Travel: what and how we ate in Boracay

I used to blog about food, husband makes me think food is the reason he travels, my girls are beginning to be adventurous with food. So let’s me share how and what we ate for 12 days in Shangri-la Boracay.

How? The hotel offered free breakfast from 6 to 10am. For half of our stay it was by order, a usual order of continental breakfast, local breakfast, fruit plates, fruit juice, vegetable juices, pancakes, waffles, bakery basket, yogurt, cereal, eggs in all forms, congee, and stir-fry noodles. When there was buffet, there were a bit more options, including more kinds of cakes, sushi, meat or fish dishes, and soup noodles. One thing that was definitely lacking was vegetables or vegan friendly options. We did brunch everyday, which means we had a later than usual breakfast. At home because of school, kids have breakfast between 6:15am-7am. During vacation, their start time was usually 8:30-9am, and ate until the closing of the breakfast time, past 10am. Hubby takes them to breakfast when they are hungry, while I workout at the gym, and then I join them, usually 9:30am or later, I don’t need an hour to eat like them. hahah…

Because how much we eat in brunch, we skip lunch, maybe a snack in the afternoon, and then we have dinner around 6pm. For breakfast:

Lizzy had eggs, muffin, fruit, cereal, yogurt, cakes, occasional donuts.

Sofia had cereal, fruits, eggs sometimes, rolls dinner PB and jam, french toast with PB, and pancakes.

Hubby had several rounds of everything. hahaha… he has practiced OMAD because of how full he is after brunch.

I had fruits, eggs, rye rolls, celery juice, miso soup, and sometimes cereal.

Donuts were treat for the girls, they had it twice. After few days of eat whatever they wanted, both were constipated, so I had to enforce limited white carbs and had them eat more fruits and vegetables.

For dinner, girls try everything on the menu for the kids, which was extensive. They had pasta, chicken and beef burger, fish, chicken nuggets, noodle salad, tomato salad, rice bowl with vegetable and rice, and dinner rolls with butter (they were obsessed with it). For two nights they also had desserts, what a lovely dessert called King Louis (banana split with 3 types of high quality ice cream with chocolate sauce). It was so good that we had it again the next day for the adults too. For me, I had the same dish EVERY DAY, jasmin rice with a plate of chop suey (vegetable stir-fry), my only doses of vegetables for the day. Sometimes I’d make two orders so the girls can some vegetables too.

Lizzy had fruit with jelly and ice cream, called Cinderella. Yum

that’s how much Sofia enjoyed it

As some of you know, I’m vegan but I’m not 100% strict with it. When food choices are limited, I’d eat non vegan food. During this trip, although the hotel is spectacular, they didn’t have much vegan options nor had much vegetables either. So I had eggs many days. It was fine but i didn’t enjoy it as much as I did when I was non-vegan, interesting right? Somehow my taste buds really changed over the last 3 years.

Since I don’t like to eat beyond food, I needed to eat something in the afternoon. I always bring instant oatmeal with me with PB2. Oatmeal brings me comfort like donuts or ice cream are for others.

One thing I realised during this trip is one could have FOOD hangover! For few days, I ate whatever the family was eating, and the next day I had a headache, like a hangover. I wasn’t sure at least what caused it as I was sleeping well and very relaxed. But when I tried to cut down the crap (white flour bread, ice cream, bakery food), I immediately felt normal again. Interesting!

Also, I noticed somehow my constant bloating was almost gone during this trip, especially after I had celery juices for few days. More on this in a separate post, but I might have found a solution to my constant blasting belly! Will definitely share what I’m trying now.

Finally, I want to share our last day breakfast. Because it was a normal distance learning day, I asked the hotel if they could bring breakfast to the room so the girls can eat before class a bit, then during their break, and before our departure to catch our return flight. They kindly did and gave us a big surprise!!! They not only brought in food, they also brought in the dining table and the whole setting!!!

including a mini oven toaster below so we could reheat the food.

OMG! I’ve had in-room dining so may times but never had this kind of experience! AMAZING.

So overall, food wise is not ideal as in many trips, as we don’t get access to our usual food, especially vegetables. At the end of 12 days, even husband was glad that he can have some vegetables at home. Girls enjoyed the variety of food, especially sweets, and definitely the last day breakfast.

Q: How do you eat when traveling? Do you follow your usual eating habit or do you try new things?