TAGUIG – In celebration of the cultural gastronomic heritage that is 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 Centrale 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 the “pambansang ulam.” This event was also supported by partners Philippine Culinary Heritage Movement (PCHM) and the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP).
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.
The grand winner of the night was The Oinkery with their pugon-smoked pork adobo. It’s a pork shoulder pugon-smoked for eight hours, glazed with a rich Cebu-style adobo sauce, and garnished with fresh manggang hilaw. The People’s Choice Award went to Lariza’s with their Seafood Adobo. A mix of crab, shrimp, and mussels cooked adobo-style and topped with cheese.
Inspired by Cebu’s method of cooking lechon, The Oinkery roasts their pork meat inside a traditional pugon giving it that distinct smoky taste.
From 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.
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.
