Lasang Pinoy take off -A Taste of the Philippines
August 16, 2005
This month of August marks the launching of Lasang Pinoy - an event to make the writers and readers know more about pinoy (Filipino) food…a brainstorm of Karen and Stef. An event where not just food bloggers are welcome to participate but as well as the nonfood, even non bloggers too. And for the initial theme, they have chosen to honor Benigno ‘Ninoy’ Aquino.
Click this link to know more about the man.
As for me, at that time, I didn’t knew who the man was. I never knew his political stance, never knew the reason why he was returning home from an exile, never heard his voice. All I knew was that one day, I was in 3rd year highschool then, my classmate Louie came to school crying. All he could say between his sobs was ‘ they killed him, they killed my uncle.’ I then remember the faculty staffs begun talking about Louie’s uncle. It was Ninoy Aquino.
Slowly, my classmates and I begun taking interest to know more about Ninoy, we would listen to Louie’s stories, why Ninoy’s family had to leave the country, and why he had to return. I could still feel Louie’s pain, could still see his red puffed eyes from crying. I remember majority of the school mourning with Louie by wearing black pins on our uniforms. I also recall our class’ plan to go to his uncle’s wake in Quezon City but due to the hundreds, maybe thousands of people gathered on the streets leading to the Aquino home, it was pretty impossible to penetrate the heavy mass of bodies. I have attempted to go to the wake but once, since my mother has warned me that it’ll be next to impossible to see Ninoy since more and more people were expected to flock the Aquino home, some were even coming from the provinces.
That was the impact of Ninoy Aquino to the people. People needing change. People from all walks of life. His death was an eye opener which led to unity among the people. And toppled the dictatorial rule of F. Marcos. It was done through a peaceful revolt, the People Power revolution.
To make a long story short, Ninoy’s widow became the main figure of the opposition and eventually replaced Ferdinand marcos as the Philippine president. Cory Aquino became the 11th president of the Republic of the Philippines.
for this month’s theme, I have chosen to make TapSIlog. That’s short for Tapa (marinated beef slices | gemarineerd rundvlees) Sinangag (garlic rice | knoflookrijst) and Itlog (fried egg | gebakkenei)
- half kilo of beef, finely sliced about 1cm t x 10cm w
- a cup of vinegar
- chopped 5 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp of white sugar
- 1 pinch of black pepper
* mix together and let stand for few hours
** fry in oil, medium heatFor the Sinangag:
- pre cooked 300 grams of rice, cold
- chopped 3-5 cloves of garlic
- sliced 1 med. onion
- salt to taste
- oil
** in a medium heated wok with oil, toss the onion in and let cook until it’s transparent, set aside. Toss the garlic in, stir until it turns golden brown, then add in the pre cooked rice. Stir for about 5 minutes, add the onion back in and add salt to taste, continue to stir for about 3-4 minutes. While doing this- on a separate pan, fry some Itlog, sunny side up.Done.————
incidentally.. 2 years ago, I was able to get in touch with a highschool classmate and he emailed me this 1983 class picture of ours
so where was I in that picture?…oh, don’t even go there.
Posted in 
August 19th, 2005 at 10:58 am
oh my! i didn’t realize they have tapsilog in holland until you posted it on this site…lol. nice work, thess. nothing speaks of people power, masa effect and being pinoy more than good ol’ tapsilog.cheerio!
August 19th, 2005 at 11:48 am
AJAY: hello dear! how have you been? :smile:…and not only us pinoy eat tapsilog, this happens to be my husband, bestfriends and dad-in-law’s (all dutch) favorite as well, and they don’t mind the smell of their breath afterwards, ha ha.
speaking of masang pinoy, I loved eating this at local turo-turo when I was in college, seated beside the jeepney drivers, other students, teachers etc..ah, the smell of vinegar with salt and fresh garlic as sawsawan
August 19th, 2005 at 11:50 am
Fantastic! Thanks for writing down your memories Thess! You must’ve had a crash course on politics, with Louie as your classmate!
