Adobo or Sinigang? It's a very hot and delicious topic clinging to the Philippines' cuisine history. A pretty popular discussion among us Filipino. It's all about 'WHICH ULAM IS BETTER'.
These two ulam are popular Tagalog dishes. These ulam are 'pride' of Filipinos and the face of our diverse cuisine. Adobo and Sinigang are the most talked and suggested ulam for the title "Pambansang Ulam" or the National Dish.
Ulam is a dish you eat most preferably with rice and a MUST in every meal of the day. The closest English translation is 'viand'.
A reliable news source made an article about this topic.
Adobo dates way back late 16th century during the Spanish colonization and is a process of fermentation to make meat (commonly pork and chicken meat) last longer since there are no refrigerators or fridges at that time by adding vinegar (main ingredient), soy sauce, peppercorn, bay leaf, and other spices. Spaniards noticed this practice by Filipino natives and started to call it "Adobo" since it is superficially similar to marinating which translates to the Spanish word "Adobar". The marinated meat is then cooked and served hot with rice.
Adobo is VERY flexible. It can have a delicious sauce or be dry, be salty or sweet, and because of this, it's open for modifications. The very common Adobo had variations over time. Aside from plain Pork/Chicken Adobo, we now boast:
Adobong Dilaw (Yellow Adobo) is comprised of desired meat and turmeric (fresh or powdered) which gives the yellow color and making it healthy. You can get here the recipe.
Crispy Adobong Hipon (Shrimp) is fried which makes the shrimp crispy and best served with beer as a pulutan (a snack commonly eaten while drinking alcohol; can be eaten without rice). You can get here the recipe.
Adobong Isda (Fish Adobo) is for those who are craving the taste of the sea. The fish commonly used is galunggong. You can get here the recipe.
Adobong Pusit (Squid Adobo) is adobo with squid and uses its own ink to make the sauce even blacker which gives a little more kick to the dish. You can get here the recipe.
Adobong Sitaw (String Beans Adobo) is a more vegan version because it has string beans as an alternative for any meat or you can add a little meat to sahog (commonly meat that is added to a dish) to add a meaty hint to it. You can get here the recipe.
Adobong Paa ng Manok (Chicken Feet Adobo) as its name stated it uses chicken feet and a lot more cheaper since chicken feet are cheaper than chicken meat. This is commonly spicy and served as pulutan. You can get here the recipe.
And the list goes on. You can find a longer list at this link.
On the other hand, Sinigang is originally a soup with its remarkable sour taste. This dish originates from the pre-colonial era. The word Sinigang is from the Tagalog word sigang which means "stew".
This was popular to pre-colonial Filipinos that are mostly farmers and work on the field all day. Sinigang is commonly comprised of veggies such as kangkong (water spinach), okra, labanos (radish), gabi (taro corms), sitaw (String beans), talong (eggplant) and an organic souring agent like calamansi, tamarind or kamias (cucumber tree), manggang hilaw (unripe/green mangoes), bayabas (guava) which was introduced during Manila Galleons, and etc. Sinigang is so cheap and easy to cook since all of its ingredients are can be found at the farm or even at small gardens, this was a very popular soup for farmers as its sour taste makes you feel refreshed while taking a break from the heat of the sun. When farmers have extra money, they add meat to have a meaty taste that suits perfectly in its sour and savoury remark.
Sinigang has pork as its common sahog but you can also have shrimp as an alternative to attach seafood taste to it. Putting chicken meat is quite different but it can be Pininyahang Manok or Sinampalukang Manok instead. Pininyahang Manok is a different dish, it has pineapple as its souring agent while Sinampalukang Manok uses tamarind as its souring agent and both use chicken as sahog. Sinigang has its own variants too, from Pork Sinigang and Shrimp Sinigang, we also have:
Sinigang sa Miso- directly translates to "stewed in Miso". A Japanese seasoning miso that adds an umami element to the savory sour soup.
Sinigang sa Bayabas- directly translates to "stewed in Guava". This uses guava as the soup base.
Sinigang na Isda- directly translates to "stewed fish". Fish Sinigang which commonly uses bangus (milkfish), the National Fish of the Philippines.
Sinigang na Baka- directly translates to "stewed beef". This uses beef.
You can read more about Sinigang at this link.
If I would choose what would be the best to suit the title of Pambansang Ulam, I choose Sinigang, not only because it's my fave but because it reflects on how resourceful and productive Filipinos could be by using what is present in our beautiful and lush surroundings. Imagine having only limited materials and ending up creating a lot of products with them. With these characteristics, it would suit the title and will represent well us Filipinos, plus it's healthy too with all that green veggies it has.
I like Adobo too but it is named after the Spaniards who colonized, tortured and abused our country. The history of adobo has blood splattered in the making of it. lol haha, I suddenly sound so patriot anyway, I like adobo too, it has this salty and sour sensation gave off by vinegar and soy sauce. It has this nice meat marinated with various spices our country is rich with. I, personally just like Sinigang more as it radiates authentic energy or maybe just because my mama cooks Sinigang better than Adobo haha.
Among Adobo and Sinigang, what do you like the most? If your fave is another dish and you have something to share, please leave a comment!