Fried Rice: Sinangag

Filipinos usually do sinangag or fried rice when there's a left over rice for yesterday's meal. We usually felt sorry for wasting food so we find ways to make it edible and more yummy for the next meal. During my college days, what students flock to eat were in "karinderya" (restaurants that offers delicious homemade meals with cheaper prices and less aesthetic place to eat). But we avoid to eat thete, as much as possible, during Thursdays to Saturdays. Why? Because they recook foods that were not finished yesterday. Well, I'm not saying that every karinderya do this but it's our reason why we are avoiding it on the later days.

In our house, our staple food is egg. Yeah, so if you're hungry, just cook egg and be done with it. It's also the reason why my siblings and I are addicted to omelette and what nots. Because eating the egg as is, is super redundant. What I noticed in the Philippines is that we don't usually buy lots of seasoning so we end up with the same recipe over and over again. Haha, I sometimes envy those from India because their place is booming with seasonings I don't know. Also add the condiments from Japan, it's all very delicious. I specially like the oyster sauce 🥴

In our house, we siblings are master of egg recipes wahaha. So condiments like soy, chili flakes, pepper, and onion, are a must when we cook.

The outside of our house is also full of edible ingredients, thanks to my mother, so we harvest some when we don't have the ingredients. We don't also usually use Kalamansi in our cooking that's why when we buy one, it would go to waste because it won't be touched for weeks and so. The plant outside is really helpful and not wasteful instead :)) on a passing note, I would like to share one of my friends house, they have a wider backyard than us, because they are located quite on the suburbs of Benguet specifically in Shilan, so they have a plantation of kalamansi. I think they own the whole of the mountain, how lucky she is. How I wish I have that kind of lot haha. But I'm striving for it :))

If you are familiar with kangkong, one ingredients for sinigang. We have it in our backyard and stood as one of our staple food. If we don't have anything to eat, we simply cook it with onion and voila, we can survive the day haha. I remember the times when we have nothing, this taste very awesome dipped in soy, and eaten with rice :)) It's a bonus if we have egg to go along with it. I'm really thankful to this plant because we can somehow survive with this or the leaves of Kamote :))

When I scavenged the kitchen awhile ago, it seemed like they didn't cook anything like usual and didn't left any instant ingredients that can be cooked. So I though of what to eat, I found carrots and green beans on the pantry along with the usual egg so I cooked the usual egg recipe. I don't particularly like garlic, even my siblings, so this stock will last until it will be infested by maggots wahahaha. Just kidding, but it's true, so we end up planting it on our backyard in hopes for it to grow. We also have curry powder and paprika but it won't go along with my very staple egg so I just left it alone haha.

There's no onion left on the kitchen so I went out to harvest some onion leaks :)) When scrolling facebook videos, it always amazes me how people manage to be self sufficient, they can simply eat organic ingredients in their garden and won't even think twice if it's infested with insecticides or what nots. I like my backyard just the way it is but I still dreamed to have bigger lot for more variety of vegetables.

This is a part of our unattended mini garden. If you set aside those weeds, you could differentiate the well hidden onion leaks wahaha. This reminds me, I need to decorate the backyard post haste. I have a lot of free time but the spirit of laziness was deeply rooted in my veins huhu. I don't like how unproductive am I but I'm only all think, not act. P.S, this lot was once the home of our rabbits but it was filled with plants when all of them died due to various reasons.

And voila, I acquired the substitute of an onion. If you could see on the background, we also have an overgrown sayote. It's blocking the way so my mama ordered me, just awhile ago, to trim it or cut the main stem itself because we and the neighborhood seemed to grew tired with sayote HAHAHA. I'll miss you sayote, we'll plant again another if they want to grow some. It's easy to plant them here by the way. Sayote grows so fast that human would tire eating them haha. They are often just falling down so we are weary in passing by, well, we just left it to luck sometimes. Getting hit by a falling sayote is a fun sight but it hurts like hell haha. Here in Baguio, we occasionally see post with jeepneys giving away free sayote because that's just how fast they grow. You almost couldn't even find sayote in the market because every neighborhood has one, or has a talipapa (smaller market) selling one with a cheap price.

So I cut the ingredients, I used scissors for the onion leaks cause why not? It's easier haha. The carrots is not that easy to cut so it took me 5 minutes per se?

Green, orange, and yellow is just very attracting to the eye 🥴 It's only me who is eating so I didn't put much egg ands rice.

I added just the right amount of rice, poured soy sauce (it's a shame I don't have oyster sauce, it would have been more tastier 😋), pepper, the usual chili flakes, and I'm done :))

I redid the same recipe in the evening and used onion instead then added boneless bangus (milkfish) for some twist. If you noticed, when I lack the ingredients, I don't buy on the stores mainly because I don't have money hahahaha, or because it's too far for my lazy bones. Far I mean, just down a few yards 😂✌️ I'm also the type of person who can eat the same thing over and over until I'm satisfied, that's why I ate the same food I cooked earlier haha.

Yum, almost can't taste the sinangag because the bangus overpowered the rest of the rice HAHAHAHA

Rooms for improvement that I kept forgetting:

📍 Don't overdo the pepper

📍 Don't also overdo the chili flakes, on my first try, I almost can't taste anything aside from those two because I overdid them wahahahaha. I just can't find the right balance because I'm lazy to make measurements

📍 Don't be afraid to pour more soy sauce, I sometimes worry that it might be too salty so I just do 2 spoons and later regret because I could add another spoon for just the right taste

📍 Goodness gracious, I always tell self to eat dinner before 5 pm but I always fail.

I hope you also had your dinner :)) Don't skip meals🥴💛 and always stay healthy😍😍

Writing after a full meal, EvilWillow