Fresh.Simple. Easy to make. A comfort food of memory. A childhood craving, Very Pinoy. These are the reasons why I chose this egg dish for Lasang Pinoy 17. Except for the steamed rice, it doesn't need heat and sophisticated dexterity to prepare.
When a fever is raging , this dish never fails to act as abre gana ( appetite stimulant). It is a constant rainy weather friend that brings a bit of cheer to the dinner table. Think typhoon season, brownouts,howling winds, leaking roofs and knee deep water from an overflown river nearby.
Itlog nga Sinamo is how we call the egg dish. Literally, it means Mixed Egg. But what it is, is fresh native chicken eggs mixed with hot steaming rice and seasoned well with sea salt or Tultul .The tultul we would pull out from the garapon--a lidded glass container.( Tultul is a naturaly processed greyish cube of salt that is pressed all over on a plate of rice to give it a mild salty flavor.Sad to say, the art of tultul making is in the fringe of extinction.)The sinamo can go well with tapa,tocino, pinamalhan or dried fish.Spam or carne norte even.A drizzle of garlic or green onions over the can improve the flavours.
I think the process and concept of Sinamo nga Itlog is popularly local , more Pinoy if not Asian.It is fast food the precedes the contemporary concept of fastfood. Mix and eat fresh. That is all there is to it. From the chicken coup to the table.A nutritious table fare for a farmer on the go.
Everytime I think of Itlog nga Sinamo, I can see the smiling, warm and nurturing image of my late Lola Meren preparing the dish with a grandmotherly cajoling for me to eat the dish.I can imagine her ignoring my childish tantrums to wiggle a spoonful of the sinamo into my mouth. I am or was a spoiled brat, you know. Lolo's and Lola's boy.
I have not prepared and eaten Itlog nga Sinamo for ages. Wary of Salmonella infection, the craving for it has somehow diminished.Fear can dilute the gustatory demands of the taste buds. If not for Lasang Pinoy 17, I wouldn't have cooked the dish again.
The "Eggs a Deal "sortie made me unearth this dish once again from the dusty bins of my gray dura mater. The theme egged me to do a little snooping about eating raw eggs. Well, I found out that my all-time boxing idol Rocky Balboa,( yes, he's my favorite more than Congressman M. Pacquiao) drank a couple of Hollywood grade raw eggs at dawn before a stamina building road run and didn't die. The eggs fueled him to pummel his foe to a gory submission. I am more than convinced that nothing will happen to me if I actually relive my happy memories of eating raw chicken eggs on steamed rice. Begone Salmonella!
Hey look.Rocky returns and flops at 60. But he is alive. So am I. It's the chicken's gift, I think.If not, it's Lola watching over me. Remember , I am Lola's Boy.
Ingredients:
1 native or organic fresh chicken egg.
a plateful of hot steaming white rice
Tultul or salt to taste.
Recipe:
Wash the eggs thoroughly in water.
Break the egg on top of the steaming rice
Season with salt and mix the rice and egg well.
Serve
If using tultul, mix the egg with the rice first and gently press the tultul on the rice.