''Tapa'' is dried or cured

beef Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus''). In prehistoric times, humankind hunted aurochs and later domesticated them. Since that time, numerous breeds of cattle have been bred specifically for the quality or quantit ...

pork Pork is the culinary name for the meat of the domestic pig (''Sus domesticus''). It is the most commonly consumed meat worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BCE. Pork is eaten both freshly cooked and preserved; ...

mutton Lamb, hogget, and mutton, generically sheep meat, are the meat of domestic sheep, ''Ovis aries''. A sheep in its first year is a lamb and its meat is also lamb. The meat from sheep in their second year is hogget. Older sheep meat is mutton. Gen ...

venison Venison originally meant the meat of a game animal but now refers primarily to the meat of antlered ungulates such as elk or deer (or antelope in South Africa). Venison can be used to refer to any part of the animal, so long as it is edible, ...

horse meat Horse meat forms a significant part of the culinary traditions of many countries, particularly in Eurasia. The eight countries that consume the most horse meat consume about 4.3 million horses a year. For the majority of humanity's early existen ...

, although other meat or even

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

may be used. Filipinos prepare ''tapa'' by using thin slices of meat and curing these with salt and spices as a preservation method. ''Tapa'' is often cooked fried or grilled. When served with fried rice and fried egg, it is known as ''tapsilog,'' a portmanteau of the Tagalog words ''tapa'', ''

sinangag ''Sinangag'' (), also called garlic fried rice or garlic rice, is a Filipino fried rice dish cooked by stir-frying pre-cooked rice with garlic. The rice used is preferably stale, usually leftover cooked rice from the previous day, as it result ...

'' (fried rice) and ''itlog'' (egg). It sometimes comes with

atchara ''Atchara'' (also spelled ''achara'' or ''atsara'') is a pickle made from grated unripe papaya originating from the Philippines. This dish is often served as a side dish for fried or grilled foods such as pork barbecue. History The nam ...

, pickled papaya strips, or sliced tomatoes as

side dish A side dish, sometimes referred to as a side order, side item, or simply a side, is a food item that accompanies the entrée or main course at a meal.Vinegar Vinegar is an aqueous solution of acetic acid and trace compounds that may include flavorings. Vinegar typically contains 5–8% acetic acid by volume. Usually, the acetic acid is produced by a double fermentation, converting simple sugars to eth ...

ketchup Ketchup or catsup is a table condiment with a sweet and tangy flavor. The unmodified term ("ketchup") now typically refers to tomato ketchup, although early recipes used egg whites, mushrooms, oysters, grapes, mussels, or walnuts, among o ...

is usually used as a

condiment A condiment is a preparation that is added to food, typically after cooking, to impart a specific flavor, to enhance the flavor, or to complement the dish. A table condiment or table sauce is more specifically a condiment that is served separat ...

Etymology

''Tapa'' in

Philippine languages The Philippine languages or Philippinic are a proposed group by R. David Paul Zorc (1986) and Robert Blust (1991; 2005; 2019) that include all the languages of the Philippines and northern Sulawesi, Indonesia—except Sama–Bajaw (languages ...

originally meant fish or meat preserved by

smoking Smoking is a practice in which a substance is burned and the resulting smoke is typically breathed in to be tasted and absorbed into the bloodstream. Most commonly, the substance used is the dried leaves of the tobacco plant, which have bee ...

. In the

Spanish Philippines Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

, it came to refer to meats also preserved by other means. It is derived from

Proto-Malayo-Polynesian Proto-Malayo-Polynesian (PMP) is the reconstructed ancestor of the Malayo-Polynesian languages, which is by far the largest branch (by current speakers) of the Austronesian language family. Proto-Malayo-Polynesian is ancestral to all Austronesi ...

''*tapa'', which in turn is derived from

Proto-Austronesian Proto-Austronesian (commonly abbreviated as PAN or PAn) is a proto-language. It is the reconstructed ancestor of the Austronesian languages, one of the world's major language families. Proto-Austronesian is assumed to have begun to diversify ...

