Aria Cucina Italiana in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig

I can still remember my first Boracay trip. It was the summer of '07 the same year Frannywanny.com was born. Paul and I went with my big big group from work. Finally after many failed attempts, I excitedly sat through our 50-minute flight to Kalibo where we had to take an hour and a half car drive to Caticlan and endure another 10 minute boat ride to the sunny island of Boracay.

"This should be worth the wait." I thought to myself.

From the moment we got to our resort at Station 1, I held my breath at the beautiful crystal clear water and white powdery sand. This truly was paradise. Definitely worth the wait, dear readers. :)


As soon as we dropped off our bags and changed into our beach clothes, off we went in search for a good place to have our very first lunch. Following the lead of my colleagues who have been to Boracay more than I could count with my fingers, we headed to D'Mall. They told us this was the central, go-to place for all Boracay visitors and we took that information in mind. In front of D'Mall is a pretty Italian restaurant with wooden interiors called Aria and boy, was it jam-packed! We tried to wait for a couple of minutes but with our tummies growling loudly, we had to move to another less-crowded restaurant.

Still, the thought of those freshly oven-baked pizza and al dente pasta wouldn't leave my mind. Paul teased me that I'm in the beach and I'm still thinking of food. Why of course! What else would I think of? :)

Finally, after much prodding, Paul made reservations for us to have dinner at Aria and the server was kind enough to arrange a romantic place for us by the beach. Oh.. how I enjoyed my Salmon Carpaccio, Quattro Formaggi Pizza and Pasta while listening to the sound of the waves crashing against the shore. I love the sight, the smell, the sound and definitely the taste of my food! Since then, Aria remains to be one of my Boracay favorites and go-to place as well.


Just imagine how happy I was upon learning that Aria Cucina Italiana is finally coming to Manila! So excited I was that I headed to Bonifacio High Street Central on their first day of operation! This is located at the new wing adjacent to the Bonifacio High Street that we all know and love. It's also where Jamba Juice is located.

Frannywanny with Paul, Pan and fellow blogger Az

So there I was with Paul and my sister last Saturday night. I'm glad that we went early as the placed quickly filled up just the same way it always does in Boracay. Pretty amazing given that it was their first day. Since they're on Soft Opening, we were told that some menu items were still not available. Shucks! Pan was actually looking forward to having some Gnocchi or Ravioli that evening.

Let me share with you what we ordered that evening:

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.

Food for Thought: My Superwish for the New Year!

*SPONSORED POST*

Over and over again, Paul and I have been claiming that 2012 will be OUR year. This will be the year that hopefully we’ll be able to achieve financial growth and stability and at our young age, we aim to finally have the luxury to have our own car, to plan for our future home and to prepare for our little bundle of joy. I know it’s not enough to just blog about it thus we have been taking baby steps…small but well-thought out plans to reach our goals.


I’m lucky though that Paul is a very frugal man. He’s a simple guy who would rather save his money than to throw it all away over clothes, gadgets or toys (for the Big Boys). In fact, his being frugal allowed him to pay for our entire wedding expenses and he made sure to give me my dream team of suppliers and as a whole, made his bride’s dream come true. This is something quite unusual for typical Chinese families where the parents of the groom would normally be the ones who would foot the bill but being responsible and mature, Paul insisted to take full control of it. I truly am a lucky girl!

In line with working towards our plan to be able to afford all of those things mentioned above, I also realized that it’s important for the both of us to learn something new this year. After all, we shouldn’t stop learning and by being married, this shouldn’t be a reason for us not to enrich our talents or perhaps to hone a new skill. For years, Paul and I have been planning to take up a culinary course. With our love for food, it has always been our plan to someday have our own food business. Sure, I’ve had a bit of culinary background back when I was kid but I don’t think that would suffice. Paul is a natural in the kitchen but we both recognize the fact that there is a need to really learn it the professional way.

I’m letting you in on our game plan…our 2012 SuperPlan.

All-Day Breakfast at Agahan in Makati

Don't you just love breakfast food?

This is one thing that would motivate me to wake up early be it at home or when on a trip. I always look forward to my favorite breakfast staples : garlic rice, egg (preferably scrambled and creamy), my choice of meats -- hotdogs, tocino, boneless bangus and a glass of cold fruit juice!

