The Day After

The day after Thanksgiving is one filled with leftovers, from turkey to stuffing  to sides, There's always the same old recipes from turkey tetrazzini to cranberry sauce paninis. Put a different spin on them. Have them the Filipino way for breakfast.

This is an eye opening twist that food writer, Priya  Krishna wrote bout n Wednesday's New York Times  Food section. Instead of saving the thighs and stuffing for a reheated lunch or dinner , think about it as ingredients in a large breakfast. She interviewed Filipino- American brothers  Chase and Chad Valencia  who own the popular LASA  Restaurant in Los Angeles. They have the top modern Pinoy cooking in the States yet it's their mother's recipes that are made with the Thanksgiving Day leftovers. Mrs. Valencia comes from Pampamga , the culinary capital of the Philippines ,  and her influence is felt both in their eatery and home. She whipped up huge breakfasts of longazina, a type of sweet sausage, silog or garlic rice with eggs, fried eggs and pan de sal, a sweet yeast roll.One of their first Filioino-American hybrid meals was incorporating leftovers with familiar standards.It had to be a big do. They always have more than twenty people to feed and it always held in a different relative's house.

What are the culinary mixes? There are traditional Thanksgiving dishes such as honey baked ham, turkey cranberry sauce and stuffing sharing a table with sopas ,a creamy chicken soup, rice and pan de sal. The brothers add their slant  with the addition of asado, a salty, sour complex dish of pork shoulder cooked in tomato sauce, garlic, bay leaf, and calamansi , a lime like citrus fruit of Southeast Asia. The best part comes the morning after. Guests are treated to sandwiches stuffed with their choice of asado, ham or turkey and silog topped with turkey and gravy. This idea solely belongs to the brothers. As Chase put it. it was a tradition born from laziness. "We were stoners' " he admitted and wanted to create a quick breakfast.Chad spotted a pot of asado on the stove - and voila - a new dish was born. Now it's an assembly line of them and hungry friends and relatives who put together reheated asado (made richer by mellowing overnight), eggs and a nutty tasting Filipino cheese all sandwiched between pan de sal. There's also their take on silog with  turkey and gravy.It's more like the super hearty Hawaiian surfer breakfast loco moco, stuffing people  before they go off on Black Friday forays.

Leftovers can be used for lunch and dinner but why?Refashion them into a hearty breakfast like the Valencia brothers cook. It's a great way to clean the fridge and eat heartily for this weekend of shopping and traveling.