Magic Wok's "Special Combo" Breakfast - Artesia

I have finally tasted the king of all egg-based breakfasts. No Grand-Slam-This or Big-Breakfast-That can ever hope to compare to Magic Wok's "Special Combo" breakfast--a meal that has everything you need, nothing you don't, and is available all day long. Filipinos call this fried-rice-and-egg breakfasts silogs. And no silogs I've had before, or ever will have in the future will be as perfect as this. You doctor warned you to ease off on the cholesterol-ladened foods? Eat this as your last hurrah.

The combo breakfast is actually three silogs in one (bangsilog, longsilong, and tapsilog), which really just means it has all the essential Filipino breakfast meats on a single plate with the fried egg and fried rice. If you count the egg, the plate has contributions from cow, pig, chicken and sea. It's a veritable species sampler. The bangus (milkfish) is tangy, crispy-fried golden brown and delicious. The beef tapa is sugary, not unlike a boneless glazed BBQ beef rib. The longanisa is bifurcated down the middle, splayed open like a book, then seared on the flat side to a caramel sticky, crispiness and oozing sweet pork fat. The egg, well, it's also well-done. Everything is...like I said, perfect.

Key to the greatness of the dish is that it's served screaming hot. The meats are still essentially sizzling when it comes to you; but even the fried rice is fuming steam, seemingly just seconds from the blazing kiss of a hot wok. You quench everything with douses of vinegar, which also cuts through the richness like a white hot blade.

I go to Magic Wok a lot. I write about Magic Wok often. I'm slowly working my way to trying everything on the menu. Someday, I'm planning a post where I just plaster this page with all the pictures from years of exploration. But this breakfast deserved a post of its own. It's a wonder I didn't try it till now. But when you're surrounded by riches, even the Hope Diamond can get lost.

Magic Wok
11869 Artesia Blvd
Artesia, CA 90701
(562) 865-7340

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