Frannywanny

Rise and Shine, Manila! Today will be extra bright and sunshine-y because...the weekend is finally here! This means more hours to do the things we love -- sleep, eat, hang out with friends, spend time with loved ones, catch a movie and more! I know waking up early doesn't really go very well with the ultimate weekend plan but what if it involves indulging in the yummiest, fluffiest pancakes and waffles plus some more delicious dishes? Sounds like a good plan? For those who have been following my blog for a long time, you'd know how much I love love love having brunches. There's really something extra special about this meal which doesn't exactly requires you to wake up at the crack of dawn nor wait till mid-day to eat. It's when you're nearing lunch and yet you can have your favorite breakfast meal without having to explain why you're having it so late. I've never been an early riser and I struggle even more now that sleep has not been part of my voc...

"People who love to eat are always the best people."  - Julia Child I totally agree with this quote as come on, eating is such a joyous occasion and people who love to gather around for a good meal are naturally joyful and happy, don't you think? Take my food-loving friends for instance, there's never a sad or dull moment with them as we all enjoy discovering a new restaurant or when we do get to discover a winning dish, we all share that same amount of excitement and thrill over it. Our friend D is one of those people whom we just love hanging out with. Often times, I would tell him that he's such as a nice and down-to-earth guy. He's always true to himself even when that means having the appetite to order almost everything on the menu and not being ashamed to do so. Of course, Paul and I will always support this "dreams" and we would be game to pig out with him too! Kidding aside, we're really blessed to have a friend like D and how cool is...

Rise & Shine ! What do you normally have for breakfast? For me, it's normally bread, instant oatmeal, yogurt or my favorite Chicken Pau from the hawker stall across my office building. For someone who just loves traditional Filipino breakfast that normally consists of garlic rice, egg and a meat variant, I've somehow learned to go easy on my breakfast choices simply because I barely have time to cook a lot every morning. Well...except on Sundays. I know this may sound weird but Sunday is actually my favorite day of the week. Ignore the fact that it's the day closest to Monday but it's actually the only day in the week when Paul and I have no work and this means we can sleep till much later and relax all day. So, whenever I feel like cooking something new or experimenting on a new recipe, I'd schedule to do this on Sundays.

As we were researching for our trip to Bali last year, Paul and I noticed that the cafe scene in this beautiful Indonesian island is totally booming. This really got us so excited as we're both fans of cafes and we definitely love visiting new ones too. We actually have the option to take our breakfast in the hotel but since we were only there for 3 full days, we didn't want to waste spending more than one meal in one place. On our first morning in Bali, after taking a million and one shots of the ocean view, we headed to Seminyak to try Sisterfields . This is one of the top cafes rated in Tripadvisor and it was highly recommended by local bloggers and Instagrammers too so we definitely took their word for it. Seminyak is just the next district to where our hotel was thus, making it a short and stress-free 10 minute ride via Uber. Here's a tip: when in Bali, just use Uber (or Grab) as hailing a cab wasn't very much recommended by our hotel receptionist as there ...

For the many years that Paul and I have been living here in the Lion City, friends and family would sometimes ask us if we feel that "Singapore is boring." Every single time, we would tell them that we have never felt that way about this beautiful Little Red Dot  and in fact, we always end up having an action-packed weekend filled with all sorts of activities. I always believe that one's perception of one's home is fully dependent on the person. Sure, we have friends who would rather travel to another country every other weekend while others would fall into a home-gym-grocery-mall-home routine week after week thus it's easy for them to say that there's nothing much to do here. I always believe that all it takes is a bit of creativity and an open mind and heart to what could be endless possibilities. Take one of our Sundays for example. It was supposed to be a lazy, event-less Sunday but Paul and I decided to explore our new neighborhood most particularly W...