I'll never forget spending a week at the Swissotel Stamford Hotel in Singapore for our Honeymoon and enjoying their wide breakfast buffet spread every single day! It was pure bliss! I also loved that bowl of Abalone Congee with a stick of Yeow Tiao and Rice Noodle Roll in Hong Kong. Back home, one of the best breakfasts that I've had recently was with The Food Club when we spent the weekend in Punta Fuego and we were able to have lots of Mrs. Tales from the Tummy's homemade beef tapa! (Yes, my dear friend Irene is truly a kitchen star! She bakes the best Queso de Bola Cheesecake in town and makes the yummiest bacon and beef tapa too! I'm so lucky to be able to taste her cooking once in a while!!)

This is also the reason why I just love dining at restaurants offering All-Day Breakfast meals. Thus, I was really happy when I received an invitation to visit a two-month old restaurant called Agahan one Sunday morning. I've been hearing about this restaurant and their famous Chicken Nuggets from my colleague ML who can't stop raving about it. All the more making me really excited to give it a try myself.


So there we were one Sunday morning with fellow blogger Richard and his lovely family. As we entered the restaurant, I really liked the colorful interiors from the couch to the walls down to the menu.

In fact, ML told me that the colors were inspired by Real Living Magazine, really good taste Adee, really good taste. ;)


Our brunch began with our choice of fruit juices. I went for the Guava Juice (Php. 50) while Paul went for the Orange Juice (Php. 50). I personally loved the Guava Juice, sure it may not be freshly blended but it wasn't very sweet and was, in fact, quite refreshing perfect for that hot Sunday morning.

Paul, on the other hand, was expecting to get a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice but was a bit disappointed that what he got tasted just like something poured from a bottle. Oh well...


We each had our choice of breakfast plates and decided to order additional meat choices at the side. I initially went for the Tinapa Silog (Php. 110) which is served with salted egg and tomato. My favorite! However, upon seeing that the fish wasn't deboned yet, I just gave Paul a terrified look and he sweetly offered to swap his plate of Tocino Silog (Php. 120) with me. I just ♥ my husband. He knows me soooo well.

[CONTEST ALERT] Why are you more than a 10 this 2012? Win P5k CASH!

This 2012 marks my 7th year of being part of the corporate world. It all began last July 1, 2005 – exactly 15 days after my college graduation where I entered my very first office in Libis. I was a very new, and pretty young Marketing Services Officer for an international hardware brand (yes, I’m talking power tools, paints and woodworks) then. I can still remember how tiny my salary was back then that I would still rely on my parents to pay for my basic necessities. Thank God for giving me extremely generous parents. :)

With my low salary, I could hardly budget nor save for the rainy days. It really felt like me getting my school allowance only it comes twice a month not weekly. When I moved on to my second job, it was then that I was able to enjoy more luxury and at the same time learned how to budget my money wisely. Believe it or not, it was only then that I had my very first bank account. It was then that I learned the value of money and the importance of it.

Now that I’m married, all the more I have to be wise when it comes to organizing and budgeting our finances. We now have bills to consider, payables to account for and unexpected expenses that just pops out from nowhere. Believe me, it’s a crazy, complicated process.

That's a Jaguar, baby!

Paul and I are extremely excited for 2012 as we feel that this will be a big year for us. There’s that plan to finally purchase our own car, to scout around for our future home and there’s that big project that almost everyone has been anticipating for. Dear readers, please cross your fingers for us… let luck be on our side!


While we have our target car in mind, we are now searching a good bank partner whom we can work with for our auto loan. Then I came across Unionbank’s Easy Loan. Incidentally, they are having a big promo wherein from November 11 to January 22, 2012, they will be offering rewards to all home and auto loan clients. In addition to this, partner auto companies will also extend additional services and rewards for every purchase made. What a deal!


As the saying goes, money makes the world go around and they surely do not grow on trees. To help one lucky reader have a great start to his/her 2012, Unionbank and I will be giving away a Php. 5,000 cash prize to anyone who can best answer this question:

Why are you more than a 10 in 2012?

The competition will definitely be steep as we’ll be awarding this to only ONE person. Please make sure to read the mechanics carefully.

How to Participate:
1) All participants must have a Twitter account.
2) Follow @myeasyloans on Twitter.
3) Tweet your answer and tag @myeasyloans and @frannywanny. End your statement with #UB111111.
4) Leave your Twitter answer URL in my comment box together with your Twitter name, Full name and Email address.
5) Contest will run from January 16 to 22, 2011. That’s exactly one week!
6) The name of the winner will be notified via email and will be announced in this blog.

