By:
John Walter Boisvert
It’s salty. Sometimes it may be
sweet. You’ve seen a lot of variations of it. You’ve probably tasted some of
it, each with differing taste. The Filipino staple food of each household and
restaurant. The country’s national dish, a cultural marker; I’m talking about
the phenomenal Adobo!
T-shirt saying “Got Adobo?”
channeling Filipino Pride on laymen and college students in their campuses. A
movie called American Adobo attributing the national dish. What is it about
this national dish? The term may sound familiar. It’s also used in Mexican
cuisine. The Mexican adobo refers to a piquant red sauce made from ground
chilies, herbs and vinegar sold canned or jarred. The Caribbean adobo usually
refers to a dry rub of garlic, onion, oregano, salt and pepper. The dish is
pretty much made the same by Filipinos and the ingredients used are basic
kitchen needs such as soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, bay leaves. This dish is a
style of cooking pork or chicken.
Writing this article, I get
flashbacks of my childhood experiences with adobo. My mom would let the chicken
sit and marinate with soy sauce, vinegar, and other spices and let it bathe
there all day and when it’s dinner time, I can literally smell t aroma from all
sides of the house. There’s no escaping that captivating and mouth-watering
scent. Ask any Filipino and you will get different styles and endless
variations of each cooking. There’s no definitive history of Filipino adobo. Unlike
many other Philippine dishes which have Spanish oor American influence, Adobo
is believed to be a combination Filipino-Malay. The dish is rumored to have a
non-refrigeration life of 5 days but there’s no real test for that testament.
Have it frozen and it will last for weeks or possibly a month and a half.
Adobo is a big part of the Filipino
cuisine thus making it a cultural marker in the history of the Filipinos. It
marks a significant part of the Filipino pride and identity giving us a sort of
face to the world.
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