Filipinos prepare tapa by using thin slices of meat and curing these with salt and spices as a preservation method.

[1] Before cooking tapa, the meat is cured or dried and cut in to small portions thick or thin slices.

Tapsilog is the term used when tapa, garlic-fried rice (sinangag), and fried egg (itlog) are combined into one meal, which is served primarily during breakfast.

According to some sources, tapsilog[3] and tapsihan[4] are colloquial slang words; however, these terms are already being used by those restaurants and many Filipinos from all social strata.

Small restaurants called tapsihan (or tapsilogan) in many barangays in the Philippines serve tapsilog along with some of its spawns (see silog).