Frannywanny

2026.  It's yet another year and sadly I have badly been so inconsistent in updating my blog. At some point, I wanted to just bid Frannywanny goodbye but a part of me still wanted to hold on.  This, after all, has been a big part of me for the past decade. It saw me grew up from being a college graduate to a corporate professional to a newlywed and for some parts, a new mom.  This year, I really want to slow down. To focus on the necessary and perhaps to take up a new hobby. Who knows, right? I have my family and work enough to keep me busy so I'll try my darnest not to add anything else more into the crazy mix. I want to be more present for my kids. Gosh, they're growing up so fast. I want to have more time to be more intentional with what I do at work. I miss dreaming big and to do great things instead of just ticking off to-dos in my never-ending list.  I can't believe we're nearing the end of January. It started off incredibly tough for me. Dealt with a bad coug...

With all these K-Drama watching, I'm starting to think that I am turning Korean. From my growig love for korean food, desserts and drinks, I guess it shows as well in this blog as I realized that I sure have written a lot about Korean restaurants and cafes even as far back as two years ago.  Well, I guess it just can't be helped since Korean food and drinks are just soooo good! Take for example their ice cream called Melona . It's a simple ice popsicle but made so creamy and really refreshing. Unlike other ice popsies that's really icy and a bit hard to bite into, this has an ice cream consistency which is why my kids love love it! Our family's favorite is the strawberry followed by the classic melon. They now have more flavors to choose from -- melon, strawberry, taro, pistachio, mango and banana. The #AngTwins can't resist having Melona and can easily spot the bright colorful packaging from afar.  As the temperature continues to rise, the same goes for the nee...

 ...and I am back! I honestly thought that I was ready to hang my writing cap and end my blogging era but somehow, I really cannot get myself to stop writing and I do hope there's still someone out there reading this. :)  So how has life been? The #AngKids are growing up really fast and things are just so busy on all fronts. One thing stays the same though -- my love for kdrama. There are times though that I'd get so exhausted to watch through one episode but I still do love watching kdramas as a form to relax at the end of a busy day. Add to the fact that I normally end up craving for Korean food more often than not after watching the male or female lead enjoy cups after cups of ramyeon or as they would sink their teeth into a piece of juicy chimak.  I'm also always on a look out for new K-snacks to share with my chinggus and recently, I chanced upon this pack of new flavor from Nongshim called the Shin Toomba . It's inspired by a certain viral social media recipe that...

One thing that I love about k-dramas is when I get to have a glimpse of the food trends and scene in Korea. From local coffee shops to famous restaurants in and around Seoul, I can't help but wish that I can visit South Korea soon to fully experience the k-vibe and eat to my heart's delight. * Can I just teleport myself in just a snap of a finger? * Thanks to my cousin-in-law B, who has always been my main source for food stops in Pampanga, as he recommended Premium Cafe Retro 525  which is just located along Friendship Highway. We went there for lunch with my university friends after we took our little ones to Dinosaur Island. Feeling famish and in the mood of anything cold as the weather was so warm, we were greeted by the beautiful and spacious interiors of Retro 525 . I tell you, I don't think we have cafes this big here in Metro Manila. It has a center section with a wide array of breads on display. There's an ample amount of tables available at the ground floor b...

If there's one distinct trait that the #AngTwins took after us, it would be our love for staycations. They really get so excited whenever we'd tell them that we're staying a night or two at a hotel. Well, I totally can understand why. Sometimes, it is just good to take a break and to have a change in environment, right?  A few months back, Paul's aunt L called us to ask us if we're willing to stay the weekend at  Nüwa and of course, we told her YES! Even if we have no definitely plans lined up and would probably just stay in the hotel or go to the malls nearby, I know that the #AngTwins would be with this. We also love  Nüwa because there's just a lot of food options available and parking is free. It's part of the entire City of Dreams compound too so it's connected to two other hotels namely -- Nobu Hotel and Hyatt Regency Manila.  For families staying in any of these hotels, I highly recommend that you check out Dreamplay . We took the twins there d...

