Category Archives: Kuya’s Asian Cuisine

Tocilog – Kuya’s Asian Cuisine

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Tocilog Kuya's Asian Cuisine

Sweet marinated pork tocino with garlic fried rice and eggs over medium. The rice is garnished with more fried garlic pieces and chopped scallions. Cucumber and tomato slices are thrown in for good measure.
Kuya’s Asian Cuisine, San Bruno CA

This is a classic Filipino breakfast! Tocilog comes from combining the Filipino words for sweet marinated pork (tocino) and egg (itlog). We didn’t have tocino very often growing up, but it was one of my favorite breakfast items along with longanisa. Probably because they are both so flavorful and fatty, a common thread in Filipino food, lol! I have to say that Kuya’s tocina was a bit on the hard and dry side for me, but it still tasted great. There are some amazing flavors in this dish: the sweet and salty from the tocino and the intense garlic from the fried rice. The runny egg (and you have to order it runny!) blends everything together. So familiar, so delicious!

Lumpia Shanghai – Kuya’s Asian Cuisine

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Lumpia Shanghai Kuya's Asian Cuisine

Filling of seasoned pork and beef, minced onions and carrots, and beaten eggs in a lumpia wrapper, deep fried, and cut into bite sized pieces.
Kuya’s Asian Cuisine, San Bruno CA

I grew up eating lumpia prito (fried lumpia) which are much larger and have more vegetables: sprouts, carrots, string beans, peas, onion, and sometimes potatoes.  My family always used ground beef in our lumpia, and it was great sitting around the table wrapping them to be stored in the freezer.  I’m sure my parents still have trays of it in their freezer, ready to be given to guests to take home.

As a kid I only had lumpia Shanghai at parties and, later on, at Filipino restaurants in the city.  Both lumpia varieties have their advantages, but lumpia Shanghai are less labor intensive to make and because of their small size, make excellent finger food at parties.  I’ve been known to order trays of it to serve at my house.  You can get a traditional “lumpia” sauce at Asian markets, but I prefer a regular sweet chili sauce because it has more flavor.  Beware, lumpia is VERY addictive!