Jimmy’s Satti, a must in Zamboanga City

Delicious satti and rice swimming in special spicy-sweet sauce

Jimmy’s Satti is a highly recommended local restaurant whenever visitors ask where to eat. The small, bite-sized pieces of beef on thin bamboo skewers swim in sweet-spicy sauce, served with tamuh, rice cooked inside woven coconut palm leaves. It’s a no frills restaurant that locals also patronize. Best of all? It’s cheap.

Satay or sate is a dish that is popular in Malaysia and Indonesia. It’s grilled meat like beef, mutton and chicken and goes with a peanut sauce. In the Philippines, it’s found in most provinces with local Muslim communities like in Metro Manila where it is offered as a street food, Tawitawi, especially in the eateries around the Chinese Pier and Zamboanga City.

Jimmy’s Satti in Zamboanga City

Jimmy’s Satti started in 1976 when Jimmy Hamid’s grandfather, Majid, came from Malaysia and started selling the sate. I’m not sure how it morphed into the current spelling of satti though. But instead of the peanut sauce, like the ones used in kare-kare, the secret sauce is probably a variation of the sweet and sour sauce that is present in most dimsum house in the Philippines.

I love the taste of the bite sized grilled beef as well as the grilled pieces of chicken. The spicy-sweet sauce complements well with the tamuh and meat. The satti restaurant is open from 3AM-6PM with many coming in during breakfast. The satti is available in both beef and chicken with tamuh.

If you’re in Cebu, there are few that offers this like Shobe’ST Satti and Satti Flames.