Frannywanny

Remember I was telling you about my MIL’s superb taste in food? Well, here’s a perfect example that the apple sure doesn’t fall far from the tree. My husband Paul has inherited this special trait and this is why I’m so lucky to have someone who totally supports my food tripping ways. Not that I want to stereotype but I believe that people who belongs to a certain area shares a number of common characteristics and behaviors. I don’t have to go far to prove this point. Since the Philippines has a total of 81 provinces, you can see how different one can be from another. They say the Ilonggos of Ilo-Ilo have an extremely sweet demeanor and I can attest to this by just listening to my friend T speak. She would talk in a sing-song voice even when she’s annoyed or mad. Amazing, I tell you. As for Paul, they hail from Pampanga where, to me, is the land of yumminess that's located north of Metro Manila. This is where you can experience having a lunch feast that could last for hours on...

Alex III has been around for more than two decades.. I'm pretty sure of that as I remember dining in their Quezon City branch as a little girl and I'm sure that has been more than twenty years ago (ok, here I am on the verge of revealing my age) . For years, my staple order would be a plate of Chicken Barbeque with Java Rice, a bowl of Bird's Nest Soup with Quail Egg and my family's favorite -- Ponchi Sushi Roll and Laing. Even when we were still students, my parents would take us to Alex III along Wilson street to celebrate small achievements and milestones in our lives. I remember dining here after every quarterly exams. Papa would always get their Boneless Chicken Barbecue and the three of us would have our own plates of two-piece Chicken Barbecue. Mommy would always request that her Java Rice be changed to Plain Rice. These things have never changed since then. Now, our family is growing with Paul being the newest member of our small yet very tight-knit family....

If I were to ask what would be the first word of a Filipino kid, some might say "Mama", while others would say "Dada". However, when it comes to food and character recognition, I guess we would all agree that every single Filipino kid can immediately recognize that happy orange bee otherwise known as Jollibee . In my 27 years of existence, I have never seen a kid who's face did not light up upon the mere mention of Chicken Joy or Spaghetti. How they would cling to every single word of Tito Aga (Muhlach) as he bites into that crispy-licious Chicken Joy on tv. I brace myself knowing that someday I will have to deal with and eventually might give in to the constant pleas of my future kids as they insist on having Jollibee for dinner and nothing else. Indeed, Jollibee has played a big role in our lives from the time that they launched the Regular Yum Burger to everyone's guilty indulgence, the Chicken Joy, and later on launching more and more delicious treats to...