March 11, 2025 • 17 mins
Step into Adobo Boy in Grand Rapids, and you're instantly welcomed with a question that defines Filipino hospitality: "Have you eaten?"
More than just a restaurant, Adobo Boy is a celebration of tradition, family, and bold Filipino flavors. Founders Ray and Jackie started by cooking for friends, then grew through cultural festivals and a pop-up before opening their own space—where home-cooked comfort meets high-end presentation.
Unlike fusion spots, Adobo Boy stays true to its roots, showcasing dishes that capture the essence of the Philippines' 7,641 islands. Even its name comes from their son’s childhood love for the national dish.
For many, it’s their first taste of Filipino cuisine; for others, it’s a nostalgic bite of home. Either way, every dish tells a story, and every guest is family.
💬 What’s your favorite comfort food, and how does it connect you to your roots? Let us know in the comments!
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Ace Marasigan on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/acemarasigan
Show your support for Adobo Boy:
https://gofund.me/5a3d5990
Adobo Boy Website:
https://adoboboygr.com
Adobo Boy on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/AdoboBoyGR
Adobo Boy on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/adoboboygr
Adobo Boy on TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@adobo.boy
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You know, like I had a customer on Friday actually on
Friday he perfectly said whatwe were trying to accomplish.
He said he felt like he waseating at home, in a home cooked
meal, prepared in love butpresented in such a wonderful
way that he said like hepresented, like he was.
He felt like he was attendingin a higher end restaurant and
(00:22):
but with the feel of like, hey,I'm sitting here at home with
people that loves what they'redoing how did you start it?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
where did you?
Where did you?
How did you start first, Iguess you know, is that
preparing for friends, relatives, family, neighbors, I guess?
At what point did you say hey,like, and I understand you and I
talked where you're at today,but what?
How did you get to that point?
Speaker 1 (00:46):
We started with where we just cook for some of our
friends.
We'll invite them for dinner atour house, just to host dinners
.
And then we would do festivals.
We participated in some of thelocal festivals here in Grand
Rapids One is the Grand RapidsAsian Pacific Festival.
Some of the local festivalshere in Grand Rapids One is the
(01:07):
Grand Rapids Asian PacificFestival.
And then after that it justkind of grew the love and
excitement of being able toshare the cuisine and culture
with people, and so anopportunity came in 2003.
My friend at the restaurant islooking for partners or people
to just kind of help him have aspace.
And then so I decided to saylike hey, I'm going to do it
(01:27):
with my wife and alongside withsome of our friends.
So we did like a pop-uprestaurant for a whole year with
some of our friends at thatexisting restaurant, and then
for now it's been three, fourmonths that Jackie and I are
flying solo at this locationwhere you actually visited us,
mark.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Diving into that.
What kind of challenges did youface in that first year that
maybe you didn't expect?
Right, you're sort of justpreparing food and sourcing
ingredients, but what type ofchallenges did you face doing
that?
Speaker 1 (02:01):
You know, like some of the challenges you asked me,
so some of the challenges thatjust to kind of get started, was
like the whole premise is likejust getting started.
You know like the best part ofstarting something new is trying
to talk yourself to not do it.
And so the best biggestchallenge that we had is how do
(02:24):
we get it started it.
And so the the best biggestchallenge that we had is how do
we get it started.
And good thing that we had allthese friends that has their own
restaurants who are very, veryaccommodating and very uh,
encouraging, saying like hey,you just got to do it, you will
learn from experience.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
And that's kind of like how we get started now I
firsthand, obviously, when I getto areas I haven't been in a
lot of times, bigger cities,right, I am in a very rural area
here, but I might pull up theGoogle and I do a quick search
and see if, by chance, there'sany Filipino food nearby.
Right, and I was shocked when Isaw just a very just a short
(03:02):
driveway.
A few minutes away was thisrestaurant that was opening at 5
pm and I'm like you've got tobe kidding me, there's no way,
right?
So and I think through ourconversation quickly found out
that you're like it there'sreally nothing else around the
area the Grand Airheads areathere serving Filipino dishes,
correct?
Speaker 1 (03:21):
That is correct.
We are the only restaurantcurrently in West Michigan.
I mean, we have friends who youknow like, they're great cooks
as well, and I'm hoping that inthe future that they will feel
encouraged and empowered thatthey could, just that they can
do what exactly we're doing, andso love to see more Filipino
restaurants pop up in the future.
