Filipino Breakfast

I live for Filipino breakfast. It is my ultimate comfort food and I can’t ever turn down a good silog.

Explanatory comma: Silogs are classic Filipino dishes, usually eaten for breakfast, but to me they’re an anytime affair. They typically contain garlic fried rice, a fried egg or two, some sort of cured meat (usually longanisa, tocino, or tapa), and sometimes achara (pickled vegetables).

I’m a huge fan of The Bear and happened to be in Chicago last week. In episode 3 of season 2 of the show, Sydney goes to the only Michelin-starred Filipino restaurant, Kasama. One of the dishes they flashed on the screen was of this here Filipino Breakfast. I knew I had to try it. Also, a friend of mine who’s a pastry chef in Chicago tipped me off to the fact that they also make stellar pastries.

Before we headed out for our trip, I did my research and learned that Kasama’s dinners are reservation only, 13 courses, and $255 a head. While I love to eat and I’m sure their dinners are a mind-blowing experience, that’s not really my kind of jam, so I opted to go for their daytime menu which is first come, first serve. I met a friend there at noon, waited about 5 minutes for a table, and then went to town on the Filipino Breakfast, which was pretty damn good! (Truth be told, my all-time favorite silog—outside of the Philippines, obviously—is the Tocino at Purple Yam in Brooklyn, and, lucky for me, it’s about a ten-minute walk from my apartment.) But back to Kasama’s silog: the egg was perfect, the achara on point, the longanisa was good but nothing too remarkable, but that tocino was excellent. The big revelation for me was the herb mix on top of the meat, which was made up of scallions (normal), cilantro (getting a little kinky), and mint (bonkers). The mint is a surprisingly perfect complement to the smokiness of the tocino. I might need to start adding it in when I make tocino at home. And when I say “make tocino at home,” I mean “when I use Mama Sita’s spice mix.”

I’m a tough customer when it comes to eating Filipino food because I’m constantly comparing everything to my mom’s cooking. It’s an unfair comparison, so it’s very rare I give a rave review for Filipino food that isn’t made by one of my family members. But, the Filipino Breakfast at Kasama is quite excellent and definitely worth checking out. I also picked up an ube huckleberry basque tart and while it was also quite good, there wasn’t enough ube flavor for me. But I digress. This was the best thing I ate all week, and ranks as #2 on my list of top silogs. Not bad, Kasama, not bad. I’m already looking forward to going back to try more.