J. Co Donuts and Coffee is coming to Manila!

Let's start the countdown!!!


Indonesia's very own donut and coffee brand is finally opening its doors in Manila! I've been hearing about J. Co. Donuts and Coffee ever since our trip to Singapore and Malaysia almost two years ago and was once again intrigued by it after my sister's trip to Singapore where she was able to try their coffee and liked it very much!

Admittedly, I do not have a sweet tooth and has one of the lowest sugar tolerance in the family but I was really excited when 3 huge yellow boxes were delivered to my office one afternoon a month ago. I opened each one of them and the smell of freshly baked donuts instantly made my tummy rumble. Since I was still swamped with work, I shared one box with my colleagues who all liked the ultra moist and fluffy-soft donuts. The boys gave their thumbs up while the girls immediately asked where J. Co. is located. I grinned and told them the good news... J. Co. will soon open their first branch at The Strip in SM Megamall.

Let me share with you some of J. Co.'s famous donut flavors and the ones that I love the most!


Al Capone
This was the first donut that I tried as this soft and fluffy donut covered with almond slivers and white chocolate looked really enticing!! I love the crunchy almonds and the fact that the white chocolate was not too sweet!

Green Maris Hot Pot in Greenhills, San Juan

16 years.

That's how long most of us have known each other. It all began on the 1st day of class in 1996 (yes kids..no loud gasp please..Auntie Franny is not THAT old) when we all went back to school after summer break. It was our first year in high school then. It's part of the system that we all get reshuffled right after 7th grade. I guess the reason behind this is to give us more chance to get to know one another more. Much to our dismay then, this system worked out pretty well as we graduated High School knowing almost everyone in our batch of 240++ students.

High School really was FUN. It was the time where we were still so carefree, all filled with hope and optimism and we didn't have much to worry about day in and out. I enjoyed playing matchmakers to friends during our Prom and Ball seasons and everyday I look forward to just three things: Recess, Lunch and Dismissal (ok, fine, maybe I also love Cooking Class and Club days too). It was during these years that I've built the greatest friendship with three of my bestest friends and a handful of really good loyal friends. I will never forget the jokes shared and the silly antics done that repeatedly got us in trouble. For the sake of my dear classmates, I shall keep them all a secret. :)


After heading to our respective universities, what made our class extra special is that we never really lost touch with one another. One grand reunion led to another and for almost 6 years now, we have been celebrating Christmases, New Years, Weddings and a lot more other occasions together. This is 4-Fidelity batch 2000 and boy, I love them to bits!

meet my high school friends

Since a lot were not available during the Holidays, we agreed to meet up to celebrate Chinese New Year. Of course, we just have to stay loyal to our roots by having our dinner at Green Maris Hot Pot in Greenhills. Over Twitter and Facebook we communicated and spread the message to the rest of the class. I'm really happy that there were 15 of us that evening. That's almost half of the class already!

I love Hotpot dinners and this is because of the delicious sauce that we get to create from the following ingredients: soy sauce, chopped garlic, spring onions, satay sauce, peanut sauce and chili. My signature sauce includes everything except the chili with lots of garlic and spring onions. No hotpot meal is complete without this as I love to dip my meat into the sauce before taking a bite.

While others may seemed intimidated by the tedious process of eating a shabu-shabu/hotpot dinner, in reality, it's pretty easy. All you have to do is to keep these easy steps in mind:


First, you have to choose your broth. In Green Maris, I highly recommend that you get the 2 broth bowl where you get a Clear Soup and the Satay Broth. Satay is slightly saltier but definitely not spicy at all. This one is my personal favorite.

Wishing upon a Globe : Letting my Superwish come true!

*SPONSORED POST*

A few days ago, I shared with you our Superwish for the New Year. This includes our great big plan to enrich our knowledge in cooking and to take it to a higher level by finally enrolling ourselves in professional classes this year.

We're both extremely psyched for this! Oh, how we would talk non-stop on what we would like to learn and the dinners that we both will be able to host afterwards. No more relying on take outs, no more seeking the help of our talented Manang, my Mommy or Kongkong (while we still look up to them nonetheless)... soon we'll be able to create delicious meals on our own!

Working for the country's top-selling food magazine is truly a blessing. Of course, I have my growing collection of magazines and cookbooks to inspire and to help us get started. We're no strangers to the kitchen, after all. Once in a while we'll try a recipe or two which luckily would always turn out pretty successful. Still, we know there's still a lot of things we should learn and that we will make sure to achieve this year.

We're also very lucky at in today's day and age, information is within our reach. With just a few swipes to the left and to the right, a few clicks here and there, we get to access data within minutes...or seconds maybe. This, my friends, is the power of the INTERNET.


Just imagine us being able to access a recipe of that amazing Lamb Briyani that we both enjoyed in Singapore at the comforts of our kitchen. With the help of the iPad or an iPhone, we can browse the Internet right away and I can log on to my favorite cooking site or to browse the digital version of my favorite food magazine to try a new recipe for dinner.

