How to Make Homemade Beef Tapa: A Filipino-Inspired Dish

My passion for cooking leads me to travel to different places, eat authentic local dishes, and inspire everybody to enjoy their lives!

Beef tapa is cured slices of beef. It is usually served for breakfast along with garlic fried rice and sunny-side-up eggs. This dish is one of the famous Filipino "silog meals," meaning a dish that is served with garlic fried rice and eggs. Although this dish is more commonly served for breakfast, it can also be eaten at any time of day. Variations may be spicy, salty, or sweet. My very own variation is a balanced taste of salty and sweet. Enjoy!

Cook Time

Ingredients

• 500 grams beef, sliced
• 4 tablespoons brown sugar
• 4 tablespoons soy sauce
• 4 tablespoons vinegar
• 2 tablespoons garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt
• water, as needed
• cooking oil, for frying

Utensils for preparing beef tapa

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Utensils

For Preparing the Ingredients:

• Plate
• 1 medium bowl
• 2 small bowls
• Measuring spoons
• Spoon

For Cooking the Beef Tapa:

• Frying pan
• Slotted spatula

Instructions

1. In a bowl, combine and mix the brown sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, salt, and pepper.
2. Soak the beef in this mixture. Marinate for at least 2 hours, or overnight.
3. When ready, pour water into a pan and add the beef together with the marinade.
4. Let it simmer until the beef is tender.
5. Once tender and no water remains, add a little bit of oil and fry it.
6. Serve beef tapa with fried garlic rice.

Tips and Techniques

• Marinate the beef for a couple of hours (or overnight) to ensure that all flavors penetrate the meat.
• Check the tenderness of the beef from time to time. Add water as needed.
• Use a small amount of oil after draining all the liquid to give a bit crunchiness into it.
• Make it spicy by adding homemade chili garlic oil.
• Top it with homemade crispy fried garlic bits.

© 2018 Travel Chef

Comments

Travel Chef (author) from Manila on August 22, 2018:

Hi Mary,

It's something that everybody will surely enjoy. Just like us! It is interesting to try something new for breakfast.

Travel Chef (author) from Manila on August 22, 2018:

Hello Liz,

Any meat with breakfast is absolutely a wonderful choice for breakfast. Something that I'm always looking forward to.

Travel Chef (author) from Manila on August 22, 2018:

Hi Eric,

I haven't tried that Vietnamese Bo Ne. How's the taste of it? I'm interested to try it.

Mary Norton from Ontario, Canada on August 22, 2018:

I used to enjoy this as a child especially when the meat is thinly sliced and dried a bit in the sun. I miss this so much might just try doing it myself.

Liz Westwood from UK on August 22, 2018:

This looks like a tasty breakfast. It would beat bacon and eggs for me any day.

Eric Dierker from Spring Valley, CA. U.S.A. on August 22, 2018:

The Vietnamese version is really close to this. Something like Bo Ne. The beef generally in steak form.

Thanks for this, I will cook it Sunday.

Travel Chef (author) from Manila on August 21, 2018:

Hello Pamela,

Yes, in most Asian countries they love to eat rice and noodles for their breakfast. It's a good thing to try this one as most restaurant chains serve this dish any time of the day. They have a huge list of breakfast with egg and fried rice combination that everybody will find it interesting.

Pamela Oglesby from Sunny Florida on August 21, 2018:

The meat sounds good and I like eggs, buy I wouldn't use the rice. I like rice occasionally, but not for breakfast. I know rice is frequently eaten with any meal in Asia. Thanks for sharing this recioe.

Travel Chef (author) from Manila on August 21, 2018:

Hi Rinita,

You are absolutely right! Sometimes it's interesting to try breakfast meals of different cultures.

Rinita Sen on August 21, 2018:

This sounds delish! Not many cultures have rice as part of breakfast though, I guess. Thanks for sharing.