Filipinos simply love to eat! As a country oozing with natural resources, history, and mixed cultures, you can expect a diverse food scene at the table, which includes our well-loved Filipino breakfast meals.
Most of our meal’s ingredients can be freshly picked from the backyard, easily bought at the market, or made in our own homes. Thus our food is hearty, practical, cheap, tasty, and interesting!
23 Must-try Filipino breakfast meals
1. Carabao’s milk with rice
Carabao’s milk is thicker and creamier compared to that of cow’s or goat’s milk. It is an excellent source of calcium and protein. Filipinos found a unique way of consuming carabao’s milk by pouring and mixing it into slightly hot rice. Perhaps this is Filipino’s version of cereals or oatmeal and milk!
2. Silog
Silog is the one of the best Filipino breakfast meals ever invented! It is actually an equation of three key ingredients, joined together in a plate. “Si” stands for “sinangag” or fried rice and “log” is for “itlog” or sunny-side up egg. Add a third ingredient and your combo is complete!
Examples:
Tapa (cured beef) + sinangag + itlog = Tapsilog
Bangus (fried milkfish) + sinangag + itlog = Bangsilog
Ham + sinangag + itlog = Hamsilog
Tinapa (smoked fish) + sinangag + itlog = Tisilog
The list of combinations never end! Breakfast can be fun too!
3. Champorado
Filipinos simply know on what is yummy! Champorado is a sweet chocolate porridge that can be eaten hot or cold, and together with milk or, if you are adventurous, tuyo (salty dried fish).
4. Kapeng Barako
This variety of coffee is locally grown in the provinces of Batangas and Cavite, Philippines. It is a specie of Liberica and Excelsa. This coffee has a strong taste that it is called as “Manly coffee”.
Some enjoy it with a little sugar and cream or carabao’s milk. Match it with Pandesal and you are off to a great day!
5. Tsokolate de Batirol
Tsokolate de Batirol is a hot choco drink made from tsokolate tablea (real cacao tablets or balls) using a wooden whisk. You can have this fuzzy warm cup of hot choco as an awesome morning fix that you can also enjoy any time of the day!
6. Sinangag
One of the smart and delicious ways of recycling your leftover rice from last night’s dinner is by turning it into sinangag or garlic fried rice! Filipino breakfast meals commonly come with rice and we do not like wasting food, thus, sinangag is a genius idea. It is a great pair to most of our local “ulam” or viand like scrambled eggs, sausages, daing na bangus (marinated milkfish), and many more!
image: Elmer Domingo for wikimedia
6. Puto
Puto is traditionally made from mixing and steaming ground rice (but some use cake flour), sugar, baking powder, salt, egg whites, milk, and water. It can be eaten as a snack, a partner with Dinuguan (savory stew of pork or meat in blood), or simply top it off with butter or cheese and enjoy it with your morning coffee! Yum!
7. Cuchinta
Puto’s partner in crime is Cuchinta. It is a traditional Filipino rice cake often topped with shaved coconut. It is very easy to make so you might want to try it at home. Here is the link to its recipe!
8. Suman
Suman is another rice cake from the Philippines which is made by steaming glutinous rice (or cassava) cooked in coconut milk, wrapped in banana or palm leaves. You can enjoy it with sugar or latik (sweet byproduct when coconut milk is continuously cooked). The list never ends for Suman variety that you can try!
9. Pandesal
This bread is famous in the Philippines as it perfectly goes along with any spread and is the unbeatable partner for your hot coffee every morning! Pandesal is made of flour, eggs, yeast, sugar, and salt. It is slightly sweet, soft, and fluffy which makes it amazing with practically any spread that you can think of! Name it: butter, cheese, mayo, liverspread, peanut butter etc. Pandesal is simply magical!
image: Obsidian Soul on Wikimedia
10. Tuyo
Tuyo is salty dried fish (herring) that goes best with sinangag, over easy eggs and sinamak (local spiced vinegar). It is considered as a poor man’s food but it is now cooked and enjoyed by any social class as a great pair for sinangag meals and gourmet pastas with tuyo!
Warning: It can be smelly when cooked so try to bake them instead of openly frying tuyo. Trust me, it’s worth the struggle.