F Restaurant at the Best Western Premier F1 Hotel : Chinese New Year Special

In a week's time, we will be bidding the Year of the Rabbit good bye and will gladly welcome the arrival of the Water Dragon. Coincidentally, this year's Chinese New Year is also the day of my dear Mommy's birthday!! Thus, my sister and I have been planning on where to host her birthday lunch with our extended family for days now.

Since January 23 was also declared a holiday, we know we are running out of time as we expect that a lot of people will surely be out celebrating the Chinese New Year making almost all Chinese restaurants in town to be fully booked.


I've been doing a number of research and luckily have been invited by some to have a preview of their Chinese New Year offering. Allow me to share them all with you in the coming days. Let me start with the Chinese New Year menu of F Restaurant of the Best Western Premier F1 Hotel. This is the first hotel to open at the Bonifacio Global City and is located right in front of Starbucks Coffee and is just within walking distance from Mercato Centrale.

Located at a very booming area, expect Bonifacio Global City to be filled with more hotels as the number of offices are starting to double by the months as well. This hotel has a mix of residential units and hotel rooms with a well-equipt business center, Wi-Fi installed all around, 3 swimming pools, a spa, a 24-hour Fitness Center and an all-day restaurant called F.

The F Restaurant offers diners the choice to order from their ala carte menu or to partake in their buffet spread. I took a peek at the buffet area and couldn't help but drool over the fresh looking seafoods, the meaty jamon serrano and the wide variety of breads and cheese.

For our special lunch that day, we were given a sneak peek of their Chinese New Year buffet that will be available starting tomorrow, January 16 until the end of the month. This is a mix of all well-loved Chinese dishes from various provinces in China.


Our meal began with a variety of appetizers such as the Jelly Fish, Beef Kimchi, Cucumber with Garlic and Chili Sesame and Cold Pork Knuckles. I'm a big fan of Chinese appetizers and this is normally what I always look forward to in lauriats. I love the cold and crunchy jelly fish which had a slight hint of spiciness yet still pretty tolerable. The Cold Pork Knuckles was also very good as the thinly-sliced pork was well seasoned with vinegar. Lastly, the Cucumber with Garlic and Chili Sesame was a surprise as I was just expecting a bland tasting cucumber but what I had was a garlicky crunchy cucumber that has instantly perked up my taste buds making me want more. Sadly, I had to skip the Beef Kimchi but I heard from my tablemates that it was very very good.


While enjoying our Trio of Appetizers, out came another favorite -- Tea Boiled Peanuts. Trust the Chinese chef to give more life to a simple batch of peanuts by boiling this in tea broth making it really delicious and quite addicting too.

We had two types of soup that day -- Seafood Spinach and the Crab and Corn Soup.


The Seafood Spinach was really good, not very salty and I love biting into the tiny bits of shrimps too.

Lorenzo's Way in Greenbelt 5, Ayala Center

When I predicted that 2012 will be a busy year, I wasn't expecting for it to be THIS busy. I've been buzzing around like a busy bee ever since I returned back to work on the 2nd day of the year. Meetings conducted one after the other, reports growing by the number and a lot more! Don't get me wrong, I entered the year with an optimistic heart and I'm just so happy doing what I'm doing right now. In other words -- I. Love. My. Job.

Still, after a hectic work week, what makes my heart flutter is the thought that the weekend is here! This is the only time when I can stay in bed longer, catch up on my favorite TV shows and go out and eat, eat, eat to my hearts content!

Aside from Chinese and Japanese cuisines, I love Filipino food. How can I ever say no to that mouthwatering Lechon or that heart-stopping, oil-dripping Garlic Pork Adobo that goes perfectly well with steamed white rice? Oh the thought of it always puts a smile on my face.

There are a lot of Filipino restaurants around yet there are only a few that I really love. One of those is Lorenzo's Way. Hats off to the LJC Group for creating a number of really good Filipino restaurants from Cafe Adriatico to Fely J's, from the Capampangan Abe to Lorenzo's Way.

Last Christmas, Paul and I joined my Mom, Aunt and sister as we went to Greenbelt 5 with my Grandparents and we decided to have dinner at Lorenzo's Way. After all, my Kongkong just loves Filipino food as much as I do! :) In fact, while walking around choosing for a restaurant, what made my Kongkong and I immediately chose Lorenzo's Way was when we saw llaneras of paella outside waiting to be picked up. We are both big fans of paella thus this became a big plus for making our reservation at Lorenzo's Way immediately.


