Home cooking food trip: Chicken Inasal

I was at the Landmark Supermarket last Wednesday looking for pasalubong for our relatives in the US, when I chanced on this in one of the shelves of the supermarket. It's a bottle of Claude's Inasal BBQ marinade (one of the many bottled food products of artist/chef/cabalen Claude Tayag). So, I thought I'd get a bottle and give it a try. And it costs less than P100.00.

I remembered that I had purchased boneless chicken breasts and thighs about 2 weeks ago and were just sitting in the freezer. I was originally planning to cook the chicken parts with the Indian curry sauce given by my wife's cousin who was ssent by his office for an 8-week assignment in New Delhi. But since my wife isn't fond of curry or Indian food, I decided to use the marinade instead.

Instruction says to use 1/2 cup of the marinade for every kilo of meat (chicken or pork). Let it sit for about 2 hours before cooking or better yet, refrigerate it overnight so that the marinade would seep into the meat. One way of making the marinade seep into the meat is to puncture the meat with a fork.

Then I pan-grilled the chicken, however I didn't have a pan grill (those with ridges) so I used my regular teflon frying pan. I wanted to use my stove-top griller but didn't want to make a mess. I didn't have to oil the pan as the sauce already had oil in it, together with the herbs and spices.

Good thing I still had some sinamak (sukang ilonggo) in my cupboard. Which reminds me, I have to get fresh garlic, ginger and sili; and make a fresh batch of sinamak.

Had I let the marinade and chicken sit overnight, the marinade would have seeped into the meat more. But still, it tasted great!

New favorite weekend lunch place

my wife and i have a new favorite weeked lunch place in makati. it's the mongolian quick stop, located at the ground floor of waltermart, makati city.




for P245 per person, you can have their all-you-can-eat mongolian barbeque. you fill up your bowl with egg and/or vermicelli noodles, veggies and meats; then you could either make your own sauce combinaton or choose from their own combinations (regular, sweet, spicy or sweet and spicy).


aside from their all-you-can-eat, they also have the quick bowl, which is one serving of their mongolian menu. you load up your bowl with noodles (egg and/or vermicelli), rice and veggies, and then you hand over your bowl to their attendant and they put your choice of meats (beef, chicken, pork), squid, fish balls and squid balls. then they ask you what sauce you want (regular, sweet, spicy, sweet and spicy).

then there's the quick box which is a smaller serving of their quick bowl. they do the toppings for you and they ask you for your choice of sauce.

they also have other items on their menu like sze chuan rice toppings, friend chicken, pork bbq, grilled squid.

unfortunately, i'm not the same buffet eater i used to be. halfway through my second bowl, it was becoming a challenge to finish it. back in my days, i could go for a fourth bowl. the last time i had a mongolian bbq all-you-can-eat was at summer place bar in boracay, when i was still working in the island.

although their range of ingredients is not as extensive as kublai's rock, it's still a good alternative, especially since it's not as crowded and you don't have the lack of parking slots compared to magallanes center.

so, if you want to satisfy your hunger pangs and go on an eating binge, check out mongolian quick stop.