Rodic's Tapsilog

Filipinos have a knack at naming their food with catchy names, especially those sold on the streets. There is one dish, however, that is so well known that it can be found not only on food stands, but in fastfood stores and in restaurants as well. Ladies and gentlemen: the tapsilog.

Tapsilog is actually a combination of three words: tapa (beef), sinangag (fried rice), and itlog (egg). It sounds a lot like breakfast food but it's available any time of the day. This quick-fry food item has become so popular that there are even varieties that has the fried rice and egg (usually sunny side-up, but you may also request for scrambled, which I prefer) combo is partnered with hotdog (hotsilog), bangus (bangsilog), danggit (dangsilog), and so on... variety, it seems, is only limited by imagination!




We craved for tapsilog one evening and we chanced upon Rodic's along Salcedo Street in Makati. Rodic's is a landmark all by itself; it's a popular tapsilugan (a place where tapsilog is served) in the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman and I do not know of any student in UP who as visited this place at least once in their college years. Rodic's is so popular there that even famous cartoonist Larry Alcala even made a caricature on life at UP Diliman with Rodic's in it!

I called my companion while holding out my camera phone to take a shot of the replica Larry Alcala's caricature of UP Diliman. I wanted her to more a bit, she thought I wanted to take her photo... oh well. :-)

 The tapsilog! Best eaten with spiced vinegar on the side. Some stores even offer free soup.
 So what can I say with Rodic's tapsilog? Well, the tapa taste's a bit different indeed. It actually reminded me of Pares, another form of street food. The fried rice and fried egg is the usual though. Well... I like my tapa with the beefy taste intact and without additives and spices. Or perhaps it's because it was already near closing time that we did not get the better part of the tapa serving for that day? Hmmm... perhaps a second visit is needed.

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