I invited my 2 boys to join me at a nearby gasoline shop to give my old trusty AUV a routine oil change upon reaching 105k on its odometer. After bearing with me for 1.5 hours, they asked me to bring them in a branch of Tuding’s Original Porkchop Eatery which is along our way back home.
The younger son ordered a “ToSiLog”, a meal consiting of Tocino (cured sweet pork meat), Sinangag (fried rice), and Itlog (fried egg sunny side up style). This has been his favorite every time we dine here. Their tocino is tender (probably due to nitrate mix) and too sweet for my tastebuds, but just right for kids with sweet tooth.
A typical Filipino breakfast consists of a fried rice which is “sinangag” in Filipino, and a fried egg, where egg translates to “itlog” in Filipino. When shortening the combination of the two food names, they become “SiLog”. Now if there’s another meat or seafood viand, usually its first syllable becomes the prefix to the “Silog” combination. That’s why if it comes with tocino it becomes “ToSiLog”, and if with pork becomes “PorkSiLog”. If it comes with a hotdog, it becomes “HotSiLog”. Another favorite breakfast viand is Beef Tapa (cured beef meat), which becomes “TapSiLog”. The combinations are limited only by the imagination of the persons preparing the food, hehe. Later on, this type of food had evolved as an all day food option.
My eldest son and I ordered a PorkSiLog each, consisting of fried Porkchop, also a Sinangag and Itlog. This is the specialty of this restaurant, their signature dish for many years now. With the exception of Bangus Silog (fried milkfish, rice, and egg) their meals are priced uniformly at Php 52/set. Soda drinks which are mostly Pepsi products are priced at Php 12 per 8-12 oz. glass bottle. The food arrive in melamine plates, with an empty sauce dish for each customer. Cutleries, drinking water, and soda drinks are self service from the counter.
A few customers want their porkchop with banana catsup, but most of their customers like me want to dip or drown the porkchop in a vinegar with few drops of soy sauce and a sprinkling of chilli powder, depending on your preferred mixture. These condiments are placed on each table that seats 4 people, on a dining area with open frontage with fluorescent bar lights and ventilated by ceiling fans.
Tuding’s Eatery is one of our family’s favorite food joint, when we have no time to cook meals, or simply when we just want to dine out nearby. Now, what makes this place popular? Well, their porkchop is thinly sliced (less than 1 cm. when cooked), so the meat is not tough, with a bit of crunchiness due to frying. I find it quite salty though, complementing the taste of fried rice, which have smaller grains and surprisingly not oily. With such consistent product, simple ambience and amenities, and very reasonable prices, they are popular on the localities where they operate. If my boys chose this food joint over Jollibee fastfood restaurant, its proof enough that they are good.
Beside their Carmona branch is another competitor with similar concept and product offerings -- Atoy’s Porkchop. A good alternative if you want oily fried rice and warmer ambiance of incandescent bulbs.
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