Not too long ago, a cousin came to stay with us for a while while he review for his board exams. The results weren't up yet at that time (though all of us were counting the minutes), but we went ahead to claim victory and celebrate early. Always, always... where to eat has been a problem for us (different tastes, different preferences), but when we saw that Jay-J's Inasal still has the set menu we tried without changing prices, we decided it was time to avail it again.
Aside from prizes, the place hasn't changed as well. It still had the same tables and chairs, as well as the vertical multi-colored wall paper, which made us feel a little bit nostalgic.
Like what I said, we went for the same set menu we availed when we celebrated sister's birthday:
Pancit Molo
Served piping hot, we all loved how it had a lot of molo dumplings.
Pancit Canton
From one pancit to another... this one wasn't oily at all, much to my family's delight.
Chicken Inasal
Truly one of the best I have tasted.
Pork Sisig
I know it didn't look good, but believe me when I say it was delicious.
Grilled Pork Belly
I am going to say this for all the personal reasons: I am not a fan of barbecue sauce glazed grilled meat. I prefer my grilled meat marinated and grilled "dry" rather than basted with tangy-sweet sauce. This looked charred, but not really burnt (I didn't know why this picture looked very, very dark)... and while my family liked it, I only got a tiny piece of it.
Crispy Dinuguan
This wasn't part of the set menu, but my sister wanted to taste this. Another good dish that I found "not good" because I prefer my Dinuguan creamy and not dry. It was crispy, it had a good blend of seasonings, but this dish is just not for me.
Turon
A great way to end the meal. The banana rolls just had enough melted sugar to sweeten it. This was served together with the rest of the meal, so eating it wasn't difficult, and we liked that the wrapping didn't lose its crispiness.
The set meal was good for five people. We entered the restaurant as five hungry foodies and we left with heavy tummies. If there was something to complain, it would be the place's dim lighting. It was just fine, sure... but if you're like me who like to take pictures of food before eating it, the lighting could be difficult to deal with, especially that I couldn't use my camera's flash on macro food shots. Other than that, it had been great.
And yes... my cousin passed the board exam is now an engineer.
I come from a family who loves cooking and eating. I never had any formal training in cooking and that I taught myself how to cook based on the handed down recipes, but I could say that I can cook good food. In 2008, I started documenting my food trips for my