Boracay eats: Cha-cha's lets the fun shine in

BORACAY -- Summer is fast approaching, and to many, the ultimate fun in the sun can only mean a trip to Condé Nast Traveler's Readers’ Choice Awards’ World’s Best Island of 2016—Boracay.

But this Mecca for beach lovers and thrill seekers is also fast becoming a food destination. It’s home to numerous hole in D’Mall restaurants, cafes in its innards and alleyways, and restaurant concepts from A to Z dotting the whole of White Beach.

Standing out is a challenge. New players must find ways to step up their game like in the case of one of Boracay’s newest restaurants, Cha-cha’s Beach Café at the Coast Boracay, which marks the triumphant return of the Raintree Hospitality Group to the island.

As the hotel’s main F&B outlet, Cha-cha’s Beach Cafe serves an extensive breakfast spread to guests, including breakfast staples like freshly made bread, bacon, hashbrowns, rice and various fix-ins, an egg station, overnight oats, salads, cereals, among others.

Some unconventional items are also on offer like pizza (for our visit it was Breakfast Pizza with chives, cheese, bacon with a fried egg), some curry (a deep flavored and rich fish curry), a pho station, hummus with chips, 65-degree soft boiled eggs, and waffles with ube sauce, to name some.

Morning coffee, meanwhile, can be a glass of cold brew, or a cup of hot coffee. Latte, flat white, mocha or Americano, each cup is made fresh at every order.

Breakfast endings are sweeter with pastries, cakes, as well as healthier items like fresh fruit, and house-made fruit-yogurt cups.

ALA CARTE

For the other times of the day, there’s Cha-cha’s Beach Café ala carte menu. Serving the best out of Raintree’s restaurants, their menu contains “tropical” versions of Raintree favorites.

Take the Winner Winner Fried Chicken, inspired by Providore’s Winner Winner Chicken Dinner -- juicy fried chicken in a light batter, served alongside fries and two dips -- a chili honey, and a white gravy. Suiting the location, the chili honey hits the spot, adding hot and sweet to a savory bite of chicken.

Pizza is a common item in some of Raintree’s restaurants (Stella, Chelsea, Museum Café), and now, Cha-cha’s Beach Café’s as well. Stone-fired thin-crust classics like Margherita, All Meat, or pineapple-topped Hawaii Five-o, are available, as well as signature flavors like the Sriracha BBQ Chicken (sweet and spicy, topped with tender pieces of chicken barbecue, shredded lettuce, and finished with a fruity drizzle of heat from sriracha).

Grilled Chicken Satay feels like a nod to the Asian flavors of the Museum Café. Eight sticks of chicken kissed by the grill served with a spicy coconut peanut sauce, cooled down with a side of fresh cucumbers and red onions. Nahmprik or a chili salt is available on the side to taste.

How about some street tacos in Boracay? Cha-cha’s Taco Truck has homemade soft tortillas with filling options like Carne Asada, BBQ Chicken, and Fish. Try the Carnitas with its sweet-adobo pork filling a perfect combo to a swig of beer, or your liquor of choice.

Fresh seafood is one of the great things about island life, and in Cha-cha’s bestsellers include a Cold Seafood Platter (swimmer crabs, prawn cocktail, poke, ceviche, clams, and mussels), and their answer to the poke craze, a big bright bowl of sunshine, the Cold Spicy Salmon and Tuna Poke Bowl (raw tuna and salmon with pickled cucumber, fresh avocado, ikura (fish roe), gari (pickled ginger), fresh seaweed, and nori over Japanese rice).

The signature dessert, meanwhile, takes its cue from Chelsea’s Tres Leches. Cha-cha’s Coconut Mango Tres Leches has milk-soaked cake layers covered with Chantilly cream and sprinkled with dessicated coconut on a pool of cold Mango sauce with sago pearls. Striking and beautiful, best to be shared.

DRINKS BY THE BEACH

Nothing beats a cold drink by the beach, and in Cha-cha’s Beach Cafe these can translate to smoothies, floats, shakes, beer, mocktails, and cocktails.

Mocktails to mention include the Passionfruit, Orange & Matcha Iced Tea, and the Grapefruit, Lemon and Ginger soda, citrusy concoctions that can effortlessly refresh in a hot summer’s day.

 For some serious vacation-vibes, there’s the Tropical Fruit Punch, packing quite the fruity wallop with pineapple, watermelon, orange juice and some cherry syrup.

On the more alcoholic side of things, one cocktail option is the National, a Cuba Libre-esque rum drink that replaces lime and sugar, with Filipino ingredients like calamansi and panocha sugar.

If you’ve never done it, having ‘A Really Cheesy Umbrella Tiki Drink’ by the beach during a vacation should be a must-do. The cloudy cocktail is a melon liqueur-tinged pina colada made extra cheesy with a pineapple-umbrella garnish in a fun Tiki glass. You can’t help but “Let The Fun Shine” as you sip this wearing your beach togs, as you stare at the beach and bask at the gloriousness of where you are.

Happy hour starts at 3 p.m. every day with buy 1 take 1 promo on selected cocktails, and special beer promotions.

In an island of many choices, Cha-cha’s Beach Café offers an intriguing mix of the old and the new, the familiar and the unusual. Food-wise that translates to reimagined bestselling Raintree dishes, while for the hotel, it’s the trademark Raintree hospitality once felt in the island, but now in a new location, also in prices that won’t break the bank.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Palawan is world's 'most beautiful' island: website

MANILA – The Philippines’ very own Palawan island has been dubbed by a popular news and opinion website as “the most beautiful island in the world.”

