"THE FORMULA to Boracay is to eat and drink.
Then you can swim," Mon Isberto said with a smile.
I don’t know about drinking--alcohol isn’t one of my
life’s pleasures. But I totally agree with him about the
eating part.
A huge fraction of the almost five days we stayed in Boracay were spent
eating good food. Yes, mouth-watering, sinful, really, really good food.
First good meal
Jason, Tammy, Tim and I were in Boracay
a day ahead of the others. We arrived in
paradise hungry. The trip was long and
tiring--and eating chips on the road did us
no good. We had a late lunch at the hotel (it
was actually time for merienda), but the
food is nothing to sneeze at. I refuse to even
mention what we ate.
We had our first good meal that night, when Tim, the good soul that he is,
decided to play tour guide. He took us to Gorio’s (Station 2)--Boracay’s
famous crepe place--for appetizers. We ordered four varieties and shared
them. Ham, Mushrooms and Bechamel Sauce (P95), La Pinay (mango,
vanilla ice cream and chocolate--P90), Funtastyc (banana, nutella, vanilla ice
cream and flambé in Grand Marnier--P150) and Vesuve (ham, cheese,
tomatoes). They were light, they were rich--we were exclaiming over them.
The Vesuve was spicy, the ham, mushrooms and bechamel sauce flavorful,
the La Pinay a delight, but the Funtastyc was the winner for me. The
combination of heat and cold that melts on the tongue was just too good.
With the meal we had shakes--mango, banana, pineapple (P70), ice cream
milkshake (P70) and the mango shake (P60).
The place is very laid-back (pretty much like the whole island itself) and very
exotic. There were bamboo and wood everywhere--and the lamps added a
fine touch. The only tell-tale signs we were in the 21st century were the
computer monitors on the counter.
From Gorio’s we hopped on to Hey Jude, which actually became our
hangout during our entire stay--our nights would have been incomplete
without dropping by the place. We ordered two pizzas--Margherita (basil,
oregano, extra cheese, P110) with extra pepperoni, and the Alla Romana
(with anchovies and capers, P170)--and a pasta dish--Fra Diavolo (mixed
seafood in spicy tomato sauce, P210). Tammy, the anchovy addict that she
is, loved the Alla Romana. The next night, we discovered that Hey Jude’s
calamares are also really, really good.
Cheap thrill
Hours after the meal at Hey Jude, and after dancing at the Beachcomber with
some people from MTV, we ate hotdogs, barbecue and grilled squid on stick
off the stalls that were set up on the sand. Cheap thrill but, hey, it was good.
The next morning, Maui and Marco arrived with Ruth and Sir Mon (finally!).
We started the day with lunch at San Mig, Waling-Waling Resort’s
restaurant. It was literally a feast. Onion rings (P70), sizzling pusit (P200),
sizzling tanguigue (P200), sizzling boneless chicken (P220), blue marlin
salpicao (P180), baked mussels with garlic cheese (P120), crispy shrimps
(P140) and calamares. The sizzling pusit was delicious, the mussels were
also great. I loved the blue marlin salpicao, although the taste is very similar
to the sizzling tanguigue. As usual, we had shakes with the meal. Their
banana-mango shakes, everyone agrees, are the best we tried during the
whole trip, at P90 per glass.
The best pizza
That afternoon, we all sat in front of Boracay Plaza (Station 1 beside
Willy’s). We were waiting for Jules, Happy and Nick to arrive. What a way
to wait. We were watching the sunset, toes buried in the sand, while enjoying
pizza--damn good and inexpensive, let me stress, pizza.
We ordered two kinds, Margherita (basil, oregano, mozzarella: small, P80;
big, P120) and Napoletana (anchovy, mozzarella cheese, tomato, oregano:
small, P100; big, P120). I loved the Margherita. It was crispy and light.
One thing I noticed about Boracay is that almost every single restaurant sells
pizza--but Boracay Plaza’s Margherita pizza tops it for me. I actually wanted
to bring a few to Manila.
My mouth still waters at the thought of it.
My Mongolian disaster
That night we all trooped over to Cocomangas for an MTV-sponsored
Mongolian dinner. Not exactly adept at blindly mixing food in the dark, I
obediently fell in line, looked at the looong rows of raw food in front of me
and just dumped whatever looked pretty into my bowl. On to another queue
where a young girl put rice on top of my creation.
I just crossed my fingers and hoped it would be edible. When it finally got to
me (loong minutes later), I was surprised to find that it was actually okay.
Not bad at all. But I do like knowing what I was eating. So I wasn’t able to
finish my food.
A balut vendor wandered near our table. We called him over. Tammy and
Happy got their dose of balut. The rest of us gave the chicharon a shot.
Cocomangas’ banana-mango shake in a jam jar was pretty good, though.
Breakfast in a cabana
We had breakfast at one of Waling Waling’s cabanas. My daing na bangus
was tasty, but I was too excited about going on the banana boat to focus on
eating.
Lunch that day was supposed to be in one of the turo-turos in the talipapa.
Quick change of plans, though, when Jimmy of Waling Waling warned us of
possible sanitation problems in that area.
We decided to go to Dos Mestizos (Station 1 behind Beachcomber Disco
and Bar), a highly recommended Spanish restaurant. Although it just opened
on Feb. 1, the place has lived up to its reputation of serving good Spanish
food.
We tried two variations of paella--valenciana (mixed meat and seafood,
P250) and marinera (seafood, P275). The gambas al ajillo (fresh shrimps
cooked in extra virgin oil and garlic, P145) was a treat for the palate. It was
especially good when eaten with warm bread.
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