Well it’s not hard to guess what this woman cooked. What else but the Philippines’ default national dish — adobo!
Filipina Clair Ocampo took home the gold prize in a soy sauce cooking competition in Saitama Prefecture held on Sept 30, a day before the annual Soy Sauce Day is celebrated in Japan.
Ocampo bested 74 other contestants with her “pork back ribs adobo and banana with burned brown sugar” in the eighth Soy Sauce Recipe & Story Contest, The Japan Times reports.
“I have loved adobo since my childhood. I used soy sauce and brown sugar to better bring out the pork’s flavor. Also, to give it an interesting taste, I used hakkaku spice and laurel leaves. My dish is unique and original,” Ocampo said.
Adobo is sometimes called as the unofficial dish of the Philippines. It involves marinating meat, seafood or vegetables in vinegar, soy sauce, and garlic. Recently, adobo caught the attention of US magazine Bon Appétit and British TV personality Nigella Lawson.
Meanwhile, Filipino Justin De Jesus and Canadian Florence Zappia took home the silver prizes.
De Jesus cooked “Philippine beef steak, with a yuzu citrus and soy sauce flavor,” while Zappia impressed the judges with “Deep-fried, stewed eggplant with Italian sauce.”
Contestants from Singapore, France, Indonesia, Switzerland, Brazil, the U.S., and Iran were awarded bronze prizes.
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