A TASTE of Filipino pride and home.

Popular internet search engine Google featured the Filipino staple and iconic dish adobo in its Doodle for March 15. 

This is the first time that a Filipino dish is featured on the Doodle in the search engine’s home page. 

A Google Doodle refers to changes made to the Google logo to celebrate icons, holidays, or famous personalities. 

So when researchers do their quick Google search today, they will see graphics featuring the ingredients to make the famous Filipino Adobo dish. 

What’s so special about adobo?

“Today’s animated Doodle celebrates adobo, a way of cooking and a favorite Filipino dish. Adobo can be found far and wide, whether it’s at a five-star restaurant in Manila or inside the homes of Filipino families around the world,” said Google.

Clay pots were traditionally used to prepare the adobo dish. Spanish colonizers who settled in the Philippines in the 16th century observed this traditional Filipino cooking process and gave it the name adobo, which is the Spanish term for marinate. 

There are various ways to cook Filipino adobo but vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, bay leaves, and black pepper are some of the often-used ingredients.

The animated Doodle, designed by artist Anthony Iriwn, features two savoring the smell of the adobo dish. It also highlights the main ingredients of the dish. 

Behind the doodle

In a statement, Irwin said the idea behind the Doodle can be traced back to his childhood. He said Filipino food is part of his “culture” and he is celebrating “the connection it creates between my mother’s identity and my own.”

“I ordered some southern-style chicken adobo from a local restaurant to stir up some memories while working on the art for this Doodle, and the first thing that hit me was the smell. It was so bright and nostalgic and instantly filled my apartment with that familiar feeling: this is exactly how things are supposed to be,” he said. 

“So I tried to capture that simple childhood joy of leaning in and savoring the kind of food that makes home feel like home. Kain nang mabuti,” he added.

Adobo fever

This is not the first time the Filipino dish reached the international scene. In October 2022, chicken adobo made it to Disney after the latter shared an infographic on how to cook the dish.

The post was made for the commemoration of Filipino American History Month.

Although chicken and pork adobo are among the famous kinds, Filipinos actually boast of a variety of recipes for the dish that feature other kinds of meat, fish, vegetables, and even exotic ingredients. Some versions of adobo include squid, beef, eggplant, and even python snake.

The standard adobo recipe

But what is the quintessential adobo recipe?

It’s a question that’s not easy to answer. It’s not even clear if there is one answer to this.

In 2021, the Department of Trade and Industry tried to standardize the cooking of the dish.

The DTI said it created a technical committee on Filipino dishes which aims to develop Philippine National Standards (PNS) when it comes to cooking adobo and other Filipino dishes.

It also fueled debate among Filipinos, many of whom said  there was no such thing as a “standard” way of cooking the dish since households from different regions in the country have their versions of adobo.

“Adobo is a diversity based on region and ingredients availability, putting limits and standardization will ruin its fame,” one user said.

The DTI later clarified that the move was meant for international promotions and not to redefine adobo for other nations.

It likewise said the public should not worry about the move since “this is just among the many groundwork to develop more creative industry exports.”

 Adobo as national food?

Meanwhile, in 2014, a lawmaker filed a bill that sought to declare adobo as the country’s national food. Rene Relampagos, a representative for the province of Bohol, authored House bill No. 3926, also known as “An Act Declaring the National Symbols of the Philippines,” with the intention of making Filipino trademarks of pride as official national symbols.

“National symbols represent its country, its people, its history, and its culture. In the Philippines, there are around twenty national symbols being taught in school. However, of these symbols, only ten are official, that is with basis either in the Constitution, Republic Acts and Proclamations,” Relampagos said.

However, the bill did not become a law.