Great barbecue at Ineng's!

Weekend markets are popular these days and a number of restaurants that have made it big were borne of them. One of such is Ineng's, which started selling barbecue at the Sidcor Sunday Market in Cubao in 1999. Apparently, the products they sold were so good that the stall owners, a couple named Richard and Michelle, would always finish selling everything in record time. Their barbecue that grew more popular by the week became known as "Ineng's Special BBQ", Ineng being Michelle's moniker. The husband and wife soon joined other weekend markets until they opened their first mall-based branch at Market! Market! in 2004. The rest, as they, is history.

Earlier this year, I saw an Ineng's branch at the new Wilcon Depot near our office on Visayas Ave. in Quezon City. My friend-co-worker Pam and I had just had lunch at Bigger Better Burger and were about to go back to the office when we passed by Ineng's at the ground floor of the sprawling "mall". What immediately caught my eye was the poster outside with the words "kapeng barako" written in it. Hey! I missed kapeng barako, which I used to brew every morning upon waking up. I had long stopped this routine because of my hyperacidity, which prompted me to cut back on caffeine to just one cup a day, at the office, in the afternoon.  
Anyway, days later, I was back at Wilcon Depot, this time with my youngest son to have lunch at where else but Ineng's? 
Here, take a look at some of what they offer:

Pork barbecue with rice and lumpiang sariwa, P139.

Pinoy chicken BBQ, P129.

Complimentary soup.

Saba at sago con yelo, P49.

Iced tea that comes with our set meals.

Kapeng barako (oops, forgot the price).

The boy and his chicken barbecue.

I can't get enough of the barbecue sauce!

Inside Ineng's at Wilcon Depot on Visayas Ave.

At first bite of my pork barbecue, I wasn't exactly impressed; I've had good barbecue elsewhere. But when I poured some barbecue sauce into it, my rating shot up from 6 to 9 in a scale of 1 to 10. The sauce made a lot of difference! It made my barbecue go from okay to great! As for the fresh lumpia, it was..okay.. there's a lot of room for improvement in its sauce. Meanwhile, my son loved his chicken barbecue and declared he'd love to be back at Ineng's just for it.

Ineng's has several branches in Metro Manila, some of which are at SM North Edsa, Robinson's Place Novaliches, 168 Mall and Katipunan Ave.

Caught in the crossfire

Of the food chain war, that is. These wars have been in our midst for quite some time - both perceived and palpable. Perhaps, it's the "war" (competition, of course, is the better word) between Jollibee and McDonald's that is the most obvious and perhaps the longest existing. And then, there's the rivalry between Dunkin Donuts and Mister Donut, Red Ribbon and Goldilocks and others. In very recent years, a new war of two food chains emerged -- between Mang Inasal and Chic-Boy -- with the bone of contention being barbecued chicken (plus pork, in the case of Chic-Boy). Mang Inasal started in Iloilo in 2003 and became wildly successful that by 2012, there had been almost 500 stores opened nationwide. It popularized (not started, take note) the "unlimited rice" concept, which probably catapulted it to the top spot in the list of the most popular restaurant chains in the Philippines, aside, of course, from its great-tasting Ilonggo-style chicken barbecue. Since Mang Inasal serves huge chicken portions, many people are not satisfied with just one cup of rice, thus unlimited rice appeals to a lot of consumers. Well, Filipinos are really a bunch of rice eaters, aren't we? Anyway, many people know, of course, that 70% of Mang Inasal was acquired by Jollibee Foods Corporation in 2010 for a whooping sum of P3 billion. 

On the other hand, Chic-Boy first opened its door to the public in 2010, but to date, it already has over 120 branches. I never realized there's been fierce competition between Mang Inasal and Chic-Boy until last year when I found myself reading a forum wherein fans of each of these two chains cast their vote as to which one served the best-tasting roasted chicken.To this day, however, though I've eaten at both Mang Inasal and Chic-Boy, I can't cast my vote because what I eat at Mang Inasal, I don't at Chic-Boy and vice versa, so there's no point of comparison. Though I'm figuratively caught in the crossfire, I don't know which camp to run to. I'm just quite happy that there are now more food chains offering food that is truly Filipino (at very affordable prices!) and that you can go to them when you get tired of hamburgers and pizza.

Recently, my youngest child and I were at Chic-Boy along Quezon Ave. in Quezon City and these were what we had:

Cebu Lechon Liempo, P125. Good!