The past 3 years were filled with lots of life-changing experiences. From experiencing the first ever (and hopefully the last) pandemic in my life to being on lockdown for a really long time, to learning to accept the change and adapting to it and to finding new hobbies and interests while confined within the four walls of our home.  It was in 2020 when I discovered the Kdrama Crash Landing on You  and luckily, I had my dongsaeng (lilttle sister) J at work who shares the same interest for kdrama (or in her case, all things Korean) with me. I'm not new to watching kdrama, in fact, I have watched the likes of Full House and Winter Sonata many years back. Life just got so busy that I never got around to watching more plus it was harder back then as you had to either patiently download it on the internet or buy a DVD to watch it. Thankfully, we have Netflix now taking all our kdrama watching to a whole new level.  The show Crash Landing on You  (CLOY) took the entire n...

Time flies super fast! As I was going through my old blog posts where I documented the birthday parties of my twins, I realized that I have yet to share about their 5th birthday celebration and here we are, just half a year away from them celebrating their 6th! Ackkk..teka lang! As you know, we have been resorting to full DIY house celebrations since 2020 since we can't go out and meet our families to physically celebrate with them. We're blessed to have such supportive relatives though who were all game enough to always join us as we do a virtual candle blowing for the past 2 years. Last year, as they celebrated their 5th birthday and as restrictions were starting to ease up, we were lucky to be able to go on a trip to make it extra special for them.  Since I was in between career shifts, we took the opportunity of me being on a one-month work break to fly to our favorite city in the world -- SINGAPORE! Make sense, right? The place where we will always feel right at home, whe...

Whenever I think of visiting Tagaytay , this place immediately equates to relaxation, comfort and good food. I guess, my parents feel the same way that's why we have been frequenting Tagaytay so much since I was in high school and every long breaks would be spent here. A lot of changes have took place since those days as Tagaytay is now filled with rows after rows of establishments thus giving every visitor endless options on where to stay to where to eat. Unlike before where we would quickly pack our bags and head up to Tagaytay during a long break, this time, we would try to avoid heading there on a holiday unless we plan to spend most of our time on the road.  However, this has never stopped us from having Tagaytay as one of our top destinations whenever we just want a quick and relaxing family break. During one of our weekend trips in Tagaytay, we decided to check out Farmer's Table  which is part of the Raintree Group of Restaurants . Others may not know this nor would t...

Happy Easter!  I hope that you were all able to have a good and peaceful Holy Week. After all, it was the perfect time to reflect, to repent and to have hope for He has risen again. As for me, I spent it with my family and gave my kids my undivided attention.  Given that the past week was all about family, let me share with you one of my family's favorite restaurants. With all our varying tastes, it honestly is difficult to agree on a restaurant because what may be good for me, may not be something my parents would be keen on trying or returning to and so on. Cibo is a place where we're all happy to dine in and it's simply for these 3 reasons:  #1 Quality is always top notch. We can always expect their pasta noodles to be al dente and tasty, their pizza perfected baked and they have a good selection of hot and cold beverages too.  #2 Service is always consistent. No matter which Cibo branch we go to, we are always well taken cared of by their staff.  #3 They ...

As we welcomed 2023 with close to unbelievably cool weather, the summer heat is truly here and it's making itself felt for sure. We've been hydrating ourselves round the clock and the thought of enjoying some icy cold desserts is one that we look forward to on a daily basis.  When Paul told me about this new brand of halo halo that went viral on TikTok last year, we searched for it and discovered Bebang Halo Halo  along Shaw Boulevard in Mandaluyong City. Luckily, Mandaluyong is not that far away and one can just place their orders online anytime. Rumor has it that the waiting time in their restaurant can go for hours so it’s best to have your halo halo delivered straight to your doorstep while you go about your busy day. We got 6 flavors and wow, I don’t even know which one to try first! Before I talk about each flavor in detail, one thing that we noticed with Bebang Halo Halo is that you get a thick slice of leche flan in every cup of halo halo. Unlike others where the l...

