Tapa

The word Tapa can refer to many different things:

Places

Food

Other

People(s)

Abbreviations

Tapa (Filipino cuisine)

Tapa is dried or cured beef, mutton or venison, although other meat or even fish may be used. Filipinos prepare tapa by using thin slices of meat and curing these with salt and spices as a preservation method.

Tapa is often cooked fried or grilled. When served with fried rice and fried egg, it is known as tapsilog (a portmanteau of the Filipino words tapa, sinangag and itlog [egg]). It sometimes comes with atchara (pickled papaya strips) or sliced tomatoes as side dish. Vinegar or ketchup is usually used as a condiment.

Dishes

Before cooking tapa, the meat is cured or dried and cut in to small portions or thin slices. As a method of preservation, salt and spices are added. After preparation, the meat can be cooked either grilled or fried.

Just like any other ulam (main dish) in Filipino cuisine, tapa is usually partnered with rice. It can be garlic rice, java rice, plain rice or any other types of preparation. As a side dish, tapa sometimes comes with atchara (pickled papaya strips) or sliced vegetables (usually tomatoes). Vinegar (oftentimes with siling labuyo) or ketchup is usually used as a condiment.

Tapas (Sanskrit)

Tapas (Sanskrit "heat") refers to spiritual practices including deep meditation, reasoned self-discipline and effort to achieve self-realization, often involving solitude, hermitism or asceticism;

In the Vedas literature of Hinduism, fusion words based on tapas are widely used to expound several spiritual concepts that develop through heat or inner energy, such as meditation, any process to reach special observations and insights, the spiritual ecstasy of a yogin or tāpasa (a vṛddhi derivative meaning "a practitioner of austerities, an ascetic"), even warmth of sexual intimacy. In certain contexts, the term is also used to mean penance, suffering, austerity, pious activity, as well as misery. The word tapasvinī for example, means a female devotee or pious woman, "an ascetic, someone practicing austerities", or in some contexts it can mean poor, miserable woman.

Ancient texts and scriptures

Tapas implies meditation and reasoned moral self-discipline, considered to be a means to realize ātman (self) in ancient texts of India. The Chāndogya Upaniṣad suggests that those who engage in ritualistic offerings to gods and priests will fail in their spiritual practice while those who engage in tapas and self-examination will succeed. The Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad states that realization of self requires a search for truth and tapas, meditation.