Carly Ledbetter of The Huffington Post wrote an article about Palawan published on the website on November 24.

Titled “Palawan, The Most Beautiful Island In The World, Is Sheer Perfection,” the article focused on what the province has to offer.

It also featured several photos of Palawan, from Kayangan Lake to the island’s many beaches and “incredible and rare” wildlife.

“It’s hard to believe the Philippines are an under-appreciated tropical travel destination, especially with their extraordinary hiking, biking, beaches and of course – islands that are THIS beautiful,” wrote Ledbetter, who is the Associate Lifestyle Editor of The Huffington Post.

“And while we’d like to visit every single island in the Philippines, there’s one island in particular we’re zeroing in on – Palawan, a hidden piece of paradise that was recently named ‘The Top Island in the World’ by Conde Nast Traveler’s Reader Choice Awards,” she added.

“There, beautiful blue water mixes with emerald green, jungle-filled mountains that appear to rise up from the ocean, and small fishing villages dot the island. Together with its neighboring islands, it creates the Palawan province, aka Paradise.”

Last month, the award-winning US travel magazine Conde Nast Traveler released the results of its 27th annual Readers’ Choice Awards.


Palawan, with over 76,000 votes, beat out the likes of Kiawah Island in South Carolina, Maui in Hawaii, Bazaruto Archipelago in Mozambique, the Great Barrier Reef and Whitsunday Islands in Australia, and Santorini in Greece.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

3 PH hotels in Conde Nast Traveller's 'hot list'

MANILA, Philippines – Three Philippine hotels made the list of the top new hotels in the world compiled by luxury magazine Conde Nast Traveler.

Fairmont Makati and Raffle Makati, El Nido Pangalusian Island in Palawan and Dedon Island Resort in Siargao were among the 154 hotels which made the magazine’s 2013 hot list of new hotels that have opened in the past year.

“To compile the list, we visit hundreds of properties, evaluating every hotel—from the massive to the small and sweet—for style, location, service, comfort, value, and chic. And we make all visits unannounced and anonymously: In other words, we experience the property the way you experience the property,” the magazine said on its website.


The magazine described the Raffles and Fairmont as “two hotels with shared common areas, housed in a new high-rise in the fast-growing (though still somewhat sketchy) business and shopping district of Makati.”

“These two brands cater to a broad clientele—the 280-room Fairmont to business travelers (with fast, free Wi-Fi and a comfortable workspace) and Raffles to honeymooners and families (with 32 airy suites and butler service). The properties share the Fairmont spa and pool, and seven restaurants and lounges, including an outpost of Singapore's famed Long Bar. Service is outstanding, especially on Fairmont club floors,” it said.

But the magazine was obviously not familiar with Manila’s safety precautions as it noted that the “canine security at the hotel entrance dampens an otherwise warm welcome.”

Meanwhile, the magazine described Pangalusian Island as the “most luxurious of El Nido's Palawan archipelago properties, with 42 villas laid out along a white-sand cove facing the emerald Bacuit Bay on the South China sea.”

“High-ceilinged thatched-roof villas, some with plunge pools and wooden terraces furnished with white-cushioned loungers. Open-air common areas are bedecked with statues and vases carved from local wood and offer eye-popping sunrise and sunset views,” it said of the resort’s look.

“A one-hour charter flight southwest from Manila brings you to a one-runway airport where you're welcomed by a group of singing ladies. Your luxurious hideaway (a quick boat trip from the airport) is a launchpad to the island biosphere gloriously featured in ‘The Bourne Legacy.’ With scuba courses and access to more than 20 dive sites, as well as boat tours of mangroves and secret lagoons, you could spend all your time exploring, but the resort makes it equally tempting to stay put. There is a reef for snorkeling, 25 kayaks for guests' use, and a seemingly endless choice of lounging options,” it added.

But the magazine criticized the resort's food for being “complicated, saying “most of the dishes are oversauced.” It also hoped that the staff spoke better English. “They're incredibly warm and sweet, but there are lost-in-translation moments,” it noted.

The third Philippine resort to make the cut was Dedon Island Resort in Siargao, described as “nine luxury villas on a remote island of white-sand beaches, small fishing villages, and world-class surf breaks.”

The luxury magazine was also wowed by the resort’s look, which is likened to “a photo shoot for an impossibly chic catalog,” noting that the resort’s coffee-table book was shot by fashion photographer Bruce Weber.

“Rattan chairs and swinging daybeds fashioned by master weavers are among the furnishings showcased by this exquisite resort owned by soccer star turned furniture maven Bobby Dekeyser. Open showers in the center of the bathroom are lined with beautiful local tiles and surrounded by white beach pebbles; doors and walls are made from recycled wood turned into lattice; and local-wood headboards are whimsically carved with coconut trees and birds,” it said.

“The moment you climb aboard the hotel's supercomfy jitney, you're in the hands of an impresario with great taste, deep pockets, and a sense of fun. Dekeyser's first hotel resort (more are planned) includes a trampoline surrounded by an installation-worthy lattice sculpture, an outdoor cinema, and a weathered-wood sea pavilion reached by a leisurely swim. Villas are flawless, right down to details such as organic soaps wrapped in banana leaves and embellished with a seashell. Delicious and simple dishes rely on fresh local ingredients, such as grilled mahi-mahi with calamansi fruit. The kind and helpful staff know when to leave you alone,” the magazine said of the Dedon experience.

However, the magazine’s staff hoped “there were more pre-arrival handholding, such as an advance copy of the resort's excellent guidebook.”

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com