What's cooking at Sun Villas

When top chefs Ilan Hall and Dale Talde recently came to the Philippines, visiting Boracay was on top of their list of priorities. Even as they were busy with cooking demonstrations or tasting some new and delicious Pinoy delicacy, they couldn’t stop talking about the last leg of their trip, when they would finally get a little R&R on the fabled isle.

Publicist extraordinaire Edd Fuentes, president of Fuentes Publicity Network, was kind enough to put them up for three days and two nights at Sun Villas, his beautiful new resort and spa at Boat Station 2, and the hospitality they experienced there made the resort feel like “home” to both celebrity chefs.

Arriving in Boracay was thrilling enough for Dale and Ilan: “Look at that water,” Dale commented as he stepped off the ferry onto the pier. “I could jump in right now.”

But it was only after driving through Sun Villas’ gate, especially after being shuttled through the frenetic center of town, that I really saw the chefs begin to relax. “This is amazing,” Ilan said as he looked around at the dense foliage that cut off the noise of the main road like a mute button. Walking by the pool, the only sounds we could hear were birds chirping and water trickling. After being ushered to an elevated pavilion that serves as Sun Villas’ reception area, restaurant and lounge, we were greeted with frozen teas topped by little umbrellas, to the amusement of the chefs. “You don’t really feel like you’re on vacation until you get your first umbrella drink,” joked Ilan.

We arrived just in time for breakfast, so the chefs, who had vowed to eat nothing but Filipino food during their stay, ordered native — tocino for Ilan, boneless bangus for Dale — both served with generous portions of egg and garlic rice.

Owner Edd Fuentes hails from nearby Balete, Aklan, so Sun Villas quite naturally became an Aklan showcase, especially in terms of the design, spa massage, and food.

“We serve a lot of Aklanon dishes or Filipino dishes done the Aklanon way,” Edd says of his all-day menu. For truly authentic flavors he hired cooks from Boracay and the mainland, Panay. “I also have a cook from my hometown. She cooks traditional Aklanon dishes, the way it’s done in the ‘bukid.’”

After a hearty breakfast we trooped to our rooms. The chefs stayed at the main house, a five-story affair that Edd had been using as a vacation home until business opportunities proved too good to ignore. He started buying more property to expand the original 2,000 square-meter lot, and built the pavilion and facilities that would eventually become the resort.

Eschewing overt trends, Edd designed Sun Villas himself, enlisting a professional to do the blueprints and honing his ideas through “trial and error.” “My designs are inspired by my travels in Asia and the Philippine provinces,” he says.

Together with my sister I stayed in a casita, which on the outside resembles a traditional Visayan nipa hut but inside features all the modern comforts, including air-conditioning, a TV, and bamboo beds romantically hidden beneath mosquito netting. All the bamboo furniture is custom-made while carved wooden pieces like the writing desks and chairs are antiques Edd collected from trips to the Ilocos, Tagalog and Visayan regions. Like many decorators looking for bargain design, Edd picks up accessories like candleholders from Ikea whenever he’s abroad. “The basic design of Ikea fits in well with my design, which is Filipino but very basic.”

One of the more striking features is the lush vegetation that surrounds all the casitas, keeping them almost hidden and adding to the feeling of seclusion. The landscaping was modeled on old Philippine gardens, with their abundance of fruit and flowering trees. “I did not hire a professional landscaper because I just wanted a simple, provincial garden,” Edd says.

After breakfast the chefs, of course, were eager to hit the beach. Unlike its sister property, the beachfront Sun Village, Sun Villas is closer to the talipapa at Station 2, so we had to take a five-minute shuttle ride to White Beach. As soon as they glimpsed the glittering expanse of white and clear blue, however, Ilan and Dale made a beeline for the water and dove in, and wouldn’t emerge for another hour before lounging on the beach munching peanuts.

By the next day the chefs had gotten into a groove. Ilan would usually wake early and order a light breakfast of Philippine fruits from one of the helpful staff like Mark, which he would take in the lounge on one of the bamboo daybeds. These beds were plush with throw pillows covered in colorful, beaded fabric, which I found out later is piña from Edd’s hometown in Aklan. Located some 30 minutes from Kalibo, Balete’s cool, hilly terrain is conducive to piña plantations, and weaving it is a tradition that’s currently experiencing a revival, so practically all of the fiber and fabric we export for use in fashion and home décor comes from Aklan. So proud is Edd of his hometown specialty, in fact, that aside from using it wherever he could in the resort, he plans to do a book on it in the near future.

Once Dale would wake and join our group, the rest of the morning would be taken up by snorkeling and island-hopping, and by afternoon everyone would usually be up for some spa action. While the boys preferred to be massaged outdoors, on the beach, the girls liked their pampering indoors, in more civilized surroundings. Of course I had to try Sun Villas’ new spa, and I’m glad I did, because I’ve discovered one of Boracay’s best massages. Outside the spa villa you’re given a floral footbath before passing through antique carved doors into a private room. A spa connoisseur, Edd noticed there was a market for mid-priced massages in Boracay — something in between the public massages on the beach and the luxury treatments offered at high-end resorts — so he developed his own brand of pampering. His P650 massage is a mixture of Boracay hilot and other techniques like Swedish and Thai, and the therapist was so good at locating and soothing all my aches and pains that I had to have it again the next day. If you can get past the massage, the spa also offers facials, body scrubs, foot spas (including a foot scrub and reflexology), after-sun treatments, and flower baths using freshly mixed, organic products from the island. So successful is the spa, in fact, that Edd already plans to add more spa pavilions to accommodate larger groups of tourists.

At the end of the day we would dip our feet in the pool and just chat. Ilan enjoyed his Philippine adventures so much he wanted to buy his own island, and said on the phone to his dad, “You should be very jealous of me right now. I’m at one of the best beaches in the world having a great time.”

Dale ended up reconnecting with his Philippine relatives and talked about how much he wanted to bring his uncle and cousin with him on his next trip home (and by “home” he meant the Philippines, not Chicago). He also raved about the service they got at Sun Villas: “I love how they made our stay feel like home. It was amazingly peaceful.”

Ilan was equally enthusiastic: “I thought that the place was really nice — serene and comfortable,” he says. “I felt at home.”

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For information and reservations, call Sunresorts at 893-7293, 813-7524 or 813-1338 loc. 102, send a fax to 817-1183 or e-mail sunresorts@tri-isys.com.