adobo fiesta - warning can cause uncontrollable salivation and craving
any filipino worth to be called that knows what adobo means. we tout it as our national dish, and to those that barely know the history of adobo, it is actually a spanish term that refers to sauce, marinade or seasoning. interestingly, adobo is just a name that spaniards used to baptize a method practiced by our filipino forefathers in cooking their meats in vinegar and salt.
2/5 adobo flakes, postrio - too dry. could have used some adobo sauce or oil and spiced up a bit with a chili undertone.
4/5 adobo kangkong, kuls kitchen - the sauce was too runny and the only reason why i deducted 1 point is because adobo should have meat.
the filipino adobo was born out of practical reasons. considering that there is no refrigeration and means to preserve food in the humid and hot weather, cooking in vinegar inhibits the growth of bacteria and allow huge quantities of the meat to be cooked and stored longer for later use.
4/5 adobo na manok sa gata, melting pot - the ingenious use of guava leaves gave it a citrusy flavor rather than the usual sour influence of vinegar. if they quickly refried the chicken parts to give it crisp edges before mixing it up back in the sauce this dish would have been a perfect 5.
no one really knows when the transition to use chinese soy sauce instead of plain rock salt started. nor do we have clear records of when adobo developed its regional flavors from the chili spiced version to the coconut cream versions of bicol, the dry refried cebuano variety, the chinese inspired sweet humba, the list goes on and each region will lay claim to the fact their version is the best.
4/5 adobo na atay, melting pot - who doesn't love the full bodied flavor of liver? the quail egg was a nice touch though i would have preferred if they cut out the hearts as it tends to get really tough. mash a few of the liver and mix it up with the sauce. ah saboroso!
considering its position as a filipino staple, any restaurant that includes adobo in its menu faces a tough challenge from every juan who can easily judge the whole array in their menu by how the adobo tastes like.
1/5 green shell adobo, carinderia - mussels are tricky because they become really tough if you overcook them. and this one's over the top aside from the very strong chili added to the dish that sort of drowned every other flavor.
here's the remainder of my list of adobo dishes rated using a scale of 1 - 5 where 5 is orgasmic inducing explosion of flavors and 1 is the equivalent of culinary suicide. at random order...
1/5 adobo nga sitaw (string beans), carinderia - kangkong lends itself well in an adobo dish because it retains its crispy texture if cooked just right. on the other hands, sitaw is already stringy and tough.
2/5 humba, carinderia - my humba reference would be papa dodong's cutlets that are seared and refried before going back into the pot of humba sauce. the meat should have been cooked well enough to make it literally fall off and the fat dissolve in hot hot rice. this variety was too commercial.
3/5 saigon adobo, ila puti - a dry adobo variety topped with hibi and garlic bits. the sauce was too sweet for my taste.
1/5 ginataan adobo na manok, bigbys - the chicken pieces were too dry because they removed the chicken skin. i had a sneaking suspicion they reused some fried chicken, removed the battered skin and threw it into a ginataan adobo sauce.
5/5 Beef Adobado, Dessert Factory - ironically, the meat that is least used in most adobo concoctions turned out to be the yummiest and best tasting of the lot. although it doesn't have the usual adobo sauce, the process of cooking it pressure cooked forced all the flavors to seep into the meat before it was fried to a crispy consistency on the outside but soft in the inside.
2/5 adobo flakes, postrio - too dry. could have used some adobo sauce or oil and spiced up a bit with a chili undertone.
4/5 adobo kangkong, kuls kitchen - the sauce was too runny and the only reason why i deducted 1 point is because adobo should have meat.
the filipino adobo was born out of practical reasons. considering that there is no refrigeration and means to preserve food in the humid and hot weather, cooking in vinegar inhibits the growth of bacteria and allow huge quantities of the meat to be cooked and stored longer for later use.
4/5 adobo na manok sa gata, melting pot - the ingenious use of guava leaves gave it a citrusy flavor rather than the usual sour influence of vinegar. if they quickly refried the chicken parts to give it crisp edges before mixing it up back in the sauce this dish would have been a perfect 5.
no one really knows when the transition to use chinese soy sauce instead of plain rock salt started. nor do we have clear records of when adobo developed its regional flavors from the chili spiced version to the coconut cream versions of bicol, the dry refried cebuano variety, the chinese inspired sweet humba, the list goes on and each region will lay claim to the fact their version is the best.
4/5 adobo na atay, melting pot - who doesn't love the full bodied flavor of liver? the quail egg was a nice touch though i would have preferred if they cut out the hearts as it tends to get really tough. mash a few of the liver and mix it up with the sauce. ah saboroso!considering its position as a filipino staple, any restaurant that includes adobo in its menu faces a tough challenge from every juan who can easily judge the whole array in their menu by how the adobo tastes like.
1/5 green shell adobo, carinderia - mussels are tricky because they become really tough if you overcook them. and this one's over the top aside from the very strong chili added to the dish that sort of drowned every other flavor.here's the remainder of my list of adobo dishes rated using a scale of 1 - 5 where 5 is orgasmic inducing explosion of flavors and 1 is the equivalent of culinary suicide. at random order...
1/5 adobo nga sitaw (string beans), carinderia - kangkong lends itself well in an adobo dish because it retains its crispy texture if cooked just right. on the other hands, sitaw is already stringy and tough.
2/5 humba, carinderia - my humba reference would be papa dodong's cutlets that are seared and refried before going back into the pot of humba sauce. the meat should have been cooked well enough to make it literally fall off and the fat dissolve in hot hot rice. this variety was too commercial.
3/5 saigon adobo, ila puti - a dry adobo variety topped with hibi and garlic bits. the sauce was too sweet for my taste.1/5 ginataan adobo na manok, bigbys - the chicken pieces were too dry because they removed the chicken skin. i had a sneaking suspicion they reused some fried chicken, removed the battered skin and threw it into a ginataan adobo sauce.
5/5 Beef Adobado, Dessert Factory - ironically, the meat that is least used in most adobo concoctions turned out to be the yummiest and best tasting of the lot. although it doesn't have the usual adobo sauce, the process of cooking it pressure cooked forced all the flavors to seep into the meat before it was fried to a crispy consistency on the outside but soft in the inside.
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