Live in the Philippines

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What kind of breakfast do you like?

Food/Drink / by

In the Philippines, if you go to a restaurant and want to order breakfast, you are usually faced with a few choices for complete meals.

They usually list a “Filipino Breakfast” using exactly that name, although you don’t always know exactly what the Filipino Breakfast consists of.

Another “full meal” breakfast that is on most menus is the “American Breakfast“.  There are usually not other choices like a “British Breakfast” and “Australian Breakfast”.  No German, Austrian, Australian, Irish, French or Japanese breakfasts either!  Nope.  You can choose whatever you like, as long as it is Filipino or American!  I have seen a Continental Breakfast listed on some restaurant menus too, but not usually.  Of course, in the Philippines, if you are a foreigner, that means you are American, and will be called an American no matter what country you are from, so I guess that the choice of a Filipino or American Breakfast is fitting.

Tapsilog

Tapsilog
Tapsilog

Among all Filipino breakfasts, one of the more famous breakfasts is called Tapsilog.  What is Tapsilog?

  • Tapa – This is meat entree consisting of a semi dried beef that is flavored with a bit of spiciness, maybe with some vinegar.
  • Sinangag – This is fried rice.  Usually with Tapsilog the fried rice you get is garlic rice.
  • Itlog – Itlog is an egg.  With a breakfast of Tapsilog the egg you will always get is “sunny side up”, unless you request that your egg be cooked another way.

American Breakfast

As I said earlier, you can never be completely sure what you will get with these “country” breakfasts.  Personally, I have usually found that the “American Breakfast” does not really have things that most Americans eat for breakfast!  Probably one of the most common meat items on the American Breakfast is a hot dog.  I don’t think I have ever seen an American eat a hot dog for breakfast before, except in the Philippines (when they order an American Breakfast!).

So, I think it is safe to say that you won’t always get what you expect you might get.

Another thing that is almost always, in my experience, part of the American Breakfast is rice.  Again, I don’t ever remember seeing an American person eat rice for breakfast (nor for most meals).  Normally, for the starchy part of an American breakfast you would see perhaps some kind of potatoes, probably most commonly hash browns.  But, rice?  Not very often, if at all.  Instead of rice, sometimes you will see toasted bread with the American breakfast, which is fairly common in America, so that is not a bad choice.

What is your experience?

So, probably most people who read this site either live in the Philippines, or have at least traveled here a few times.  What is your experience of breakfasts you have seen or tried here in the Philippines?  Did you come across any breakfast meals that surprised you?  Maybe they surprised you in a pleasant way, or a not so pleasant way.  Let us know what surprises you have experienced, and how you liked them!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  3. Bob,
    My favorite breakfast would have to be the omelet, which mostly you only see in foreign restaurants. There is a Swiss restaurant in Angeles that has the best ham, cheese and mushroom omelet served w/dark bread that i’ve eaten anywhere.

  4. My husband likes scrambled eggs, steam rice and tocino for breakfast when we vacation in the Philippines. Sometimes, he chooses longganisa for meat. Thankfully, I trained my babies’ palate. They can eat spam, steam rice and eggs if they visit us in the Philippines someday. Why, they even anticipate marinated boneless baby milkfish. SARANGANI brand, of course. Tee Hee!

    • I like longanisa and tocino. They are pretty good meats, but i have to be choosy and go for something that is sugarless due to my diabetes. These days, though, you can find sugarless things like that, which used to be unheard of in the Philippines.

  5. Jollibee beef tapa (when not out of stock) Beef tapa is very nice with the fried egg and fried rice. Washed down with a hot chocolate.
    Sometimes I will have the “English breakfast” at the Norweigan restaurant in town. Plenty of bacon on toast. Egg and even baked beans if you want.
    As usual in the Philippines it tastes better because of the low cost. If you want to go out for breakfast in Australia you almost need to go apply for a bank loan to pay for it! ?

  6. I like anything for breakfast….Coffee is the important part! One thing that surprised me though is a favorite breakfast of my Filipina wife: oatmeal with chopped apples in it. Being american, I also like mine with brown sugar. Anyway this is the Philippines so expect fish, vegetables and rice for all meals!

