Adobo marks its debut today as the first Filipino dish with a Google Doodle featured on the home page of the internet browser.
The popular Filipino Adobo hailed as the unofficial national dish of the Philippines is shown on Google’s March 15, 2023, home page with an animated Doodle as a celebration of both its way of cooking and as a favorite dish.
Adobo making its appearance on Google Doodle is praised by Google Philippines Head of Communications and Public Affairs Mervin Wenke as a Pinoy Pride moment and a tribute to Filipino cuisine.
“It is an important part of the story of Filipinos. It is an evolving, well-loved comfort food or way of cooking that crosses all economic boundaries,” added Wenke.
Google describes Adobo: “There are many different kinds of adobo in the Philippines but they all share the same basic elements: marinated meat or vegetables braised into a stew. Common ingredients include vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, bay leaves, and black pepper. The local flavors make Filipino adobo much sweeter, sourer, and saltier in taste compared to other versions.
“Several areas within the Philippines give their adobo a regional twist. Locals in Visayas enjoy adobong puti (white adobo), considered by some to be the original indigenous style, which exclusively uses vinegar without any soy sauce. In places like Southern Luzon, where coconut milk is a food staple, creamier adobo recipes like adobong manok sa gata (chicken adobo with coconut milk) are extremely popular. Others substitute meat with seafood like squid, or locally available vegetables like kangkong (water spinach) or sitaw (string beans).”
The Adobo stew, indeed, is cooked everywhere across the archipelago and anywhere in the world where there are Filipinos – catching the fancy of restaurant chefs, celebrities like home diva Martha Stewart, pop artist Selena Gomez, Fil-Am comedian Jo Koy and media platforms such as Disney, which feature the Pinoy dish in programs to show off yet another unique version of the dish.
The word ‘adobo’ has in fact been added to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), first in 2006, and was included on the word list of the next OED quarterly update, released on March 15, 2007.
.@GoogleDoodles today, March 15, 2023, is celebrating the Pinoy Adobo! What is your favorite adobo recipe? https://t.co/PbwpJZIHLL
— Angie Quadra-Balibay (@AngieQBalibay) March 15, 2023
The Google Doodle of Adobo is illustrated by Anthony Irwin, the child of U.S. immigrants who recalls how his mother’s cooking made him confused when he was a young boy who did not want to be different from the other American children.
“Now as an adult, I get to find all of these opportunities to be proud in ways childhood didn’t let me feel proud. I can claim Filipino food as a part of my culture and celebrate the connection it creates between my mother’s identity and my own,” declares the artist.
Irwin ordered chicken adobo from a local restaurant while working on the Adobo Doodle: “and the first thing that hit me was the smell. It was so bright and nostalgic, and instantly filled my apartment with that familiar feeling: this is exactly how things are supposed to be. So I tried to capture that simple childhood joy of leaning in and savoring the kind of food that makes home feel like home. Kain nang mabuti!”
TELL US, what is your favorite adobo recipe?
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