#longsilog

What's your silog meal?

Since moving back to NYC, one of the countries I miss most is the Philippines. I adore Filipino food, and while there’s a huge Pinoy population here, finding authentic cooking can often prove difficult. So I was thrilled when a friend told me about Mama Fina’s House of Filipino Sisig, a popular Filipino restaurant from New Jersey that opened a branch down on Manhattan’s Lower East Side...

Look at that menu! They serve almost every Filipino favorite you can think of, using classic recipes to bring true flavors to NYC...

Here’s a look...

Their tapsilog marinated beef with fried eggs and garlic rice...

Homamde longsilog pork sausage with fried eggs and garlic rice...

The sausage was outstanding and we ordered a second round...

Crispy lumpia...

Can’t have a Filipino feast without a bowl of Kare Kare...

Sweet spaghetti with juicy fried chicken...

And their signature dish, sizzling sisig! I love that they do not shy away from using the proper pig parts, no less. Easily the best I have had outside the Philippines...

While I’m now living over 8000 miles away, this meal at Mama Fina’s instantly transported me back to Manila!

MAMA FINA’S

167 Avenue A

NY, NY 10009

(917) 262-0893

Lucban Longanisa at Kambal Pandesal Cafe

One of the vendors inside the Blossom Market Food Hall, Almuchow Atpb opened last year, taking over the stall of the Vietnamese vendor, TenSevenRolls. Almuchow started in West Covina. It specializes in Filipino comfort food. Breakfast is served all day.

The menu includes silogs (rice meals with bagnet, spam, fried chicken, etc.), appetizers (e.g., pansit, lumpia, calamari), entrees (e.g., bagnet, kare-kare, crispy pata), and drinks. Check out the pictures of the dishes if you’re not sure what the menu items are.

Two item silog ($20.99) with longanisa and lumpia. The silog comes with two scoops of garlic fried rice, a slice of tomato, two cucumber slices, two eggs (perfectly poached with runny yolks, sprinkled with garlic bits) and sauces (sweet chili, vinegar, and sriracha). There were two fat pieces of long and six crispy finger sized lumpia. The longanisa is a skinless, garlicky sausage. It was thick and sweet. The garlic rice was lukewarm and clumpy (but it’s usually made with leftover rice). It didn’t have much garlic flavor and was clumpy, but it did taste seasoned and had a slightly sticky quality. The lumpia was excellent – very hot, very crispy, packed with pork. Adding the vinegar and sriracha enhanced the flavors. It felt like something someone’s mom had made (in a good way).

Place your order and pay. They’ll give you a beeper that will go off when your order is ready. I was surprised that it took 20 minutes to get my food. They weren’t that busy. And the rice wasn’t hot, but the lumpia seemed freshly fried.

4 out of 5 stars