Tortang talong (eggplant omelette) in 5 easy steps
4 Comments
Tiny Bites Consulting
February 23, 2009
My husband doesn’t care much for eggplant. Unfortunately, this meant that one of my favourite vegetables became unwelcome in our home. In the eight years that we’ve been together, the only times I could use it in the kitchen was during tax season (when my husband disappears into the void for 3 months) or on nights where I’m left to cook for myself. What a terrible dietary restriction.
Since our trip to the Philippines, Kurt has happily relaxed his scorn. His new interest in eggplant is thanks to a simple dish that most Filipinos know and love: tortang talong. Below is a visual recipe of the dish that is no longer blacklisted from our household.
Tortang Talong (Eggplant Omelette)
Step 1 – Torch Eggplant
My favourite step. Using a gas stove, roast eggplant on all sides until skin is puffy and charred. If you don’t have access to open flame (like our kitchen, sob) you can use your oven’s broiler, set on high. It’ll take a little longer to do.
Optional Step 1b – Steam Eggplant
If you are finding it difficult to peel the blackened skin off the eggplant, you can wrap said eggplant in foil and let steam a few minutes. The skin will peel off like panties at a Tom Jones concert.
Step 2 – Peel Eggplant
Remove the skin from your roasted eggplant. It should look like this. Having trouble? Try Step 1b above.
Step 3 – Egg eggplant
Scramble an egg in a bowl and submerge your eggplant into it. Fan out the eggplant fully with a fork. Season with salt and pepper if desired.
Step 4 – Fry Eggplant
Heat a frying pan with a smidgeon of olive oil (low-med heat). When the oil is ready, use the stem of your eggplant to lay it onto the pan. Make sure to fan the body of the eggplant out and use extra egg to fill in any gaps. Fry for 1-2 mins on each side or until each side is a toasty golden brown.
If you have extra egg left over, you can fry that up separately. It’ll taste like the eggplant omelette but without the veggie bits.
Step 5 – Eat Eggplant
Blot excess oil off the omelette with paper towel if desired and you are done!
In my family, these omelettes are served over steamed rice and accompanied with some sort of pork. I usually eat it with pork chops but have been known to eat it with (gasp) Spam as well. If you want to be truly Filipino about it, create a dipping sauce of equal parts bagoong and white vinegar and spoon a little over each bite.
Categories: Asia, Breakfast, Dinner, Filipino, Food, Philippines, Recipes, Travel
Bites of Asia Series: luxuriating in the waters of Bohol
2 Comments Karen HamiltonJanuary 8, 2009
This post is part of the Bites of Asia series – a set of posts I wrote in December 2008 before we left for 27 days of exploring the Philippines, Macau, and Hong Kong. If you’d like updates of our trip as it happens in real time, subscribe to my Twitter feed or better yet, follow me on Twitter.
Rather than roughing it for a few days in the Bohol interior, we chose to ensconce ourselves for the full week at Bohol Beach Club, one of Panglao Island’s favoured Philippine beach resorts. We don’t plan on doing much besides playing in the water and getting 3 shades darker (redder in Kurt’s case). Here’s a bit about the place we’re staying at plus another agricultural point of interest that I hope to make time for.
Bohol Beach Club (+63 038 411 5222)
RoughGuides: “Spacious cottages with big verandas right on beautiful Bolod Beach, a short distance to the north of Alona Beach. A range of five-star facilities and services.”
Our impressions: After the run-down “resort” we stayed at on Lake Taal, we worried that Bohol Beach Club would be less than what its website promised. Happily, our concerns were unfounded. Beautiful estate with plenty of pools and white sands for days of sunbathing and relaxation. Staff are attentive and well versed in English. Not a note of over-enthusiastic karaoke to be heard, even though the karaoke room available for rent is in the Games Hall far, far away from any of the suites.
Good food despite being a little too buffet; you can usually ask for the menu and order a la carte. Wifi is not advertised but you can buy 1-hour cards at P90 a pop from the front desk. Much cheaper than the P200 they charge at the business centre on their computers that seem to run at a snail’s pace.