Last October 2022 was a memorable month. Apart from the fact that it's the birth month of my adorable twins, it was also the month when I bid my close-to-four-year-long stint at theAsianparent goodbye and took a 3 week long break to recharge before I joined my current company -- Profriends. I embraced this break with glee as this doesn't come often. Not wanting to waste time, Paul and I decided to take the twins on their first out of the country trip since 2020. They've travelled to Taiwan and to Singapore before but since the pandemic, they've been stuck at home for 3 whole years. We didn't want to tire ourselves out as well with planning and navigating around an unfamiliar land so Singapore just made perfect sense as it's our second home. We went there with the most flexible itinerary that I've ever created. Basically, our objectives were simple: Meet our friends/family, EAT, check out the theme parks in JB and in Sentosa, EAT, relax and revisit our favor...

 🎶 It's beginning to look at lot like Christmas! 🎶  I can't believe that December is here and this means that we're about to bid 2022 good bye. I have to say that this year was definitely much better than the last. It's the year where we felt more normalcy as compared to the past 2 years. We were finally able to go on several trips and while we managed to dodge COVID19 for the past 2 years, the virus finally entered our home a few weeks ago. I still have to say that I did not enjoy falling sick at all and the worst part was having to be isolated from the world for more than two weeks. Well, I just hope that the only good thing we got out of this was some temporary antibodies that will keep us safe for a few more months.  Apart from being able to travel, 2022 was also the year when I closed a chapter in my career life and opened a new one. I recently bid theAsianparent good bye and my life as the General Manager to the most awesome team ever. It was time to go back t...

Gone are the days when we can list off all the best and authentic Chinese restaurants available in town. Lately, it seems like they have dwindled in number and what's left are really just a handful of the tried and tested, best of the best, true blue authentic Chinese restaurants. It could probably be due to the pandemic where most Cantonese chefs decided to head home or it can also be the affected F&B industry where we saw a number of really good restaurants bade us goodbye.  Therefore, should you come across a really good restaurant, let's give our all-out support and dine there as often as we can. A few months ago, we discovered Crystal Dragon  upon an invite from my cousin-in-law M. He's such a certified foodie whose recommendations I fully trust. He has been frequenting Crystal Dragon at Nuwa Hotel and after enjoying our first meal there, I instantly knew why M loves it so much.  First of all, the service is top notch. Servers were so attentive and they're ve...

It's no big secret how much I love Japanese food. I just can't live without my sashimi and sushi. In fact, I dined and celebrated my 40th birthday at a Japanese restaurant TWICE this year. I think, it's one of those cuisines that I'll never get tired off. Well, the choices are endless as there are just a lot of ways to enjoy your Japanese food. You can have it done in various ways -- teppanyaki, yakitori, teriyaki, deep-fried, raw, with broth, mixed into your noodles or rice and the list goes on and on.  One of our family's favorite Japanese restaurants in the neighborhood is Tomo Japanese Dining . We love this restaurant so much for it's extensive menu options and they also have a coffee shop called Verse Cafe  that's adjacent to it that serves superb coffee and tea drinks. Here's actually a compilation of dishes that we have enjoyed throughout the multiple visits that we have made to these two establishments. The good thing is, you can order from Tomo ...

During my early days of blogging, I used to keep a running list of restaurants that I wanted to try. In fact, it was a dream of mine to dine in all of the new restaurants in town. It sounded possible then albeit rather idealistic but I kept that list for more than decade or so. I even have a Singapore version of the same list when we relocated to the Lion City almost 10 years ago. Was I able to cross off all the restaurants in my list? Almost. It was an expensive activity but Paul and I had fun discovering new restaurants and treating our taste buds to a wide variety of flavors. Majority of these restaurants you can read about in this blog.  Now that I'm now a mom though, not only am I not able to go out as much anymore, my priorities have began to shift. Our family's budget focuses more on our needs vs. our wants and the things that would be for the kids vs. ours. Dining out or ordering food is still something that we love to do but we would focus more on family-friendly estab...

