The Many Faces of Adobo

Unlike pizza, pasta and other dishes with multiple variations, the well-loved Filipino fare, the adobo, may seem to have little room for experiment.  There is normally a set expectation on what adobo should taste like.  Basically there is that distinguished hint of vinegar balanced with another flavor typically the soy sauce.  It should be sour and salty, but it can be also sweet or spicy at the same time.

Adobo is actually not a dish but a process of cooking; in Filipino terms, anything cooked in adobo form is called inadobo.  The origins of the term is actually influenced by three hundred-plus years of Spanish occupation, but adobo — the dish, and not the Spanish sauce — is very Filipino in taste, technique and creativity.

What is interesting is that a bowl of adobo looks the same whether it is cooked with pork, chicken, string beans, and in some cases, fish.  Brown is the standard color of this fare, and that alone may not make the dish visually appealing at first sight.  You’ll change your mind, however, with your first bite.

The basic approach to cooking adobo is to marinate the meat — usually pork and/or chicken — in vinegar, soy sauce, crushed garlic, bay leaves and pepper.  Even with merely five ingredients, plus your choice of meat and/or poultry, each adobo dish can tread its own fate.  Some directly stew this mixture after a few hours, whereas others take the meat out, fry it, and then cook it in the marinade until the sauce reduces.  Others like it with a runny sauce, hence, water is a required addition.  Some, however, prefer their adobo dry and served in flaked form with crumbled goat’s cheese on top.

True to many culinary traditions, the adobo transforms based on the regional specialties in the Philippines.  With more than 7,000 islands and 70 provinces, it can be said that this simple dish can have at least a hundred versions with tastes varying from one household to the next.  For instance, cookery in the southern portion of the island of Luzon called Bicolandia is known for spice and the extensive use of coconut milk.  Inevitably, the adobo in this region tends to be curry-like and spicy but still very Filipino every culinary sense.

Coastal areas in the Philippines feature seafoods such as squid and fish as the star of the adobo.  Squid adobo adds the natural ink as an ingredient and it tends to be more garlicky than usual.  In the central regions of the Philippines where seafood adobo is common, ginger is used as a component to introduce a different flavor and at the same time, minimize the “fishiness” of the dish.

Adobo takes a more adventurous turn in the central regions of the Luzon Island.  Known for its taste for delicacies, frog legs may find its fate in adobo form.  Other families also cook vegetable adobo by using kangkong or water spinach as the main ingredient whereas another vegetable favorite is the string bean.

You can actually create your own adobo specialty by simply experimenting with flavors and combinations.  Select the main highlight and play with the ratio of sauce ingredients.  You can add chiles, take out the soy sauce and use coconut milk, use lots of ginger and garlic, or you can add your choice of red wine when reducing the sauce.  You can make it all-meat, all-seafood or vegetarian.  Serve it with steamed white rice or a side of greens.  Remember, even with a small amount of ingredients, the supposedly lowly adobo can actually go very very far.