SENTRO RIZAL BUENOS AIRES HOLDS FIRST PHILIPPINE ADOBO FESTIVAL AT THE PHILIPPINE EMBASSY IN BUENOS AIRES TO CELEBRATE NATIONAL FOOD MONTH
29 April 2024, Buenos Aires. - To celebrate National Food Month, Sentro Rizal Buenos Aires PE featured the versatile and multifaceted adobo dish at the first Philippine Adobo Festival held on 27 April 2024 at the Philippine Embassy in Buenos Aires. About fifty members of the Filipino community and guests from the international community were in attendance.
In her welcome remarks, Ambassador Grace T. Cruz-Fabella talked about the precolonial roots of the Philippine adobo and the diversity of adobo recipes, with the adobo festival a sampling of different ways adobo is prepared. She emphasized the importance of food as a family and community experience in Philippine culture, and that the festival recreated a warm atmosphere of good food, being with family and making new friends. She welcomed the presence of the second-generation Filipinos in the audience, and expressed her confidence that they will grow up still connected to the Philippines, knowing Philippine culture and gastronomy.
Nine years old Maharlika Castillo, the youngest among the chefs, prepared “Adobo Bisaya” with a sweet and spicy twist - adding chili peppers and pineapple chunks to the dish. In “Mai Chicken Adobo,” Mayra Del Rosario highlighted the presence of atsuete in her dish, a staple in her family’s adobo because of the atsuete tree outside her family home. Katherine Miral focused on the spicy twist to her adobo, which she dubbed “Filipino Adobo Flame.” Rowena Pilapil shared her personal adobo recipe, “White Chicken Adobo,” which she concocted due to her dietary restrictions to emphasize healthy eating. “Adobo All Day” by Jose Caluya Rivera, who grew up in the United States, featured an adobo recipe that he perfected by cooking it nearly every week over several months.
The presentation of dishes concluded, Filipino style, with all the participants sitting down and enjoying a meal of adobo over hot rice on a cold autumn day. Many foreign guests came back for seconds remarking on how much they enjoyed it as a comfort food. END.