A few years back, we are still limited to having our PCs or if you're lucky, your bulky laptop in accessing the Internet. Today, we have the smartest Smart Phones, the beautiful creations of Apple (iPhone, iPad, etc) and of course every professional's buddy -- the Blackberry that allows you to log on to the Internet in just one click.


Partner this with a reliable Telco supplier like Globe Telecom, you get to customized your own plans that allows you to avail for an unlimited data plan that won't leave you penniless at the end of the month. This is truly a great deal as it's not fun to pay a great sum just to gain Internet access.. believe me, I learned this the hard, painful way.

Introducing the Globe My Super Plan Unli Surf Combo, this is the country's first-ever range of fully-customized data plans for all postpaid subscribers. Imagine having unlimited Internet access whenever, wherever! Initially I thought this would be really expensive but to my surprise, we can actually have Unlimited Data Access for as low as Php 999!!

Here's how it goes:

Welcoming the Water Dragon at Jasmine, New World Hotel

Tonight, we bid the hopping Rabbit good bye and welcome the fiery Water Dragon at the struck of twelve midnight.

While last year was a pretty happy and prosperous one for us, we are filled with more optimism and good wishes for the coming New Year!! :) For our family, we have scheduled our annual Chinese New Year celebration tomorrow as it is also my dear Mommy's birthday! My sister, Paul and I have been busy completing our lunch menu and we are just soooo excited for it! Truly a double lucky day for my Mom, don't you think?

To make it extra lucky, our menu has 8 different variants : Cha Misua, Crunchy Calamares, Stuffed Chicken (Pat Po Kwe), Sauteed Prawns, Lengua with Mushroom, Spicy Eggplant Hot Pot, Dumplings (Jiao Zi) and my Kongkong's signature Pata Tim! My mouth waters just at the thought of our lunch menu! It will be a mix of dishes prepared here at home, some to be prepared by Paul's talented Manang and others store-bought. :) It will be truly a busy morning for all of us tomorrow!


For those who would rather dine out with the family. I recommend that you visit New World Hotel's Jasmine Restaurant where they will be preparing a traditional Chinese New Year dish called "Pun Choy". This is actually a must-have in all New Year's Eve dinner in China and Hong Kong. There's no rule on what should be included provided that all variants add up to 18 and it will be place in one big basin or tray. I was also told that even fast foods in Hong Kong like Maxim's and Cafe de Coral have this available too.

Manila's food bloggers greeting you a Happy Chinese New Year!!

(left to right: Roch, Yedy, Frannywanny, Jane, Glenn and Richard)

Welcoming the New Year with Tropicana Twister

*SPONSORED POST*

How did you celebrate the New Year?

Watching the news, I can’t help but get teary-eyed as CNN featured the live New Year’s countdown at Times Square in New York City. From the looks of the crowd, it seems to be a very cold winter night yet this didn’t stop thousands of Americans to go out to the street to be part of this festive celebration. As soon as the clock struck twelve, everyone began hugging, cheering, some couples started kissing and kids began jumping and dancing all around. What a happy sight!

This scene is not far from what we had here in Manila 16 hours earlier than what happened in New York. In various part of the country, big parties were held, beautiful fireworks lit up the sky and in my in-law’s cozy home, we greeted one another and sat around the table to enjoy on our New Year’s Media Noche.


As we enjoyed our bowls of misua soup, sticky rice cakes and fruits, we opened two bottles of Tropicana Twister in two different flavors – Apple Lemon and Red Fusion. I’m not a fan of alcoholic drinks so this is a perfect alternative for people like me and for kids who are still up to partake in the midnight feast.

Tropicana created these two special flavors especially for the season. Made with real fruits, the Apple Lemon is a light citrus-y blend of apple, white grape, peach, pear and lemon. It actually reminds me of drinking a Mountain Dew minus the fizz. I enjoyed this with a slice of sweet ham with pineapple glaze on white bread.

As for the Red Fusion, it’s a combination of apple, pomegranate, red grape and a lot more! Paul liked this one more as according to him it tasted like the strawberry gelatin that he used to have as a kid. Furthermore, I normally would dilute my fruit juice with water to lessen the sweetness level but this time I drank it straight from the small bottle! It’s a good thing we chilled the bottles hours before midnight making it even more refreshing in every sip.

Oh how I wish Tropicana will have this year-round. After all, there should always be a reason to celebrate 365 days in a year and both the Tropicana Twister Red Fusion and Apple Lemon would make a good accompaniment to every party dish!

The Chinese New Year is just around the corner and I look forward to another family gathering happening soon. I'm definitely stocking up on more bottles of these two yummy flavors for everyone to enjoy! 

Hurry! Grab a bottle of the Tropicana Twister in your nearest supermarket before it runs out. It’s available in 355ml and 1L bottles.