Dinner began with a small plate of Gambas (Php. 320) which instantly became everyone's favorite. They serve it a basket of warm bread and butter which was pretty good too. If only they gave us more slices of bread good enough for everyone on the table. Imagine, there were 6 of us and we only got 4 tiny slices of bread. When I asked for more, it took them a good 15 minutes and 4 follow-ups to give another 4 tiny slices of bread. Oh well...

Mommy, sensing that an order of Paella is not enough for us decided to get the Paella Valenciana and my favorite, the Paella Negra.


Everyone loved the Paella Valenciana (Php. 595) which had a generous serving of chicken, mussels and veggies. My sister commented that they also have a good amount of socarrat (tutong) which, like me and Kongkong, she loves very much. I wasn't able to try this though as I was busy focusing on the other paella.


Ever since I tried the Paella Negra (Php. 425) back when I was still a little girl, this instantly became my paella of choice. Despite aunts and uncles teasing me about my scary looking dark teeth and lips, I still enjoy the flavorful rice cooked in squid ink and sprinkled with lemon juice. So simple yet so satisfyingly delicious. I actually prefer to have a little bit of garlic aoili sauce also squeezed on top of my plate of paella. Sadly, no garlic aoili here at Lorenzo's Way but I was still pleased just the same. Needless to say, I had quite a lot more serving than what everyone else had for the Paella Negra.

Pino Resto Bar + Pipino Vegetarian in Quezon City

A few months ago, Paul and I met up with long time friends Sophie, Jean and Karl for our much-awaited dinner. This plan has been pushed back so many times that we were all so excited that the day has finally come that we will be able to catch up and see each other again. The venue was set at Quezon City and going through my Restaurant List, I suggested that we try Pino Resto Bar which shares the same building with its healthier vegan version, Pipino Vegetarian Restaurant.


I was able to try Pipino's Mac and Cheese during the Yummy Eats event last May. In fact, it was the only thing I ate after running around the venue, making sure everything goes as planned all day. I wasn't really planning to eat had it not been for Paul who pulled me to stop and firmly told me to eat after 10 attempts or so. When I had my first bite of Pipino's Mac and Cheese, I was hooked! It was delicious, no signs of it being a purely vegan dish and it was very addicting in fact. Too addicting that I've been thinking about it for days weeks months after my event.

Finally, we found ourselves at the entrance of Pino Resto Bar. Luckily, we made reservations as the place was already full at 7PM! Since Pipino is just located at the 2nd floor of Pino, we were allowed to order from both restaurants. Yay!


Our meal started with a bowl of Taro Chips (Php. 60) which was really yummy! I loved the crisp, lightly salted veggie chips paired with their homemade soy sauce. In fact, there's no need for the dip as the chips was delightful as it was.


We also had the Crispy Shrimps with Salted Egg (Php. 225) which are deep-fried baby shrimps coated salted egg and served with their homemade vinegar. I'm not really fond of eating the entire shrimps with the shell intact. I always get this phobia that the sharp edges might hurt my gums. Just had three tiny pieces of this.


Of course, how can I ever forget ordering Pipino's Mac n' Cheeze (Php. 165). I have been raving about it as my friends and I were browsing through that menu that I also have to state a disclaimer that I could have just been extremely hungry that time thus affecting my taste buds and judgement. Still my friends were game enough to order this for me to try it again. I'm happy to share that the Mac n' Cheeze was really delicious! Hungry or not so hungry, this is definitely a must-try! No beef or meat can be found instead all you get is a bowl of really creamy and cheesy elbow macaroni which makes a great meal on its own.

Christmas Date at Seryna in Little Tokyo, Makati

One thing that Paul and I love about Christmas and about being married is that ever since we tied the knot, we finally can celebrate the holiday season together! You see, for the past 7 years when we were dating, Christmas for Paul means driving to his hometown in Pampanga to celebrate the holidays with his extended family. Whereas for me, I spend Christmas Eve with my mom's side and Christmas Day at home with my immediate family of 4.

Not wanting to join the holiday rush and to just waste precious time in traffic, we decided to postpone our annual Holi-date to the day after Christmas where almost everyone is back at work and the roads are free of cars and the malls not that filled with frantic shoppers.


So there we were at 11AM right in front of Seryna Japanese Restaurant, our Holi-date venue for the year. What we failed to take note was that the restaurant opens at 11:30 which means we have to wait for half an hour more before we can finally have lunch. Drat! I'm starving!

It's a good think Seryna is located in the Little Tokyo complex where Izakaya Kikufuji, Choto Stop and other Japanese eateries are also located thus allowing us to stroll around while waiting for 11:30 to come. Oh how I wish we can visit this at night to be able to try Hana's Okonomiyaki again and to finally dine at Urameshiya. Will try my luck again this year!

