Our family vacation in Natural, Pristine, Primitive, Isolated, Last Frontier Palawan
The whole family went on vacation in Palawan for 5 days. We stayed in the town of Aborlan in an educational organic farm. Although we had visited this place once last year in December, we did not sleep over in the farm then. This time we spent 4 nights there. We went to 2 beaches. We went to fresh water falls. And the best part was the eating. Being the last frontier of the Philippines, Palawan is a haven for us raw paleolithic diet practitioners.
My first stop was to visit the big wet market in Puerto Princesa city. I chanced upon live ocean shrimp, sea weed and sea urchin already cleaned up in easy to eat plastic bags… I wanted some vinegar and most vinegars sold were organic natural tuba vinegar… from coconuts… just 6 pesos for a small bottle. (In my Marikina city market, there are ZERO organic vinegars available… just factory made chemical vinegar.) We arrived at a restaurant my wife fancies and on our arrival I had my fresh from the market stuff. The waiter instinctively knew what to do. He did not ask me at all how I wanted my shrimps to be cooked… he merely asked me if I wanted my shrimps to be shelled… and the kitchen did, making a nice raw presentation of the raw shrimps with some slices of cucumber for beauty. So the restaurant people appreciate fresh raw animal foods… because it is natural for them to eat fresh raw ocean catches.
In the organic farm, they had abundant organic, sweet and healthy papaya boosted by a sack full of cow dung upon planting. And Palawan has its own fruits which are all organic by default, organic by neglect, because this is the last frontier. There were guyabanos, bananas, balimbings, singkamas, etc.
In the Aborlan town Saturday and Sunday market were more freshly caught ocean food that we raw foodists will absolutely adore. The people here are of the mindset that fresh sea food means no ice, if you have to put ice in it, it is no longer fresh. I got live clams, live freshwater crabs (alimango), live ocean crabs (alimasag), fresh ocean tiger prawns / shrimps, never frozen blue fin tuna and many others I couldn’t stuff myself any more. All so fresh… all so good raw… tummy is happy. In the sunday market I even got a chance to buy freshly slaughtered Palawan grown beef… good bone marrow… good sirloin… tasted like ham.
The more exotic things I tried there was the raw sea cucumber and the tamiluk. Sea cucumber needed better cleaning, we didn’t know much how to do it. But the tamiluk, our driver was an avid fan. He had been eating tamiluk since 5 years old. His wife is a fan too. Tamiluk can be found in the market or in the highway. Tamiluk are BIG WORMS that grow in the big dead mangrove trees. Our driver says the dead mangrove trunks are chopped open, revealing the tamiluk inside. The tamiluk is a foot long and less than an inch in diameter and has a hard shell for the head. Our driver says the best part is the dark part… like the innards. Contrary to the common city folk perception that the tamiluk worm may look slimy and may taste like intestines, it is not. It is truly tasty, one of the best tastes around. The dark part reminds of eating chocnut. Tamiluk was so good we were looking for more after the first batch… and we were rewarded the morning before our flight. You eat tamiluk either plain or with some vinegar.
Of course there is the clean air, the peace of mind, the relaxing environment. The sights where there are lots of mangrove forests… which gives the supply of tamiluk. The smell of a Philippine skunk… pantut… not bad, just unique smell. There were gigantic bats that flew high up, slow flapping wings, reminds me of the movie Jurassic park.
At the corporate Christmas party there were the fantastic dancing talents from Palawan state university. Awesome. They danced different styles, you have to see the videos.
Now that I’m on raw paleo diet I have a better appreciation of nature. Living, eating in the last frontier… in the natural setting… in Palawan is so cheap, easy and nutritious. The coastal people I met had almost no need for money… they eat off the land. I met a guy by the sea shore and he was picking shells for food. He handed me one, I broke it open and ate the live creature inside… yummy.
Here are some pictures of food in Palawan.
