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It is with great pleasure to have a guest writer to the blog this week. The Girl and her Baby Sis attended an Adobo event in NYC’s well-known Filipino restaurant, Cendrillon, last week. Enjoy!
By The Girl
On December 1, 2008, I was fortunate to attend Cendrillon’s Adobo Cook-Off event. My date was supposed to be paoix aka “The Man” but he was summoned off for business. So instead I brought my baby sis with me for the night.
“The Girl”
“Baby sis”
The cold NYC weather couldn’t stop me from heading off to this event at Cendrillon located at 45 Mercer St. SoHo, New York City.
Cendrillon entance
The event was a $35 pre-fix meal and a tasting of twelve different kinds of adobo. To give a little recap, a typical traditional Filipino Adobo is basically some kind of protein (poultry, pork, beef or seafood) marinated and cooked in vinegar, can be combined with soy sauce, and can be soupy or dry. In the Philippines, how to cook adobo varies from region to region and even kitchen to kitchen. Personalization and availability of ingredients dictate the make up of the dish.
A salad starter with cucumbers, grapefruit and jicama
Our seats
The cook-off was between twelve adobo “masters”. Here are my description and reactions on each of the 12 adobos. To begin the adobo-fest, was Andrew Eisenman’s Classic Adobo Pork Rib Tips with a hint of bagoong or fermented shrimp paste. This dish caught my taste buds by surprise because I had never experienced this type of flavor in an adobo before. My sister even liked the taste of it and to think she’s allergic to shrimps. She was very brave to try it. Andrew sat at our table for the night so it was such a privilege to get an insider’s story of how to make this. Thanks Andrew! I definitely have to replicate this dish one night so that The Man can get a taste of it too.
Ingredients: cane vinegar, garlic, cracked black pepper, bay leaves, salt, a splash of fish sauce and of course the fermented shrimp paste.
Second, was Peter Hoffman’s Duck Gizzards (Adobo). Whether you are a fan of gizzards or not cooking it adobo style is simply another way to eat it. I, for one, am not a really big fan of it. Ask my mother and she will attest to my fondness of gizzard. She always tried to feed it to us when we were little kids because apparently it’s “good for you” (Mothers: anything is always good for you). The one thing I can’t simply get over is the texture of the gizzards. So how was the flavor? To me it lacked vinegar and salt, I felt I was simply eating the gizzards alone but we bravely tried it. My sister gave it “the ukkk face”.
Ingredients: Gizzard, garlic, soy, vinegar, thyme, bay leaves, black peppercorns.
Third on the list, was Ralph Pena’s Pork Shoulder Finished in Turbo Oven. The pork shoulder was a little bit on the salty and dry side (meat wise). It would’ve been good had it been doused with some sauce but I’m not the chef so I can’t really complain. Nonetheless it was a good idea.
Ingredients: Pork shoulder, coarse salt, garlic, whole peppercorns, bay leaf, hot chilies and oil.
Fourth was Julie Weiss’s Chicken Adobo Adapted from Aboitiz recipe (her professional chef friend). Tasting this adobo was such a relief after eating #3 because the flavor was just right. It had just enough vinegar and soy sauce combination and the chicken was soft and juicy. Plus, I was just happy that we got to drift away from the pork family for a little bit.
Ingredients: Chicken thighs and legs, organic unfiltered apple cider vinegar, rice vinegar, peppercorns, soy sauce, garlic and bay leaves.
Numero cinco in the cook off is Dona Lily’s Lengua Adobo (beef tongue) by Lilia Villanueva. The flavor of this dish to me lacked vinegar as well (I guess I’m just a fan of sour). In any case, it was another kind of adobo which I have never tasted before then again we rarely cook beef tongue at home. This dish reminds me of my uncle Nick. I remember him to be the guy that was the first to grab the lechon’s tongue and pair it with an ice cold San Miguel beer at fiestas. I think he would really love this dish.
Ingredients: Black Angus lengua, lots of garlic, onions, bay leaf, organic apple cider, tamari soy, Rufina patis (fish sauce), secret sweetener, canola oil.
At the halfway mark was Tin Tay’s Pork Spareribs Hawaiian Adobo. Pineapple is probably one of my favorite summer fruits to devour besides watermelon. This surprisingly pairs well with the simple adobo recipe however it was overly “pineapple’d” out if you get my drift. The ribs were good but maybe a small pineapple sauce would just suffice. Overall a great idea!
Ingredients: Pork spare ribs, rice vinegar, balsamic vinegar, bay leaves, garlic and pineapple.
The seventh adobo comes from Zennia de Mesa’s Adobong Pusit (squid). Tasting this dish reminds me of my Lola Diosing’s style of cooking. Her dish is simply put together with the freshest ingredients you can find at the mercado (market). She also adds the ink which gives it that dark sauce. However Lola’s dish always end up salty which makes Zennia’s recipe different. Like my grandmother’s style Zennia cooked the squid in squid ink sauce, it wasn’t too salty or vinegary and it was simply just the right amount. My sis didn’t get to eat this because she’s allergic to seafood so she’s definitely missing out.
