Eggplant and Egg
My good Filipino friend was really excited to show me this simple dish he learned. He told me about it and I was instantly excited too! Anything with bagoong has to be good. *grin*
So, on a sunny Sunday morning, we headed down to Marcy’s Variety Store, which specializes in Filipino foods.
Look at their selection of bagoong! It took a good deal of searching to find the one that my friend needed.
The bagoong we used was Lingayan Brand’s Fish Sauce. It has a smooth, slightly thick consistency and smells very fishy. Other kinds of fish bagoong should work, too. We also got a bag of eggplants from Marcy’s. The thin eggplants work better in this recipe.
For this dish, the eggplants need to be grilled until the skin is charred. The ideal way to do this would be over a real flame, but we were hungry so we just tried the electric stove.
Just make sure to keep moving the eggplant around until the eggplant is charred all over. After the eggplant is charred, you should be able to easily scrape off the burnt skin with a fork. You can leave the stems on.
Next, scramble enough eggs to soak all the eggplant in. We used four eggs for about seven eggplants. Then, pour in a small amount of the bagoong. We eyeballed the amount, but it looked like about one tablespoon, maybe, but just trust your bagoong instincts.
Once the egg batter is all ready, mix in all the eggplants.
Now you’re ready to cook! Put some oil in a hot pan and then place the eggplants in the pan. Then you can pour in the rest of the egg batter.
Cook the eggplant and eggs like an omelette, scraping the cooked eggs to the center and letting the uncooked egg run to the outside. After a few minutes, the “eggplant omelette” should be ready to flip. The secret to a good flip is to go all the way with confidence! Otherwise, you could flip it section by section.
After just a few seconds after the flip, slide it onto a plate, and you’re all set to grind! No forget da rice!
Easy lang and masarap!
On a non-food related note, Marcy’s also rents out Filipino movies. My friend rented a this DVD called “Mr. Suave“. Very funny (and strange) movie! It also has english subtitles, thankfully. Hoy! hoy! hoy! hoy! hoy! hoy!
Marcy’s Variety Store
266 Makaala Street, Hilo, HI 96720
(808) 935-5889
August 18th, 2005 at 7:44 am
wooo hoooooo!! tortang talong!! way to go man!! i love dis dish too!! there is another variation of this in prepping by not charring the skin but by boiling th talong and mashing it the same way. the Kapampangan style puts pork hash and diced potatoes along with the egg batter on the talong. its eaten with kalamansi and shoyu or patis as a sauce. me i eatem with tabasco and shoyu as usual!! nice post man!! ang sarap sarap!!
August 19th, 2005 at 9:45 am
Hey Reggie! This was my first time seeing this kind of dish… I asked my friend what it’s called and he just said Eggplant and Egg… I didn’t know it was Tortang Talong. The one with the pork and potatoes sounds really good! I want to try it that way too. This one was a really simple one. Thanks for the comment.
August 19th, 2005 at 10:28 am
brah….i still waiting for da balut brah.
September 20th, 2005 at 11:19 pm
[...] “Eggplant and Egg” [...]
September 25th, 2005 at 6:59 am
There’s an okazu in Pearl City next to Longs that serves this dish sometimes. The first time I tasted it I was hooked , which was several months ago.The eggplant grilled has such a smooth texture it melts in your mouth , they also add white & green onions , its soo good. The Okazu dosent has this all the time & I’ve been craving this dish lately, so I decided to look on the internet for a recipe & here it is, thank you soo much, my cravings will end.
September 28th, 2005 at 4:01 pm
Hey Cara,
I think I know where you’re talking about, but I’ve never been there. I’m not sure if this one will turn out the right way, but the texture of the eggplant was very smooth… the high grilling heat really softens it up.
There are many other versions of this and this is a very simple version… just make sure not to put too much bagaoong, I think I put too much on this one!