''*Capa''. ''

Tinapa Tinapa ''Tinapa'', a Filipino term, is fish cooked or preserved through the process of smoking. It is a native delicacy in the Philippines and is often made from blackfin scad (''Alepes melanoptera'', known locally as ''galunggong''), or from ...

'' (literally "prepared by smoking") is another cognate, though it usually refers to

smoked fish Smoked fish is fish that has been cured by smoking. Foods have been smoked by humans throughout history. Originally this was done as a preservative. In more recent times fish is readily preserved by refrigeration and freezing and the smoking of ...

Dishes

Before cooking tapa, the meat is cured or dried and cut in to small portions or thin slices. As a method of preservation, salt and spices are added. After preparation, the meat can be cooked either grilled or fried. Just like any other ''ulam'' (main dish) in

Filipino cuisine Filipino cuisine ( fil, lutong Pilipino/pagkaing Pilipino) is composed of the cuisines of more than a hundred distinct ethnolinguistic groups found throughout the Philippine archipelago. A majority of mainstream Filipino dishes that compose Fi ...

, tapa is usually paired with

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...

. It can be garlic rice, java rice, plain rice or any other types of preparation. As a side dish, tapa sometimes comes with

(pickled papaya strips) or sliced vegetables (usually tomatoes). Vinegar (oftentimes with

siling labuyo ''Siling labuyo'' is a small chili pepper cultivar that developed in the Philippines after the Columbian Exchange. It belongs to the species '' Capsicum frutescens'' and is characterized by triangular fruits which grow pointing upwards. The fru ...

) or ketchup is usually used as a condiment.

Tapsilog

''Tapsilog'' is the term used when ''tapa'', garlic-

fried rice Fried rice is a dish of cooked rice that has been stir-fried in a wok or a frying pan and is usually mixed with other ingredients such as eggs, vegetables, seafood, or meat. It is often eaten by itself or as an accompaniment to another dish. ...

(''

''), and fried

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

(''itlog'') are combined into one meal, which is served primarily during breakfast. In Tagalog, a restaurant that primarily serves ''tapa'' is called a ''tapahan'', ''tapsihan'' or ''tapsilugan''. According to some sources, ''tapsilog'' and ''tapsihan'' are colloquial

slang Slang is vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in spoken conversation but avoided in formal writing. It also sometimes refers to the language generally exclusive to the members of particular in-gro ...

words; however, these terms are already being used by those restaurants and many Filipinos from all social strata. ''Tapsilog'' and ''tapsihan'', therefore, may now be considered standard words in the

Filipino language Filipino (; , ) is an Austronesian language. It is the national language ( / ) of the Philippines, and one of the two official languages of the country, with English. It is a standardized variety of Tagalog based on the native dialect, spoke ...

rather than slang.

Restaurants

Small restaurants called ''tapsihan'' (or ''tapsilogan'') in many

barangay A barangay (; abbreviated as Brgy. or Bgy.), historically referred to as barrio (abbreviated as Bo.), is the smallest administrative division in the Philippines and is the native Filipino term for a village, district, or ward. In metropolitan ...

s in the Philippines serve ''tapsilog'' along with some of its spawns (see ''

silog ''Silog'' is a class of Filipino breakfast dishes containing ''sinangag'' (fried rice) and ''itlog'' (egg; in context, fried egg). They are served with various viands or ''ulam'', usually meat dishes such as tapa, longganisa or ham. The name of t ...

''). However, large

business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for pr ...

establishment chains in the Philippines, particularly some

fast food Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheated or precooked ingredien ...

chains and even most hotels, have already ventured into the selling of ''tapa'' and the ''tapsilog'' due to the popularity of this type of cuisine, including the ''tapsilog'' and its variants on their breakfast menus.

References

{{Filipino food Philippine cuisine Dried meat Fried foods

Etymology

Dishes

Tapsilog

Restaurants

See also

References