Ingredients: Grilled squid, sauce from squid ink, garlic, onions, tomatoes, red wine vinegar, sea salt.
Adobo # 8 is Nil Bernstein’s Filipino Adobo with Mexican flavors. Right at the first bite, my tongue immediately recalled the kaldereta (goat stew) dish my Lola Nena used to cook for fiestas. The flavor simply screams kaldereta and my sis agreed. This dish was definitely good as the spices gave it that extra different kind of kick. The flavor was intensified which made it unique to the tongue. I would probably say that the anise made this dish taste similar to that of a Kaldereta which is a stew recipe that requires almost the same spices.
Ingredients: Chicken and pork, ancho chilies, sweet spices: cinnamon, star anise, cloves in addition to black peppercorns and garlic.
The ninth adobo for the evening was Reggie Aguinaldo’s Turkey Adobo A La Vieja. When this dish was served at first the presentation caught our eyes. However the vibe and the excitement wasn’t really present at the table after we each tasted this dish because there was just something odd about the flavor. We couldn’t understand it. It was definitely salty at first bite, maybe there was just too much fish sauce. I think this dish could’ve used more vinegar to neutralize the turkey flavor. I also believed that none of us was really excited to eat turkey that evening since 4 days earlier Thanksgiving was just celebrated and everyone at the table has said that they had a lot of turkey consumption (including me). However if you’re big on eating leftovers then this is just another great idea to spice up the turkey like Paoix’s Paksiw na Pavo recipe that can be found here.
Ingredients: Heritage turkey, bay leaves, soy sauce, wine vinegar, fish sauce, olive oil, chicken & duck liver.
Abodo # 10 is Sylvia Cedeno’s Pernil de Cochino Venezolano. I’m not going to lie I really don’t remember tasting this dish. I knew I tried it but believe me I was “porked out” towards the end of the evening that my taste buds began to fuse other flavors from the previous adobos served even though I tried to wash it off by drinking water. However I do recall that the flavor of it was somewhat odd which I believe was caused by the Worcestershire sauce. I never really understood the flavor of Worcestershire sauce as an ingredient. But it did look good.
Ingredients: Pork leg, onions, canola oil, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, marjoram, thyme, laurel leaf, orange juice, lemon, red wine, Moscatel or Madeira wine, pimiento de guayabita.
The eleventh adobo served was Danny Dorotan’s Dinuguan (pig’s blood). I was only able to taste a little bit of this dish since I was already full at this point in the evening. However the flavor of this dish was very delicious, it wasn’t sour or saucy. Take note that would rarely hear the word delicious come out of my mouth when it comes to dinuguan. As a little girl dinuguan was never cooked at my house even to this day. The reasons are both religious and lack of popularity to this dish in my family. I have only tasted this dish very recently and I must admit I have found a liking to it. That being said, these days I’m a little bit more adventurous and it was an experience to taste Danny’s dinuguan.
Ingredients: Pork, pork blood, garlic, vinegar, long green chiles.
Last but not least (definitely not least as it was such a yummy dish) Perry Mamaril’s Adobong Pork Belly Ilocano Style. I must admit that at first sight of this dish I quickly heard The Man’s Mothergoose’s voice in my head with the words “high cholesteric” (insert Visayan accent) over and over again. The amount of fat exceeds the amount of meat, then again fat=flavor, right? But boy was this good!!! The color was caramel dark brown, saucy on the outside and flavorful on the inside. The smell was divine, just the right amount of acidity and sugary taste that balances out in your tongue even at first bite. Don’t get me wrong as much as I hate to waste good taste, I just had to cut about half an inch thick of pure fat off the meat because as the saying goes “great taste on your lips is bad for your hips”. I can’t deny this dish was simply delicious, the meat was tender and the flavor just married well with white rice. What!!??? You know you just can’t eat it without the main staple. 
Ingredients: Heritage pork belly, cane sugar vinegar (sukang Iloko), soy sauce, sweet onions, garlic, black peppercorns, fresh bay leaves, red birdseye chiles (labuyo).
So won the cook-off? I can’t tell you that specifically because we didn’t stay till the end of the event. But if I was the judge, I would have to agree with Andrew Eisenman (one of the cook-off participant) that the dish who reigned supreme for the night in color, flavor, texture and presentation was Perry Mamaril’s pork belly adobo. I wished that Perry’s dish was served first because I surely would have eaten more of it. Alas some other time then. Maybe this too will be replicated one weekend.
Overall, the experience was great! Not only was I “adobo’ed” out for the night but also I was extremely full and probably gained 4 pounds. Not bad for $35.00 right? I wish it did come with a dessert after dinner, but then again with twelve adobos served I’d probably bag it and take it to go. I can’t wait for more cook-offs! Bring it on!!
And as “The Man” paoix would say “Eat Filipino Food!”
