Journalism Log 1: Chicken Adobo

Our school's amazing lunches...  where do I even begin?  From the cheaps forks that break apart when used, to the milk poured outside in the Pala-Pala into little styrofoam cups, there's no question that our school lunch is the meal of champions.  Just kidding.  Blog, this is Saipan International School Lunch.

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What chicken adobo supposed to look like

 Dear Blog,


  Today, we had chicken adobo.  Chicken adobo is a tender, slow-cooked dish that originates from the Philippines.  My tita cooks it at the house for dinner sometimes.  The dish, usually kinda sweet, is cooked at our house salty-style, just the way my mom ate it as a kid in Manila.  My lola, who stays at our house occasionally for the "clean air" (Manila is notorious for its pollution) helps make it even better.  It's one of my friends' favorite dishes when they come to my house.  It's just delicious.

  At our school, however, it's a different story.  The chicken adobo is mass-produced.  The chicken is stale and old, and at one point a took a bite and it had a strange fishy flavor.  We've been getting just drumsticks for chicken lately, and to be frank, it's hard to eat with just a fork.  Chicken adobo is covered with sauce, so it's not the greatest idea to eat it with your hands.  It's weird.  Drumsticks are a dark meat, but my chicken was bone dry, no matter how much sauce you slather on it.

Me (looking cool) and my lola

  Besides the chicken, the rice was stale (as always).  It's sticky and not the greatest, but it's rice.  As a half-and-half Asian, I can handle it, but this is definitely not the way to introduce Filipino cuisine to people who've never had it before.  I also got a watermelon slice slushing around in it's own juice in this funky little plastic bag.  My milk in little cartons had not yet arrived, so I was stuck with a bottle of water again.  Does anyone else think the milk situation is totally unsanitary?

  To sum it up, today's chicken adobo was edible and okay.  At least we didn't get chicken chopsuey...

Bon Apetit!