047: Vinegar, Soy, and Love: The Secret Ingredients of Filipino Cuisine

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

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Adobo Boy Website:
https://adoboboygr.com

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https://www.facebook.com/AdoboBoyGR

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https://www.instagram.com/adoboboygr

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https://www.tiktok.com/@adobo.boy

Chapters

• 0:00 Starting a Filipino Restaurant Journey
• 2:01 Authenticity in Filipino Cuisine
• 5:30 Childhood Food Memories from Manila
• 9:04 Regional Cooking Differences in Philippines
• 11:46 Key Filipino Ingredients and Adobo History
• 13:30 The Story Behind "Adobo Boy"
• 15:20 Customer Reactions to Filipino Food

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

You know, like I had a customer on Friday actually on Friday he perfectly said what we were trying to accomplish. He said he felt like he was eating at home, in a home cooked meal, prepared in love but presented in such a wonderful way that he said like he presented, like he was. He felt like he was attending in a higher end restaurant and but with the feel of like, hey, I'm sitting here at home with people that loves what they're doing how did you start it?

Speaker 2: 0:31

where did you? Where did you? How did you start first, I guess 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: 0:46

We started with where we just cook for some of our friends. We'll invite them for dinner at our house, just to host dinners. And then we would do festivals. We participated in some of the local festivals here in Grand Rapids One is the Grand Rapids Asian Pacific Festival. Some of the local festivals here in Grand Rapids One is the Grand Rapids Asian Pacific Festival. And then after that it just kind of grew the love and excitement of being able to share the cuisine and culture with people, and so an opportunity came in 2003. My friend at the restaurant is looking for partners or people to just kind of help him have a space. And then so I decided to say like hey, I'm going to do it with my wife and alongside with some of our friends. So we did like a pop-up restaurant for a whole year with some of our friends at that existing restaurant, and then for now it's been three, four months that Jackie and I are flying solo at this location where you actually visited us, mark.

Speaker 2: 1:45

Diving into that. What kind of challenges did you face in that first year that maybe you didn't expect? Right, you're sort of just preparing food and sourcing ingredients, but what type of challenges did you face doing that?

Speaker 1: 2:01

You know, like some of the challenges you asked me, so some of the challenges that just to kind of get started, was like the whole premise is like just getting started. You know like the best part of starting something new is trying to talk yourself to not do it. And so the best biggest challenge that we had is how do we get it started it. And so the the best biggest challenge that we had is how do we get it started. And good thing that we had all these friends that has their own restaurants who are very, very accommodating and very uh, encouraging, saying like hey, you just got to do it, you will learn from experience.

Speaker 2: 2:38

And that's kind of like how we get started now I firsthand, obviously, when I get to 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 the Google and I do a quick search and see if, by chance, there's any Filipino food nearby. Right, and I was shocked when I saw just a very just a short driveway. A few minutes away was this restaurant that was opening at 5 pm and I'm like you've got to be kidding me, there's no way, right? So and I think through our conversation quickly found out that you're like it there's really nothing else around the area the Grand Airheads area there serving Filipino dishes, correct?

Speaker 1: 3:21

That is correct. We are the only restaurant currently in West Michigan. I mean, we have friends who you know like, they're great cooks as well, and I'm hoping that in the future that they will feel encouraged and empowered that they could, just that they can do what exactly we're doing, and so love to see more Filipino restaurants pop up in the future. But for now, we are, we are it, you're it. Well, you know, I'm going to say I'd love to love to see more as restaurants pop up in the future, but for now, we are it, you're it.

Speaker 2: 3:45

Well, I wanted to say I'd love to see more as well, just everywhere. I think that Americans are missing out on some amazing food by having so little Filipino options. You said Colorado Springs is my mother's area and I found maybe one specific Filipino restaurant that I haven't yet to get the experience yet because I was sick, but there were some other. Maybe we're mixing maybe some Hawaiian food with some Filipino food, you know, but they weren't dedicated to strictly Filipino cuisine.

Speaker 1: 4:18

We decided that we were going to be strictly as authentic as possible and the only limitations we'll have are the ingredients. We can't, obviously, get all the possible ingredients that we want to use, but that will be the only restrictions. The whole goal is to represent the culture and the cuisine of the Philippine culture and be really proud of what we can offer. I've seen some places where a fusion has been created. I'm more proud of that. I love what they're doing, but I just believe there's such a beauty on authenticity of just being true to what you can offer and you know as much as possible. We just want to be like strictly just Filipino.

