-When we opened
our pop-up in L.A.,
I invited my parents to eat
the food before I opened.
My mom gave me one of these.
And my dad was like,
"Let me help you --
let me help you
with the restaurant.
This is perfect."
My parents are, like,
pretty big haters,
so the fact that they liked it
means that, like,
the haters are gonna like it.
Hello, everybody.
I'm Alvin Cailan of The Usual,
here in New York City.
I'm also the host
of "The Burger Show."
And I'm also making
a Filipino restaurant
and cookbook called "Amboy."
And a lot of people
probably know me,
because I'm the Eggslut dude.
And today, I'm making
a Filipino dish that has eggs.
It's called tortang talong,
which means eggplant omelette.
Let's get started.
So, you know,
Japanese eggplants,
this is what I used growing up.
And you simply just burn them
on the stove.
So what you want to do
is just blister the skin
and then cook the insides.
So there's so much moisture
inside these eggplants
that it starts to cook the
inside flesh of the eggplant.
And also it's easier
to peel this way.
So if you don't have
a gas range,
turn your broiler setting on
in your oven
and you could go old school,
as well,
and use a pot of boiling water
and just shock the skin
and peel it that way.
I just like the --
the flavor of the char.
So you see that like,
that's pretty nice right there.
This is like a typical
Saturday dish.
My dad would throw this
on to the -- the stove.
I don't know if he was just
trying to be a dick
and try to wake us up,
'cause of the smell,
but it's something that
when I eat,
it brings me back
to my childhood
and it's so comforting.
And as I get older,
I tend to, like,
love the, you know,
classic food of my past.
And it's starting
to become, like,
what I've been cooking
a lot of lately.
And in my new restaurant,
at Amboy,
that's what we're gonna do.
So, like, this is pretty good
for the tips.
So let's get the stem parts.
Alright, I think we're done.
We'll chop up, just some, like,
aroma ingredients
for the eggplant.
Throw some oil on this guy.
So we're cooking these
about five minutes.
You just want to get them, like,
nice and loose and translucent.
This is done.
That's our aromatics
for our dish.
Next, we will peel these guys.
So you want to start
from the top,
work your way to the bottom.
Super-easy.
And you can see,
they caramelize pretty well.
There's lots of sugar
in eggplant.
I remember when I was a --
a prep cook
and I used to have to do this
at a restaurant in Oregon.
I had to do a case a day.
And my fingers would get so,
like, calloused and gross.
We did the eggplant part.
Time to do the omelette part.
Maybe three eggs
per omelette.
Let's do four.
Perfect.
12 eggs, 3 eggplants, about,
I'd say, 1 tablespoon
of fish sauce.
Fish sauce, really,
it's like a magnifying glass.
It really just, like, amplifies
all the flavors of --
of pretty much everything.
It's that one ingredient that,
when you eat, you're like,
"There's something different
about that and I like it."
It's usually fish sauce.
Eggs are ready.
Let's get this pan
a little warm.
You could just dump
this whole thing into there.
I like to flatten it out
with a --
a fork, just like this.
Just the back of the fork,
just so that it cooks evenly
and it also sops up
the egg really well.
Just dunk it into there.
And we're throwing this guy
in there.
I like to just add
a little bit more.
And then I'll add
some of these guys.
I'm-a throw a little bit of
salt,
just to make sure everything
is seasoned all the way through.
So, right here, you could see,
it's starting to set.
And I'm gonna blast this a
little bit to medium-high again.
And what this is gonna do is
this heat is gonna force its way
up into the pan and release
the egg from the pan.
See, you could hear it.
And then I'm gonna grab
the handle,
AKA the stem, put it on
to my spat, and just, boop.
You want to cook it for about
a minute on that side.
And that's that.
So that's one.
Let's do a couple more.
This is my favorite style
of vegetarian dish.
I'm kind of doing something
similar for The Usual's menu.
But I'm gonna go
more on, like,
the traditional,
historic route
and do it like
a Spanish tortilla.
We're gonna layer it
like a lasagna.
And then I'm gonna slice it
like a lasagna
and serve it
with romesco sauce and --
and papa bravas.
Alright.
Last one.
I think this guy's
ready to flip.
Let's turn it up a little.
And you can hear it.
Like ASMR.
[ Sizzling ]
All right, it's ready to go.
Mm.
Perfect.
Alright.
Boom. Layered up.
Then I'm gonna start
prepping out a salsa.
One tomato.
Dice these guys up
really quickly.
This is a classic salsa
in the Philippines.
Throw this guy in here.
Cucs.
Probably just use
half of this guy.
We'll do the stripes.
Mm.
A little bit of lemon juice.
Little bit fish sauce.
So you're mixing this.
And then we'll just
throw this on top.
We'll slice up some scallions.
♪♪
That's it.
That is the dish.
The first time I ever had
this dish,
I was maybe, whew,
5 years old.
That was, like, when the era
of loving eggs began for me.
This is just one of
the dishes that we would have.
Saturday morning, Spam,
Vienna sausage,
overcooked fried eggs,
and this.
Let's give it a try.
The umami is there,
the nice char flavor,
the eggs are done perfectly,
they're fluffy.
The fish sauce provides
a really good umami note to it.
But the freshness of the salad
on top, or the salsa on top,
really rounds out
the entire dish.
Perfect summer vegetable dish.
Try it at home.
Click the link on the bottom.
Rush, do it now.
I promise you,
you won't regret it.
♪♪
♪♪
