My momma will be proud. I now know how to make pork adobo.

For those who have not yet discovered this tangy all-Filipino goodness (in other words, anyone not from the Philippines), here's a short description courtesy of Wikipedia:

Adobo is a popularly common dish found in the Philippines, thus a national
dish among the Filipinos. Typically made from pork or chicken or a
combination of both, it is slowly cooked in soy sauce, vinegar, crushed garlic, bay leaf, and black peppercorns, and often browned in the oven or pan-fried afterwards to get the desirable crisped edges. This dish originates from the northern region of
the Philippines. It is commonly packed for Filipino mountaineers and travelers.
Its relatively long shelf-life is due to one of its primary ingredients, vinegar, which
inhibits the growth of bacteria.

So last week I trooped to the grocery store and got all the ingredients I needed to cook my first real meal in Thailand. This consisted of a bottle of olive oil, apple cider, bay leaves, peppercorn, naturally-fermented soy sauce, sugar, salt and a pound of hygienic pork. Yes, yes, my ingredients were a little expensive as I really aimed to impress myself, but what the hell is hygienic pork?

And so anyway I cooked. For about an hour. Here's the result:



I must say, it tasted very much like my mom's adobo which I love so much. The oil, the fat, the clogged arteries... ah, this is the life. And to my surprise even my meat was perfect- very tender and tasty.

Now I add adobo to my growing list of specialties:

1. Instant noodles
2. Boiled and soft-boiled eggs
3. Ampalaya con huevos
4. Chicken arroz caldo
5. Sauteed tuna
6. Pork adobo

With this achievement I feel like I can do Iron Chef already. Watch out.