food porn (noun) : a glamorized spectacular visual presentation of food.  Before anyone things that my blog is starting to get into adult content, don't worry. Frannywanny.com is still very much safe for general patronage. It just makes perfect sense to start the busy week right by talking about my favorite meal of the day -- breakfast . Also why not share some photos in hopes that I'm doing all the yummy food some justice while describing them to you. There's really something special about breakfast, don't you agree? Especially when you know that you're waking up to the yummiest breakfast fare from sausages to bacon, to all kinds of egg dishes, stacks of waffles or maybe pancakes and for Filipinos, a wide array of -silog options! If you ask me, breakfast can really get me excited to jump out of bed and to quickly get ready. After all, the faster I'm done, the sooner I get to eat. So, when I was invited by O' Coffee Club  to have breakfast for dinne...

For the past 3 years here in Singapore , Paul and I found ourselves a "family" who has been our biggest support unit when we were adjusting to our new lives here. You may have noticed that I would mentioned them once in a while under the initials -- C , I and O . From day 1 they warmly welcomed us to our shared flat and they would generously offer tips and advices on just about anything and everything about the Lion City. From sharing their go-to places for brunch to helping us determine which credit card to go for and how to use it wisely. We quickly hit it off so well that 3 years pretty much flew by so fast. As with anything in life, change in inevitable. Life has to continuously progress and for Paul and I, we felt that it was time to say good bye to our comfort zone and to take another step up. We decided to move out. As much as we love being in the company of C, I and O , we knew that it was high time for us to seriously gain more independence and to acquire more re...

Often times, I'd say that Singapore  is Asia's booming food mecca. Seriously, you'll never run out of things to eat here. Think of any cuisine and chances are you'll find it here in the Lion City. From hawker centres to restaurants, there has also been an abundant growth of cafes for the past two years and that has brought about a nationwide love for brunch. With the many choices available, I have to admit that it's really hard to find a favorite. Sure, there's that hawker stall that knows exactly how I want my Seafood Fried Rice cooked (no peas, no corn) or that kopi shop selling my favorite Iced Kopi-C and Steamed Chicken Pau but other than that, it's really hard to specify one or two restaurants that I would end up visiting over and over again. I'd say it would take a special establishment to make me go back for two consecutive weeks at the very least.  I must have said that before I actually went to Artistry Cafe . Once again, an interest...

If there's a popular term called "ladies who lunch", I think the Normanton Kids will start a new trend of "Friends who Brunch" . I've mentioned a number of times here how much I love going out for brunch. It's just the perfect meal where you don't really have to wake up so early to eat nor do you have to wait so long for lunch hour to arrive. Well, okay maybe for this particular time, we actually got to the restaurant a bit late but luckily, brunch here in Singapore runs till 3pm! Indeed, I'm living in a country who takes brunch pretty seriously. Once again, we checked out another Entertainer App merchant called The Beast  in the Bugis district. This restaurant specializes in Southern American cuisine so think of rich bbq-tasting dishes, a great use of corn and fried chicken! It's a nice two-storey resto-bar where you can enjoy a mix of Southern-inspired dishes with their signature drinks too. For one thing, they boasts of having the w...

It's FRIDAY and I'm in loveeeee! ♥ I know, I know...Valentine's Day has long been over but hey, why not share the love every single day, right? For one thing, Friday always has this effect on me. Waking up feeling extra happy and giddy and despite having to finish off a heavy workload, the thought of being able to enjoy two glorious work-free days after is enough to put a big smile on my face the whole day. Since, it's my (3rd) favorite day of the week, let me share with you one of the highlights of my recent trip back to Manila. For one of our dinners, my family and I decided to check out Crisp on 28th . This has been on my list since last year but since our trips are always so short or packed with our personal errands, it's pretty much impossible to be able to try all the new restaurants starting from the time we temporarily bid Manila goodbye. Truth to be told, I've gave up hoping that I'll be able to catch up with the newly opened restaurants in to...