(03:41):
But for now, we are, we are it,you're it.
Well, you know, I'm going tosay I'd love to love to see more
as restaurants pop up in thefuture, but for now, we are it,
you're it.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Well, I wanted to say I'd love to see more as well,
just everywhere.
I think that Americans aremissing out on some amazing food
by having so little Filipinooptions.
You said Colorado Springs is mymother's area and I found maybe
one specific Filipinorestaurant that I haven't yet to
(04:07):
get the experience yet becauseI was sick, but there were some
other.
Maybe we're mixing maybe someHawaiian food with some Filipino
food, you know, but theyweren't dedicated to strictly
Filipino cuisine.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
We decided that we were going to be strictly as
authentic as possible and theonly limitations we'll have are
the ingredients.
We can't, obviously, get allthe possible ingredients that we
want to use, but that will bethe only restrictions.
The whole goal is to representthe culture and the cuisine of
the Philippine culture and bereally proud of what we can
(04:39):
offer.
I've seen some places where afusion has been created.
I'm more proud of that.
I love what they're doing, butI just believe there's such a
beauty on authenticity of justbeing true to what you can offer
and you know as much aspossible.
We just want to be likestrictly just Filipino.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Love it and you know I met your wonderful wife, your
wonderful wife Jackie, andthey're in person and and you
yourself and you were veryaccommodating.
I walked in the door right Likegoing like oh, this guy he's so
friendly and you know, like youwere very welcoming and I
really appreciated that.
You know, and a lot of times inrestaurants these days it's
it's hard to find, um hard tofind good service and good food
(05:22):
and that combination togetherand people that really
appreciated being there and Ireally felt that um, that's
wonderful here, mark.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
I mean that's just part of the filipino culture.
I mean, if you have been to thephilippines, I know you have
but you can feel that in thepresence of the people.
You know that's somethingthat's ingrained in us the
hospitality, making sure thatpeople feel very welcome at home
.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
No, no, I love it.
And yes, you're right.
You know I experienced thatfirsthand just a few months ago
when I was in the Philippinesand along with some amazing food
, and you know I had someassistants ordering off your
menu and your menu rotates alittle bit on a week-to-week
basis but, you know, with somevariety.
But you know some of the itemson that order specifically
(06:08):
mentioned that it's hard to findthose at a restaurant because
really that was kind of like ahome-style cooked food.
So you know you get.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Sorry, mike, go ahead .
Speaker 2 (06:19):
No, I said so, you know.
Help me understand.
As far as bringing that notnecessarily a commercial or
restaurant, but bringing ahome-style cooked entrees or
options to share.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
I had a customer on Friday.
Actually, on Friday, heperfectly said what we were
trying to accomplish.
He said he felt like he waseating at home, in a home cooked
meal, prepared in love butpresented in such a wonderful
way that he said, like you,presented, like he was, he felt
like he was attending in ahigher end restaurant and but
(06:54):
with the feel of like, hey, I'msitting here at home with people
that loves what they're doing,and so I think that is the best
way to summarize the way ourcuisine is presented at our
restaurant.
You know, we just want to makesure we share the love, but we
also want to, you know, level upthe presentation because we
want to make sure it's respected, and it's also a great
(07:17):
representation of what we are asFilipino.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Oh great, so let's go back a little bit.
What is?
Can you share some of yourearliest, I guess, memories of
filipino food?
Speaker 1 (07:29):
well, I grew up in the philippines.
I grew up in manila and manila,to be exact, and all I can
remember is just my mom and mygrandma in the kitchen just
toiling away preparing foodsthat I enjoy.
I remember my mom know likealso allowing me to be in the
kitchen and you know likecutting vegetables or actually
(07:52):
doing some of the cooking at sixor seven years old.
So I just remember just all thedifferent tastes.
And then when you go to yourcousins, your uncles, and then
in the Philippines, there's somany different times that we, I
feel like we make up festivalsand events because we want to
have an opportunity, a chance toinvite our friends and family
(08:12):
to just gather in a town.
And so when you go to towns,everybody's so welcoming,
everybody wants you to eat.
It's like one of the greetingsthat you go into a Filipino home
is the first thing they ask youis like which is?
Have you eaten?
