This Filipino Comfort Food Is A Bruno Mars Favorite

At the end of the day, even the biggest celebrities are just regular people, and everybody has their favorite comfort food. For most people, their comfort food centers around the dishes that they grew up with, and for pop icon Bruno Mars, it is the classic stew from the Philippines, chicken adobo. His mother, Bernadette Hernandez, was Filipino-born, and according to a past interview with JustJared, his favorite Filipino food is "chicken adobo of course." Adobo often features in "best of" and "most popular" lists of Filipino food on the internet, and is even name-checked by celebrities like Meghan Markle and Darren Criss, who is also of Filipino descent on his mother's side.

But what exactly is adobo? While adobo refers to different things in Mexican and the Caribbean cuisines, in the Philippines, it is essentially a stew. Filipino adobo is made with copious amounts of soy sauce and vinegar, flavored further with garlic, bay leaves, and whole black peppercorns. This results in a salty and tangy braise that is simmered together with a main protein, usually chicken, or often pork. This savory stew is then served with white rice (or garlic fried rice) to soak up all the precious braising liquid.

Adobo was apparently not always made with soy sauce. According to historical accounts, the concept of braising proteins in vinegar had been around even before the arrival of soy sauce with Chinese traders in the 9th century. This means a white version of adobo exits (sans soy sauce), and there are even red adobo (made with annatto) and yellow adobo (made with turmeric). In Mashed's very own best chicken adobo recipe, Susan Olayinka from the Flexible Fridge developed her version of the recipe with coconut milk, which adds a welcome creaminess and helps temper the strong tang of vinegar. You can even make adobo with different proteins like squid or fish, or make it entirely vegetarian with mushrooms, eggplants, or tofu. 

We may not know which version of adobo Mars makes, though he said in the same JustJared interview that he has "learned a lot from [his] mom" in terms of cooking. What we do know is that  Mars clearly loves his Filipino roots. He composed the short song "Tayo na magpugay" ("Let's pay tribute") on social media for his Filipino fans after his Manila concerts in 2023, even signing off the post with "Love always, The Brunz aka Lil Prince Adobo."