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Saturday, July 09, 2005
Adobo ado
A bunch of us chilled out at our friend Frankie’s house one cliché-of-a-starry-night and since she had a copy of the film, American Adobo, we decided to view it again and see how it had stood the cobwebs.
It was still delicious viewing and although there was the absence of adobo itself, in spite of the many eating scenes that is typical of Pinoy cinema, the title triggered adobo mania.
We hopped to the nearest karenderia (diner) to grab a bite of the Philippines’ unofficial national dish, which is so versatile it can be cooked with potatoes, mushrooms and even boiled eggs.
As soon as we were seated, we asked for adobo only to regret it, at first.
We debated about canceling our order, as we dreaded the kind of adobo we would have to eat after we saw the rest of the diner (the john was moldy, to say the least). Too late. Sido, the owner, had already plopped a big bowl of adobo on our table.
Surprise! It was not pinadagan (something done in haste and therefore inferior) and seemed to have been created by a happy man who knew the yang and ying of cooking.
Frankie said that the alchemy of sweet, sour and salty tastes were reminiscent of Negrense-style adobo, which has thick sauce resulting from long hours of boiling.
Long boiling made Sido’s adobo fork-tender. The pork rind was incredibly soft; it quivered when I pierced it with my fork. It made me forget that cholesterol is a specter that awaits the wanton at the end of the tunnel.
How could the essence of garlic be so forward? Sido said that the key is in marinating the meat first and adding the garlic only after 15 minutes of cooking time to allow the acid from the vinegar to evaporate.
There must have been 20 pieces of garlic, enough to alarm Dracula from a mile away, and to reawaken memories of my 18th birthday when Dad baked me a leg of pork studded with garlic (he couldn’t afford diamonds). Now I can’t eat leg of pork or garlic without thinking of him.
You can’t see through the brown sauce with all its triad of flavors fighting for dominance. Only the likes of Sido can strike a balance, a yang and ying I’m still trying to find.
(July 9, 2005 issue)
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