I mean, that's our lovelanguage, right?
We want to make sure thatyou're perfectly fed and you
(08:32):
know this is how we share lovewith people.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Well, I know I felt that love when I was in the
Philippines, because therewasn't a day that went by that I
probably wasn't almost ill fromthe amount of food that was
being fed, right Like going, itwas nonstop.
But you know that allowed me toexperience so much.
But you know, once you get insmaller portions, so I could
sample a lot.
In smaller portions, so I couldsample a lot.
(08:56):
And so you said you'reoriginally from Manila area,
right?
Speaker 1 (09:04):
And my understanding is your wife is not.
She is.
She was born in Mindanao, whichis the southern part of the
Philippines, but she also grewup in Davao City and so that's
where she grew up.
The Philippines being anarchipelago having 7,641 islands
, we all develop our own likecooking styles.
I mean, uh, what something thatwe would share at a restaurant
adobo, like the process of thecooking.
(09:25):
Adobo can be different fromlike different families and you
know, like it's just differentfrom different regions but all
shared, just kind of like samekind of common basic, using the
soy sauce, vinegar, and it'sjust a cooking process.
And so I could say, like youknow, even though she's from
Davao City, she and I have ashared love for food and you
(09:46):
know like the cooking of foodmight be different, but it still
showcases the beauty of thePhilippines.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Yeah, and that's something I was going to ask you
, with your wife being, I guess,raised in a different portion
of the Philippines, rightDifferent region of the
Philippines, we know thatobviously, dialects can be so
drastically different in shortdistances.
But then, on the food and herupbringing, and how does that
differ from yours and how youare used to things being made in
(10:17):
Manila?
Speaker 1 (10:20):
The same.
I believe the same thingapplies for the Philippines,
right?
Because it's just like yourfamily, your, your familial,
they're always going to betaking care of you.
They're going to share with youthe way that they would prepare
meals.
You know, like the whole ideais like hey, we all spend time
together in in the table, we'llshare with you how we cook it,
(10:42):
because there was no cookbooksbefore.
Right, it's all about, um, youknow, verbally sharing the
cuisine, the recipes beingpassed down from generations to
generations and also beingpassed down to different region.
My wife, she speaks fourdifferent dialects, or four
different languages, and so forthat I am so proud of her that
(11:04):
she's able to just communicatewith me in Tagalog, and she
knows, you know, like the way wedo it in Tagalog can be similar
to Davao City as well, can besimilar to Davao City as well,
and so it's such a beautifulthing when everything kind of
comes together and accumulatesinto this beautiful cuisine
that's presented in front of me.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
No, that's really cool.
And you said, as far as thecuisine, you mentioned vinegar,
you mentioned soy sauce.
Right, what are some of the keyingredients that is most
general in most of your cuisineor most of your offerings, I
guess?
I mean, is it mostly soy,mostly vinegar?
Are there other things that arekind of a staple across the
(11:45):
board?
Speaker 1 (11:47):
So I would say vinegar is a big use for us at
the restaurant, but vinegar hasalways been something that's
been used, like the earlyaccounts for adobo, uh, cuisine
or the way to process was, uh,you know, vinegar was used for
preservative and that was alsoused as a way to to cook the
meats.
So it was introduced by thechinese later on and and later
(12:12):
on, um, but the the term adob.
When the Philippines wascolonized by Spain, the Spanish
called that indigenous cuisineor way of preparing meats or
cooking as adobo or adobar, youknow, like to marinate, and so
it just kind of stuck.
But it's the vinegar, it's likethe big thing that Filipinos
(12:35):
would probably use us and therestaurant.
We, we need it, we love it, welove the taste of it, we love
things that are sour, you know,like sinigang, but things like
that is always, uh, it'ssomething that we do so the
recipes using your adobo, thosewould those traditional.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Are those with your family or her family recipes, or
is that a combination of both?
Speaker 1 (12:57):
It's a combination of both, both the taste that we
love and, you know, likesomething that we know that our
son would enjoy, and so it'sreally a combination of the two
of us mostly, you know, justgoing with the basics, right the
soy sauce and vinegar and andjust like developing that taste
(13:18):
from there so the name adobo boy.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Obviously we know where adobo comes from, um.
How did you settle on the nameadobo boy, you and the wife?
