 Hey guys, welcome to my channel, The Asian Theory. So right now it's October, and you know what that means. Spooky scary skeletons and shivers down your spine. Yes, I do love Halloween, but October is also Filipino History Month in the United States. A celebration of Filipino heritage, history, and culture. Now, culture can mean a lot of things. Language, music, arts, traditions, but most importantly, food. Lots of things come to mind. Sinigang, lumpia, pancit, now there's one dish so iconic, so legendary, yet so classic. Manok, Tuyo, Suka, Bawang, Paminta, and Bay Leaves. Combine Manok, Suka, Bawang, and Ibabad ng isang oras. Iguisa ang Manok sa Kawale, lutuin hanggang lumambot at Pabaya Magsimer ng 40 minutos hanggang isang oras. Isilbi ng mainit at Maginjoy. Adobo, oftentimes referred to as the national dish of the Philippines. So what exactly is adobo, and why is it so important? Simply put, adobo is meat marinated in soy sauce, and vinegar, and garlic. Everything else is up to the cook. Sure, adobo is popular, and you already know that, but not only that. Adobo is literally the food that shaped the Philippines into what it is today. To understand, we need to go back. No, no, way back. It comes from the Spanish word adobar, which means marinade or pickling sauce. Many Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American countries have their own version of adobo. However, Filipinos were cooking adobo way before the Spanish even set foot in the Philippines. When the Spanish first arrived in the Philippines in the 1500s, they noticed that the dish had a lot of similarities with Spanish adobo, so they decided, hey, let's call it adobo. So the original Filipino name was lost in history, so the Spanish name stuck. The full name was adobar de las naturales, or adobo of the native people, even originally signifying a difference between the two. The two dishes actually aren't related at all. The base of Spanish adobo is made with chili peppers, and chili peppers, and chili peppers. Oh, and a bunch of other spices, too. Filipino adobo is made with a base of soy sauce, and most importantly, vinegar, which gives it that sour, tangy, but distinctively Filipino taste. If you've ever been to the Philippines, you know that it's really, really hot. And hot weather makes it easy to spoil food, and refrigerators didn't exist, so how did people preserve their food? That is where vinegar comes in. Vinegar made it so ancient Filipinos could actually preserve their food for longer than a couple hours. With the introduction of Chinese cuisine came the advent of soy sauce. It became a deterrent to most bacteria because of the high salt content of soy sauce, along with the acidity of vinegar. In addition to preserving qualities, the ingredients are very simple and very cheap. Chicken, soy sauce, vinegar, and a couple of peppercorns. Throw in some bay leaves, and you're good to go. Pretty ideal for the common Filipino. It became the go-to dish, and one of the life staples that supported our early ancestors. And not only that. It's delicious. If you're familiar Filipino food, Filipino food is almost always made up of two components. The first is called ulam, which is the main dish. And the second is rice, what the ulam is served with. The adobo dish is almost always served with rice. There will never be a time that you'll eat adobo without rice. Now rice is the most significant food in the Philippines. Ideology exists concerning the origin of rice. Rice plays an almost sacred role in Filipino culture. The legend states that before rice, the early people had to rely on vegetables and fruit for their primary source of food. But then the gods felt pity on the humans and gave them a gift. Rice. Rice is believed to be literally a gift from God. And I don't disagree. Growing up Filipino, you eat every meal with rice. And I mean every meal with rice. Chicken, hot dogs, other carbs like ramen, spaghetti, even pizza. Now when I have a meal without rice, it feels like, I don't know, my meal's incomplete. Like there's a hole in my stomach or something. Know what I mean? According to the legend, eating rice made man strong and gave them the strength to do their duties. Because of rice, the early Filipinos learned to till soil and cultivate the earth. No more hunting and gathering for us. The Filipinos learned to raise animals and make permanent dwelling places. They didn't have to worry about catching their food every day. They could focus on important things like agriculture, science, and dancing. Every single advancement in Filipino society can be linked to the advent of rice. The Philippines was built on rice. The sacrality of rice is such that waste of rice is highly discouraged. There's a Filipino superstition that for every grain of rice you leave on your plate, that's how many days you spend in hell. Now, when I was a young boy, I remember my nana would yell at me for not eating all my rice. It wasn't me, your rice, or your rice. Filipinos will eat rice at almost every single meal. Every birthday, every wedding, every fiesta, every special event will involve eating rice. You think I'm joking or this is an exaggeration? It's not. The average American weight 9.5 kilograms or 21 pounds of rice a year. The average Filipino consumes 119 kilograms or 262 pounds of rice a year. That's approximately the weight of two and a half full-grown Filipinos. On average, 75% of a Filipino's diet will be rice. That's insane. We eat so much rice after producing 4.5 million tons of rice a year and becoming the eighth largest producer of rice. We still need more. So what do we do? We buy even more. Per capita, the Philippines is the largest importer of rice, importing 2.3 million tons of that white grain goodness. Adobo and rice is truly a special dish to Filipino people. So special that it transcends the barriers of social class. Rich, poor, big, small, thin, hefty, young, old. Adobo and rice are linked to so many cultural aspects of the Philippines. This dish right here was talking to me about an hour to make. This is Filipino history. This is Filipino culture. This is... ...Night Pride.