Frannywanny

It's no big secret how much I love Japanese food. I just can't live without my sashimi and sushi. In fact, I dined and celebrated my 40th birthday at a Japanese restaurant TWICE this year. I think, it's one of those cuisines that I'll never get tired off. Well, the choices are endless as there are just a lot of ways to enjoy your Japanese food. You can have it done in various ways -- teppanyaki, yakitori, teriyaki, deep-fried, raw, with broth, mixed into your noodles or rice and the list goes on and on.  One of our family's favorite Japanese restaurants in the neighborhood is Tomo Japanese Dining . We love this restaurant so much for it's extensive menu options and they also have a coffee shop called Verse Cafe  that's adjacent to it that serves superb coffee and tea drinks. Here's actually a compilation of dishes that we have enjoyed throughout the multiple visits that we have made to these two establishments. The good thing is, you can order from Tomo ...

I had a good day yesterday.  Wanna know why?  It's because I finally was able to talk to my sister who was away most of the time these past months working on a really hectic project. She has been almost incommunicado since she began with the project and boy were we all counting down the days till it finally ends. Anyway, it's over and I can get to talk to my sister anytime I want again! Hooray! I really missed her, you know. *sniffle* Speaking of my sister Pan, did you know that whenever we travel together, we have this little tradition of dining at a Japanese restaurant with rotating sushi? It began when we were kids in Hong Kong and it somehow carried on when we went to Bangkok together and when she was here in Singapore a few months ago. Thus, a trip is not complete without having this little tradition. I actually attempted to dine at a rotating sushi restaurant on my own when I went to Beijing and the experience was just not as fun. Sakae Sushi is one of the r...

It's raining very hard as I type this and times like this I love to snuggle in bed while catching up on my favorite TV series or with a good book. This is bed weather after all and how I wish I can stay in under the sheets all day long. The rainy cool weather also makes me want a bowl of piping hot ramen. I was then reminded of a dinner that I had with Paul, my sister Pan and her best friend C at a newly opened restaurant called Kokoro Ramenya . It was upon an invite from a friend to try the restaurant out and we were all so excited as Japanese remains to be one of our favorite cuisines. Kokoro Ramenya is located in the newly constructed Avenue of the Arts Building along Roxas Boulevard. It offers traditional Japanese dishes such as ramen, donburi, tempura, sushi and sashimi and a lot more. I liked the bright and casual interiors making the restaurant look even bigger than it already is. We started our meal with a plate of Gyoza (Php. 155). The wrapper had a good texture ...

My ever dearest Papa turned 66 this year! To celebrate, we decided to try Izakaya Nihonbashitei in Makati as Papa just lovesss Japanese food. Since his birthday fell on a holiday, I made a quick call to the restaurant to make sure we have a table reserved for us to lessen the waiting time. It was past lunch time when we arrived and with our tummies growling loudly we began with a couple of sushi choices that my family loves: California Maki -- I love the plump sweet mangoes and that the sushi roll is well-covered with ebiko however I somehow find the maki roll lacking in filling and flavor. Definitely, Kikofuji or Kimpura wins in this category. Futo Maki (Php. 250) -- My Kongkong loves Futo Maki and having had a dozen futo makis whenever he would go to Japan on business trips before, it really would take a highly skilled sushi chef to wow him with our local version of his favorite rice roll. I'm glad that he enjoyed Nihonbashitei's futo maki which has passed his t...

I was just in Japan for four hours for a brief stopover and I've immediately fell in love with the orderliness of their airport system and how delicious their airport food was. Thus, my heart goes out to the thousands of families who lost their homes, loved ones and basically all of their belongings due to the recent earthquake and tsunami last March 11 that destroyed the island particularly in northern Japan -- Sendai . As I was getting tips from one of my cousins before flying off to the US, one thing that he told me was to try the ramen at the Narita Airport which was located right at the waiting terminal of Delta Airlines . It's fun to know that being a food lover runs in the family and I can totally count on my relatives to give me great tips on what's delicious here and abroad. Paul and I took my cousin's advice to heart and we immediately spotted Tatsu which was indeed located where my cousin told us it would be. We fell in line and got a bowl of Tempura ...

The month of May always begins with a full day celebration as it is my not-so-little sister's birthday! This year, we had the usual Cha Misua for breakfast as this is a tradition here in our household (yes, even our household cook can cook this very well already!) followed by a full lauriat with my Dad's side and later on a delicious Japanese dinner at Kimpura with my Mom's side. Our family loves Japanese cuisine! We love dining in restaurants that have private Tatami rooms available. Such is the case for Kimpura Greenhills. My sister specifically requested that we be given a Tatami room for her birthday dinner. As soon as her guests were complete, my sister began to order. I'm so happy that she asked me to help her choose as well. Here are some of the dishes that we ordered that evening: Unagi Maki . We were actually debating whether to go for the usual California Maki or to try the Unagi Maki. Apparently, eel won over kani, mangoes and cucumber. This one i...