Speaker 1 (13:29):
it's kind of funny that you asked that.
So adobo boy is really anickname for our son.
So when he was three years oldhe always had tasted pork, adobo
and he always asked his mom foradobo, always, you know, saying
like Mom, I want some adobo.
And then we just startedcalling him Adobo Boy and that
moniker just kind of like stuckwith him.
(13:50):
And then we would always saylike, hey, if we ever open up a
restaurant or something foodrelated in the future or any
business in the future, that wewould call it adobe boy.
And we just love that namebecause it represents us, yeah,
but also represents what we'redoing for for our son red.
You said his name is red hisname is red, so red is a
(14:12):
combination of ray and ed.
Uh, my wife's dad's name's Ed.
My dad, his name was Ray.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
That's very interesting because I recently
actually I have one team memberthat's on maternity leave right
now and she shared with usbasically how she's coming up
with the baby's name and it waslike a combination of three or
four names put together and I'mgoing well, that's really really
interesting.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
It's not just finding a name or it's like going, it
was like three or four namesthey combined I don't know if we
uh, we were following anytraditional norm, but we just
wanted to make sure we honorboth of our, our fathers and I
don't know, the, the we.
We came up with differentcombination, but the, the name
Red was just something that'seasier to say.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Now, what type of, I guess, feedback?
Obviously, you know someonelike myself coming in and raving
about your food.
You know, when I was sitting inthere, I heard a gentleman walk
in and he was talking with youand he's like I've never had
Filipino food.
Heard a gentleman walk in andhe was talking with you and he's
like I've never had filipinofood right, and, and do you get
a lot of that?
You know people walking.
Hey, I've never experiencedfilipino food.
And and what kind of feedbackdo you get from them?
Speaker 1 (15:25):
you know, we do experience a lot of people
saying that this is their firsttime being at a restaurant not
just a restaurant or beingexposed in filipino cuisine all
together.
And and that really excites meis that I have this pride or not
just pride more, like you know,like enough excitement because
(15:45):
for the love of being able toshare our culture.
And so the feedback after theyhave tasted the food and I would
check on them just to make surethey're doing okay, most of the
time they would say, like youknow, this is a food that
they've never tasted before food, and I would check on them just
to make sure they're doing okay, most of the time they would
say this is a food that they'venever tasted before and it's
wonderful.
And when they say that it givesme so much joy, because it
(16:06):
gives me so much joy that mywife, she works so hard to make
those food and when people areappreciative of it, and really
honestly, because I want to makesure it's true and honest, and
they will say like no, no, we'renot kidding, we are so honest
that your food is amazing and wedidn't ever realize Filipino
(16:27):
food to be like this.
We want to try more, and sothat, for me, is the best
feedback and best compliment.
They say we want to try more.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
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Oh oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh oh.
You know, like I had a customer on Friday actually on
Friday he perfectly said whatwe were trying to accomplish.
He said he felt like he waseating at home, in a home cooked
meal, prepared in love butpresented in such a wonderful
way that he said like hepresented, like he was.
He felt like he was attendingin a higher end restaurant and
(00:22):
but with the feel of like, hey,I'm sitting here at home with
people that loves what they'redoing how did you start it?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
where did you?
Where did you?
How did you start first, Iguess you know, is that
preparing for friends, relatives, family, neighbors, I guess?
At what point did you say hey,like, and I understand you and I
talked where you're at today,but what?
How did you get to that point?
Speaker 1 (00:46):
We started with where we just cook for some of our
friends.
We'll invite them for dinner atour house, just to host dinners
.
And then we would do festivals.
We participated in some of thelocal festivals here in Grand
Rapids One is the Grand RapidsAsian Pacific Festival.
Some of the local festivalshere in Grand Rapids One is the
(01:07):
Grand Rapids Asian PacificFestival.
And then after that it justkind of grew the love and
excitement of being able toshare the cuisine and culture
with people, and so anopportunity came in 2003.
My friend at the restaurant islooking for partners or people
to just kind of help him have aspace.
And then so I decided to saylike hey, I'm going to do it
(01:27):
with my wife and alongside withsome of our friends.
So we did like a pop-uprestaurant for a whole year with
some of our friends at thatexisting restaurant, and then
for now it's been three, fourmonths that Jackie and I are
flying solo at this locationwhere you actually visited us,
mark.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Diving into that.
