Pinoy Breakfasts

As an avid, self-proclaimed expert cook, I have searched for unique pinoy breakfasts that might eventually find a place alongside the standard sinangag (or pandesal) with processed food (your choice of sausages, ham, corned beef, embutido etc) with fried egg. Everywhere i go, it is always the same breakfast fare.

I encountered some variations in La Union and in Albay. In my mom's town of Aringay, we usually have Igado for breakfast, along with plain steamed rice and fresh mushroom soup (with bagoong isda and ampalaya leaves). In Albay, we have what we call "new look", a variation of the usual daing which i only see in Albay. It is served with sinalamog or day-old cooked rice cooked in pork fat. Another breakfast variation is the day-old inun-on or sinaing na isda (usually yellow fin or tulingan). The inun-on is usually served at dinner time, and whatever is left is fried in hot oil for breakfast. An alternative to the sinalamog rice is freshly cooked rice smothered inf resh coconut milk or carabao milk (yummy).

But the most fulfilling breakfast, although not necesarily pinoy, is the one i had in a Subic hotel a couple of years back. The hotel boasts of its famous Aussie breakfast, consisting of a thick slice of steak, 2 fried eggs, bacon, ham and their version of french toast, plus the usual sliced tomatoes for decoration. It's fat overload, i tell you!

In my memory, my Pinoy Breakfast (the ones my mom used to prepare for the family) varies from scrambled egg with tomatoes, scrambled eggs with mashed sardines, tinned sardines with philippine lemon, rock salt and freshly sliced native onions. Sometimes, my mom would serve us dilis with vinegar and local chili, home-made corned beef (yes, from scratch!), sauted canned tuna and whatever my mother can manage to serve at short notice. Then there's the very simple tapang batangas which she would marinate the night before and serve in the morning. Breakfast was definitely something to look forward to in our family. aysus!

Ikaw, what's your usual or most unique breakfast? Share mo naman!