August 19th, 2005 at 12:14 pm
Hello Thess - yummy tapsilog! i remember my last one - it was about 10 years ago (I’ve stopped eating red meat since). But i remember it like it was yesterday - the crunchiness of the tapa, the oily goodness of the egg and the garlicky-ness of the fried rice. Masarap with chili in vinegar
August 19th, 2005 at 1:26 pm
Looks delicious. My Caucasian hubby loves sinangag. “Babe you making garlic fried rice?” is all I hear once he smells the garlic..:smile:
August 19th, 2005 at 1:37 pm
Asan?? Asan ang sawsawang suka at sili! My gawd, I’m drooling tita Thess.
Yes, tapsilog became popular during those times as well. Same with the gotohan. You’ve got good memories of those times, Thess. I wonder what happened to your classmate Louie. Is he an Aquino?
August 19th, 2005 at 3:39 pm
Yum…tapsilog!!! I have been looking for a recipe for tapa-making because I want to make it from scratch instead of having to buy the pre-prepared ones from the market…thanks a lot, good timing for me
Wow, you went to school with Ninoy’s nephew! You must have really felt the pulse of it all!
August 19th, 2005 at 4:54 pm
Wow! Your entry is simply mouthwatering! I just LOVE tapa! I like my tapa really sweet though.
Is the 1 tsp. of sugar for the tapa sweet enough?
August 19th, 2005 at 5:07 pm
thess..my tummy’s angry. pano yan?
i wish someone will cook this for me NOW…i’ll try this weekend but somehow our w/ 3 hungry big kids at home our rice pot is always being emptied.
yummmy.
August 19th, 2005 at 5:35 pm
oh, you just made my stomach growl! Hindi pa ako nag breakfast
I bet I know which one you are in the class picture….the pretty one!!! hehe!
August 20th, 2005 at 8:43 am
KAREN: no political lessons at all but rather tricks in how to solve the rubik’s cube in less than a minute..the dude was a genius in that thing.
thanks for visiting & hope to see you again.
It was only when his uncle was killed that our usually normal days in school became a bit interesting…before that, we would just hang out by the corridor and mending our own business..kanya-kanyang ‘barkada’ so to speak…thanks for swinging by!
JMOM: : hello there..pa hug nga (((huggg)))…who? pretty one? you were looking at the wrong one! ha ha ha, I swear 
CHICKPEACE: hi there! you’re right, chili in vinegar makes it better..a winter secret
DEXIE: hello Dexie! ha ha, my husband’s the same…a garlic rice guy..thanks for passing by!
CELIAK: asan? asan gotohan? ayayay!! Tita C, correct ka dyan may mga point-point | turo-turo na combi yang 2 na yan nakakagutom isipin, whew! Yes, Louie is an Aquino, mom is Ninoy’s sister.
JOEY: hello there! pretty easy to make, isn’t it
JEYC: hi!! oh you like it sweet too? because I knew that sugar isn’t a ’standard’ ingredient for most people when making this tapa..so yey! I’ve found you ;)…I’m sure that you could add more sugar, not only it’ll make your tapa sweeter but glistening too. Thanks for visiting!
STEL: tita Stel, I might make this again tom…tara, have dinner with us!! ha ha ha, laging ubos ba laman ng kaserola? that’s what you get with growing kids
August 20th, 2005 at 4:40 pm
Hi, Thess. It took me a while to figure out how to post. I have been wanting to greet you since your birthday pero I can’t. So here I am greeting you a belated happy birthday.
Nice to see you’re back.
August 22nd, 2005 at 10:03 am
TING: hello there! thanks for the bday greeting :)..right, my old ‘eetsmakelijk’ page was bugged and cb wasn’t working anymore, that’s why it’s difficult to leave messages there.
I will blog hop you later, thanks for swinging by , Ting