How much do you love your Adobo?
In
celebration of the cultural gastronomic heritage that is the Adobo, NutriAsia’s Datu Puti put Pinoys to task in finding
and feting the best adobo recipes at the recent Datu Puti Adobo Challenge held
last Saturday, June 11, at the Mercato
Centrale food market in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.
Co-presented with Mercato Central and Our Awesome Planet, The Datu Puti Adobo Challenge was part
of the thrust to take the Datu Puti
Adobo Movement a step further this 2016. Launched in 2015, the Datu Puti
Adobo Movement was created to push for Adobo to be our pambansang ulam. It is a movement that hits close
to home because Adobo is a dish that is as personal, as it is national. Each
household has its own signature Adobo, and the shared flavor defines families,
identifies us as Filipinos, and boosts us as a nation. This event is also supported by partners Philippine Culinary Heritage Movement
(PCHM) and the National Historical
Commission of the Philippines (NHCP).
The push for Adobo has reached
much acclaim and has even been echoed by efforts in Congress. In fact, Bohol
First District Representative Rene Relampagos filed House Bill 3926 in 2014,
which sought to formally declare it as the national dish. The Datu Puti Adobo
Movement has drawn support for the bill through a petition since the launching
of the advocacy in June 2015.
The Adobo Challenge
To get people more involved in
the Datu Puti Adobo Movement this 2016, the advocacy group mounted the Datu
Puti Adobo Challenge and gathered Mercato Centrale’s veteran home-based cooks
to create their own special Adobo dish. Participating food vendors of Mercato
Centrale prepared adobo dishes using any type of meat and vegetable, and were
marinated in or cooked with at least two of the three main Datu Puti products:
vinegar, soy sauce, and patis (fish sauce). The top 14 entries were selected
based on various criteria, including: creativity of concept, which looks at the
story behind the dish as well as originality, branding and cooking technique;
innovation, noting the use of unique special ingredients and Datu Puti
products; and Philippine culinary heritage, including how it adopts and
represents regional cooking styles.
Mercato Centrale was truly the
right venue to celebrate this culinary heritage and mount the Datu Puti Adobo
Challenge. The Mercato Centrale food fair is the go-to destination of urban
foodies. Finding its home on 7th avenue and 25th street (across The Forum and
in front of the “Between the Lines” art mural) in the heart of the BGC business
district, this fab food fair happening every Friday and Saturday from 6 p.m. to
3 a.m. has earned the disctinction of being a hub of culinary experiences. It
is a venue for both comfort food cravings and fresh gastronomic finds all
prepped by budding food entrepreneurs. During the Datu Puti Adobo Challenge,
some select Mercato vendors added Adobo to their usual fare, and the foodies
were all in for awesome renditions of the national comfort fave.
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Up Dharma Down playing the crowd's favorite OPM Hits.
|
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| Ebe Dancel rocking with the crowd. |
The Winning Adobo, Atbp.
Hosted by a familiar foodie himself, Tonipet Gaba, the feast was made
even more festive with musical performances by homegrown talents UpDharma Down
and Ebe Dancel. It was truly a treat to see both culinary and entertainment
talents back up the Adobo initiative. As guests were treated to aromatic
flavors and local OPM, Pinoy pride was truly in the air.
Among the participants, the Top
3 among the entries wowed the crowd with their inspired versions of the dish.
Based on criteria that took into account taste, presentation, story, and heart,
three Mercato vendors were named as the winners of the Datu Puti Adobo
Challenge. And based on on-the-spot voting by the Mercato foodies, one was
hailed as the People’s Choice.
The big winners of the night
were:
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| First Place: The Oinkery’s Pugon Smoked Pork Adobo. Pork shoulder pugon-smoked for 8 hours, glazed with a rich Cebu-style adobo sauce and garnished with fresh manggang hilaw. |
First place: The Oinkery
Inspired
by Cebu’s method of cooking lechon, The Oinkery roasts their pork meat inside a
traditional pugon giving it that
distinct smoky taste. Matthew combines
the finished product with his sister’s Cebu-style adobo sauce and garnishes it with fresh green mangoes on the side.
Having been slow-cooked for a total of eight hours, the meat is guaranteed to
be soft and juicy with every bite.
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Second Place: Dayrit's Pork Adobong Laing Pinangat won the 2nd place in Datu Puti Adobo Challenge.
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Second place: Dayrit's
DISH NAME: Pork Adobong Laing Pinangat
DESCRIPTION: Two Filipino favorites, Adobo and Laing, in one
unique and flavorful dish.
Pork Adobong Laing
Pinangat – that’s two of the famous Filipino favorites, adobo and laing, combined in one extraordinary dish. Dayrit’s 40 years of
experience in creating sumptuous heritage home-cooked meals is very evident
with their entry for The Adobo Challenge 2016.
According to Chef Miguel Dayrit, their version of the classic adobo recipe is different from the rest
because it combines the strong flavors of two Pinoy viands to create an outstanding dish. This Bicolandia
inspired concoction is a fusion of the creamy, hot and spicy and the sour and
salty trademarks of laing and adobo respectively.
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| Third Place: Bakmi Nyonya’s classic Filipino adobo infused with Indonesian spices and served with Sambal wowed the judges and won 3rd place at the Datu Puti Adobo Challenge. |
Third place: Bakmi Nyonya
DISH NAME: Babi Kekap Adobo Nyonya
DESCRIPTION: Classic Filipino adobo infused with Indonesian
spices. Served with Sambal.
Lucy
of Bakmi Nyonya, one of the well-known food vendors in Mercato Centrale,
reinvents the Pinoy classic adobo and incorporates her
Indonesian-style of cooking to come up with a unique entry to the Adobo Challenge 2016. This delicate pork adobo treat is mixed with secret Indonesian spices, cooked in soy
sauce and vinegar and served with the classic sambal.
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| People's Choice Award: Lariza’s Seafood Adobo is a mixture of mussels, prawns and crabs stirred in a mixture of vinegar and soy sauce, garlic, onion, pepper and finished off with cheese on top to add a creamy, tangy taste. It also won the People’s Choice award in the Datu Puti Adobo Challenge. |
People’s Choice Award: Lariza's
DISH NAME: Seafood Adobo
DESCRIPTION: A mix of crab, shrimp and mussels cooked adobo
style and topped with cheese.
Lariza’s,
another well-known food vendor in Mercato Centrale shares their expertise in
creating a unique dish for the Adobo
Challenge 2016. Their very own “Seafood Adobo” is a mixture of mussels, prawns
and crabs stirred in a mixture of vinegar and soy sauce, garlic, onion, pepper
and finished off with cheese on top to add a creamy, tangy taste. Tess Gonzales,
the proud owner of Lariza’s knew that her opponents would stick to the usual
pork or chicken adobo, so she decided
to come up with something edgy. With her “Seafood Adobo”, she hopes to motivate Filipinos to be more daring and
“adobofy” fresh catch from the sea as an alternative to the usual adobo recipes.
All Adobo winners were awarded
start-up funds in cash, so they could include their winning dishes in the
regular Mercato menu. The People’s Choice awardee also received P3,000 worth of
Datu Puti goods. With these latest initiatives
and the warm response of urban foodies, the Datu Puti Adobo Movement has
definitely made strides in rallying more people behind the nation’s ulam of choice.
Interested
parties may still support the Datu Puti Adobo Movement by signing the petition
at www.adobomovement.com or at this link from Change.Org
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