Suam (soo-am) : Non-Greasy Hangover Food

Since drinking alcohol is an essential part of being a yuppie, we need a really good and cheap hangover food (I don’t even know why I’m writing this. I don’t get hangover. I don’t drink much. J) My father loves to drink. Naturally, I would know the perfect hang-over food. Suam!


My workmate Gretch said that in Quezon, they call Gulay na Mais, Suam.


Gretch:  “suam”
Gretch:  “you gisa lang then pakulo”
Gretch:  “then timpla then add dahon ng sili”
Gretch:  “tapos, yung puting mais dapat”
Gretch:  “not yellow”A


In Batangas, Suam is poached egg with garlic, salt and ground blackpepper to taste. It is really easy to cook, delicious and not expensive at all. He'd cook 3 eggs, one for each of us. Eggs when I was growing up was about 1 peso then it went up to 5 pesos. That's less than 20 pesos, ulam for 3. Even life is tough, you can still get a good nutritious meal. Batangas Suam is nice, hot and tasty too. You may also include Malunggay.


I don't know much about cooking. I don't even know how most food are called, much more measurements. Good thing I have friends who are willing to help:


Dunalen:  “what do you call yung isa garlic (out of a glove)”
Neil:  “that is the clove dons”
Neil:  “the whole thing is a BULB”
Dunalen:  “tanga pala ko J hahaha”


Dunalen:  “if the yellow stuff on an egg is the yolk, what's the white stuff called?”
Malu:  “albumen”


Now that I got what things are called, here’s how my favorite Hang-over food is cooked:


Ingredients: egg, garlic, salt, ground black pepper


To cook:


1     boil water - as much as you want (you may use, chicken stalk, beef stalk or whatever stalk you have. some people use "Pinaghugasan ng Bigas" which literally means water used to wash rice).


2.     throw crushed garlic into that boiling water - pound one or two cloves depending on how much you love garlic with a bottle of catsup, that's how we do it J)


3.     crack open your eggs and put in your pot like you are poaching them. keep the eggs separate. TIP: I like mine punctured. I want the yolk kinda mixed with albumen for fun and it is tastier that way. If you prefer poaching your egg Chef-like, then carefully break the egg into the boiling water without making too much of a mess. I like mine messy, kinda like making a creamy egg soup :)


4.     salt and GBP to taste.


5.     Cook egg to your liking. Runny or just enough or overcooked (I want mine cooked/over cooked, around 2- 3 minutes)


6.     serve while still hot (as a soup or sabaw sa kanin)


(you may include Malunggay or Misua but not both at the same time).


eeeeee... grocery lang ako.. magluluto ako ng suam mamaya! (or bukas)