Makati Street Market: AdobOlympics 2012!

10.07.2012 – Adobo is one of the most famous cuisines in the Philippines and it has lots of variations from all over the region. It’s one of the most favourite native cuisines among the Filipinos all over the world as they share it with our foreign brethren.

It’s easy to cook as a household favourite and truly a delectable delicacy considered the national dish.

In fact, adobo is such a versatile Filipino dish that its leftover can be turned into a pasta sauce, a pandesal filling, or toppings for your ramen.

And aside from potatoes, garlic, pepper, soy sauce, and vinegar, once can even add out-of-ordinary ingredients like coconut milk and pineapple chunks to jazz up its taste.

Then there’s the Legazpi Sunday Market which celebrates its diversity as a haven of artisanal finds an d exceptional home-made delicacies through renaming itself as Makati Street Market and Legazpi Market organizers Joey Casimiro, Mike Claparols and Rosanne Hugo pays tribute once again to the country’s well-loved dish through AdobOlympics 2012.

“Last year’s AdobOlypics was highly-successful that it gathered teams from culinary schools, professional chefs, aspiring cooks, and even the entrepreneurs in the souk. The contenders demonstrated their prowess in cooking and preparing adobo, as the final product indeed varies from region to region,” shares Hugo.

The event happened in the morning where 8 participants compete to be the best group to produce the best tasting Adobo in their own concept and originality. The event was hosted by radio DJ Tina Ryan of Magic 89.9 FM who had the chance to taste these great entries.

There will be two awards for the winner will earn the AdobOlympics Torch and “bragging rights” as having the best adobo in the market. Meanwhile the People’s Choice award dubbed “Tita Cely Kalaw” award as a post-humous tribute to one of the market’s beloved vendors and an icon of Filipino cooking.

The winner of the said honor will be based on which adobo recipe pleases the marker-goers’ palates the most.

The criteria are opened to the cook-off to aspiring and professional chefs. Each team is composed of three people in a group and they have 3 hours to submit three adobo variations. The judges will based the winners on 15% presentation, 50% for palatability and flavour, 15% for cleanliness and food handling, and 20% for originality and creativity.

The images of the dishes you’ll see in this event would make you crave for an adobo and it was a privilege to have tasted all the dishes in the entry…