My Pork Adobo. Bow...

Adobo came from the Spanish word "adobar" which means "to marinade" though our version is beyond mere marination. Our adobo is a cooking technique that involves stewing meat in vinegar, salt and spices so that it can be preserved without the aid of refrigeration. 

I'm sure 16th century Spaniards were awestrucked to find out that our ancestors (mana indio!) have this awesome process of preserving food that they just assumed it was just marination, for lack of better understanding. Unfortunately, the name "adobo" stucked. 
Comparing Spanish/Mexican adobo to Filipino adobo limits the range of the latter. While the former refers exclusively to meats, the latter uses almost every meat, seafood, fruit and vegetable.

Chicken and pork adobo is the standard. Almost every Filipino household have their own variation. This is my pork adobo version:

The PancitLove Pork Adobo

INGREDIENTS

1 kilo liempo (pork belly), remove the skin, cut into serving pieces
6 cloves of garlic, crushed
1/2 tbsp cracked black peppercorns
1/2 cup sukang iloco (Ilocos cane vinegar)
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tbsp ngoyong (chinese five-spice powder)
1 tbsp brown sugar
3 bay leaves
enough water to cover the meat

METHOD

1. In a wok, combine garlic, peppercorns, sukang iloco, soy sauce, ngoyong, brown sugar and bay leaves.
2. Add pork and water, cover the wok.
3. Simmer over low heat till the pork is tender. Do not mix while simmering.
4. Remove 2/3 the rendered oil from pork fat. Reserve the oil.
5. Separate the pork and the cloves of crushed garlic from the sauce. Reserve the sauce.
6. In another heated pan, add the rendered pork fat and garlic. Fry the pork slices till crusted, garlic till slightly crisp. Put in a serving dish. 
7. Remove excess oil from the pan and pour the adobo sauce deglazing the the pan. Reduce the sauce till thickened.
8. Pour the sauce on top of pork slices. Serve hot.

THINGS OF NOTE

- You can do this to any meat or meat combination, just adjust the cooking time suitable to your desired meat. 
- There is no rule regarding how much liquid should be in an adobo, some like is saucy, some like it dry (some like it grounded, some like it fly).
- Adobo is best serve a day after cooking it. It the meat has time to absorb more of that adobo flavor. Just store the adobo in a dry place, covered. Refrigerating adobo is funny and defeats the whole purpose of the dish but you can do this if you like to preserve your adobo for a longer period of time.
- Meat can be served in variety of ways. My favorite is to serve it as a topping for pancit canton or mami.