Every Filipino I know loves to eat. We celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, and other occasions. We cook all kinds of our favorite dishes, and always invite our close friends and relatives. While eating breakfast, we are already thinking what's going to be for lunch and dinner. Chicken and pork adobo are one of our best dishes back in the Philippines.
Chicken and pork Adobo are well known Filipino food. We consider them as our national dish, for they are easy to prepare and do not need more than six ingredients. As long as I have soy sauce, vinegar, salt, and pepper, I can cook my Adobo. Most people I know love adobo except my husband. It does not surprise me because he is no fan of Filipino food. A friend of mine teaches me how to cook her version of Adobo. I must admit, her recipe tastes better than mine. Maybe the saying “food tastes better when you eat at your friend’s house” is true.
The adobo may have had its origin in Malaysia because of the use of coconut milk. A stewed chicken and pork in a coconut milk and integrated with spices like vinegar and garlic that add aroma to the dish, and it is known as ginataan (coconut milk) were Spaniards influenced to the Filipinos in the creation of adobo. Adobo is a Spanish word, corroboration that it is a dish originated from Spain. The original Spanish adobo consists of garlic, bay leaf, and vinegar, and spiced with oregano, thyme, and paprika. To preserve the meat, vinegar is being used that makes adobo a perfect dish so that we can store up to several days and it is really beneficial because Philippines have a warm climate. The use of soy sauce was influenced by the Orientals.
In a dish like adobo, pork and chicken are the best meat to be use; we can also use beef instead. I can also use quail and duck in making adobo, poultry like this also makes a good dish especially if marinated well. Thick saucy adobo is usually served for cooking and topped in hot rice. To make the meat crisp, we can shred it and fry until it is crisp and golden, which makes a new product, a dish called adobo flakes. It is really a tremendous meal, more than ever for breakfast, especially if it is go together with a salad of tomatoes and onions, fried eggs, or shredded pickled papaya. The meat may also be fester until the sauce parched up, then slice up and you can make a flavorful and easy spread for sandwich preferably made with pan de sal (salt bread which is a rounded bread usually eaten by Filipino)
A star anise can also be used and rice wine to make a Chinese adobo, Filipino-Chinese is also excellent in catering adobo. There are different versions of adobo some are sweetened by sugar or sweet orange juice or pineapple juice, still another version has hot chili peppers. Fewer are using Fish and seafood for adobo. Distinctive among all adobo is Squid adobo a variety for having a black rather than a brown sauce, because it is cooked in its ink. Adobo is well-liked among all Filipinos and institute the whole time in the country with everlasting variations depending on the availability of ingredients in a region.
There are also ways to use leftover adobo, you can shred and fry with crushed garlic until crisp to make adobo flakes. It can be used to make into a pasta sauce just stir fry a cup of flaked leftover adobo meat in oil from the adobo with cloves of crushed garlic and soy sauce, intersperse with freshly-ground pepper to taste, rouse cream into the combination then decant onto cooked spaghetti or fettuccini and crest with a mixture of chopped salted egg, mango, tomato, and spring onions. It can also be dole out as chopped leftover adobo meat, a mu-shu style in a flour taco, a large carrot and blanch, combine the meat with sheared wansuy, the blanched carrots, and cucumber. To make a mouth-watering ramen you can top it with shredded adobo flakes along with chopped spring onions and slices of hard-boiled egg.
Adobo is well known among Filipinos. In fact, there is a running program thru Filipino Channel here in United States, they call it Adobo Nation. There are several varieties of cooking adobo. Some people like to sauté it in onion and garlic. Some prefers by mixing all the ingredients, marinating for a couple of hours and simmering for an hour.
I remember one time, while I was eating Adobo and rice (we eat rice three times a day) my husband asked me a funny question. He asked me "Why don’t you eat regular foods." I answered humorously "Hey, I am Asian and this is our regular dish." We eat using our own bare hands, no chopsticks, no spoon, or fork, for it enhances the taste of the food. We just wash our hands carefully before eating bare hands.
So when my children come home, they do not bother me asking what’s for the dinner because they can already tell from the delicious and wonderful aroma of the chicken and pork adobo that I have cooked. After eating the chicken and pork adobo, my children often tell me that it was so tantalizing and very satisfying piece of dish. When you say comfort food, Adobo is definitely the one! If well marinated, none of the spice flavors rule to a certain extent because the flavor is an insubstantial stability of all the ingredients.
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