For a week I’d been living the idyllic island life while racking up stellar dives in El Nido, the largest marine park in the Philippines. As my last day drew to a close, I gazed at the surreal aquascape during the boat ride back to Miniloc Island Resort, somber with the realization that often concludes wonderful journeys.

“Are you hungry? We have some nice places to eat lunch,” said Doug, my always-understated dive guide. Before I could nod, the boat veered toward an uninhabited islet a half-mile off our port bow.

As if the rituals of sun, sand and sea weren’t enough, the local cuisine — a fusion of Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese and Oceania — had become an unexpected indulgence in El Nido. But tiny Entalula Island proved off the charts. Lunch was an alfresco orgy of fresh sushi, delicately seared pork encrusted with shrimp paste and finely shredded coconut, grilled calamari, steamed pandan rice and exotic fruits I’d never seen, much less tasted. I dined alone, sitting seiza-style in Japanese tradition on fine sand under a canopy of palms arching over a tourmaline sea. A vagabond traveler and epicurean perfection on a castaway islet in the South China Sea? It was a travel take-away I vowed to remember.