Food
It’s often difficult to find a filling meal that fits a student budget with room to spare. In this year’s JSEC, Chiǹua brings this concept to life with affordable and customizable Mongolian rice bowls.
Taste
A typical order at Chiǹua begins with a base of either rice, noodles, or a mixture of both, enveloped in a rich Mongolian sauce made from scratch and peppered with sweet and savory notes. The most filling option is definitely the combination of rice and noodles, as it creates a more balanced feel to the dish.
Chiǹua’s base can be matched with three types of stir-fried meat: Beef, pork, and chicken, all of which are chopped into bite-sized chunks. The most popular among these is beef, which is both tender and well-seasoned. Thin slices of carrots and cabbage are also placed into the dish, providing texture that goes with every available flavor.
To achieve a unique medley of flavors, different sauces are added to the base. Packed with a fiery punch, the Hot and Spicy dish is not for the faint of heart. As its name suggests, it features more burn than taste, but at the same time, it is not too spicy for the Filipino palate to withstand.
A fuller, more flavorful choice is the Sweet and Spicy dish, which is Chiǹua’s bestseller—and with good reason. At first bite, it’s a blast of honeyed goodness elevated by a slow-burning spiciness—the kind that leaves one wanting more.
For customers not into spicy foods, the Sweet and Sour dish is an excellent option. Starting off sweet followed by a tart aftertaste, the dish blends the sauce with the other parts of the dish as it is more subtle than the rest of the flavors.
Concept
Chiǹua’s concept is based on Mongolian cuisine, specifically Mongolian rice bowls. To cater to more preferences, Chiǹua allows customers to customize their bowls by choosing their base, flavor, meat, and add-ons such as egg and extra meat. Though the owners mentioned their focus on the customization aspect rather than the aesthetic of the stall, Chiǹua’s bright red banner—which showcases its name with a graphic of a rice bowl—still manages to catch the attention of passersby.
Value for money
Easily one of the cheapest options in JSEC, Chiǹua boasts of meals that are both tasty and reasonably priced. The dishes may sometimes seem lacking in meat, but this is made up for by well-balanced flavors and competitive prices. For just Php 70, customers can have a solo meal with a base and meat of their choice. This meal in itself is more than enough, but double meals, which are twice the single serving, come at Php 140 with a free drink. By serving dishes at such low price points, Chiǹua becomes arguably one of the best JSEC stalls in terms of value for money.
Final verdict
The perfect combination of tasty and filling, Chiǹua is the ultimate go-to for a budget-friendly meal. It may not be the first Mongolian rice bowl stall in JSEC history, and it probably won’t be the last. But with so many possible variations to choose from, Chiǹua becomes an everyday kind of place—offering something a little different each time.
Rating: 5/5
Editors’ Note: In the interest of fairness, Vantage writers only reviewed food that was offered by the stalls during their respective taste tests. Moreover, this JSEC stall is co-owned by Bruce Ong, a member of The GUIDON’s Photos staff.
Photo by Jerry Feng
