Adobo - A Great Philippine Food

Have you ever seen the video of a Tagalog speaking American cooking "Adobong Manok"? It just shows that Adobo has reached the other side of the world and is being enjoyed by Foreigners also and has been making their own versions of it, that even food spots abroad have concocted their own Adobo. I'm sure that people have already tried phenomenal dish when they visited the Philippines. It's impossible to miss it as you can find it in any restaurant around Manila. Adobo can now be equated to both Philippine culture and the Filipinos in general.

Adobo can be categorized as a stew, unlike other Adobo from other countries like Puerto Rico, which sees it as a marinate for meats. Philippine Adobo is a dish that contains either chicken or pork meat or even at times both, marinated, along with some hard-boiled eggs, for long hours in vinegar, soy sauce and other spices such as garlic, bay leaf and peppercorns. Cooked in oil and served piping hot with steamed rice. The origin of the dish is still unknown but experts say it came from the Malays' Ginataan, which is considered a distant relative of the Adobo. Bathed in coconut milk, Ginataan has chicken and pork with vegetables in it and topped with vinegar and garlic.

Years after that, the Spaniards colonized the Philippines for 400 years and they have imparted to the Filipinos the concept of Adobo, which is the sauce, marinade or seasoning used in cooking a dish. With the prevalence of soy sauce brought by the Chinese traders during that time, Filipinos have created such succulent dish. Others argue that Adobo may have been derived from another Spanish dish-Adobado, which is cured pork loin cooked in olive oil and vinegar. Adobo is so special during the Spanish occupation that they only serve it when guests such as friars or high-ranking government officials come to visit. Adobo can be prepared days before and even with the lack of a cold storage, it can be preserved for latter consumption.

The variants of Adobo can be comparable to the islands in the Philippines depending on the resources or produce that particular area has. Adobo is not limited to a meal on a plate, nowadays Adobo can be seen inside a sandwich bun or a filling inside a Siopao, they even sell Adobo flavored chips and biscuits on the streets. No matter what, Adobo will always be Adobo, an aroma that would tease your sense, a dish so irresistible you definitely need to have a second bite and something we Filipinos can be proud of.