really feel full. I see the meal as a promise of a brand new starting for the day, and a particular place the place freestyling is the custom we move down from era to era. 

It seems my mother was proper. Breakfast? I don’t know a extra essential meal. 

Personally, I select to establish as Filipino American because it was at all times how I referred to myself rising up. I discovered about Filipinx after I was in school and I whole-heartedly assist the utilization of the time period for individuals who desire to make use of Filipinx for themselves. Under no circumstances do I need to prescribe a method of labeling identification — which is the battle I really feel the diaspora and mainland discourse stems from. Filipino American is simply what I used to be raised with and what I sometimes name myself now.