    • You are right. Food is not a meal if there is no rice.. it is only a snack. I never eat rice with breakfast, though, and only very rarely with lunch or dinner.

      • Ha ha ha…..I have to comment! My mother-in-law comes to visit from the province to our home in Manila….often the whole “gang” will show up and I will order in Pizza or such to feed the multitudes. Later, sometimes in the middle of the night, Nanay will come to the kitchen to “find” some rice to eat. “I didn’t have any rice”. “Pizza is merienda!”.

        • Yep, for sure. Every Filipino will tell you that no rice = snack only. Well, except my wife and kids.. they lived in the States long enough that they are used to have some meals without rice. 🙂

  7. Don’t forget that the Filipino is not normally given a knife, where as the American is. I remember one time my Filipina wife had to ask for a knife and was brought one, a few moments later another waitress saw the knife on the table by her and tried to take it away to be replaced with a spoon. The first waitress told her it was OK that it was requested. This has happened more than once to us during our visits to the Philippines and eating in the restaurants.

    • Ha ha.. I didn’t forget about that.. it just was not really part of the article. Usually, the spoon is used as a combo of a knife and spoon in the Philippines. 🙂

  8. I normally eat a eggs, hash browns and one of the following tocino, longanisa or bacon for breakfast. Every now and then it’s corned beef hash instead with rice and eggs. The hash browns are the frozen type that we buy at SM here.

    • Hi Gary – So you are doing a real mix of cultures on the plate! I do something like that myself a lot of times. Except for the hash browns part.. I don’t care for the frozen ones…. Feyma makes them from scratch for me. 🙂

      • I spent 15 years in Hawaii and it prepped me a lot for living here with the foods. I forgot to mention Spam in my post above. Spam is definitely another breakfast meat in our household. No for the hashbrowns, my wife doesnt cook and I am slowly teaching our help to cook western foods. Its a process.

        • When I was a kid we ate Spam, my dad loved the stuff. I tried some a couple years ago and just didn’t like it. I will leave it for my Filipino friends.

  9. Tacinolog works for me…with some pandasal of course. My biggest complaint is that my meal usually arrives lukewarm or cold.

    • Hi Michael – I also prefer tocino compared to tapa. Around here, that is called “Tocilog”. At Taps Restaurant, they have the “log” dishes with any kind of meat you want, and a different name for each meal. 🙂 I don’t think I have ever gotten a cold meal at Taps. Usually after you order the food is in front of you in about 2 minutes or so.. no time for it to get cold!

  10. The first couple of years I lived here, I really missed the big American breakfast I was used to. Eggs, fresh-made hash browns, country-style (meaning Southern US style) breakfast sausage (usually accompanied by a heap of sausage gravy). I was so desperate for that country sausage taste that I actually brought back the seasonings in bulk on return from my US trips, and made my own! A lifetime of food habits die slowly. While I enjoy a Filipino breakfast from time to time, my real treat now is blueberry pancakes from Pancake House! ….but I have to settle for a side of bacon since I still cannot get that country-sausage taste I grew up on! After all these years here I still crave the taste! Ha ha ha…

    • Hi Mark – Feyma has been making her own Country style breakfast sausage for many years here. Paul Thompson makes it also. Both have shared their recipes on the site over the years. 🙂 Now that we have S&R here in Davao, we can easily buy those things without having to make our own.

      You are right.. food is a comfort thing, and the habit dies very slowly, if at all. What we grew up with is important to most people, and when you are suddenly transplanted to a different country it can be a shock!

  11. I am not picky about breakfast long as there is good coffee, eggs, meat (no fish) and rice or hash browns. Notice the good in front of the coffee. We were staying in a hotel in Manila and I had the worst cup of coffee I have ever had in the 51 years of my life. Tasted like someone ground up a old burnt tire and used it to sub for coffee.

    • Hi Scott – Ha ha.. you said you were not picky.. but then listed out some fairly stringent criteria! 🙂 Just joking.. we all gotta have what we want, and what we like!

      • I just don’t care for fish for breakfast, any other time of the day it’s ok lol. And a bad coffee is a travesty against humanity. The cup I had at that hotel was beyond bad. My wife tasted her cup and was OMG, so she had a relative go and get us some 3 in 1 to drink LOL. To this day I still have a picture of that cup of coffee on my phone.