With a number of restaurants offering fusion cuisine or those that aims to inject more creativity into their dishes, rarely do we get to find one nowadays that offers dishes that stay as true and authentic as possible to the original version. After a tearful check out from  Somerset Millennium Makati , we decided to still stay in the area for lunch and that's how we got to discover  Tatatito.   You may wonder why were there tears upon checking out. Well, the twins enjoyed their overnight staycation at  Somerset Millennium Makati   so much that they refused to check out and bid the hotel goodbye. We then had to lure them that we're not heading home yet and we will be checking a new restaurant out in the area instead. That somehow stopped the tears from falling. Oh my staycation-loving babies.  Tatatito was just located a stone's throw away from the hotel. Since we went to dine on a Monday, parking was a bit challenging since the streets were all lined with...

We have this habit of making the most out of our staycation so instead of dining out while having our staycation at a hotel, we normally try to check out the restaurants inside the hotel. This is staycation tip #1 when travelling with toddlers. We just wanted to do away from any logistical nightmare of having to travel far, waiting in line and ending up with two restless and super hangry kids. The best way is to make a reservation at any of the hotel's food establishments and you can just go down just in time for your meal. Our recent stay at Somerset Millennium Makati  was no different. We had our dinner at Abuela's  the only restaurant establishment available in the hotel but while it may be the only in-house dining option, we had no idea that we were in for a delightful FEAST!  Come to think of it, there's a bar available in the hotel but for families like us, you will most likely focus more on Abuela's . Don't be fooled by the name. I initially thought it was...

 "When are we going to the hotel?" This is a common statement heard from our two little kulits here at home. At such a young age, they sure love going on staycations and well I don't blame them. A quick weekend R&R is one that we all need once in a while, right? A month ago, we celebrated Labor Day at Somerset Millennium Makati . It was perfect that we decided to check in on a Sunday so we were able to check out the Legazpi Sunday Market  and were reunited with some of our favorite market finds.  The hotel is located along Aguirre street which is part of Makati's busy business district during weekdays. Weekends, you get a different way chill vibe that I love. I grew up walking around this area as my parents' office was just around the corner and a lot of things have changed since then. I love that some restaurants allow al fresco dining during the weekends making it the perfect place to hang out, having a drink or two and enjoy a good catch up with friends an...

Today I celebrate a milestone. Turning 40.  It seems like my 30s was so eventful and packed with so much changes and adventures that somehow it flew by so fast. I still remember celebrating my 30th birthday with family and my bestest friends . It was at a nice cozy restaurant in Quezon City and I even had lechon flown in from Davao! How cool was that?! Who would have thought that months after that, Paul and I would be packing our bags and bidding our lives in Manila temporarily goodbye as we relocated to Singapore . We spent the next 4 years of our 30s living abroad and would just fly in and out of Manila for quick weekend trips to see the family. My 30s was also when I have experienced my two biggest heartbreaks -- the death of my Ama and Kongkong who both have played very important roles in my life. Somehow, not having them around feels like missing two very important puzzle pieces that I'll never ever be able to have back.  As they say though, at the end of a thunderstorm...

Trivia Time!  Did you know that majority of the Filipino-Chinese in the Philippines all came from just one province in China called Fujian. This is found at the southern part of China that's closest to Taiwan and since it is located near a big body of water, a lot of traders lived here. Eventually, people in Fujian migrated to neighboring countries such as Taiwan, the Philippines and Singapore to name a few. Interesting though that Hokkien, the dialect spoken in Fujian, has several versions/intonations depending on the person's current location. Case in point, I have a very different sounding Hokkien accent vs. my cousin who has a similar Hokkien lineage residing in Taiwan.  Anyway, let's talk about Hokkien/Fujian cuisine! Since Fujian is near the water, majority of the famous Hokkien food consists of seafood. One of the most popular Fujian specialties is the soup called Buddha Jumps Over the Wall ( putiaojiu ), it's a very premium soup that's filled with all of the...