Frannywanny

Next to Chinese and Japanese cuisines, my family also has a growing fondness for Korean food. For instance, we all love adding kimchi to our barbecued meats, the wide array of banchan never fails to excite us and pajeon, bibimbap and galbi jim will always be part of our order line-up. So, when I heard that a new Korean restaurant named Sibyullee recently opened at the relatively new Ayala Malls The 30th in Pasig, I took the opportunity to invite my parents out for lunch one day. It was all our first time to check out the mall and I got to say that I love the very relaxed, neighborhood vibe that it gives. The selection of restaurants and retail shops were quite impressive too not to mention that they even have a Rustans Supermarket available at the Ground Floor and a row of cinema at the top floor to complete the mix.

I believe that shopping and eating goes hand and hand. Like peanut butter and jelly. Like salt and pepper. Perhaps, even like strawberries and cream. Both fills a need, are pretty much therapeutic and at the end of doing either of the two, one always ends up feeling extra happy. No need to pop in the happy pill as this is a natural way of achieving that ultimate satisfaction and happiness. Agree? Rustan's Department Store has been around for years. This has been almost every grandmother's favorite shopping place and to this day, Rustan's has been my go to place when buying a wedding gift. In fact, it was also here where Paul and I did our gift registry for our very own BIG day. I love Rustan's for its quality choice of brands be it for the home, for your personal use or even for men. I really love it when department stores also think of their client's well-being in the middle of having their retail therapy. Shopping can be tiring and what better way to take a ...

AFC's Next Celebrity Chef Do you love to cook? Do you have what it takes to be a celebrity chef? Well, here's your chance to stand out and be discovered as the Asian Food Channel is looking for the last man/woman standing who can withstand all the kitchen challenges thown his/her way! This is actually a first in Asia as AFC will conduct a region-wide search consisting of 5 countries -- Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. Auditions will run from August 3 - August 16, 2011 in the five participating countries. The prize is an exclusive one-year contract as an AFC Celebrity Chef with the Asian Food Channel. In addition to that, the winner will be awarded the opportunity of a year-long employment contract with the E&O Group, taking on the mantle of Creative Director and Head of R&D for the E&O Gourmet Group. Sounds amazing huh? For more information, log on to: http://www.asianfoodchannel.com/nextafcchef . Who knows, you might just...

We are down to the final leg before Christmas Day hits and with a little more than a week left, people will surely be out rushing to finish off their Christmas list. Here's a handy list that I came across in ClickTheCity.com where they have the complete mall hours to guide all the last minute shoppers (like yours truly) out there: please click to view full size shopping photo credit: http://brandkeys.blogspot.com/

Paul and I are such big fans of ribs ! We enjoy the tender, falls-off-the-bone type that was perfectly marinaded in yummy barbeque sauce and grilled to perfection. Sure we have tried a number of rib dishes here and there but we are still in the look-out for that perfect ribs platter that will make us lick our fingers clean and leave our stomachs happy. I've been looking forward to this year's Valentine's Day simply because Paul told me he got something planned already. You see, for probably 350 days in the year, Paul will just leave me to choose which restaurant to dine in and to plan our entire day's itinerary. For the remaining 15 days though, which includes Valentine's Day, my birthday and our monthsaries and anniversaries, then he would take charge in doing so. He told me that we will have a fun romantic dinner in Makati and left it at that. The suspense was killing me as I was dying to find out where exactly our Valentine's dinner would be. Despite consta...

**I would like to interrupt my regular blogging for some shameless plugging** For years, Real Living has always looked like this: However, we always strive to make things better and so this year, we are proud to present our new cover look which I think is really pretty Ü To celebrate this wonderful change, Real Living is having a month-long exhibit in three Ayala Malls namely: Trinoma, Glorietta 4 and Alabang Town Center. The exhibit features various rooms designed by our very talented stylists: Coni Tejada, Gwyn Guanzon and Issa Villar. This will run from January 16 - February 15 (except for Trinoma which will end by January 31). How to get there: 1) Trinoma - located at the Ground Floor near Gift Gate and VNC 2) Glorietta 4 - located at the Ground Floor near Florshiem, Marks and Spencer and Rustan's 3) Alabang Town Center - located at the Ground Floor (Home zone) near the Activity Center Hope to see you there!! Related posts: New year, New look for Real Living