Patongko and Salapao (Fried Dumplings)

Patongko is usually available in the mornings and a breakfast food and is usually taken with fresh soybean milk. This would be very much like what Pan de Sal (bread with salt) is like to Filipinos.

Patongko dough is rolled and sliced into short strips. A pair of strips pressed together in the middle make one patongko. When fried they look very much like chromosomes. A variant is the giant patongko.

Another fried dumpling is salapao (which to us is siopao) but does not come with any filling. The dough mix for making salapao is slightly sweeter than the patongko dough. I prefer the salapao but try not to have it often to cut down on my oil intake.

Some vendors sell patongko along with a very thick and sweet dip called sangkayah. This condensed milk with pandanus extract dip unfortunately has the look and consistency of that thing coming out of small children’s noses.