Before flying home for the holidays, Paul and I met up with cousin J for our own Christmas brunch. Since we all have The Entertainer App , and you all must probably know by now how much I love it, we quickly went for The Marmalade Pantry for it's 1-for-1 deals. I tell you, having the Entertainer App has changed my life! With close to a thousand dining establishments, it has made every weekend much more fun as we would gamely try a new restaurant around town. I've lost count of the number of establishments that I've tried but seeing that I've saved about S$400 within 4 months was strong enough to tell me how often I've been using the app. Let me talk more about the app some other time and let us turn the limelight back to our Sunday brunch at The Marmalade Pantry . Located at ION Orchard, this cafe/restaurant seems to always have a permanent queue at its entrance. Luckily, we didn't have to wait long as we got to the restaurant a few minutes before the real br...

I always believe in one thing: " No Man is an Island. " This quote is pretty much self-explanatory. It tells us that in life, we need people to be there for us. Being an extrovert, I know for a fact that I won't survive without Paul, my parents and sister, my in-laws, my extended family and my friends as well. You don't need an entire community to be there for you but to have that small and big circles of trust is enough to make life worth living. For one thing, a fun lunch is impossible to have without friends there to share it with. Which is why I'm mighty thankful for my favorite lunch crew namely G, D and K (whom I miss so much) . I love how they're always so game to go out and try a new restaurant or cafe with me. So recently, when our friend C was back in Singapore from China, a nice get-together lunch was in order. Her only request was to look for a place with free Wi-Fi. That was easy! I went through my Entertainer app and found Group Therapy , a...

"I'm late, I'm late for a very important date!" This line just got to be the most memorable one that has stuck with me throughout all these years after watching Alice in Wonderland. It's the line delivered by the White Rabbit. Here in Singapore, The White Rabbit means much more than the furry white character in the book, it also stands for one of the best fine dining place in the island and as our friends L & T came to visit us last weekend, I figured that it's the best place for us to catch up while enjoying their popular weekend brunch too. What makes dining at The White Rabbit so interesting is the fact that you can enjoy the beautiful interiors inside. It's actually a restaurant and bar that's housed within a restored old chapel so as we walked up the mini hill towards the restaurant, Paul was quite unsure if this was indeed The White Rabbit as it looks like a chapel from the outside. "Are you sure this is it?" , he asked...

So what's a normal Sunday for Paul and I?  Waking up later than usual, slowly moving around the house as we do our weekend chores, cooking and enjoying a nice home-cooked meal, further lazing by the pool and heading out later in the afternoon to hear mass. Basically, Sunday mornings are non-existent in our lives as we'd use these precious hours catching up on lost sleep incurred during the weekday. While we love this relaxing routine, we also do love to do things spontaneously once in a while. This is perhaps the reason why getting an invite to have a nice Sunday brunch got us up and out of the house right before noon. After all, a good and delicious weekend brunch is indeed a perfect motivation for us to wake up early and to head out just to satisfy our growling tummies. This was what happened when we visited District 10 Bar & Restaurant at Star Vista  one Sunday. I've heard of District 10 but I didn't know that they're open for brunch as most of my...

If there's one person here in the Lion City who has been really supportive of this blog aside from Paul, that would definitely be C. C has been giving brilliant ideas on what topics I can write about, how I can further keep you, my readers, entertained and he would also share news about restaurants that I have to try out. In fact, the Explore Singapore series came about after a quick chat with C one afternoon. I do hope you're all enjoying that new addition in this blog and we all got C to thank for. Anyway, he turned another year older (and wiser) two weeks ago but due to a really unfortunate and sudden incident, we had to somehow postpone his celebration to last weekend. Well, I do believe in week-long even month-long celebrations so it's really not too late. C didn't gave much information on where his birthday lunch will be except an instruction to meet us at the lobby of the hotel where he had a nice weekend staycation with his wife I. As soon as we got to ou...

