Frannywanny

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...

The healthy trend has finally reached Manila and it's something that locals seem to be embracing quite well. That's really good as it's high time for people to take a closer look at what they're eating and if this will bring more harm than good to their body. A quick check on Google showed me that heart attack, stroke and cancer remain as the top 3 causes of death in the Philippines. While cancer is more often than not due to genetics, there are a lot of ways to avoid the top 2. No, I won't go preaching about health and wellness to bore you all out. However, I just want to share that moving to the Lion City has made me realize the importance of eating well and keeping a more active lifestyle. It has just been more than a year since we've moved and both Paul and I would shake our heads in disbelief whenever we would come across our photos taken 2 years back. Paul has lost all the unwanted weight and has done an amazing job at maintaining it. I still have h...

Every time Paul and I are in Manila, we make sure to spend our time bonding with our families and catching up with our good friends. We're so blessed to have friends who would really take time out of their busy schedules to share a good meal with us. Take for example one of our favorite couple friends - Ro and Peter . We've known each other back in the day when Ro and I were pretty much newbies in the blogging world. Fast forward 4-5 years after and our friendship has grown from being mere blogging friends who would bump into each other casually in events to close life friends who would spend time catching up and talking about everything and anything under the sun.  So when Ro and Peter invited us to join them for lunch at ' Cue Modern Barbecue , we excitedly said YES! Incidentally, 'Cue recently launched a new line of dishes which is part of their Porch Menu . Our tasting lunch consists of 4 rounds with a pair of finger foods and their specially created cockt...

This year, my friends and I are turning 31! I'm still in major denial that I'm no longer in my 20s and I'm getting inch by inch closer to the big 4-0! Oh nooooo?!?! Well, age is indeed just a number and what matters is you are still young at heart. Agree? Last January, we celebrated Estee's birthday by having an intimate dinner just us girls. We had it at the newly opened Beso Cucina Vinoteka at the Bonifacio Highstreet Central . Aside from ramen, more and more Spanish restaurants are opening left and right. I'm not complaining though as I loveeee good paella and a wide array of tapas. Estee's birthday celebration began with a carafe of Red Sangria to toast for a fun and fab year ahead for my dear friend. I'm no drinker but I liked the sweet and mild taste of the sangria. To go with our drink, we had a couple of tapas to get our meal started. Estee ordered the Gambas (Php. 380) and I have to say that this had to be the biggest gambas shrimp that I...

Whoever created the concept of brunch is, for me, a very wise man. Perhaps, he or (it could also be a she) must be like me. Someone who gives so much important to sleep and while food is equally just as important, a person must not sacrifice one for the other. Readers of this blog probably know by now that there's only one thing that can make me wake up early on a weekend morning...FOOD. However, it really should take a good breakfast spread to make that extra hours worth our while. This is why I truly embrace and love the idea of having brunch . Being able to eat breakfast food at a later time that's closer to lunch. Breakfast + Lunch = Brunch = Brilliant. One Sunday morning, Paul and I took Mom and my sister out to brunch. I've been keeping a list of restaurants in the city that offers really good brunch and as soon as 2013 rolled in, I was determined to give some of these a try. First on my list was probably one that I've been getting amazing raves from -- The C...

After a photo shoot held at an undisclosed location within Bonifacio Highstreet , I headed to Slice to relax and to have a light snack while waiting for my sister as she was still busy at work. I was still doing my Nestle Fitnesse challenge then so it took me a while to choose what I'm getting as I don't want all my efforts to go to waste. Yes, vanity sure has its price. I love the cozy feel of Slice as it surely makes a great place to catch up with your girl friends. My only wish is that they should have free WiFi connection for those who intend to do some work here. They also have a private area at the back portion of the restaurant which would be great for small meetings. Finally, I chose the Aglio Olio (Php. 390) and requested to have this split into two as I'm sure my sister would be hungry by the time I pick her up from work. I'll be honest, I was a taken aback by the 300+ price tag. It's a bit too high for a casual dining place like Slice and to thi...

