During my salad days as a student in that far off enclave of Zamboanga, our barkada had two favorite places to hang out where we could get delicious food and drinks cheap for a group of ravenous young people.
This was long before the advent of fast food chains and with our allowances counted in centavos rather than pesos, pancit was the default food for a big group with loaves of bread and colas on the side.
Admittedly everything in those days were dirt cheap compared to what our kids are now paying for fast food, but that did not detract from the quality of the pancit which was most often piping-hot pancit canton complete with all the rekados of vegetables, shrimp, chicken liver, chinese sausage, squid strips and the like.
Happily for us, happy days are here again with the advent of a relatively new place (just a year old last March 15) that brings back those memories in a flash.
Pan-Chic (short for pancit and chicken) is the brainchild of Chef Eric Ranara-Yap, him of the Sentro 1850, Butcher’s Best, and most recently, Circa 1850 fame. Together with lifetime partner Genevieve See-Yap, they sought to put up an “everyday sort of place” where family or friends can come in to take a quick meal, take it out or have it delivered to their doorstep without too much fuss.
Unlike many his formally trained peers, Eric’s training and talent has been handed down to him the traditional way- from his family and relatives. His mother Soledad (“Soling”) encouraged him to try cooking when he was but 6 yrs old. He also drew inspiration from his cousin, the late Gloria Dychauco of Pots’n’Pans Home Bake & Coffee Shop who pioneered al fresco dining and haute cuisine in Cagayan de Oro when it was still a sleepy, little town with traditional home-based cooking.
Reigning Ms CDO Bea Alvarez Poehl takes out an order of Pan-Chic’s stir fried pancit canton
With the advent of the fast paced urban lifestyle and fast foods, many families and barkadas yearn for the good old days of tasty and filling resto meals cooked the traditional way which wouldn’t set you back for an arm or leg.
“That’s why we give our diners the flexibility to choose whether to dine in-house, take it out or have their meals delivered at home, depending on how far they are from our place, or perhaps, the weather situation,” Eric explains.
And that’s also why I believe our college barkada would have found Pan-Chic a cool place to hang out because even at P129 per serving of stir-fried Pancit Canton or P195 for lemon fried chicken, the servings are large enough for 4-5 persons.
Besides their flagship pancit and chicken dishes, Pan-Chic also serves crispy lumpia, sweet and sour pork, quekiam meat roll, sweet and sour fish fillet, calamares, lechon macau, humba, sweet beef with onion and beef with broccoli.
Sweet & Sour Fish FIllet
Even the veggies are the comfort foods we’ve come to associate with traditional Chinese restos like chopsuey, kangkong with bagoong and the mouth-watering Bokchoy with garlic!
Bokchoy with Garlic
Even with Cagayan de Oro’s penchant to have rains in the afternoon during the rainy season, you can still indulge in your craving for Pan-Chic’s comfort food if you live within the perimeter of Burgos-Consolacion-Capicor-
Quekiam Meat Roll
After numerous requests, Pan-Chic now also delivers to the Carmen-Golden Village-SSS-RER 1&2, Alwana-Kauswagan-West Bound Terminal, Patag-Apovel-NHA-Polymedic Plaza-Aluba and Xavier Estates (P60 delivery charge) and to Pueblo de Oro (P90 delivery charge)
For further visits, please visit Pan-Chic (Pancit & Chicken)at Geleng Arcade, J.R. Borja Extension, Cagayan de Oro City or call (088)880-9500, (0915)799-1500 Globe), (0939) 302-0500 (smart). Open daily from 10am-2pm, 5pm-10pm with dine-in, take out or delivery service. Function room now available (minimum P2, 000 consumable for 3 hrs use). (RMB)
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