Adobo is mainly made out of meat, soy sauce, vinegar & garlic, without one of them it cannot be called an adobo except for this, Adobo sa puti.
I guess the most popular Filipino dish of all time is adobo and for those who don’t know them where were you all these years 🙂
Adobo is a dish made out of four important ingredients namely the meat (pork or chicken), soy sauce, vinegar and loads of garlic, without one of them it cannot be called an adobo apart from one exception, this adobo sa puti. Basically adobo sa puti is a similar dish sans soy sauce, I am not sure about its origins but my wild guess is that this was created by someone who planned to make adobo and found out there was no soy sauce, instead of buying one to save money he used salt as a replacement.
That theory is quite possible because in Philippines not so affluent people are trying hard to make frugal ways of preparing dishes like this, no soy sauce means an extra saving which can buy you some other important things in life. The result is really quite the same as the flavour notes of an adobo dish is very sour and very salty which the replacement can also achieve.
Now I had the similar scenario a couple of weeks ago when I was planning to cook my adobo, to my surprise I ran out of soy sauce and remember that this dish existed. The wife is quite sceptical as she never tried had adobo sa puti but the end result had spoken for itself.
Pork and potatoes always go well together! Would love to try this dish at home but don’t think I have the Filipino style sugar… possible to replace it with brown sugar?
Soy sauce in adobo is a Chinese influence — Chinese traders who visited the Philippine Islands and traded with native Filipinos introduced soy sauce to the islands. The original Filipino adobo used either patis (fish sauce) or sea salt for the salting component.
In Pampanga, this is the original adobo but with fewer steps. You just boil the pork in garlic, vinegar, salt, pepper and bay leaf. It keeps for a long time, almost like paksiw. Prior to serving, the pork is fried until brown. You can then fry some cold rice in the same kawali. In Rizal, this is called adobong matanda.
Pork and potatoes always go well together! Would love to try this dish at home but don’t think I have the Filipino style sugar… possible to replace it with brown sugar?
★★★★★
Do you mean cane vinegar? yes you can replace it with a white vinegar
Soy sauce in adobo is a Chinese influence — Chinese traders who visited the Philippine Islands and traded with native Filipinos introduced soy sauce to the islands. The original Filipino adobo used either patis (fish sauce) or sea salt for the salting component.
Thanks for sharing this information, it means adobo sa puti might be the original version of the adobo.
Mmmm – delicious – Raymund. I have made this with chicken but will give your recipe a try
★★★★★
Adobo is my favorite Pinoy dish! Thanks for sharing, Raymund! Nice post you have there 🙂
★★★★★
I’ve heard of adobo, never tried. Looks similar to some of our pork dishes. Bet this tastes really great!
★★★★★
Yes they are good, you must try it or else you are missing on something
In Pampanga, this is the original adobo but with fewer steps. You just boil the pork in garlic, vinegar, salt, pepper and bay leaf. It keeps for a long time, almost like paksiw. Prior to serving, the pork is fried until brown. You can then fry some cold rice in the same kawali. In Rizal, this is called adobong matanda.
Hmmmm…no soy sauce. Interesting! I’ve yet to try this…SOON! It looks delish just like the traditional adobo.
★★★★★
Such an interesting recipe! Thanks for the tip on Adobo cuisine — I was always curious 🙂
★★★★★
I love Filipino foods… so many dishes with pork belly! Thumbs up!
★★★★★
Hello, I do not understand. It has “soy sauce” on your description but no “soy sauce” on the ingredients. Please clarify. Thanks.
Apologies if the description is confusing, it says there “except this” pertaining to the dish