Hey, kids: guess what time is it? It's time to restart that Long March known as 100 Favorite Dishes (INSERT YEAR). YEAH!!!
Hey, don't ding us for listicles: Weekly DataLab studies show ustedes love this gimmick, launched in honor of our coming Best Of issue. Besides, it is rather fun to do this for us Forkers–an opportunity to highlight dishes from restaurants we'll never fully review, or secrets from old standbys. Anyhoo, let the march begin…
Unlike we Americans, Filipinos have no qualms about having a big old stinky fish–with the head still attached even–as breakfast, paired with fried rice and a fried egg. The fish is usually bangus, a.k.a, milkfish, a species beloved by Pinoys and Indonesians alike for its inherent yogurt-like tang.
This is not a mild fish. It's, well, fishy. Bangus is a fish that tastes like fish should, less oily than mackerel, but richer in flavor than salmon, and with a thousand comb-like bones if you eat it straight out of the water unprocessed.
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When you have it at a Filipino restaurant, it won't have any bones. Called daing na bangus, it will be bifurcated lengthwise, marinated in vinegar and garlic, and deep fried golden brown so that the flesh can be easily scooped up with a spoon.
And at the new Chowking in Anaheim, part of the Jollibee conglomerate, a silog (egg and fried rice) breakfast plate combo containing it and another meat, say pork tocino, can be had at any time of the day…which automatically makes it more palatable for those who shudder at eating fish for breakfast but yet have no problems with eating eggs for dinner.
The list:
83. Strawberry Basil Lemonade at Mick's Karma Bar
84. Lemongrass Chicken Salad at Greenleaf Gourmet Chopshop
85. Tofu Soup at Tasty Thai
86. Take-Out Dim Sum at Capital B.B.Q. and Dim Sum Express
87. Hodo Gwaja at Cocohodo
88. Popcorn Chicken Salad at Guppy House
89. Fried Okra at Memphis Soul Cafe & Bar
90. Salted Egg With Bitter Melon & Scrambled Egg at Tasty Noodle House
91. Boysenberry Lemonade from Bautista Creek Local Produce at SOCO Farmers' Market
92. Scallop Carpaccio with Curry Oil and Yuzu Vinaigrette from Cafe Hiro
93. White Board Specials at Taco Adobe
94. Coney Dog at LinX
95. Halal Pizzas from San Giovanni Pizzas
96. Clayuda at El Fortín
97. Lunch Buffet at Dosa Express
98. The Meats at Darya in Orange
99. Panocha at Taquería Zamora
100. Bean-and-Cheese Burrito from Del Taco
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Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.