Frannywanny

The Chinese cuisine is probably one of the most varied types in the world. We all know about the Cantonese-style dim sum or the fiery hot Szechuan-style dishes but there's also Beijing-style, Shanghai style and the one that's closest to my heart... Hokkien-Style . The reason is simple, my ancestors came from Amoy (Xiamen), China which is the province of the hokkiens. Thus, I can speak Hokkien (our dialect) and grew up eating Hokkien-Style dishes which were lovingly prepared by my mom or my kongkong. Hokkien-style of cooking makes use of a lot of vegetables and seafood. This is because Xiamen is located at the Southern portion of China where it has direct access not only to its neighboring provinces and countries but to water resource as well. Given that, I feel that each dish gives a very comforting taste and feel or maybe it simply because it's the kind that I would also link childhood or home memories with. Some of my favorites are my Kongkong's Kiam Peng, my mom...

If there's one thing that I miss about living abroad and having our own place is how we would host dinners and invite friends to come over. One of the best dinners that I've had was probably when my friends came over to celebrate my birthday. Paul prepared his signature BBQ Ribs and Steak while I made Baked Salmon ala Conti's and I even had the time to put together a cheese board. I guess when the kids are much older, we can go back to hosting dinners or organizing potlucks too. Luckily, here in Manila in case you're too busy to cook or prepare your own dish, you can easily order and have the dishes delivered straight to your doorstep (or to wherever you're having your party to ensure it gets there hot). One that I highly recommend is Ley's Kitchen . I recently got to try some of their specialties and all 4 dishes were so good. Not the mediocre type of good ha, I'm talking about the kind that's out of this world good...the kind that will make you go...

I know my birthday isn't for another 25 days but as you know, I celebrate it wayyyyy in advance and even for weeks after. So, during my recent visit to Manila, I decided to celebrate my birthday with both my side and Paul's side since we won't be home on the actual day.We stayed for a very short time only so I had a joint celebration with my dear niece, Julia . :) I just love my in-laws and I'm so glad that we were all complete that night. We didn't had a lot of time to prepare not even to go out and to buy food so thankfully, I met the cool guys behind Seven Comfort Cuisine  who took care of our dinner line-up. All I had to do was to email them to inform how many we will be and to share some of our diet restrictions too. They are so quick to respond and they willingly suggested the dishes based on our specifications. So, that night, we had: Savory Chicken Mushroom Pasta  (Php. 600 / Php. 1,000), Caramelized Peppered Pork  (Php. 750 / Php. 1,250) and Cheezy Sa...

Paul's birthday is coming up in 2 days! :) It has been our tradition that our birthday celebration doesn't last for just a day. Instead, it goes on and on for WEEKS! We normally get to celebrate our birthdays with our two families (his and mine), our various groups of friends and of course, with one another. Paul's birthday celebration started today as we had a simple yet fun lunch get-together with his family. What made it fun were the 3 tiny tots who happily ran around the house as they played with one another for hours! It was cuteness overload as we tried to decipher their baby talks and watch with amazement as these kids, at their very young age, can easily navigate their way around an iPad! Since there were 13 of us today, we tried 8 Spoons' Party Trays which were said to be good for 8 but believe me, the serving was very generous that almost everyone got second servings and there were still a lot of food left for dinner today (and maybe even for lunch tomo...