I'm really having fun with the Veega meat-free products. They are tasty, fun, and easy to prepare. For today, I cooked their plant-based version of the all-day everyday food tocino, which was a staple when I was still studying at the university and living at a boarding house. I remember back then, there were different choices of silog meals SInangag (Filipino garlic rice) and itlOG (fried eggs) meals, paired with another viand for the third part of this menu set.
Tocilog adds tocino to the silog, completing the TOCILOG meal set popular with the student population. It was cheap, it was delicious, and it will give you the energy to go through a hectic day of classes and extra-curricular activities.
I stopped eating tocilog when I became vegetarian. It wasn't much later on in my #plant-based food journey that I tried recreating this dish with various ingredients. Having the ready-to-eat version from Veega makes it a quick and easy meal preparation. It only needs to be reheated and it is ready to serve.
For today, I added a dash of chili powder for an added flavor boost and to wake up the senses. It really made a difference for me. The spice complements the sweet, savory flavor profile of the tocino.
Next, I cooked some fried rice from left-overs from last night, and fried an egg. This is the result.
As you can see, the egg yolk broke when I flipped it over but it still turned out nice. I cooked the plant-based tocino to the point where it started to caramelize and got that taste and smell that I really love.
Overall, this knockoff version of TOCILOG was really good. It's a little on the sweet side for my taste buds but that's just my personal preference. And besides, the chili powder took care of balancing the sweetness with some spice.
That's it for now. Have a great day everyone. Love and peace!
*all the photos are mine