Adobo ulet, anyone?

As if we can't get enough of it. Almost everything becomes adobo-ized. Pork adobo, chicken adobo, beef adobo...adobong kangkong! Every eatery in the Philippines serves their own version of this magnificent dish, almost every family has a secret recipe and a secret way of cooking. Some like it dried, some like it masabaw. One thing is for sure, if its adobo, sira ang diet mo! (your diet becomes ruined)

As promised, how to cook adobo is what will be featured now. Please note that due to diversity in the Philippines, there are hundreds of ways to cook adobo. This will not be a recipe of exact measurement because taste preferences differ greatly especially in the Philippines. What I encourage everyone is to experiment and be not afraid to try different styles and techniques. Adobo is the best way to start learning how to cook because almost nothing can go wrong with it. And if ever something goes wrong, your cooking won't be sooooooo catastrophic. Here's the list of ingredients:

Pork or Chicken Meat or combination of both

Vinegar (any available vinegar)

Garlic (crushed or sliced doesn't matter)

Peppercorns or Pamintang buo

Bay leaves (laurel)

Salt 

These are the basic ingredients of a functional adobo. In pre-historic times, it is only salt and vinegar cooked with meat but during the Spanish colonial times, spices were added to add to form the more common adobo. Soy sauce is not in the ingredients since it is only a recent addition, so that it appears brown without the long process of cooking. Soy sauce is basically a shortcut.

How easy to cook adobo? Combine all ingredients in the pan and fire it, after boiling add some water. Wait for the sabaw to reduce or dry up and the oil of the meats come out, then its ready. Just don't burn it ok?

A more complex way of cooking, put everything in palayok, fire it up and add water when it boils. Cook it really slowly in low fire for about two hours. Meat will be really soft during this time and all the flavor is perfectly balanced in the dish. If you can't stop yourself anymore, go ahead and indulge. But if you still want the better flavor, put everything in a glass garapon and make sure it is covered in its own fats and oil. Let it stay in room temperature for a few days. The adobo is habang tumatagal, sumasarap (the more it is aged, it tastes better). It will not spoil, so as long as its covered in its oil and fat, and because of vinegar and spices. After a few days, fry the adobo. On your first bite, its gonna be heaven.

All Pinoys know Adobo

Cooking it is the most mouth-watering experience, both for the cook and for the nakiki-amoy. Eating, brings you to an experience hundreds of years old, inherited from tradition. Only in the Philippines, the Pinoy Adobo.

Adobo means sauce or marinade in Spanish. When the colonists arrived, they found our ancestors stewing meat in vinegar and all the good stuff, and since it has funny looking but superb tasting sabaw (sauce), they called it sauce in Spanish! What a way to call a dish! These "wiseguys" has been making the same mistake over and over again all over the world, and the true name of our favorite dish has been lost forever. Good thing, cooking it is still basically the same as it was before. At least the flavor is still somewhat the same.

Photo from MarketManila

Marinating meat in salt and vinegar, boiling it for hours seemed really traditional in the 1500's. Adding garlic, peppercorns and bay leaves belongs to the 1800-1900's. But whatever is added to it, the adobo brings you back to the past through your palette. Hundreds of years ago, no refrigeration, no means of preservation and in times of plenty, lots of meat. So our ancestors improvised, and it turned into one tasty dish.

As they say, the Pinoy adobo tastes better as it ages. Vinegar and salt inhibits the growth of bacteria, and meat boiled and swimming  in its own fat is like meat swimming in preservatives in a natural way. Eating it off the stove, which on my opinion, cannot be avoided due to the mouth watering nature of an adobo is already superb. But giving a few days wait definitely makes it all worth it. All the flavors wonderfully blended in, everything almost perfect. You may not want to stop eating.

Be sure to cook lots of rice to go with adobo. A Filipino faced with rice and adobo won't talk a lot, just eat a lot. A hearty ulam (viand) for a hearty warrior, the Pinoy Warrior. More rice please!

An adobo recipe will be posted on later articles, so watch out for it. For now, just think about how you can eat adobo after reading this. :-)

Update: How to cook adobo, read it here. Adobo ulet anyone?