Philippines – Manila Davao Borocay – Travel Food Entertainment

The best TAPSILOG in Town.

Above: Illustration picture of Rodic

Amidst the clamor of busy printers and scanners flapping to copy, crowded with people walking to and fro in limited spaced halls that only leaves centimeters of space from almost bump one’s shoulder. In such set up of buying school supplies and having books to bind hard or soft bound, lived a little humble place that TAPSILOG built since 1949… Rodic’s. It resides in U.P.’s Shopping Center and it made history.

It has created a buzz in publications, in television for the longest time and still ongoing. However if you were there, and you didn’t know any better, standing outside their doorstep would be just looking at an ordinary tiny canteen where students have no choice but to eat there since it’s within the university premises. However with Rodic’s, it’s different. People who study in U.P. feature it as one of U.P.’s highlight with chin up in pride, and those who don’t usually go to U.P. and tasted Rodic’s tapsilog, find themselves going back in awe. Yes, it is that good that not just students go there but even celebrities. Sounds exaggerated, but you have to experience it yourself to really get the flow of what I mean.

Below: Tapsilog in Rodic

Steps in Rodic’s Tapsilog Haven:

• Go inside Rodic’s canteen and approach the counter and order

• Look for a place to sit

• And not so long you’ll smell the oozing scent of sinangag

• There it is, placed in an oval metal plate of sinangag rice

and scattered shredded beef on it

topped with raw egg that seems to cook itself in your rice and beef’s heat

• dig your spoon into it and carry a little of everything
• put in your mouth and you’ll taste

the garlicky and bit of salt in rice playing with the beef’s slight sweet juicy taste that’s balanced

with the taste of egg, and before you know it

• you’re finished eating (yeah it’s that good)

• so you call the roving waiter/waitress and you tell them what you’ve ordered

• and you pay while sitting and they’ll give you your change (if there’s any) right then and there.

Above: Rodic’s entrance door

If you’re not the type, find yourself adventurous enough to give this a try, because you don’t know what you’re missing for the just the price of P55 pesos. Yes, P55 pesos only because the owner wanted something so good be that affordable. And FYI, rich people had been trying to tap the owner in letting him allow the place to be franchised but he didn’t agree basically for the reason that he didn’t want to taint the quality of his secret recipe. So there in a simple piece of suggestion, don’t miss the experience of true legacy in Rodic’s.

Balut was featured in Fear Factor or other dares on international TV sitcoms where you actually get paid when you eat it. If all contestants were Filipino, most probably it would be like a peace of cake to perpetuate that certain act of munching on Balut. Is it something to fear about or be disgusted at, well, in a case to case basis. If you grew up in such culture where Balut is in it, and you certainly have developed the taste then it isn’t. But however put, Balut is a delicacy.

Above: Little girl eating balut

Not so different from other countries where they fry grasshoppers and other insects of some sort to eat, and even worms to fry or snakes blood to mix with wine. Balut is just the same as these. The only difference is, you get to hold it warm in your hand, crack it on the tip, put tiny salts to mix with it’s soup, drink that soup first, slurping it from the tiny crack opening you’ve made and walah!, the shell’s ready to be cracked open for it’s contents to be eaten. But to be honest it’s not good in presentation and if it’s your first time, you might as well eat it in the dark, but boy does it taste good.