Frannywanny

My favorite time of the year is finally HERE! Okay, so I have officially became more of a giver than the recipient of Christmas gifts but seeing the happy look on the faces of my family and friends especially the little ones never fails to melt my heart. I'm lucky that Paul also shares the same love for this festive holiday so we enjoy doing our Christmas shopping together. Ho ho ho! Aside from the gifts, I'm also excited for the Christmas dinners that we will be attending very soon. It's the season of reuniting with dear old friends and catching up with them too. So far, my December calendar is starting to get filled up with potluck dinners, lunch meet-up, coffee chats and even our regular mother-daughters breakfast bonding. So, the inevitable question this season is " where to eat ? "  Starting this month with a series of Christmas Feast options for you to consider when planning your family dinners. Let me begin by telling you about this very festive di...

It all began with an invite to partake in a challenge.  The deal -- to go through an 8-course Black Angus Beef tasting challenge and emerge victorious at the end.  Can I do it?  Putting my hesitations and questions aside, I went forward with a bold (and hungry) spirit.  Such a difficult feat but a girl's go to do what a girl's got to do. I promise not to let you all down.  So there we were at Azur in Crowne Plaza Changi Airport , ready for the challenge to start. Out came the first round -- the Alaskan Snow Crab Leg . It's a beauty, if I must say so myself. It was just the perfect starter to cleanse our palate as we swooned upon enjoying the fresh beyond fresh flavor which further enticed our taste buds for the rounds to follow. With our bare hands, we ripped the shell open and enjoyed the delicious sweet crab meat inside. We passed the first round with flying colors yet the challenge continued to progress with the second round -- Sesame Black...

During our staycation at Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria , Paul and I decided to have dinner at Seven Corners . It has been a while since we've had a buffet dinner and what would make our visit home more enjoyable than to allow ourselves to indulge, right? Having had the privilege to try a number of hotel buffets in the Metro, Paul and I have grown to love a number of hotel buffets for one or two of its specialties. For instance, we love one hotel buffet for their to-die-for Caprese Salad , another one would be for their abundant seafood choices , another one would be for their impressive Japanese selections ...and the list goes on and on. While I wasn't my usual self that evening that I just tried a few dishes and quickly waved the white flag, I happily watched my husband enjoy the buffet selections of Seven Corners . I got to admit, Seven Corners have quite limited choices but we all know that quantity doesn't always equate to quality right? We began our dinner wi...

There's really something about staycations that excites me. To others, it may just be an overnight stay. However, for us, a staycation is the perfect excuse to "eject" ourselves out from our daily routine and to just relax, relax and relax some more. During our recent visit home, Paul and I stayed the night at Crowne Plaza Manila . As I've probably mentioned a hundred times already (apologies for that), I was down with viral high fever that would go down in the morning and would shoot up again come night time almost all throughout the week that I was home. Our stay was no exception. I was okay in the morning but just as soon as I stepped inside our beautiful Premiere Suite , my temperature shot up to 39 degrees alarming Paul who told me to just stay in bed and rest till I feel better. It was a good thing that our room was really comfortable that I just snuggled under the sheets to keep myself from having chills and to lower my temperature too. Anyway, let me giv...

When I first met Paul 9 years ago, all I remembered was that he's the guy in a blue shirt and who was wearing a gray cap. He barely spoke a word the entire evening and just sat quietly beside his friend N who invited him to our group's dinner that day. I was busy catching up with my girl friends and was obviously oblivious to the fact that there, at one corner of the room, the same quiet guy was staring at me...or so he claims he was. *blush* Fast forward months after that, we began exchanging messages online and via SMS. Later on, as we found out that we live so close to each other, we began meeting up for afternoon merienda or after dinner coffee chats once in a while. One of the first things that I liked about Paul was the fact that he makes a great eating partner. Having met guys who have a million and one conditions when it comes to food (read: no veggies, no spicy food, no exotic dishes, etc etc etc) , I was elated to find out that Paul was really game to try anything a...

This particular lunch was set a month in advance when one of our business contacts invited the entire team to dine out. The venue was at 7 Corners in Crowne Plaza . Due to the sale madness happening around the area, we were a bit late for our lunch date and we arrived apologizing profusely to our host. After our HIs and HELLOs he invited us to visit the buffet spread and to start the feast. One thing I learned about buffet dining is to survey the complete spread first and to plot out my route to avoid over-eating. I began from the entrance where the pizza and dessert area were located followed by the fresh salad station and the sushi bar. After this was the long line of main dishes featuring Indonesian specialties as this was the promo for the month. After reaching the end of the buffet line, I went straight to the sushi bar -- my favorite place to start. My mouth waters at the sight of the Philadephia Roll and the numerous platters of maki roll and sushi. While busy...

As they say... the way to a man / woman's heart is through his/her stomach it's a good thing that Spot.ph came out with this amazing listing of all the Valentine's Day promotions around the Metro :) This will be a running list where I will be adding more entries as we get closer to the V-Day! Romantic Date Places 22 Prime at the Discovery Suites Indulge with 22 Prime’s dinner buffet and Prime rib carving station on February 13, Saturday and February 14, Sunday at P1,400+ per person . Adarna Food and Culture Adarna is giving a 20% discount on all bottles of wine for the whole month of February. A tertulia , ‘PS. Mahal Kita ,” and a love letter reading contest will be held on February 13, Saturday at 7 p.m., wherein guests will be providing the entertainment. Guests are requested to come in Filipiniana attire and are encouraged to share their talents during the program. Songs, dances, poems or the playing of musical instruments are welcome Aubergine Duck Foie gras praline...