Introducing Project Surprise. I admit, I was the accomplice. The goal was to bring happiness through the form of a surprise visit. The target? My fellow food blogger friends. I must admit I'm not good at planning surprises. More often than not, my excitement will reveal what I have been cooking up in my mind. Thus, it took me a while to invite The Food Club out for what looked like a simple dinner at Stella . After all, we, members of The Food Club do not say no to the chance of trying a new restaurant out. Paul and I got to Stella ahead of the others. After a quick hi-hello with the "mastermind", we entered the restaurant with innocent looks on our faces as we waited for the others to arrive. Stella is one of the many new restaurants that opened at the booming new wing of Bonifacio Highstreet . It's right beside its sister restaurant bar called Rocket Room , Stella has a cozy vibe quite similar to another sister restaurant -- Chelsea Market and Cafe . W...

This continues my Bonifacio Highstreet Central food review. I really love hanging out at this new wing of the Bonifacio Highstreet complex. What's there not to love about this place? With at least 80% of its tenants being restaurants, I'm just halfway through and I love how a new restaurants pop out whenever I pay a visit. Last week, at the height of my intense preparation for Yummy Eats 2012 , I said yes to a dinner invitation after getting non-stop raves not only from my blogger friends but from a certain colleague as well. As I've mentioned before , my friend T really has great taste in food and after hearing her talk about this new restaurant called 'Cue and their delicious pork chop, I knew I have to put that on the list and schedule a visit ASAP. Paul and I got there a few minutes before our agreed meeting time and we were quickly ushered to our reserved table. 'Cue stands for barbe cue as this restaurant features a lot of really good meat dishes. Defi...

"Sariwon has become synonymous with serving legendary Bulgogi since its beginnings in 1938. The restaurant was established by grandmother Mrs. Bun-Im Koo from the town of Sariwon in North Korea..." Paul and I truly enjoyed our trip to Seoul, South Korea as we were able to enjoy having Korean barbecue and other delicious Korean dishes for 6 full days. We loved it so much that Paul wants to go back to Seoul soon. I couldn't agree with him more. How can we not fall in love with Korea ? The cool weather, the pretty fashionable dresses, the reasonably-priced items and the endless choices of food. Six days truly wasn't enough and we can't wait to go back to explore Korea some more. It then made sense that we took the family out for an intimate Korean lunch to celebrate my sister's birthday a few weeks ago. Located at the rapidly bustling Bonifacio Highstreet Central , we found Sariwon Korean Barbecue . The restaurant has a very modern feel which reminds me of...

After a month of flying in and out of the country, finally, Paul and I were able to double date again with our friends L and T before they leave for their much-awaited honeymoon ♥. We usually would meet up somewhere in Ortigas or most recently at Eton Centris where their Chatime store is located. However, with the growing number of restaurants opening at the Bonifacio Global City , most particularly in the newly built complex called Bonifacio High Street Central , L and I decided to visit one of the many restaurants there. Bonifacio High Street Central is also where Jamba Juice and Aria are located. Coincidentally, I was invited by the Bistro Group to have dinner there with me and my friends as they just opened a new restaurant called the Village Tavern which was a franchise from North Carolina, USA . I checked with L how she feels about trying this new restaurant out with me and just as I've guessed it, she and T were game! Yay! The place was filled with groups when we ar...

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...

Today is a special day, it's November 11, 2011 and when written in numbers it's 11.11.11 . This is also the day when California brand Jamba Juice will finally open its doors to the public. Admittedly, we're all crazy about double/triple numbers. In fact, for a time, Paul and I even considered getting married on the 10th of October, 2010 (10.10.10). It was only when we realized that all of our choice suppliers were booked already despite preparing more than a year in advance. Thus, we then decided to go with our second choice, the 11th of July otherwise known as 7-11. ;) I feel privileged to be invited to the special VIP party held at the newly constructed Bonifacio High Street Central which is an extension of the current Bonifacio High Street where Aldo, Tempur, Brother's Burger, Nike, ROX and a lot more are located. I arrived with fellow blogger Richard and we were surprised to see a really big crowd quite uncommon in most of the blogger events that we've b...