Adobo, sisig make it to online travel guide’s ‘best’ 100 dishes worldwide
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, December 27) — Two signature Filipino foods are among the world’s best dishes this year, according to an online travel guide.
Adobo and sisig are among Taste Atlas’s 100 Best Dishes in the World this 2021. The list features “emblematic national and regional dishes” based on over 100,000 ratings on the platform.
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With 4.33 stars, Pampanga’s famous sisig bagged the 72nd spot in the list.
The Kapampangan dish features boiled, chopped, and grilled pig head parts like ears, cheeks, and jowls seasoned with salt, pepper, and vinegar, explained Taste Atlas. Fried onions, chili, and chicken livers are then added, it said.
“The name of the dish is believed to derive from the word sisigan, meaning to make sour. It was used as an early remedy for nausea and hangovers, because its sour flavor was considered a vomit suppressant, and that is why today sisig is almost always paired with an ice-cold beer on the side,” read Taste Atlas’s writeup for the dish.
“What started as a simple sour salad has crossed land and sea to become one of the favorite dishes of beer drinkers worldwide,” it added, recalling how sisig was first described as salad of guava or green papaya according to Fr. Diego Bergano’s 1732 Kapampangan dictionary.
The dish is best enjoyed in Angeles City-based Aling Lucing’s Sisig, Taste Atlas recommended.
Meanwhile, Taste Atlas ranked adobo 81st out of the globe’s best dishes. Described as the country’s “closest thing to a national dish,” it got 4.29 stars.
Seared and browned chunks of meat, seafood, vegetables or fruit with white vinegar, soy sauce or both, adobo also contains bay leaves, garlic, salt, sugar, oil and black pepper. Onions, ginger, lemongrass, chili peppers and coconut milk can also be added to the mix.
“The combination of these ingredients is left to simmer over low heat, resulting in succulent, juicy, and tender ingredients covered in thick, rich, and savory sauce. Adobo got its name from the Spanish word adobar, meaning marinade or pickling sauce,” explained Taste Atlas.
“In English, the word adobo translates to braised in vinegar. With its rise in popularity, it is no wonder that there are a number of varieties of the dish, so adobo can be made in spicy, mild, saucy, or dry versions,” it further said.
Local favorites chicken, beef, and pork are known as the most popular versions of adobo — while other variants include the likes of white adobo, crispy adobo, squid adobo, and water spinach adobo.
“The dish is traditionally served over white rice, an ideal accompaniment that absorbs the tangy sauce,” said Taste Atlas, who recommends the adobo is best tried in Café Adriatico in Manila.
Mexican pork dish cochinita pibil topped this year’s 100 Best Dishes according to Travel Atlas, awarding it 4.69 stars. It’s best in Mexico City’s Taquería El Turix, it added.
