Grill All You Can!

CEBU, Philippines - It happens every day at the Kogi-Q! It is the latest restaurant owned and operated by the Tanchan family's Choobi Choobi Flavors Corporation. It specializes in the application of man's most ancient and revered cooking technique - grilling.

Customers select their own ingredients food-buffet style and cook it right at the table, using modern smokeless grill. Dinner takes place in air-conditioned comfort, a great relief to ambient temperatures reaching 35 °C in Cebu. But it's definitely much better here than in Tuguegaro City (37 °C), Myanmar (40 °C, according to my daughter, with rotating brownouts) and India (50 °C).

The cooking in Kogi-Q is very similar to the Japanese yakiniku style of cooking, bite-size pieces of food on griddles over flames of wood charcoal; and the Korean samgyeopsal, which is a dish (usually pork belly, not seasoned nor marinated) cooked on grills at the diners' table. And those tables with built-in smokeless electric grill are priced, excuse me, at a discounted price of only 100-thousand pesos.

The 4th branch of Kogi-Q opened at the SM City Cebu, adjacent to its sister restaurant, Choobi Choobi. I was invited by the Dodong Tanchan, patriarch of the Tanchan family whom I have known since I graduated from the UP Veterinary Medicine in 1974. One of my fond memories of the Tanchans was when I had the guts to cook an eight-course dinner for his family. I was a bit nervous cooking under the watchful eyes of Mrs. Rufina Tanchan, who is an excellent cook herself. The rest of the Tanchan family are also food critics themselves.

Ingredients for the grill were the following: hotdog, chorizo, fish balls, squid rings, chicken giblets (atay, batikulon) and wings, marinated pork belly, samgyeopsal (regular pork belly) US Beef Short Plate, Chilean Mussels and shrimps. The last three were my favorites; shrimps because it came fresh from their prawns farms, Chilean Mussels because there's no red tide in that area, and US Beef since the fat marbling was great. Condiments and various sauces were also available to give that extra spike in the food.

The banner at Kogi-Q states… "Your appetite is the only limit!" The usual rules apply when food is served unlimited, like the "No Left-Over Policy," diners cannot bring home their leftovers - plus a fine is imposed. I have problems watching my diet at unlimited dinners because I easily yield to the temptation to eat more until my guts is filled to the limit.

The restaurateur of the family, Stan Tanchan, personally oversees the operations of the corporation. Now and then, he dines at selected branches to check the service and the quality of the food. Stan himself is an excellent cook, having inherited the cooking genes from his mom Rufina and business acumen from dad Dodong. (FREEMAN)