Bohol Bee Farm (+63 38 502 2288)
True to its commitment to promote organic farming, Bohol Bee Farm is evolving a unique, eco-friendly line of food products that contributes to the health, integrity and dietary balance of the body. Home baked bread, squash muffins, pure honey, honey spread and bee pollen are some of the products being produced by the Bohol Bee Farm. 
Organic foods, originally uploaded by lolay.
Visitors to the Bohol Bee Farm are also immersed in various farm activities. Well-informed staff will demonstrate and give inputs on the process involved in each activity. Farm activities include:
- Farm tour
- Raffia making
- Furniture making
- Sewing/craft
- Paddling
- Basket making
- Organic farming
I read a recent article in Smile Magazine, the in-flight reading on Cebu Pacific Airlines, that describes Bohol Bee Farm as “Best Breakfast” and “Best Dinner Experience” when travelling to Tagbilaran (Bohol). While we had already planned to visit this farm before coming across this article, my eagerness to dine there has now increased by threefold.
Bites of Asia photos now available
Would you like to see highlights of our trip thus far? Visit the newly created photoset on Flickr, which I will attempt to update as we jump to Macau and Hong Kong.
Categories: Asia, Beyond Vancouver, Food, Philippines, Restaurants, Travel
Bites of Asia Series: roughing it in the jungles of Bohol
1 Comment Karen HamiltonJanuary 5, 2009
This post is part of the Bites of Asia series – a set of posts I wrote in December 2008 before we left for 27 days of exploring the Philippines, Macau, and Hong Kong. If you’d like updates of our trip as it happens in real time, subscribe to my Twitter feed or better yet, follow me on Twitter.
Floating Restaurant (Loboc River, Bohol), originally uploaded by hulagway.
Now for a truly South Pacific experience: hiking amid the jungles of a remote (well, not really) tropical island!
If we have a bit of time in the city that we fly into from Manila, we may check out Payag Jo’s, Bacolod Barbecue, and Miravilla: three Tagbilaran restaurants that high school buddy Meryl adores.
Before we boarded our flight from Vancouver, my grandfather had sent us a reassuring message that our desired Bohol pit stop, the eclectic Nuts Huts, should have space for us despite not taking reservations. I hope that this day finds us safely settled there. Here’s some background on this intriguing accommodation alternative.
Nuts Huts Retreat (+63 038 525 9162)
RoughGuides: “The Nuts Huts Retreat makes an excellent base for exploring the river and Bohol’s untouristy interior. The resort presides over sweeping views of the surrounding hills and is run by two charming Belgians, Rita and Chris, who seem to know what every traveller wants: great cooking, well-chosen music and the option to do nothing at all in several different locations – a shady terraces, a library, or a herb-infused sauna. The outdoor restaurant is magic, perched on a hill with views down the valley across a dense green canopy of rainforest.”
Lonely Planet: “Nuts Huts is a truly unique place ensconced in the jungle on the edge of the Loboc River 3km north of Loboc town. An exception in the Philippines, Nuts Huts is completely integrated into the environment to the point that the 16 separate cottages are difficult to spot from the river. All have balconies, sweeping views and the occasional 8-legged roommate. The friendly Belgian couple who run the place offer excellent travel advice and great food – lots of vegetarian and Euro-Asian delights (meals P40 to P130) served up in the wonderful dining room / lounge area a few hundred steps up from the cottages.”
During our stay at Nuts Huts, we plan to tour these spots in the Bohol interior:
The Chocolate Hills
??????-????(2), originally uploaded by alvin0118.
Tarsiers Visitors Centre
si Joy, nang-aasar ng tarsier, originally uploaded by mela sogono.
Loboc River Cruise
River Cruise at Loboc, originally uploaded by ericlucky290.
Sagbayan Peak
Sagbayan Peak, originally uploaded by ericlucky290.
Categories: Asia, Food, Philippines, Travel
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