What kind of challenges did youface in that first year that
maybe you didn't expect?
Right, you're sort of justpreparing food and sourcing
ingredients, but what type ofchallenges did you face doing
that?
Speaker 1 (02:01):
You know, like some of the challenges you asked me,
so some of the challenges thatjust to kind of get started, was
like the whole premise is likejust getting started.
You know like the best part ofstarting something new is trying
to talk yourself to not do it.
And so the best biggestchallenge that we had is how do
(02:24):
we get it started it.
And so the the best biggestchallenge that we had is how do
we get it started.
And good thing that we had allthese friends that has their own
restaurants who are very, veryaccommodating and very uh,
encouraging, saying like hey,you just got to do it, you will
learn from experience.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
And that's kind of like how we get started now I
firsthand, obviously, when I getto areas I haven't been in a
lot of times, bigger cities,right, I am in a very rural area
here, but I might pull up theGoogle and I do a quick search
and see if, by chance, there'sany Filipino food nearby.
Right, and I was shocked when Isaw just a very just a short
(03:02):
driveway.
A few minutes away was thisrestaurant that was opening at 5
pm and I'm like you've got tobe kidding me, there's no way,
right?
So and I think through ourconversation quickly found out
that you're like it there'sreally nothing else around the
area the Grand Airheads areathere serving Filipino dishes,
correct?
Speaker 1 (03:21):
That is correct.
We are the only restaurantcurrently in West Michigan.
I mean, we have friends who youknow like, they're great cooks
as well, and I'm hoping that inthe future that they will feel
encouraged and empowered thatthey could, just that they can
do what exactly we're doing, andso love to see more Filipino
restaurants pop up in the future.
(03:41):
But for now, we are, we are it,you're it.
Well, you know, I'm going tosay I'd love to love to see more
as restaurants pop up in thefuture, but for now, we are it,
you're it.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Well, I wanted to say I'd love to see more as well,
just everywhere.
I think that Americans aremissing out on some amazing food
by having so little Filipinooptions.
You said Colorado Springs is mymother's area and I found maybe
one specific Filipinorestaurant that I haven't yet to
(04:07):
get the experience yet becauseI was sick, but there were some
other.
Maybe we're mixing maybe someHawaiian food with some Filipino
food, you know, but theyweren't dedicated to strictly
Filipino cuisine.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
We decided that we were going to be strictly as
authentic as possible and theonly limitations we'll have are
the ingredients.
We can't, obviously, get allthe possible ingredients that we
want to use, but that will bethe only restrictions.
The whole goal is to representthe culture and the cuisine of
the Philippine culture and bereally proud of what we can
(04:39):
offer.
I've seen some places where afusion has been created.
I'm more proud of that.
I love what they're doing, butI just believe there's such a
beauty on authenticity of justbeing true to what you can offer
and you know as much aspossible.
We just want to be likestrictly just Filipino.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Love it and you know I met your wonderful wife, your
wonderful wife Jackie, andthey're in person and and you
yourself and you were veryaccommodating.
I walked in the door right Likegoing like oh, this guy he's so
friendly and you know, like youwere very welcoming and I
really appreciated that.
You know, and a lot of times inrestaurants these days it's
it's hard to find, um hard tofind good service and good food
(05:22):
and that combination togetherand people that really
appreciated being there and Ireally felt that um, that's
wonderful here, mark.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
I mean that's just part of the filipino culture.
I mean, if you have been to thephilippines, I know you have
but you can feel that in thepresence of the people.
You know that's somethingthat's ingrained in us the
hospitality, making sure thatpeople feel very welcome at home
.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
No, no, I love it.
And yes, you're right.
You know I experienced thatfirsthand just a few months ago
when I was in the Philippinesand along with some amazing food
, and you know I had someassistants ordering off your
menu and your menu rotates alittle bit on a week-to-week
basis but, you know, with somevariety.
But you know some of the itemson that order specifically
(06:08):
mentioned that it's hard to findthose at a restaurant because
really that was kind of like ahome-style cooked food.
So you know you get.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Sorry, mike, go ahead .
Speaker 2 (06:19):
No, I said so, you know.
Help me understand.
As far as bringing that notnecessarily a commercial or
restaurant, but bringing ahome-style cooked entrees or
options to share.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
I had a customer on Friday.
