Chow Time

I have written about fast food joints here in the Philippines but I don’t think I have written about Chow King. It is part of the Jolibee Empire of which the name sake is by far and away the most popular FFJ in these islands despite the pink goo, or because of it, which can send your average Yank running for the hills.

Chow King is unique amongst FFJ’s both here and all those that I have experienced post 1995. The only one I can recall that came close was Bernie’s in Perth which succumbed to the monolith that is the FF industry in the mid 90’s. What both of these places had/have in common is they sell actual food. They have the fast food restaurant (if a FFJ can be called that) flow through design of servicing the maximum number of customers in the minimum amount of time. (Ok Bernie’s was never that high tech but they were still pretty quick)

But where Chow King differs from its competitors is in what comes out of the kitchen. It is food, no soggy cardboard pretends, real , identifiable, pieces of meat and veg that resonate to the bite.

The best beloved and I indulged last Saturday evening (yes I know it’s sad that that is the highlight of our Saturday night, but what can you expect we are an old married couple). I had the Shanghai Lauriat, 3 Shanghai Lumpia rolls, noodles, a couple of Dim Sums, rice, prawn crackers and buchi, all very tasty with varying textures. The best beloved had Chao Fan rice which is the best fried rice I have ever tasted (it comes with 6 star out of 5 rating) and Stir fried noodles where one could actually identify the various components ( cabbage, spring peas, pork, fish balls, pork liver and miki pancit).

All in all it was a damn fine feed and if you ever have the chance to visit Chow King, just do it, you won’t be disappointed.