        • Yeah, I like fish, but not for breakfast. As for coffee… as far as I am concerned there is not restraurant that makes a cup of coffee that I care for! 🙂 I am very picky about my coffee.

  13. I have had a British breakfast in the Philippines they served loads you just eat as much as you like until your full! Sofitel is one, spiral, avenue plaza and the diamond hotel in Manila do a British breakfast the food there is brilliant
    My British breakfast in the uk was eggs on toast and tea or coffee!

    The hotels I have been in serve Japanese food to!

    Sorry Bob but you need to get out more my good friend! Lol.

  14. The best version of ” American Breakfast ” I have found during my visits is from room service at the hotel where I stay. Two eggs to order, 3 slices ” Toasted Bread ” ( dry ) rice, ham slices or bacon, 3 slices of cucumber and a piece or two of fruit plus a cup of hot water and a 3 in 1 instant coffee.

    I have tried Beef Tapa at Chow King and Jollibee and also the breakfast with hot dogs that I guess are replacements for sausage.

    On a recent visit I was with a group of people who said we are going to stop for breakfast. It was a roadside stand kind of place and as I remember the breakfast was chicken, rice, and some kind of fish soup that to me looked like some kind of almost clear broth with a few vegatables froating around in it.

    • Hi Bob
      How are you doing?

      Yeah that dry toast is kind of a turn off.

      On that American breakfast at your hotel… how American did you feel it was?

      • Compared to other breakfast options, the ” American Breakfast ” from room service at the hotel has been the closest thing to an American Breakfast. Bacon, Eggs, toast, Coffee although the coffee was not real brewed coffee but the 3 in 1 nescafe instant. Obviously the differences were rice, 3 slices of cucumber and a piece or two of fruit but still close enough.

        Pancakes are available at Jollibee and most likely McDonalds for a ” kind of ” breakfast with butter and syrup available as well.

        I Don’t really care for Rice with every meal and i began thinking what we have that might be similar and I came up with the idea the in the USA it could very easily be Potatoe. Home fries with breakfast, French Fries with lunch and Baked Potatoe with dinner. I will take a guess that potatoe is our equivalent to Filipinos eating rice 3 times a day.

        I have never seen brown rice being served in The Philippines. I have heard that brown rice is supposed to have more nutrients than white rice which supposedly has a lot of nutrients stripped off of it in the processing. Is brown rice available there ?

  15. My favourite filipino breakfast is champorado, we grow the cocoa in our garden and alway take a supply back to the UK with us. Shop bought coca powder just doesn’t do the job.

  16. My breakfast is normally whatever fruit is in season. Lunch is the big meal for me … then siesta time. I do like garlic tapa (at lunch). Eat well my friend, my wife’s glucose has been in the 105 range, since her A1C level was over 10. Testing this month will hopefully be better.

  17. At a restaurant the breakfast we have is: potatoes or ham, Scrambled eggs with chicken, squash bread, and a choice of fruit juices. My wife likes the Filipino breakfast: Fish, rice and coffee.

    Rusty

  19. When I’m at a hotel with “free breakfast” I tend to look for the garlic rice and the hard-boiled eggs. Sometimes I’m happy with the “ulam” offered, but usually not. I don’t complain…generally I only want some protein/bulk in my tummy, along with some caffeine and maybe a morning cigar. I know what Filipinos like for breakfast….I can handle about 20 percent of it that time of morning.

    Great…I won’t starve. I have WAY more important things to do than complain about breakfast.

    Oh, by the way…most of the hotels with a breakfast buffet offer an omelet station. Ask for an omelette with two eggs, salt, pepper, and a splash of hot sauce….there you go…perfect scrambled eggs.

    The key to happiness in this country is not getting grumpy because they don’t read your mind or even understand your explicit instructions. No, the key to happiness is learning how your words are understood by the servers. When you know how they will interpret your requests, you can learn to modify those requests to get what you actually want.

    Wait…it sounds as if I’m saying that visitors to this country should adjust to the local culture and language. Actually…yes…that is EXACTLY what I’m saying.