Actually, on Friday, heperfectly said what we were
trying to accomplish.
He said he felt like he waseating at home, in a home cooked
meal, prepared in love butpresented in such a wonderful
way that he said, like you,presented, like he was, he felt
like he was attending in ahigher end restaurant and but
(06:54):
with the feel of like, hey, I'msitting here at home with people
that loves what they're doing,and so I think that is the best
way to summarize the way ourcuisine is presented at our
restaurant.
You know, we just want to makesure we share the love, but we
also want to, you know, level upthe presentation because we
want to make sure it's respected, and it's also a great
(07:17):
representation of what we are asFilipino.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Oh great, so let's go back a little bit.
What is?
Can you share some of yourearliest, I guess, memories of
filipino food?
Speaker 1 (07:29):
well, I grew up in the philippines.
I grew up in manila and manila,to be exact, and all I can
remember is just my mom and mygrandma in the kitchen just
toiling away preparing foodsthat I enjoy.
I remember my mom know likealso allowing me to be in the
kitchen and you know likecutting vegetables or actually
(07:52):
doing some of the cooking at sixor seven years old.
So I just remember just all thedifferent tastes.
And then when you go to yourcousins, your uncles, and then
in the Philippines, there's somany different times that we, I
feel like we make up festivalsand events because we want to
have an opportunity, a chance toinvite our friends and family
(08:12):
to just gather in a town.
And so when you go to towns,everybody's so welcoming,
everybody wants you to eat.
It's like one of the greetingsthat you go into a Filipino home
is the first thing they ask youis like which is?
Have you eaten?
I mean, that's our lovelanguage, right?
We want to make sure thatyou're perfectly fed and you
(08:32):
know this is how we share lovewith people.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Well, I know I felt that love when I was in the
Philippines, because therewasn't a day that went by that I
probably wasn't almost ill fromthe amount of food that was
being fed, right Like going, itwas nonstop.
But you know that allowed me toexperience so much.
But you know, once you get insmaller portions, so I could
sample a lot.
In smaller portions, so I couldsample a lot.
(08:56):
And so you said you'reoriginally from Manila area,
right?
Speaker 1 (09:04):
And my understanding is your wife is not.
She is.
She was born in Mindanao, whichis the southern part of the
Philippines, but she also grewup in Davao City and so that's
where she grew up.
The Philippines being anarchipelago having 7,641 islands
, we all develop our own likecooking styles.
I mean, uh, what something thatwe would share at a restaurant
adobo, like the process of thecooking.
(09:25):
Adobo can be different fromlike different families and you
know, like it's just differentfrom different regions but all
shared, just kind of like samekind of common basic, using the
soy sauce, vinegar, and it'sjust a cooking process.
And so I could say, like youknow, even though she's from
Davao City, she and I have ashared love for food and you
(09:46):
know like the cooking of foodmight be different, but it still
showcases the beauty of thePhilippines.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Yeah, and that's something I was going to ask you
, with your wife being, I guess,raised in a different portion
of the Philippines, rightDifferent region of the
Philippines, we know thatobviously, dialects can be so
drastically different in shortdistances.
But then, on the food and herupbringing, and how does that
differ from yours and how youare used to things being made in
(10:17):
Manila?
Speaker 1 (10:20):
The same.
I believe the same thingapplies for the Philippines,
right?
Because it's just like yourfamily, your, your familial,
they're always going to betaking care of you.
They're going to share with youthe way that they would prepare
meals.
You know, like the whole ideais like hey, we all spend time
together in in the table, we'llshare with you how we cook it,
(10:42):
because there was no cookbooksbefore.
Right, it's all about, um, youknow, verbally sharing the
cuisine, the recipes beingpassed down from generations to
generations and also beingpassed down to different region.
My wife, she speaks fourdifferent dialects, or four
different languages, and so forthat I am so proud of her that
(11:04):
she's able to just communicatewith me in Tagalog, and she
knows, you know, like the way wedo it in Tagalog can be similar
to Davao City as well, can besimilar to Davao City as well,
and so it's such a beautifulthing when everything kind of
comes together and accumulatesinto this beautiful cuisine
that's presented in front of me.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
No, that's really cool.
And you said, as far as thecuisine, you mentioned vinegar,
you mentioned soy sauce.
