Jo's Chicken Inatô

In the past, going out to restaurants for lunch or dinner was not something we did very often in Dumaguete. This is largely due to the fact that, for the most part, restaurant food could never compete with the meals so lovingly prepared at my grandmother's house. We didn't have it for the rest of the year, so we enjoyed it while we could. If we weren't eating at home, that usually meant we were enjoying other home-cooked meals in a relatives house. That was just the way it was.

In the recent years, however, and with all the new restaurants that have opened around the city we find ourselves venturing out more often. My cousins took me to Jo's Chicken Inatô in the town of Sibulan on our way back from Lake Balinsasayao. I was told the founder and owner of this famous barbecue chicken restaurant chain, Josephine Ng, lived just across the street.

The word inatô means 'to feel at home with' and that's exactly what it felt like dining here. The staff was warm and friendly and the ambience was rustic and very casual. The restaurant was by the sea, and we chose one of these tables outside (pic above) so we could enjoy the sea breeze and the view. The tables here were shaped like bancas (canoes) and the seats were the "outriggers". Very cute.

There are other items on the menu but we all ordered the house specialty which is grilled chicken served with puso (rice packed and steamed in coconut leaves) and atchara (pickled papaya strips). It looked just like Bacolod's chicken inasal and even tasted similar. At least until you dunk the chicken into their dark, special sauce and then it totally blows your mind! The achuete oil of chicken inasal has nothing on this. I don't know what's in that sauce and if by some stroke of luck someone that knows reads this, I beg you, please tell me.

Puso (rice packed & steamed in coconut leaves)

Not only was it delicious, it was darn cheap. A little over P 100 ($2) for a chicken leg, one puso and a Coke. It's no wonder then that since it's inception in 1985, at least 10 other branches have opened in other cities such as Iloilo, Cagayan, Roxas, Cebu and even Manila! Why is it I had never heard of this before? There's supposed to be a branch in Jupiter St. Has anyone been? I gotta check this out soon.

I really enjoyed myself, using my hands to pull the meat off the stick, dunk it in the sauce and to pop it into my mouth, followed with a pinch of rice. I licked the sauce off my fingers, sighing contentedly with the sound of the waves lapping against the shore in the background. What I would have done for a banig (woven mat) to crawl into right there for a nice afternoon siesta.

Click here for a list of Jo's Chicken Inatô branches.