Discovery Shores Defines Service
MANILA, Philippines - To start off the year, Happee, my wonderful fiancée, and I produced the Super Junior Super Show 3, the largest and most ambitious K-Pop concert ever produced in the Philippines. We followed it up less than two weeks later with an awesome rock concert headlined by radio chart toppers Anberlin. In the midst of all this turmoil we were planning our wedding.
We sorely and direly needed some quality time.
And so we decided to pre-celebrate our wedding at one of only two locations in Boracay that are worth spending an extended period of time in (meaning no more than one or two drinks), bringing only immediate family and cherry-picking only the closest friends to spend several days with us in this posh and incredibly well-run resort: Discovery Shores. Those who have had the privilege to experience the Discovery Shores guest treatment are fully aware of the attention detail, and the resort management’s keen eye for detail and meticulous additions that simply delivers a welcome that puts one entirely at ease.
Perhaps the only difficult thing about Discovery Shores is getting there from Manila. Our domestic airports are typically touch and go, and as many worry-free experiences are often counter-balanced by some of the most onerous airport predicaments ever. You name it: delays, flight cancellations, more delays, technical problems, unfavorable weather conditions, and all-around general chaos. This is par-for-the-course in our airports, even our newest NAIA, which has turned a billion peso project into a budget entry point.
Bride-to-be with close friends Janet Guy-Lim, Carol Kua, Gwendolyn Dee, Melisa Henderson, Olga Havran and Dianne Sison But once you get to Discovery Shores… well… let the good times roll!
My good buddy Abba, who forgot his case of beloved booze and called in for Happee’s buddy and his neighbor Carol to lug it on a subsequent flight, was the master of the bar as usual, cajoling people to continuously order drinks pre-happy hour, en masse throughout happy hour, and well after happy hour.
We had a tremendous dinner that night and I thoroughly enjoyed the Duck Confit (all caps because it was that good… after so many poor duck confit attempts by dozens of restaurants throughout Metro Manila) at Discovery Shores signature restaurant Indigo, which went lovely with the Blackstone Pinot Noir (we drank whatever number of bottles they had in stock, so forget about it unless they restock).
After a couple full days of lovely relaxation and quality time spent with most friends who joined, we were ready for the pre-wedding dinner prepared for us by the resort’s miracle worker and general manager Jun Parreño as well as head chef extraordinaire David Pardo de Ayala.
I love delicious food. But I also love food that is delicious to the eyes. And the feast that was laid out before us was more than enough on both counts.
Bride-to-be flanked by childhood friends Sunshine Chua, Sis Phencille and Tiger Sy-Ortiz, Carol Kua, Janet Guy-Lim and Gwendolyn Dee Like vultures Abba and I swarmed over the succulent little conchinillo, devouring it with the true passion that only comes with learned gluttony. All other Spanish delicacies – this was the feast’s culinary theme – simply revolved around this suckling pig, which was to us like a little sun of fatty sin. And yet a simple ditty of a dish like beef salpicao was markedly distinguished from its common incarnations in most restaurants, displaying a peppery verve not often found, not to mention a tender yet not chewy meat texture. Also remarkable was the chicken in a tomato base sauce, which as basic as it sounds was cooked wonderfully, full of juice and tenderness and delicate flavor. Before ending this brief ode I must mention that the paella, despite not having the regular dose of shrimp or prawn (thoughtfully so because my mother is highly allergic to any sort of crustaceans) was actually tasty – the rice was well balanced with meats and veggies and more importantly the rice was perfectly done, not hard and not overly soft and dripping with sauce (to be sure some schools or palates prefer either extremes).
I have said this before and yet I feel compelled to repeat myself after experiencing another wonderful time at Discovery Shores that in Bora, you truly need not go further than spending all your days on the island outside of this top end luxury resort – unless of course you want to go para-sailing or ride the Fly Fish or finally gorge yourself at D’ Talipapa on “fresh from Iloilo” seafood.
Conchinillo and Paella Because frankly why would you fly yourself out to Boracay, after battling through the morass of airline and airport shenanigans only to battle it out once again in the messy back-and-forth sandy corridor of Boracay beachfront with hundreds of other sweaty and more-than-likely drunk or drunker tourists!
If you travel and you want to relax, you need to ensconce yourself in an establishment that can and willfully provide you with exquisite service. This is why for Happee and me, when it came time to choose where to spend time with those dearest to us, the choice was easy.