Speaker 2: 5:01

Love it and you know I met your wonderful wife, your wonderful wife Jackie, and they're in person and and you yourself and you were very accommodating. I walked in the door right Like going like oh, this guy he's so friendly and you know, like you were very welcoming and I really appreciated that. You know, and a lot of times in restaurants these days it's it's hard to find, um hard to find good service and good food and that combination together and people that really appreciated being there and I really felt that um, that's wonderful here, mark.

Speaker 1: 5:30

I mean that's just part of the filipino culture. I mean, if you have been to the philippines, I know you have but you can feel that in the presence of the people. You know that's something that's ingrained in us the hospitality, making sure that people feel very welcome at home.

Speaker 2: 5:46

No, no, I love it. And yes, you're right. You know I experienced that firsthand just a few months ago when I was in the Philippines and along with some amazing food, and you know I had some assistants ordering off your menu and your menu rotates a little bit on a week-to-week basis but, you know, with some variety. But you know some of the items on that order specifically mentioned that it's hard to find those at a restaurant because really that was kind of like a home-style cooked food. So you know you get.

Speaker 1: 6:18

Sorry, mike, go ahead.

Speaker 2: 6:19

No, I said so, you know. Help me understand. As far as bringing that not necessarily a commercial or restaurant, but bringing a home-style cooked entrees or options to share.

Speaker 1: 6:33

I had a customer on Friday. Actually, on Friday, he perfectly said what we were trying to accomplish. He said he felt like he was eating at home, in a home cooked meal, prepared in love but presented in such a wonderful way that he said, like you, presented, like he was, he felt like he was attending in a higher end restaurant and but with the feel of like, hey, I'm sitting here at home with people that loves what they're doing, and so I think that is the best way to summarize the way our cuisine is presented at our restaurant. You know, we just want to make sure we share the love, but we also want to, you know, level up the presentation because we want to make sure it's respected, and it's also a great representation of what we are as Filipino.

Speaker 2: 7:21

Oh great, so let's go back a little bit. What is? Can you share some of your earliest, I guess, memories of filipino food?

Speaker 1: 7:29

well, I grew up in the philippines.

Speaker 1: 7:30

I grew up in manila and manila, to be exact, and all I can remember is just my mom and my grandma in the kitchen just toiling away preparing foods that I enjoy. I remember my mom know like also allowing me to be in the kitchen and you know like cutting vegetables or actually doing some of the cooking at six or seven years old. So I just remember just all the different tastes. And then when you go to your cousins, your uncles, and then in the Philippines, there's so many different times that we, I feel like we make up festivals and events because we want to have an opportunity, a chance to invite our friends and family 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 greetings that you go into a Filipino home is the first thing they ask you is like which is? Have you eaten? I mean, that's our love language, right? We want to make sure that you're perfectly fed and you know this is how we share love with people.

Speaker 2: 8:36

Well, I know I felt that love when I was in the Philippines, because there wasn't a day that went by that I probably wasn't almost ill from the amount of food that was being fed, right Like going, it was nonstop. But you know that allowed me to experience so much. But you know, once you get in smaller portions, so I could sample a lot. In smaller portions, so I could sample a lot. And so you said you're originally from Manila area, right?

Speaker 1: 9:04

And my understanding is your wife is not. She is. She was born in Mindanao, which is the southern part of the Philippines, but she also grew up in Davao City and so that's where she grew up. The Philippines being an archipelago having 7,641 islands, we all develop our own like cooking styles. I mean, uh, what something that we would share at a restaurant adobo, like the process of the cooking. Adobo can be different from like different families and you know, like it's just different from different regions but all shared, just kind of like same kind of common basic, using the soy sauce, vinegar, and it's just a cooking process. And so I could say, like you know, even though she's from Davao City, she and I have a shared love for food and you know like the cooking of food might be different, but it still showcases the beauty of the Philippines.

Speaker 2: 9:53

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, right Different region of the Philippines, we know that obviously, dialects can be so drastically different in short distances. But then, on the food and her upbringing, and how does that differ from yours and how you are used to things being made in Manila?

