Our first lunch started with the marketplace at the mall where we had a pile of prawns cooked in Thai red curry (spice packets brought by Gino) and coconut cream. While another pile of crabs were cooked with garlic butter and spritzed with some lee kum kee sea food curry sauce which I got in a Manila supermarket. All turned out pretty well with the 3 of us having demolished 3.5 kilos total of these fresh crustaceans. We went around canvassing for those wonderful sun ripened large hot pepper, Kalibo smoked longganisa, and batuan fruit for sinigang and some takway (young taro root stem), which we will take back home on our last day.
Dinner was a rather different story starting at Cocomangas with a couple of platters of fresh oysters and some lightly oaked madfish chardonnay whose light acidity in fruit complemented the briny flavors of the oysters. We had then proceeded to Al Pazzi at station 2 bringing a bottle of red wine for our supper. Now if you want to ruin a well-planned vacation, try an introduction to Al Pazzi’s new and heavily Germanic accented manager. I don’t get to meet many post-digestive exits or unsavory characters, but get a load of this one... he tells us that the corkage (which we were willing to pay for, being restaurateurs) was 1,000 Pesos per bottle. Now comes his sales pitch, he tells you that he could give you better wine at 1,100 because he says the wine we brought is too low for his establishment and is loaded with chemicals. So I tell Mr. genius that I was a personal friend of the vineyard owner and I know how the wine was made. He went to the extent of holding the bottle of wine and telling us that he hopes that we paid no more than 100 pesos for the bottle (what’s the word again in Jewish? schmuck? or is it derriere in French?...) anyway with the 28 years of his experience in the industry, as he boasts of, he could probably be the next manager of the Taguig jail food system. Dinner was saved next door at Aria where we paid the corkage at 500 pesos and had a couple of freshly baked, wood-fired pizzas.
For quick lunches, we’d have lechon manok at Andok’s (I’ll probably bring a bottle of New Zealand pinot on our next trip and pair it... ) One particularly memorable lunch was two large orders of ribs at Gasthof, reputedly the best in the island. The ribs were well marinated and basted with a sweet tomatoey sauce and gave one an island’s feel while stripping the ribs with your fingers as you looked at the beach. We discovered another oyster place near the tourist information center called Talaba ni Inday. A hundred pesos for a platter of oysters which I really enjoyed. We then proceeded to have dinner at Banza’s startin out with Bacalao con Natas or flaked Bacalao meat baked in a rich cream sauce. Then we had an Arroz con Mariscos, a tasty soupy classic Portuguese rice dish with seafood. Chef Antonio uses full flavored seafood broth, which makes this recipe a wonderful comfort food. Both dishes went very well with the Gran coronas cabernet sauvignon 97 which we were glad we had taken along.
Some other meals which I thought had some elements of fun were a margarita and bora-MEX (I have to call it because it is not really quite Mexican but has a, bit of the islands... fusion food doesn’t hurt in this case. Like a variety of four salsas some rather sweetish or flour-based nacho chips...) the margaritas are rather large like their food portions, which is really good value for money. Another recommended stop would be Jammers, a burger restaurant near the mall whose very friendly American owner, Miguel, churns out some juicy beef burgers some piled on double. And for those who prefer chicken or fish burgers they have them in piled high form too as in their chili dogs (I know I may have done something eccentric because my last bottle which I had brought was a Meraux and I had it with the burgers... It works but quite scandalous...)
Another truly memorable Boracay meal was Janeth Weil’s (world famous jewelry designer) birthday party at One Crescent Place Hotel where managing sisters Jackie and Jane ordered a lechon that was smoldering and redolent of wood smoke and its stuffing of lemongrass. We delighted in sautéed prawns and spicy garlic crabs, while Gino and Giannina did a Thai mango salad with fried mayamaya and a red curry chicken with fresh cilantro and kaffir leaves that we carted all the way from Manila. Wines were excellent Aussie Riesling, Laurent Perrier champagne and a spicy Cotes de Ventoux for the evening, which I ended with a Pecorino Romano style cheese from Sicily that was made from goat’s milk.
With all that food one cannot just sit or lie down timidly. Well, its Boracay and I continued my hedonistic evening dancing til 7am at the Bigfish party called Slinky. There must have been a shortage of beautiful women from Manila, Cebu, Bacolod and major areas because they were just all there. Looking at these goddesses in skimpy attire and dancing with the lot was a gourmet treat for sight and mind. I didn’t know that looking may bring up the appetite, and what I know after a hard evening of partying or a day of swimsuit and anatomical appreciation I would end it between Cocomangas and Club Paraw at Merly’s bbq stand. Manang has the best tasting basting sauce and she charcoal grills a burger bun and two pieces of Aklan chorizo creating the best longaburgers with her basting sauce. Gino says it’s the signature Boracay comfort food (I fully agree...)
It is quite difficult to recover from this vacation in bacchanalia. All I know now is I can’t and refuse to eat spaghetti because it becomes confusingly associated with all the strings I saw and now miss... Maybe another vacation in Bora will help...
You can reach my new favorite Boracay hotel at www.onecrescentplace.com
