Adobo. Adobo. Adobo I really love adobo! 
This dish is probably the most popular Filipino food worldwide, despite the fact that you can’t find one single national recipe for adobo in the Philippines. Every region has a different take on this pinoy food favorite, adding some twist here and there.
Example, here in Cebu, our adobo is different and we call the dish by a different name too, humba. But the manner of cooking and the major ingredients are all the same – adobo style.
Common Ingredients for Pinoy Adobo
Your choice of meat, seafood or veggie – example Adobong Baboy, Adobong Manok, Adobong Kangkong, Adobong Sitaw, Adobong Pusit etc.
Condiments: vinegar and toyo – “toyo” is called “patis” here in Cebu. 🙂
Mainstay spices: Dahon ng Laurel, Whole Black Peppers, Garlic
Humba Ingredients
Your choice of meat, usually pork and chicken.
Condiments: vinegar and patis – which is ‘toyo’ in Tagalog speaking areas
Spices: Laurel Leaves, Star Anis, Whole Black Peppers, Onion, Garlic
Dahon ng Laurel, Bawang at Paminta Sangkap Pang Adobo
CPA or Chicken Pork Adobo is the most popular version of this Filipino dish. In Bicol, they have adobo with gata. There is also a version called ‘white adobo’ wherein soy sauce is absent and in its stead, salt is used.
My favorite adobo is by Titus. =) Yep, he cooks. Thank goodness because I really can’t / don’t cook. Nope. Nada. Nil. But when it comes to adobo available in Filipino restaurants, I really love Adobo Sulipan by Pancake House. It’s also one of the best sellers of this famous Filipino restaurant chain.
Pancake House Adobo Sulipan Food Favorite
This is not the traditional home-cooked Adobo that we grew up with. Pancake House version of adobo is not masarsa, instead, the pork meat was cooked adobo style, shredded, and fried again with lots of garlic. The meat is very tender and come pack with full adobo flavors, every bite is a delight to the taste buds. I don’t eat garlic but the chunks of toasted garlic definitely enhance the flavor of this dish.
Your Pancake House Adobo Sulipan plate will come with pickled kangkong, sliced hard-boiled egg and a cup of rice. Drinks are billed separately.
The food choices at Pancake House is a bit on the pricey side for normal folks like us whose regular dining out fare consist of fast food and value meals. But Adobo Sulipan is one of those treats and rewards I give myself from time to time.
I really love Adobo Sulipan by Pancake House. I recommend this dish especially if you and your friends want to taste another version of Pinoy’s favorite adobo.
Ikaw, what’s your favorite version of Adobo?
I really want to try adobo but the Filipino restaurants here are really expensive for some reason. My friend and I went to one a few months back, we got two dishes, beef machado, some kind of pineapple chicken dish (don’t remember the name) one order of rice and two beers, it came to $65 I think, which is nearly 3000 pesos, I’m pretty sure. It seems rather silly to shell out that much money on Filipino food when I’m saving money to go to the source. haha
So I guess I’ll have to wait 4 more months to try it. I suppose I could attempt to make it myself but that could go very bad, I literally learned how to cook rice about two weeks ago, which says all that needs to be said about my cooking prowess.
vince are you sure the cook did not put some gold dust in the Filipino food you ordered for it to be that expensive? Hehehe and yah there are lots of well known and well-loved Filipino native restaurants in Manila like Cafe Adriatico and Barrio Fiesta. Pancake House, Ilustrado etc are great choices too!
I love Buddy’s although its not Filipino food per se as the resto offerings are leaning more on Quezon province’s cuisine but I really love that place. Which reminds me I should post about Buddy’s. They are very affordable too!
Anyhow, yah get your Adobo here in the Philippines. I’m betting you’ll love it. =)
And you shouldn’t worry about the cooking skill *conspiracy grin 😉
hahaha.. I hope I didn’t eat gold dust.Supply and demand I guess haha there is only a few Filipino restaurants here. Which is weird, we have thousands upon thousands of Filipinos in this city but only a handfull of Filipino restaurants. On the other hand, we have hardly any Vietnamese people here but theres hundreds of Viet restaurants. I think every Vietnamese person in the city opened their own restaurant or something. lol
Although it was pricey the food was muy delicioso and was pretty big servings, we both pigged out and I still had leftovers for a couple days. I was disappointed that the server was not Filipino though as I wanted to inquire about some of the items on the menu.