A must-stop in Palawan

By Micky Fenix
Philippine Daily Inquirer

SOMEWHERE new always marks my trip to Palawan. Last month it was eating at Ditchay’s Bistro. To the lifestyle and travel circle, the name can belong only to Ditchay Roxas.

She was in the news in April when she protested the development of a luxury resort in an island of San Vicente town in Palawan. Ditchay has a lease on Boayan Island, where she ran not only a small resort but also had created a grassroots ecotourism enterprise.

She was asked to continue operating her resort, she told us, but decided to quit Boayan nonetheless and move to Puerto Princesa.

So that’s where we met Ditchay a second time. The first was when she cooked dinner for a select group in Manila. Her specialty then and now is French cooking with a touch of Asian, which is how she describes her cooking.

Ditchay and I communicated about places to go to while I was there. She gave me a list of her suppliers, organic farms run by NGOs who teach farmers the technique and the whys. She also directed me to her cheese supplier. And to another French bistro located near her place. And, of course, we set a date to dine in her new place.

The tricycle driver told us we had to pay extra because Ditchay’s place was far. My trips to the provinces have taught me that “far” in provinces is about 10-15 minutes away, the equivalent of a snap in Manila time.

Ditchay’s Bistro has four tables in the balcony of her house (the family lives on the second floor) and a table inside what looks like the sala, where the walls display framed art photographs of her husband, Philippe Girardeau.

A tall girl walks past and is introduced as her daughter, Amelie. She serves diners, does her bit at plating with directions from her mother who, because she’s petite, can’t look over her daughter’s shoulder.

Starters

So after visiting Ditchay in the kitchen, we sit down to taste her cooking. The starters, while filling, also whet our appetite. There are rilletes (cold shredded pork), paté de poisson fume (smoked fish paté), mozzarella pane (breaded mozzarella) and terrine de campagne (meat loaf).

Over at another table, two Japanese tourists go through their salad and main course in a relaxed but talkative mood.

On our table, the series of main dishes come: red snapper fillet with lemon caper sauce, Moroccan beef tenderloin served with pita and hummus, grilled prawns in herb butter sauce and crunchy delectable pork belly rolled and stuffed with herbs then roasted until the pork is crisp, a better lechon kawali.

All those have salad incorporated in the dish so it really isn’t necessary to order one, but salads are available for those who like only veggies.

Wines, of course, are always available and Ditchay brings in what they serve and provides wines for some of the restaurants and hotels in Palawan. We go through great kir, white and red and a sneak of martini in between all that.

Desserts included éclairs, lemon tart and frozen orange cream named after Amelie’s grandmother. At the end of all that, we wondered if we could fit into the tricycle we hired to wait for us.

Ditchay’s Bistro (Manalo Extension, Bancao Bancao; tel. 0487231530) is another addition to must-visits in Palawan. Those include Ka Lui with its fish and vegetable selections, crispy pata and sinigang dishes of Kinabuch and breakfast at Casa Linda. And our stay at Asturias Hotel made us discover the laing and kinulob na manok as well.