Meat + rice + egg = Perfect Filipino breakfast
Breakfast is a hearty affair for many Filipinos. A typical Filipino breakfast generally consists of rice, sunny side up eggs and some delicious meat dishes.
For many Filipinos living in Australia, ‘silog’ brings back many wonderful memories of home.
‘Silog’ as Filipinos call it, is a breakfast dish using last night’s leftover rice cooked into garlic rice or sinangag, paired with a fried egg, a meat of choice, and a side of sweet pickled papaya called atsara.
Café introduces ‘silog’ meals in Melbourne
‘Silog’ is a breakfast dish using last night’s leftover rice cooked into garlic rice or sinangag, paired with a fried egg, a meat of choice and atsara Source: SBS Filipino/Claudette Centeno
In the busy street of La Trobe, The Basement Cafe & Bar has captured the hearts of people because of their Filipino breakfast offerings.
Café owner Elbert Estampador shares he has always wanted to introduce Filipino food in Australia since opening up two years ago.
“When I bought the cafe, I kept the old menu and staff as advised by the previous owner but after a year, I started introducing Filipino food because that’s what we really wanted to do.”
He adds that it was only when the COVID-19 situation improved when they were able to launch their Filipino breakfast meals.
“When the cases declined, we started to put Filipino food in our menu, and not later, we were noticed by a lot of Australians.”
While the cafe offers both Australian and Filipino meals, Elbert says customers drool over their ‘silog’ meals.
“We’re not a fully Filipino restaurant, but our best sellers are the tapsilog, longsilog, and bangsilog.”
To add to their well-admired Filipino breakfast meals, they’ve also introduced other Filipino dishes as specials.
“So many Filipino customers have been requesting for halo-halo and taho, so we thought of expanding by adding Filipino specials every Saturday. We’ve recently served palabok, menudo, ube muffins, leche flan, arroz caldo, and pancit guisado.”
Café owner Elbert Estampador Source: sbs Filipino/Claudette Centeno
Other nationalities are loving ‘silog’ too
While ‘silog’ is mostly enjoyed by Filipinos, Elbert reveals that even non-Filipinos salivate for it.
“Surprisingly, there are many non-Filipino customers who enjoy silog meals. When they get to taste it, they come back for it. Once I had customers of different nationalities who ordered a silog meal and I was surprised that all their plates came back empty."
Other nationalities are loving ‘silog’ Source: SBS Filipino/Claudette Centeno
Popularising 'silog' in Australia
While not all Filipino restaurants have succeeded in Australia, Elbert is lucky enough that his cafe is always full house.
In Melbourne, most Filipino restaurants are located within the suburbs, but Elbert believes that the CBD is the best location to introduce Filipino food.
“I know many Filipino restaurants in the suburbs, but to be honest, CBD is more accessible to people so it makes sense to open the cafe here in the city.”
Missing home has pushed Elbert to really introduce silog to Australia.
“I personally missed Filipino food. Even the people I work with in the cafe feel the same so we decided to put it out there.”
He believes that his café is a means to be able to share and introduce the unique flavours of Filipino food and they continue to make it their mission to popularise it, and share it to other cultures.
“In order to make our food trend, we need to put it out there and share it for the world to taste. I believe that Filipino food is becoming popular in Australia. It’s the next trending food.”
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