How Mang Inasal satisfies the Rice-Eating Pinoys

 Mang Inasal’s delicious food offerings bring out the quirks in Filipino food lovers to embrace the sarap ng kaing Pinoy experience.

There is no denying that the Filipino’s have an undying love for food. Our fiesta-driven culture is full of celebrations marked by the partaking of food. In fact, Filipinos have made it a point to find almost every reason to eat. Any Pinoy gathering, name it, and food will always be a part of it. 

Interestingly, food-loving Pinoys have developed quirky eating habits -– from their generous use of condiments to their shameless use of hands during boodle fights.

Customers can satisfy their cravings for Pinoy comfort food with Mang Inasal’s paborito meals.

Mang Inasal, the home of the 2-in-1 sa laki, nuot sa ihaw sarap chicken inasal, has not only  captured the taste of Pinoy comfort foods. It has also encouraged a dining experience where everyone is comfortable to show their eating habits, making for a true sarap ng kaing Pinoy moment with loved ones.

I remember the very first time that my best friend and I brought her French-Canadian husband Pierre to Mang Inasal. He fell in love at first bite with the Mang Inasal chicken. He even managed to eat with his bare hands and enjoyed dipping them in the mixed soy sauce, calamansi and vinegar sauce. He also put a lot of annato oil on both his mounds of unlimited rice and chicken. To think we never really thought he'd be able to enjoy eating that much! If a foreigner whose totally clueless how one should eat chicken inasal would enjoy that much, what more could the typical Filipinos, right?

Chic-Boy Chicken at Baboy Food Chain

Their signage says it all-Chicken + Baboy (Pork)

With restaurants and eateries sprouting up all over the metropolis, our choices for dining options have increased dramatically. Naturally, some are of a higher caliber than others and everyone always seems to have their favorites. A new restaurant chain named Chic-Boy (short for Chicken at Baboy/Chicken and Pork) usually makes the cut on people's lists for preferred food. 

See all those people coming out of its resto?

Lucky for us, the same team behind Pier One Bar & Grill came up with Chic-Boy. It is a good alternative to a more popular brand of grilled chicken. For one, you'll get to have a lot of options to choose from: Chic-Boy has grilled liempo, grilled chicken, cebu lechon, and a whole lot more on its menu. It gives you unlimited choices as they also have a variety of merienda and desserts as well. They have their popular turrones de leche (think of fried spring rolls with sweet caramelized dipping sauce), saba con syrup, la paz batchoy etc. 

Mouth-watering crispy + delicious Cebu lechon at its finest.

We recently tried on their Chibog Busog meals, the cebu lechon with unlimited rice (it's really affordable for P99.) and cebu lechon manok also for P99 with unlimited rice. Add P25 more and you'll get bottomless iced teas. How's that for a really good meal, right?  The food was excellent! The cebu lechon was sumptuous and truly mouth watering. It had those ("putok-putok" appearance on the crispy pork skin) and the vinegar dip was tangy but sweet. The lechon cebu liempo laso had bits and pieces of lemongrass too, proving that it was roasted with such herbs along with others secret spices. Plus, it had huge servings too. 

Chicken Inasal Cebu style.

As for the chicken lechon, it wasn't that bad although I was not totally impressed with it. For me, it looked like a "another version" of the more popular brand of marinated grilled chicken. They also had the atchuete oil to go along with soy sauce & vinegar. But what probably makes it different from the more popular brand, was the vinegar--it tasted like sinamak or Iloco vinegar. Did I mention that they also serve free soup to customers? And unlike the more popular brand, Chic-Boy's soup best compliments their grilled meals more than anything. They serve Bulalo or Nilaga(beef stew) soups unlike the other brand that had sour stew soup, which in effect doesn't taste good with their grilled meals. 

The author's mom in red awaiting for her orders at the counter.

When we got there that Sunday afternoon, the place was packed with people from all walks of life. One of their best-sellers, turrones de leche, which I had intended to buy was already out-of-stock or sold-out to say the least. I figured, I'd just have to go back to Chic-Boy some other time to taste for myself why it's become one of their best sellers. 

People flock this new restaurant in all of its branches.

Oh, well. Chic-Boy had already around more than 35 stores around the Philippines (yes, including selected provinces) and they will be opening some 37 more branches as they are currently expanding. My family & I dined at their branch in Shopwise Araneta, Cubao (just across SM Cubao). With efficient service, friendly staff and good interiors as well as good food (especially the cebu liempo + unlimited rice + bottomless iced teas), I bet Chic-Boy will soon become another household name for everyone, giving their competitor a good fight. 

Disclaimer: This is not a paid blog post. My intention to review Chic-Boy's meals had stemmed from my desire to give my readers real food review. My opinion is 100% my own.