11. Danggit
It is a variety of salted dried fish from Cebu, Philippines. Many prefer this one over tuyo since it can be eaten as a whole sans the innards of the fish. Danggit is best dipped in spiced vinegar or sliced tomatoes!
12. Arroz Caldo
A Filipino breakfast meals list will be incomplete without Arroz Caldo (Filipino rice porridge). Moms would usually cook this when their child is unwell or when the rainy season hits, an excellent comfort food indeed! Nonetheless, you can eat it any time of the day! It is similar to Chinese congee as it is topped with calamansi (native lemon), soy sauce, green onions, and fried garlic.
13. Salted Egg
Filipinos enjoy eggs in a lot of different ways. One of which is by curing chicken or duck eggs in a brine solution or wrapping it in mud. The end product is called “itlog na maalat/ burong itlog” or salted eggs. Try it with sinangag and tomato slices, you will never look at eggs the same way again!
14. Tocino
Tocino is Pampanga’s (Philippine’s culinary center) pride! It is cured pork belly meat marinated in Anise wine, annatto, water, sugar, salt, salitre and pineapple juice for the tart flavor. Add sinangag and a sunny-side-up egg and your Tosilog is ready!
15. Longganisa
Filipino-style sausages called as longganisa has Spanish roots. It is made by mixing ground pork, pork fat, sugar, and spices. The Philippines is an archipelago comprised of various palates, thus, different versions of longganisa is created. There is Lucban (garlic-rich version), Guagua (salty to sour variety), Hamonado (sweet Spanish style), and skinless (bare version) and many more!
16. Daing
Fish prepared as “daing” are traditionally split open, gutted, salted, and then sun-dried. One of its version will be Daing na Bangus. This is marinated milkfish in a concoction of vinegar, peppercorn, garlic, salt and some cayenne pepper powder and other spices. Add sinangag, sunny-side up and you have Bangsilog!
17. Paksiw Na Bangus
Filipinos like to pair paksiw na bangus (milkfish cooked in vinegar) with sinangag as well. In a pot, fish is simmered with eggplant, onion, ginger, garlic, vinegar, water, peppercorns, finger chilis and salt for 15 minutes or more. A little oil is drizzled on top afterward. Since vinegar is a natural preservative, this dish can last for days!
18. Sopas
In the 1600s, Spaniards introduced this soup to the Filipinos. It is a lovely bowl of chicken slices, elbow macaroni, and veggies in a creamy and milky broth. One of the hearty Filipino breakfast meals that you can have to warm up your tummy in cold rainy mornings!
19. Bibingka
During the Christmas season, the unique scent of toasted banana leaves fills the air outside the churches. It means bibingka is being cooked! This is a Filipino rice cake made from rice flour, coconut milk, eggs, water, salted egg, slices of cheese, and shaved coconut for topping. It is best partnered with tsokolate de batirol! Delish!
20. Palabok
Pancit Palabok is a tasty Filipino noodle dish topped with shrimp, gravy, smoked fish flakes, pork cracklings, sliced boiled egg and green onions. This is a light yet festive way to start your day!
21. Mami
This noodle soup is a complete Filipino meal in a bowl from Chinese origins. Mami is made with wheat flour noodles, broth, choice of meat (chicken, beef, pork), boiled eggs, and dumplings. Mommies usually cook this at home for their family but you can also get a bowl of Mami through hawkers or peddling sellers along the busy streets of the Philippines.
22. Pancit Bihon Guisado
This noodle dish pertains to how “pancit bihon” is cooked. Guisado means to sauté. Thin rice noodles are sautéed with thin cuts of pork or chicken, shrimp, veggies, soy sauce, and spices.
23. Ginataang Mais
This is a Filipino dish that can be eaten as a dessert, snack, or breakfast since it is packed with carbohydrates which will surely boost your energy levels! It is made by cooking coconut milk, glutinous rice, sugar, and whole kernel corn.
Filipinos surely love to start their day with a hearty meal! Above are some of the Filipino breakfast meals that you can try when you visit this beautiful Pearl of the Orient. Enjoy!
Republished with permission from Nonilo
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