Google Doodle is celebrating the "tender, juicy and soulful" adobo, a popular Filipino dish and the first food from the country to be featured on the platform.
Wednesday's Doodle marks the 16th anniversary of adobo's inclusion in the Oxford English Dictionary’s quarterly word list update.
While there are many kinds of adobo in the Philippines, they all share the basic elements of marinated meat or vegetables braised into a stew. Common ingredients for adobo are vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, bay leaves and black pepper. Regional variations make their adobo sweet, sour or salty.
Read also: Is Filipino adobo the same as Mexican adobo?
It’s not uncommon for Google to have a Google Doodle in place of its regular blue, red, yellow and green lettering to represent a significant day in history on its homepage — but what does the March 15 image of two smiling children sniffing wafts of hot, well-seasoned chicken thighs have to do with the date?
Google is celebrating “Filipino Adobo” chicken in its Google Doodle because, after the word “adobo” was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in December 2006, it was also added to word list on the OED’s quarterly update on this day in 2007, the company said.
Filipino adobo chicken is a popular dish that originated from the Philippines and is “sometimes considered to be the unofficial national dish of the country,” according to some outlets. There are many variations and recipes on how to make adobo in multiple cultures, and Filipino adobo recipes also vary according to different parts of the Philippines, Google’s site explained.
regions, some substitute meat with seafood like squid, or locally available vegetables like "kangkong" (water spinach) or "sitaw" (string beans).
The dish has evolved over the centuries and has spread worldwide. In a blog post, Google Doodle called adobo "a symbol and expression of Filipino pride that varies from region to region, family to family, palate to palate."
The animated Doodle was illustrated by Anthony Irwin, the child of Filipino immigrants in the U.S. Irwin recalled his childhood inner struggles of the comfort he felt eating his ethnic food while also yearning to fit in.