When I was in Cebu, Brian and his wife took me and Sharon to the most amazing restaurant ever. It wasn’t a grand restaurant, it was a nice, small cozy restaurant somewhere in the streets of Cebu and they served the most amazing baked scallops I’ve ever tasted.
Kan-anan ni Kuya J or just Kuya J, is very unassuming and if you haven’t heard of it, you probably wouldn’t choose the restaurant as there are brighter and more colourful restaurants surrounding it. Luckily, my friend was there and we got to taste the ever famous Kuya J scallops.
Now I am spoiled and so far, scallops I’ve eaten since I was home, doesn’t compare at all. I’m sure even the top seafood place listed in 118 directories (http://www.118.com/) or the Yellow Pages would have a hard time topping these scallops. As you can see from the photo above, they were beautifully presented. They tasted beautiful too!
We wanted to try local dishes and when they said something about grilled panga, that sounded exotic enough. Panga or tuna jaw is something I’ve not eaten before, but it is like the grilled fish in Malaysia except its tuna jaw. It was pretty delicious as well, and ranked right behind the scallops.
Then I heard the order of Crispy Pata, and well, I thought it was some kind of bread. Can’t blame me since Pita and Pata sounds similar. It turns out that Cebu food have very similar traits to Chinese food, and Crispy Pata is pork leg, roasted I believe. The skin was crunchy and crispy (as the name implied) while the meat was soft. And since it was pork, it gets thumbs up from me.
The last dish was an evil dish. It is pinakbet or mixed vegetables fried with bagoong (shrimp paste). When it arrived on our table, the aroma was pretty good and I love bagoong. Brian decided to go for it first, when all of a sudden, the pinakbet attacked him!
His self-defense instinct kicked in and he dropped the plate, on himself (not ideal I know), and the pinakbet fell to its death all over his *ahem* region and on the floor. The evil pinakbet was killed. But I wanted to eat it though. Will have to take the risk and order it again the next time.
The meal, which was two helpings of scallops, one crispy pata, one grilled panga, rice and the pinakbet along with drinks was less than RM100. Talk about cheap! This is definitely one place to eat if you are in Cebu.
Kuya J
0394 Orchid St., Capitol Site
Tel: 253-1343, 253-5484
Mobile: 09189248992
Note: Closed on Sunday except for appointments (15 person min)
Thanks to your pics…I’m itching to go back and eat there again…Bwahahaha
Tsk tsk, Brian always gets attacked whenever he eats with friends there.
I just noticed that written on the plate of baked scallops are the words “oishi” in Japanese.
How appropriate.
wow..the food looks great…lol…evil pinakbet…
scallopssssss … yum yum!!!!!!!
hahaha that was funny :P the whole veg incident.
scallops scallops!!!!!!!!! SO DAMN GOOODDDDDDDD!
@Bace lol its walking distance :P just go.
@Ben oh too busy eating to notice. Not like I can read though :P
@Kitkat and it tastes good as well!
@meendee yummm is right :D
@babe hehe ya we go back there and eat again :)
Yummy…now i need my dinner :D
sigh. can we swap places for a few minutes. =) just a few bites of those scallops and the grilled panga (salivating now!)
Hmm.. maybe a better experience of Good Pinoy Style food you should’ve tried Golden Cowrie. They have the best crispy Pata and other really good dishes.
Don’t worry, next time I’ll bring you guys around for a food trip :P It’s too bad we didn’t see each other when you were here in Cebu.
LOL on the evil pinakbet.
LOL. he got attacked by a dish? :)
Yum I’m hungry!!!!!! My friend recommended me some sites to blog,and the best one sofar was Yummy Cebu – anywayz – I’m really craving now!!!!
@Toni B. When you are hungry, it’s time to eat :)