incessant rambling

adobo flakes oh yes, i've done a number of adobo entries in this blog, but i couldn't help salivate at the thought of doing the mother of all adobo entries. the premise is simple enough, marco polo flew in four chefs from all over the philippines to do a limited edition cook off ala iron chef with one theme in mind: adobo. unfortunately, with competitions, there is a single winner and many losers. hopefully not sour (pun intended) losers. glenda barretto represented samar from eastern visayas, danny de la cuesta brought northern luzon to central visayas, batangas sent myrna segismundo and nancy reyes represented the tagalog region. after going through the spread, sampling 7 dishes, only two came up to my definition of what makes adobo great: should have a strong salty body with the sour undertone of vinegar and that element of surprise. that and copious amount of fat. adobo without the fat is like ice cream without the cream. first off, i was a bit disappointed to find ...

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 guav...

of all filipino dishes, adobo remain as the most recognized and popular. it has been referred to as the soul of filipino food. arguably, it can lay claim to that title as every region has a different version and almost every old family has a secret recipe. what most people don't know though is that adobo is more than a dish but a way to preserve the food without refrigeration. the spices and acidic components of vinegar mixed with salt help to keep the meat edible even when it's left on the table without refrigeration. throughout the years, the adobo has evolved into a virtual family of ingenious variations from the dry, suacy, vinegar based, coconut cream infused, hot chili, sweetened, mix-a-combo-meats etc. One of the most interesting variation of adobo is not exactly "adobo". The chinese have flied lice and the filipino have adobo rice. once you're done with cooking adobo, the tastiest bits of meat and sauce stick to the pan - that's when you thrown in more...

story goes that alma moreno went to mc donalds and ordered adobo burger with cheese. she was promptly informed that mec donalds doesn't serve adobo as part of their menu. she of course insisted and sang the jingle of their commercial... " adobo-dobo chess chess, barger barger fleas fleas.. " uh, she must have been the voice coach of flash-in-the-pan-ty sexy dumb star alyssa alano who massacred the song "kiss me" with her own version - " keys me ". speaking of killing the english language, melanie marquez must have been a mass murderer with a number of quotable quotes that rivaled the vocabulary and depth of another english serial killer: erap estrada. melanie was invited to a tv show where she was asked if she really said " you are barking at the wrong dog! " to which she promptly answered: " hello, kay alma moreno kaya yun. " and before the hosts could stop themselves from falling off the chair, she quickly added " it's n...