There are several things that make me feel giddy and excited lately: - When I get to try something surprisingly good. - Whenever I'm going home to visit my family and lastly... - When anyone from my family comes to visit.  Such was the case a few months ago when my sister suddenly decided that she will be visiting me and she'll be staying for a few days! I was so excited as I began planning our itinerary and the places where I will be taking her to try. It's pretty obvious how my sister and I keep a very close relationship. We're a small family of four so we have this "it's you and me against the world" kind of bond not only between us sisters but even with our parents too. I guess my giddiness was so obvious that my colleagues can feel how excited I was when Pan can to visit. From the moment she landed, I wasted no time and the eating quickly began. One Saturday, we told Paul that he can sleep a little longer while we go out for our sisterly bon...

Growing up in San Juan, I've seen how it has slowly transformed from a quiet municipality into a fun and vibrant city. Back then, the only commercial area was Greenhills Shopping Center which continues to be our go-to place to do our grocery, to eat good food and to do some bargain shopping. There were other restaurants and commercial spaces around the area but you can basically count them with your fingers as they weren't a lot. Cafe Ysabel is one of those that has been around for as long as I remember. However, I haven't really gotten around to dining there as I always thought it looked a bit creepy especially at night. Once, Paul took me to Cafe Ysabel for dessert, as their Strawberry Shortcake is to die for, and I really couldn't get myself to go to the loo thus I just forced him to quickly finish our dessert and to take me home pronto. It must be the vintage-feel as well as the dark lighting that reminds me so much of those horror Filipino movies that my yaya ...

Finally, after buying my two boxes of yummy cupcakes from Plain Vanilla Bakery , I headed over to Open Door Policy where I've made reservations for my Saturday brunch. I got to the door of the restaurant at exactly 11AM making me the first customer to enter that day. If you remember, I've blogged about Open Door Policy a month back when Paul and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary here . While our dinner was pretty good, I had this nagging feeling inside me that a return visit is in order and somehow, I just have to try their brunch menu. So, while waiting for my friends to arrive, I began reading the one-pager menu. Service was superb as always. The moment the server saw that I've settled into my seat, he asked if I want anything to drink. You can actually get some bubbly in the morning but I'm being a goody goody girl and just got a bottle of Fiji water for us to share. Finally, A and J arrived just in time and while catching up with one another, we mad...

People would tease me that I have an attention span of a goldfish or that my memory is sometimes as bad as Dory's in Finding Nemo. Tell me your name today and there's a chance that I might be calling you something else tomorrow. My former colleague Jamie can attest to this, I was calling her Joyce for about a month or two! I hate it, actually. How I wish I have a better memory! Oh well... The ironies in life. As bad as my memory is at present, ask me anything about my childhood and I can give you a blow-by-blow account of it. My class section names from Kinder to High School, my alma mater hymm, who sat beside me on my first day in college and even the trips that my family has made. There's also one thing that I will never forget -- the first friend that I've made in my life. Meet Angela or Gelato (Gelats) as I love to call her. We met on our first day in nursery and somehow we remained friends 28 years after. After attending nursery together, we moved on to the sam...

If given a choice, I would definitely choose to have breakfast food all-day long. There's really something about the traditional bacon-egg-pancakes trio that makes it so fun to eat. As much as I dream to have brunch with Paul on a lazy Sunday morning, that has yet to become a reality as it's really so hard to pull ourselves out of bed when there's a choice to just forget about the alarm and to catch up on sleep till noon. It's really a good thing that more and more restaurants are coming into existence and they specialize in one common thing : All-Day Breakfast . Hooray! Similar to how the food scene is in Manila, there seem to be a fast-rising trend on ramens and breakfast joints here in the Lion City . I think I've talked a lot about ramen already so let me focus on the latter. For breakfast lovers like myself, this is really good news. Now, you can have your favorite breakfast platter at any given time of the day.  A month ago, Paul and I had dinner wit...