Being there

My mother swears by her mother’s tinolang itlog (hard-boiled egg in clear broth). It is not something I remember from Lola’s kitchen, but I’d bet it was good, not because Ma says so, but because I know that my grandmother was a swell cook. But come on. Tinolang itlog? Weird.

“Hey,” she goes. “Don’t knock it until you’ve tasted it.” Of course. A friend once told me about her grandmother’s fish tinola. The fish, she said, was the dried kind, which was how most fish found their way up the mountains where she grew up. Fair enough, but how was it? “Well,” she replied, “it wasn’t all that bad.” And it couldn’t have been — not with that wistful smile on her face. Weird? Oh, you bet. I guess I just had to be there. There was no faking that smile.

I was there for my father’s sarciadong itlog — with banana ketchup (instead of tomato sauce), water, starch, salt and Vetsin, and not much else. Hard-boiled eggs in sauce? You read right. It’s on my list of comfort food. That my rendition of the dish includes a whole lot more ingredients in no way diminishes the appeal of Pa’s bare-bones version. All I dare claim is that mine looks prettier.

To be frank, this is not something that I serve to anyone other than family. There was a joke in there somewhere, although we have long forgotten what that was. But the dish itself is delicious, and even if I’m first to admit that it isn’t that filling, nobody’s ever complained. Not that I recall, anyway. Who knows? Maybe that’s the joke. If only you could see me right now. I’m smiling.

Sarciadong Itlog à la Pa

The designation “sarciado” (with sauce) is generally conferred on tomato-based dishes. The substitution of banana ketchup puts this version on the sweet side. You can use tomato ketchup, but if you’re going that way, you might as well use tomato sauce, no? Omit the second group of ingredients for the bare-bones version.

• 4 eggs, hard-boiled
• 1 cup water
• 2 tablespoons banana ketchup
• ½ teaspoon cornstarch, dissolved in ½ teaspoon water
• salt and white pepper, to taste


• 1 small onion, quartered
• 1 clove garlic, sliced
• 1 small green bell pepper, cubed
• ½ small carrot, sliced into ¼-inch disks, half-cooked in water
• 2 tablespoons pork and beans

1. Peel eggs and slice in half lengthwise.
2. In a pan, sauté onions in a little oil until soft and translucent. Add garlic and cook until opaque before stirring in the carrots and green bell pepper.
3. Immediately add water and ketchup. Stir well until the ketchup is completely mixed in with the water, giving the sauce a uniform hue.
4. Let the sauce come to a boil, then add pork and beans. Season with salt and white pepper until to your desired taste, then stir in the cornstarch mixture to thicken.
5. Add the eggs and gently coat with the sauce. Serve hot with lots of rice.