Tortang talong named world's 2nd best egg dish

(UPDATE) POPULAR food and restaurant guide TasteAtlas on Thursday ranked the Filipino eggplant dish tortang talong (eggplant omelet) as the second-best egg dish in the world.

It is one of six dishes in the food guide's 100 list of best egg dishes, earning 4.4 out of 5 stars, behind the Japanese egg dish Ajitsuke tamago, which also had 4.4 stars.

"Tortang talong is a simple Filipino dish made with a combination of roasted eggplants and lightly beaten eggs. Whole eggplants are dipped into the egg mixture and are then shortly pan-fried until the entire dish starts to resemble a crispy omelet," TasteAtlas described the dish.

"This versatile delicacy is easily adapted with additional ingredients such as ground meat and vegetables, and it is traditionally served accompanied by steamed rice and tomato or banana ketchup. Inexpensive and quickly prepared, tortang talong can be enjoyed at any time of day as a hearty breakfast, lunch or dinner," it added.

A similar dish, torta, is the second-best Filipino dish in 51st place, with 3.9 stars.

"Torta is a popular Filipino dish consisting of an omelet filled with ground meat and vegetables such as diced potatoes. Savory and extremely satisfying, the dish is usually served as a main course, preferably over rice. It is recommended to pair torta with condiments such as banana ketchup," TasteAtlas said. "There are numerous variations on the Filipino torta, such as tortang talong (eggplant omelet) and tortang gulay (onion, bell peppers and garlic omelet). The reason for the unusual name of this dish is a strong Spanish influence in the Philippines."

"There is one other dish named torta in the country, but it is altogether different and refers to a small, muffin-like dessert cake," it said.

Breakfast dishes Bangsilog, Chicksilog and Daingsilog, which consists of garlic rice and egg accompanied by bangus and fried chicken, were ranked 65th, 66th and 67th, respectively, all 3.8 stars. The street food tokneneng is 89th with 3.5 stars.

Other dishes like the duck embryo delicacy balut, chosilog and the Ilocos-based poqui poqui finished outside the top 100.