  20. In my expierience the best American Breakfast in the PI is Angeles City. The restaurants there compete for the busisness of all the foriegners there.

  21. Bob
    Off the top of my head I can name quite a few great breakfast places in the Subic area that do serve:
    Filipino, American Australian and British Breakfast and a few other countries
    A couple are:
    Vasco’s on the water (Subic)
    Sit-N’-Bull (Barrio)
    Extreme Espresso (Subic)
    And there are many more
    I like the British Breakfast because it is similar to the American but with Bacon and Bangers, fried Tomatoes and chips.
    Breakfast with corned beef and hash browns;
    The old Navy favorite SOS
    Southern Biscuits and gravy, with grits
    Pancakes and French toast
    Omelettes in every type with anything you want in it.
    We (The Family) go out to breakfast almost every Sunday and deciding where to go takes the most time.
    Only my Son-in-Law Chris orders the Filipino breakfast, he’s a purest!
    Forty minutes away from my house in Angeles City is the Clarkton Hotel that serves a buffet breakfast in a beautiful restaurant, at a reasonable price and fresh food restocked constantly. Well worth the drive!

    • Hi Paul – I like SOS myself… 🙂

      Breakfast is a great meal, there is so much variety that you can have! Of course, you can always have breakfast for dinner or lunch… make it brunch!

      Thanks for sharing that list, some people might find it useful when they are visiting your area!

    • especially if there is a large expat population, then it is a win/win situation for everybody. Great foods, good price, good jobs for filipina’s, nice tips. I forgot, the expats who own these nice restaurant do very well.

    • 805 of the really good restaurants in both Angles City and Olongapo City are owned by people from all over the world, a new German place just opened in the Barrio, if you like German sausage this is the place to go, you can even buy them fresh to take home, but since the beer is cold most people eat there..

  22. BOB
    Breakfast meaning to break the fast from last night’s supper, it is the longest time people have gone without eating all day. (Not so much in the last 75 years) Back in my grandparent’s day, my grandmother would allow no one out of her house in the morning without a full meal in them. Hangover or not! (LOL)
    (I’m having a fight with wordpress so I have to post here on Facebook) Try and stop me!!!!!

  23. It’s hard to pick a good breakfast. And harder to pick a good breakfast restaurant. I can buy a dozen eggs for under a dollar. Most restaurants will charge up to $10 for 2 eggs, home fries, two links, and a cup of coffee. I do miss the days of the 99 cent special.

  24. Here in the US food production is highly subsidized and highly externalized. Commodity Corn, wheat, and soy production are at record levels. We have very cheap food relative to income. But we also have a nearly dead Gulf of Mexico, and an escalating loss of topsoils and grazing land.

  25. Here’s a good tip for you to try….PAPANGA BRAND LONGANISTA was Pleasantly surprised with it the Pork one only ..they have beef but it is kind of mushy….I make Paul Thompson breakfast sausage..I also use his recipe and add a ton of garlic Fennel seed and Anise seed to make it into Italian Hash browns and eggs are on the plate …. as for rice I add garlic … onions and some soy sauce to it a little butter and olive oil Virgin… and warm it up

  26. Hi Bob,

    In the USA, I usually settle for cereal and milk. On Sundays before Mass, I make French Toast for our family. It is the only thing I know how to cook.

    In the Philippines I like corned beef, rice and eggs over easy or scrambled with coffee. My wife fish: dried or milk fish and rice with coffee.

    Peace

    Jay

  27. Did you ever have “Corn coffee?” My wife has it at the restaurant in Bohol that we go to. It has lots of health benefits. No caffeine for those that want caffeine.

  28. Breakfast at the Buzzz Restaurant in Bohol runs about $4. Of course one can eat for less. Where is the $10 breakfsst you mentioned?

  30. Tawilis (little fish) rice and a a fried egg, or semi dried fish and a fried egg with some rice. Mid-morning coffee and a roll from the rolling bakery vendor. Taho (some sort of curd) if someone is selling it.

  31. Fried egg, smoked boneless bangus, rice, fresh mango, coffee.
    Only one place you can get that! Philippines!

    Scott