Pork Barbecue, P45.

Spaghetti with iced tea, P57. My son says it's delicious.

Chic-Boy stands for Chicken at Baboy (pig or pork). Cute logo!

Ice cream, P30 per scoop.

Soup is complimentary.

Soy sauce, vinegar, barbecue oil (left-right).

The little boy just loves ice cream.

Meanwhile, my family and I have eaten at Mang Inasal on several occasions since 2010, the last being on New Year's Day 2013. On those times, these were some of what we've tried in their menu:

Pecho with rice, P99. Our all-time favorite!

Pancit Bihon, P49. Quite good, too!

Dinuguan at Puto, P49. I love this as well.

Pork Sisig, P99. I haven't tried this but my son loves it.

Halo-Halo, P49. The ice cream is forlorn-looking but this halo-halo is quite good.

Mang Inasal used to have Calamansi Juice on their menu but it has been scrapped.

Mang Inasal has a simpler logo.

Soy sauce, chicken oil and vinegar. I love Mang Inasal's chicken oil. I pour a lot of it on my rice. :-)

Inside Mang Inasal along Tandang Sora Ave. in Quezon City.

Mang Inasal and Chic-Boy: Which one's for you? Both have branches scattered all over 
Metro Manila and in some areas, they're right beside each other.:-) 

Siphon-brewed coffee and more at Serye Café Filipino

It was palengke day on Sunday so I hied off to the Quezon Memorial Circle with my daughter to get the organic vegetables which I had called to reserve for (I buy our veggies for the week at AANI, a store owned by farmers practicing organic agriculture, who sell their produce at the QC Circle). Earlier on, I had planned to dine at Serye Cafe Filipino across the Quezon City Hall since we would be in that area. I have long heard about Serye but haven't had the chance to go there. I had known about it at work. Whenever there were big events in the country like the President would deliver his/her SONA (state of the nation address), bigwigs would gather at Serye and we would deploy one or two of our reporters there. But now my daughter and I were finally here to eat.

The menu

The counter

Interiors - clean and simple

 It was nearly 3 p.m. We hadn't had lunch yet but because we had late breakfast (brunch?) and ate cornic on the way to QC, we weren't hungry at all. Still, we had to have lunch so after browsing through the menu, we ordered: 

Pancit Miki Bijon, P185, solo size

Barbecue Duo 1, P275.

Decadent Chocolate Cake with Caramel Sauce, P125.

House Blend Coffee, P85.

My plate.

My daughter used two servings of milk for her coffee plus 4 servings of the coco sugar!

Everything was good but nothing spectacular (at least at this point). The Pancit Miki Bijon was even a bit bland to me. The hefty serving was a plus point, though. What we ordered for was the solo size but we found out it was good enough for 2 persons who are not very hungry. It also came with buttered toasted pandesal. The Boneless Chicken Barbecue was delish, okay, and my daughter liked the sauce that came with it which was nutty and sweet. The pork barbecue, however, tasted ordinary and my daughter and I agreed that the ones we buy in the neighborhood are better (promise! that's at P15 per stick). The java rice that came with the barbecue duo was yummy as well, and so was the achara. And then came our coffee and choice of dessert - the Decadent Chocolate Cake with Caramel Sauce. It was moist, soft and delicious but for me, a tad too sweet. I originally wanted another kind of chocolate cake as I thought about a slice from Serye that hubby brought home one night. I've been thinking about that cake! I thought I ordered the same one but a different kind came to our table. Was I disappointed! But since it was already served, we settled for this one. It was okay na din although as I said, a little bit too sweet. But the coffee.. oh, the coffee! I forgot to mention that it was what I came to Serye for. I read that they serve siphon-brewed coffee, which they say, tastes more divine than regular brewed coffee. It was so sayang that I wasn't able to take a picture of the waiter pouring coffee from that siphon-brewing equipment that they use, into our cups. For those who don't know about the process of siphon-brewing coffee, sorry, i'm not explaining here because I haven't comprehended it. Haha! It looks complex to me. But I tell you, the resulting flavor is really good and strong! What added to my pleasure of coffee-drinking here was that it was coco sugar that came with it, which is healthy! If only for this coffee, yes, I will come back to Serye. They said the Boneless Crispy Pata here is so good, so might as well try that next time. And yes, I'll make sure to order the right cake!