Zen Baking Co. in Deep Ellum serves Filipino breakfasts

That's a rare treat in Dallas.

Zen Baking

Filipinos keep breakfasts pretty simple, yet this meal is hardly typical as dishes retain the influence from American, Spanish, Chinese, and other cultures. Making the dishes from scratch with quality ingredients is also a key part of a Filipino breakfast, so hearing about Zen Baking Co. cooking refreshing Filipino breakfasts was a major highlight for me this morning. The bakery in Deep Ellum is also known for their signature cake balls and Filipino-influenced “tapas” dishes.

The sticky, gooey champorado has such a rustic charm; like it were a chocolate oatmeal porridge. One of my favorite dishes as a child, it’s made using sticky rice, evaporated or sweet condensed milk, and chocolate tablea, which are cacao nibs that have been roasted, ground, and mixed with some sugar. The actual Filipino product is typically difficult to find, so Mexican chocolate is an acceptable substitute considering the roots of the dish can be traced back to Mexico. All of this sounds like a strange combination, and some may pair the sweetness with something savory like salted fish, or in this case, spam. I should add that my pairing of choice is bacon; that’s right, bacon and chocolate rice for breakfast!

Zen sticky rice

They also have your typical “-silog” platters with sinagag (garlic fried rice), a fried egg cooked to your preference, and a protein, which is what determines the prefix of “-silog.” For now, they are doing tocilog (tocino) and longsilog (longanisa). Pictured above is a combination of both meats; tocino is basically bacon, longanisa is sausage, and both are given a Filipino twist. One of the owners, Czarina, sat down with me as I was happily munching away and she was particularly happy about their house-cured tocino. She strives to keep as much yellow five off the menu wherever she can. The packaged stuff is easily distingushed due to it’s bright red glow, while a house-made tocino looks more similar to high quality bacon. Really enjoyed Zen’s tocino as theirs had nicely rendered fat and lovely balance of savory and candy-sweet, without being cloying. Eventually they also plan to make their own longanisa, so someone better go get Daniel Vaughn’s attention. If you’re ever pondering about a hangover cure, why not skip your typical greasy spoon brunch joint and try these out? This is what I call breakfast.