Finally, the door opened at 11:30 and we were the second batch of customers to enter after a big family who occupied the neighboring table. We were handed the lunch menu which is very similar to that of Izakaya Kikufuji's. This is the reason why I LOVE Japanese restaurants and their amazing lunch bento boxes! This is the perfect solution for hungry girls like me who are just to stingy to spend so much but still wants authentic Japanese food..lots of it.

Finally after a long round of eenie-meenie-miney-moes, I went for the Tempura Gozen Lunch Set (Php. 350) while Paul got the Makunouchi Bento Box (Php. 540).


It was actually a toss between the Tonkatsu Gozen or the Tempura as I was craving for both that day. Finally, I went for the Tempura after asking the server to help me choose. :) My set meal came with a small serving of appetizer, a generous portion of cabbage salad, a bowl of miso soup, my mix tempura and rice and 5 pieces of grapes. It's a complete set yet I wish I had some sashimi too after seeing Paul's bento box! I guess he noticed me staring extra long and hard at his salmon sashimi that he gave me a few pieces to try. Yay! :)

Cheese Steak Shop lands in Makati City

I've tried a number of Philly Cheese Steaks in the past but I never really got around to learning about its history. It was until that fateful evening when Paul and I got an invite to have dinner at the Cheese Steak Shop in Makati where we were told of the Philly Cheese Steak story and how it finally found its way here in Manila, Philippines.

Given the name, this sandwich originated in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by a couple who began serving thinly sliced steaks and cheese in a long sandwich bun. Very similar to a hotdog sandwich, the craze about this meaty sandwich spread like wildfire and soon Philly Cheese Steaks are not only available in Philadelphia but in other states all around the USA as well.


Take Cheese Steak Shop for instance. It originated in San Francisco 29 years ago (yes, same age as me!) and makes use of authentic ingredients such as their Amoroso rolls and Tastykakes which are shipped all the way from Philadelphia.

Here in Manila, we have owner Mai Uy to thank for bringing Cheese Steak Shop to our shores. In fact, it took her 22 years worth of dedication and pure love for Cheese Steak sandwiches that she didn't stop in convincing the big bosses of this US brand to allow her to franchise and take Cheese Steak Shop to Asia.

We were able to try a lot of things that evening however majority of which had beef in it thus I wasn't able to try them all. I didn't mind though as I enjoyed all the non-beef menu items that I was able to have a bite of that evening.


First off was the Italian Salad (Php. 635). At first glance at the menu, you might gasp at the sight of the price of this salad but note that this contains a generous amount of Italian cold cuts, veggies and cheese. I really enjoyed having this to start my meal.


Most of the Cheese Steak sandwiches comes in three different sizes -- 7", 10" and 15". The 7" is good for one but if you want to try more variants it may be shared by two as well. The 15" is really long that it may be shared by 3-4 pax! When ordering at the Cheese Steak Shop, you'd get to choose whether you want to have beef or chicken in your sandwich. After which, you choose your toppings. They have an extensive list of toppings to choose from! My favorite includes the Barbeque, Spinach and Garlic.

Hello 2012!!!

As soon as the clock strucked 12 last night, I stood up and instinctively jumped three times. My sister-in-law laughed as she reminded me of the sad truth... I won't get any taller by doing that anymore. :P Still, I love the juggling sound of the coins that Paul told me to put in my polka dot pink shorts. If I can't get any taller, then I hope to be rich!


It was my first time to celebrate New Year's Eve at my in-laws and I enjoyed heading down to the dining table where the entire table was filled with all sorts of round fruits, cakes, roasted chesnuts and bowls of misua soup for each one of us. A few minutes after that, my cousin-in-law came by to wish us a Happy New Year! Too bad my other sister-in-law couldn't join us or it would have been fun to have the kids running around screaming "Happy New Year" too!

My phone rang and it was my mom and sister wishing us a Happy New Year as they just had our traditional wine drinking at home. For a while there, I felt a bit emotional after realizing that it was my first time to miss our yearly tradition which also includes hanging out at my parents' room to watch the beautiful fireworks in the neighborhood. I then reminded myself that we're going home the next day to continue the celebration with my side, this time.


This year was made more meaningful as Paul and I were able to equally spend our New Year with both families. I'm also so happy that his family gets to bond with mine once in a while. This is exactly how I want my year to be. Filled with love, care and support going all around.

So, from my two families to yours, we wish you all a....

Happy Happy New Year!!!