Having been born in the Philippines, I recalled outdoor food markets being the norm during my time there, but having lived in the U.S. for many years, I’ve grown accustomed to the niceties of purchasing my seafood in tightly wrapped styrofoam containers. D’Talipapa is the one place I read about on every blog and in TripAdvisor so it was a must do. We had a tricycle drop us off at D’Mall as we thought that’s where it was located. It’s actually further south, about a 10 minute walk, but luckily there was a sign right outside its entrance according to photos from other blogs. On seeing the sign, we turned right into the alley and it was on the left-hand side just a few feet from trim the alley entrance. Truthfully, it was smaller than I had anticipated. There were lots of prawns, crabs, fish, sea urchins and lobsters for sale by aggressive vendors who shoved live lobsters in your face in an effort to get your business. We delved further into the stalls and found a not so aggressive vendor who had red snapper and sea bass displayed. The latter seemed the perfect size so we bargained down for the 1/2 kg fish from 700 to 600 pesos. We turned around and another vendor offered to sell us 1 kg of huge prawns for 800 pesos. We countered at 700 and a deal was struck. We took our lunch to Plato D’Boracay which was listed online as the place to have your seafood cooked. The menu photo I had seen on a blog from 2014 seemed to be the same menu we were presented so it appears that prices remained fixed. We asked for the lemon butter garlic sauce for the prawns and the fish was pan fried. We also ordered egg fried rice, 2 bottles of water and Dark Horse beer. We sat dumbfounded that a whole fish cost $12 and $4 to cook and 13 huge prawns cost $16 and $5 to cook. Even more impressive was the cook. He was ensconced in a confined small rectangular space in front of our table. How he was able to bang out such flavor and cook each dish with utter perfection with so limited means was astonishing. With each bite, we developed this fervent desire to consume more and more at a rapid pace. Silverware was forgotten as the hands are the best and most efficient methods to eat purely and efficiently. Tons of napkins later and all the food was decimated. The setting of our best meal in Boracay was humble to say the least but that is the lesson we learned. Astonished at the value and quality of the food, we realized that simple truly is best.