Guide
A guide to Filipino breakfast.
Garlic rice, a fried egg and something salty or sweet on the side: what Filipinos eat in the morning, and 10 breakfast dishes to cook at home.
By Roberto Sabanal · Updated
What is a Filipino breakfast?
A Filipino breakfast is a proper hot meal, and it almost always includes rice. The classic plate is a silog: sinangag (garlic fried rice), itlog (a fried egg) and a cured or fried meat or fish.
On cooler or slower mornings the rice goes into a pot instead, as lugaw, arroz caldo or goto, the rice porridges sold at roadside stalls. Bread has its place too: warm pandesal rolls from the corner bakery, dipped in coffee.
How a silog works
The name joins the first part of the meat's name to sinangag and itlog.
Tapsilog
Tapa (cured beef) with sinangag and itlog: the original, and still the most famous.
Tosilog
Tocino (sweet cured pork) with sinangag and itlog, also written tocilog.
Longsilog
Longganisa (Filipino sausage) with sinangag and itlog.
Bangsilog
Daing na bangus (marinated fried milkfish) with sinangag and itlog.
Filipino breakfast dishes
10 breakfast dishes, each linked to a full recipe with ingredients, timed steps and calories per serving.
The silog plate
Cook one of these with garlic rice and a fried egg and you have a silog.
Filipino Fried Rice
Sinangag: day-old rice fried with lots of garlic. The base of every silog, and the reason to keep leftover rice.
Beef Tapa
Thin beef cured in soy sauce, garlic, sugar and vinegar, then pan-fried until browned. With rice and egg it's tapsilog.
Pork Tocino
Thin pork in a sweet, pink cure, fried until caramelized and sticky. A Kapampangan classic and a children's favorite.
Filipino Longganisa
Sweet, garlicky pork sausages fried until the sugar caramelizes. Almost every town has its own style.
Daing na Bangus
Milkfish butterflied, marinated in vinegar, garlic and pepper and fried crisp, eaten with sliced tomatoes.
Tortang Talong
Roasted eggplant flattened, dipped in egg and pan-fried into a soft, smoky omelette.
Warm bowls
Rice porridge and soup, gingery and topped with fried garlic, for cool mornings and sick days.
Lugaw
Plain rice porridge with fried garlic, spring onions and calamansi: gentle, cheap and the base of the others.
Arroz Caldo
Rice porridge with chicken and plenty of ginger, topped with crisp garlic and a boiled egg.
Goto
Rice porridge with beef tripe in a ginger broth, a favorite at roadside stalls.
Chicken Sopas
Macaroni, shredded chicken and vegetables in a milky broth, a rainy-morning favorite with children.
Filipino breakfast habits
Rice in the morning
Rice at breakfast is normal, and sinangag exists to use up the previous night's rice.
Pandesal and coffee
Soft bread rolls bought warm from the panaderya early in the morning, eaten plain, with butter or dipped in coffee.
Sauce on the side
A small dish of spiced vinegar for longganisa and daing, and banana ketchup for tortang talong.
Breakfast all day
Silog restaurants, called tapsilogan, serve these plates at any hour, including late at night.
Questions about Filipino breakfast
What is a typical Filipino breakfast?
A silog: garlic fried rice and a fried egg with a cured meat or fish such as tapa, tocino, longganisa or daing na bangus. Rice porridge, and pandesal with coffee, are also common.
What does silog mean?
It joins sinangag (garlic fried rice) and itlog (egg). The first part of the meat's name goes in front: tapa makes tapsilog, tocino tosilog and longganisa longsilog.
Do Filipinos eat rice for breakfast?
Yes, most days. Garlic fried rice made from the previous day's rice is the usual base of a Filipino breakfast.
What is the difference between lugaw, arroz caldo and goto?
Lugaw is plain rice porridge. Arroz caldo is the same porridge cooked with chicken and lots of ginger, and goto is made with beef tripe.
More guides
All guides
34 dishes
Filipino food
What Filipino cuisine is, its flavors, history and regions, and 34 classic dishes to try.
16 dishes
Filipino desserts
Halo-halo, leche flan, ube and the rice cakes called kakanin: 16 sweets and when they're eaten.
14 dishes
Filipino soups
Sour sinigang, gingery tinola, rich bulalo and more: 14 soups and how they're eaten.