Right, what are some of the keyingredients that is most
general in most of your cuisineor most of your offerings, I
guess?
I mean, is it mostly soy,mostly vinegar?
Are there other things that arekind of a staple across the
(11:45):
board?
Speaker 1 (11:47):
So I would say vinegar is a big use for us at
the restaurant, but vinegar hasalways been something that's
been used, like the earlyaccounts for adobo, uh, cuisine
or the way to process was, uh,you know, vinegar was used for
preservative and that was alsoused as a way to to cook the
meats.
So it was introduced by thechinese later on and and later
(12:12):
on, um, but the the term adob.
When the Philippines wascolonized by Spain, the Spanish
called that indigenous cuisineor way of preparing meats or
cooking as adobo or adobar, youknow, like to marinate, and so
it just kind of stuck.
But it's the vinegar, it's likethe big thing that Filipinos
(12:35):
would probably use us and therestaurant.
We, we need it, we love it, welove the taste of it, we love
things that are sour, you know,like sinigang, but things like
that is always, uh, it'ssomething that we do so the
recipes using your adobo, thosewould those traditional.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Are those with your family or her family recipes, or
is that a combination of both?
Speaker 1 (12:57):
It's a combination of both, both the taste that we
love and, you know, likesomething that we know that our
son would enjoy, and so it'sreally a combination of the two
of us mostly, you know, justgoing with the basics, right the
soy sauce and vinegar and andjust like developing that taste
(13:18):
from there so the name adobo boy.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Obviously we know where adobo comes from, um.
How did you settle on the nameadobo boy, you and the wife?
Speaker 1 (13:29):
it's kind of funny that you asked that.
So adobo boy is really anickname for our son.
So when he was three years oldhe always had tasted pork, adobo
and he always asked his mom foradobo, always, you know, saying
like Mom, I want some adobo.
And then we just startedcalling him Adobo Boy and that
moniker just kind of like stuckwith him.
(13:50):
And then we would always saylike, hey, if we ever open up a
restaurant or something foodrelated in the future or any
business in the future, that wewould call it adobe boy.
And we just love that namebecause it represents us, yeah,
but also represents what we'redoing for for our son red.
You said his name is red hisname is red, so red is a
(14:12):
combination of ray and ed.
Uh, my wife's dad's name's Ed.
My dad, his name was Ray.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
That's very interesting because I recently
actually I have one team memberthat's on maternity leave right
now and she shared with usbasically how she's coming up
with the baby's name and it waslike a combination of three or
four names put together and I'mgoing well, that's really really
interesting.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
It's not just finding a name or it's like going, it
was like three or four namesthey combined I don't know if we
uh, we were following anytraditional norm, but we just
wanted to make sure we honorboth of our, our fathers and I
don't know, the, the we.
We came up with differentcombination, but the, the name
Red was just something that'seasier to say.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Now, what type of, I guess, feedback?
Obviously, you know someonelike myself coming in and raving
about your food.
You know, when I was sitting inthere, I heard a gentleman walk
in and he was talking with youand he's like I've never had
Filipino food.
Heard a gentleman walk in andhe was talking with you and he's
like I've never had filipinofood right, and, and do you get
a lot of that?
You know people walking.
Hey, I've never experiencedfilipino food.
And and what kind of feedbackdo you get from them?
Speaker 1 (15:25):
you know, we do experience a lot of people
saying that this is their firsttime being at a restaurant not
just a restaurant or beingexposed in filipino cuisine all
together.
And and that really excites meis that I have this pride or not
just pride more, like you know,like enough excitement because
(15:45):
for the love of being able toshare our culture.
And so the feedback after theyhave tasted the food and I would
check on them just to make surethey're doing okay, most of the
time they would say, like youknow, this is a food that
they've never tasted before food, and I would check on them just
to make sure they're doing okay, most of the time they would
say this is a food that they'venever tasted before and it's
wonderful.
And when they say that it givesme so much joy, because it
(16:06):
gives me so much joy that mywife, she works so hard to make
those food and when people areappreciative of it, and really
honestly, because I want to makesure it's true and honest, and
they will say like no, no, we'renot kidding, we are so honest
that your food is amazing and wedidn't ever realize Filipino
(16:27):
food to be like this.
We want to try more, and sothat, for me, is the best
feedback and best compliment.
They say we want to try more.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
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