Adobo

Adobo is meat - chicken, pork, often both - simmered in vinegar with garlic, peppercorns and bay leaf until tender, then usually reduced until the sauce coats. The name is Spanish, but the technique is not: cooking in vinegar to preserve food in a hot climate predates contact, and the Spanish simply applied a word they recognised to something already being done. Soy sauce arrived later through Chinese trade and is now standard in the Tagalog version, though plenty of regional adobo has none - adobong puti is made with vinegar alone, Bicol versions use coconut milk, Batangas adds turmeric, Cavite uses a liver spread, and every family will tell you its own is correct. Arguments about whether adobo may contain sugar, potatoes or pineapple are conducted seriously and at length. A government attempt in 2021 to define a standard adobo was abandoned after public reaction that was, by most accounts, entirely predictable.

What you actually see

• The braise - meat simmered in vinegar, garlic and bay.
• The regional versions - white, coconut, turmeric and liver variants.
• The reduction - sauce cooked down to coat the meat.
• The household argument - no two families agreeing on the recipe.

When to go

Year-round; it is on essentially every menu. Carinderias serve it from steam trays at lunch, and it improves on the second day.

Honest expectations

There is no standard version - what arrives depends entirely on the cook's region and family. Vinegar-forward versions can be sharp if you are not expecting it. Restaurant adobo is often sweeter than home cooking.

Nearby

Every province cooks its own; Bicol, Batangas and Cavite versions are the most distinct from the Manila default.