Speaker 1: 10:20

The same. I believe the same thing applies for the Philippines, right? Because it's just like your family, your, your familial, they're always going to be taking care of you. They're going to share with you the way that they would prepare meals. You know, like the whole idea is like hey, we all spend time together in in the table, we'll share with you how we cook it, because there was no cookbooks before. Right, it's all about, um, you know, verbally sharing the cuisine, the recipes being passed down from generations to generations and also being passed down to different region. My wife, she speaks four different dialects, or four different languages, and so for that I am so proud of her that she's able to just communicate with me in Tagalog, and she knows, you know, like the way we do it in Tagalog can be similar to Davao City as well, can be similar to Davao City as well, and so it's such a beautiful thing when everything kind of comes together and accumulates into 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 the cuisine, you mentioned vinegar, you mentioned soy sauce. Right, what are some of the key ingredients that is most general in most of your cuisine or most of your offerings, I guess? I mean, is it mostly soy, mostly vinegar? Are there other things that are kind of a staple across the board?

Speaker 1: 11:47

So I would say vinegar is a big use for us at the restaurant, but vinegar has always been something that's been used, like the early accounts for adobo, uh, cuisine or the way to process was, uh, you know, vinegar was used for preservative and that was also used as a way to to cook the meats. So it was introduced by the chinese later on and and later on, um, but the the term adob. When the Philippines was colonized by Spain, the Spanish called that indigenous cuisine or way of preparing meats or cooking as adobo or adobar, you know, like to marinate, and so it just kind of stuck. But it's the vinegar, it's like the big thing that Filipinos would probably use us and the restaurant. We, we need it, we love it, we love the taste of it, we love things that are sour, you know, like sinigang, but things like that is always, uh, it's something that we do so the recipes using your adobo, those would 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, like something that we know that our son would enjoy, and so it's really a combination of the two of us mostly, you know, just going with the basics, right the soy sauce and vinegar and and just like developing that taste 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 name adobo boy, you and the wife?

Speaker 1: 13:29

it's kind of funny that you asked that. So adobo boy is really a nickname for our son. So when he was three years old he always had tasted pork, adobo and he always asked his mom for adobo, always, you know, saying like Mom, I want some adobo. And then we just started calling him Adobo Boy and that moniker just kind of like stuck with him. And then we would always say like, hey, if we ever open up a restaurant or something food related in the future or any business in the future, that we would call it adobe boy. And we just love that name because it represents us, yeah, but also represents what we're doing for for our son red.

Speaker 1: 14:08

You said his name is red his name is red, so red is a 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 member that's on maternity leave right now and she shared with us basically how she's coming up with the baby's name and it was like a combination of three or four names put together and I'm going 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 names they combined I don't know if we uh, we were following any traditional norm, but we just wanted to make sure we honor both of our, our fathers and I don't know, the, the we. We came up with different combination, but the, the name Red was just something that's easier to say.

Speaker 2: 15:02

Now, what type of, I guess, feedback? Obviously, you know someone like myself coming in and raving about your food. You know, when I was sitting in there, I heard a gentleman walk in and he was talking with you and he's like I've never had Filipino food. Heard a gentleman walk in and he was talking with you and he's like I've never had filipino food right, and, and do you get a lot of that? You know people walking. Hey, I've never experienced filipino food. And and what kind of feedback do you get from them?

Speaker 1: 15:25

you know, we do experience a lot of people saying that this is their first time being at a restaurant not just a restaurant or being exposed in filipino cuisine all together.

Speaker 1: 15:34

And and that really excites me is that I have this pride or not just pride more, like you know, like enough excitement because for the love of being able to share our culture.

Speaker 1: 15:48

And so the feedback after they have tasted the food and I would check on them just to make sure they're doing okay, most of the time they would say, like you know, 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've never tasted before and it's wonderful. And when they say that it gives me so much joy, because it gives me so much joy that my wife, she works so hard to make those food and when people are appreciative of it, and really honestly, because I want to make sure it's true and honest, and they will say like no, no, we're not kidding, we are so honest that your food is amazing and we didn't ever realize Filipino food to be like this. We want to try more, and so that, for me, is the best feedback and best compliment. They say we want to try more.

Speaker 2: 16:35

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