Jo's chicken Inato

Perhaps, Dumaguete's most immediately recognizable dining place for your favorite chicken barbique is Jo's Chicken Inato.
Jo's Chicken, located along Silliman Avenue, right at the back of Dumaguete's version of the "White House" (official residence of the Silliman University president), still emits that alluring aroma around town.
When my parents relocated to Dumaguete City from Tagbilaran almost forty years ago, we settled in a two bedroom apartment at the Flores compound along Silliman Avenue.
The rent during that wonderful, and memory-filled time was P250 per month.
We resided there for around seven years.
As I was growing up in that once pollution-free neighborhood, I happened to witness the beginnings of what is now that multi-million peso business of Jo's Chicken Inato, beside that apartnment we lived along Silliman Avenue.
From a very simple chicken barbique stand, then personally run by Jo Ng and husband Jesse (he has passed on), Jo's chicken Inato has metamorphosed into a multi-branch barbique business.
Having that rare privilege of witnessing how the industrious Ng couple built their "chicken-inato empire" through sheer hard work, I am not suprised at the breadth of its expansion.
It was---as I saw it---literally a labor of love, as the couple diligently, tirelessly fanned the flames of a fruitful and flourishing enterprise.
It has carved its own identity in the community that has made the place distinctly Dumaguete.
Jo's Chicken Inato's latest, if not biggest outlet is now located along that cozy shoreline in San Jose town.
I missed Jo's Chicken, so in one of our simple gatherings with visiting, former Dumageuteno-friends, I insisted we have lunch at Jo's.
It's always nostalia when you return to something pleasurable, after a long absence.
The chicken barbique tasted the way it was.
We enjoyed eating good old chicken inato, while recounting the days of our childhood.
It was more peaceful, a lot simpler, then.
Stress was a stranger.
But time moves fast and steady like the ticking clock.
Stress is a stranger no longer, but a dreaded companion.
We always want to go back to simpler times.
But now we are only left to savor the food, while we cherish the memories.
We enjoyed while it lasted...