Frannywanny

During our amazing Anniversary weekend staycation at Marco Polo Ortigas Manila , Paul and I were lucky to be upgraded to a Superior Suite which allowed us to have access to their Continental Club Lounge . This really made us so happy as we both love hanging out at the lounge most especially during cocktail hour! The Continental Club Lounge is located at the 44th floor of the hotel which gives you an unobstructed view of the city. I just love sitting by the window while enjoying our drinks and snacks. The Ortigas skyline, after all, is very beautiful. The lounge itself is very spacious with ample areas for one to hold meetings or to have quiet discussions. Dress code is strictly observed here as with any hotel lounges. We also love how attentive the staff are here as they would willingly ask if you need a refill of your drinks, if you'd like some coffee or tea or when I was looking for a bowl of nuts, they quickly served some to us.

I'm aliveeeeeeeee!!! This is probably the fist time in 10 years that my blog has been this quiet but I got a couple of good excuses reasons why. First of all, Paul and I have been busy the past few months as we have decided to finally relocate back to Manila. Yes, you read that right. We're finally back home and we haven't been happier. Don't get me wrong, our life in Singapore was nothing but a dream come true but every good chapter should have an equally good ending and so we have decided to close that chapter just at the perfect time as we await to start a new one. Secondly, speaking of opening a new chapter. I'm so excited to share with you all that another dream of ours is about to unfold in the next few months, Paul and I will be welcoming our bundles of joy. That wasn't a grammatical error. We prayed so hard for almost a year and God answered our prayers by not only blessing us with one but with two beautiful babies whom we're both so excited to me...

For a country, like the Philippines, who loves to eat, it's then expected to have such a booming food industry and boy, competition can be very very fierce! There's basically a lot of options to eat from such as the basic carinderias , to the growing number of food parks, then there's a wide array for restaurants specializing in all sorts of cuisines and cooking techniques then we have our hotels. Within one hotel, you can expect to have more than 3 F&B outlets such as a traditional Chinese or Japanese restaurant, a coffee shop and our favorite -- an all-day dining restaurant which offers its culinary masterpieces buffet-style. Now, it's not really a big surprise how come Paul and I would always pack on so much weight after spending a couple of days back in Manila. Most of the time, we just eat, eat and eat! During our recent visit home, we checked out Cucina  at Marco Polo Ortigas Manila . We've loved this hotel after dining at Lung Hin and we told ourselv...

5 years. For many, that may seem like a long time but seriously, 5 years or 1825 days to be exact could fly by sooo fast. Take this year for example, would you believe that we're 16 days away from 2016? That's just a little more than 2 weeks and it's time to bid the year good bye. Wow! That said, I couldn't believe that it has been 5 years since my last visit to 22 Prime in Discovery Suites. I'm glad that Paul and I were able to squeeze in a nice steak lunch before checking in at the hotel two months ago for my sister's big day. Despite how long it has been, I could still vividly remember how amazing my lunch at 22 Prime was. The big Tomahawk steak as well as the delicious bread basket with three yummy spreads brings back delicious memories. I even remembered telling myself that I have to take Paul there given that he loves loves loves steak.  Well, finally we managed to do that and it was indeed a nice sunny day to enjoy our steak lunch. Of course, ...

I really love it whenever I get to catch up with my dear friends Jin and Leslie . If you haven't visited their blogs yet, I highly recommend that you do so after reading this entry as, for me, they are the best and most reliable food bloggers in town. ♥ I trust Jin and Leslie's taste when it comes to food so whenever we dine out, it's one of those rare moments where I'd rather keep quiet and allow my two friends to take the lead. Take for example our recent lunch out at Lung Hin , I know they've been there so many times but knowing that I'm dying to try this when I visited Manila last month, they were game enough to go back just to have lunch with me and Paul. Aren't they the sweetest? It took us a while to locate the hotel so we were actually the last to arrive. Leslie, the ever prompt one, took charge of pre-ordering the Roast Duck (Php. 1,600/half) as she knows that it will take a while for this to be ready. True enough, our glorious plate of du...

For friends and readers who are still wondering if they should visit Manila, Philippines. Allow me to give you just one reason why you should : our FOOD. This is even putting aside the wide-array of local dishes that your palates will go crazy over... imagine the lechon (roasted pig), pancit palabok (glass noodles in orange achuete sauce with seafood), the kakanins in all shapes and flavors (rice cakes) and more! Never have I thought that I can get all patriotic until I'd get into a conversation with my foreign colleagues about our local Filipino food. Oh boy, I can definitely go on and on for hours! Lately, more and more restaurants and food concepts have been opening its doors all over the country. Take the newly opened SM Mega Fashion Hall for example. My list of restaurants to try in Manila could barely keep up with one restaurant opening after the other. It would probably take me a couple more visits to be able to try them all. I'm so blessed though that frie...

Most balikbayans / OFWs will surely agree with this statement: "No matter how long your trip back to the Philippines is, it will never be long enough."  In other words, it will always feel like you just have so many things to do with so little time. The best solution for this? Multi-task . Believe it or not, I have begun creating day-to-day itinerary whenever we fly back to Manila. Every minute is precious and can never be wasted not doing anything. Of course, we have to make sure that we have set aside ample time to bond with our families too. For this particular trip, Paul had to go to LTO to have his driver's license renewed. Since we went right on the last work day before Christmas Day, we were greeted with a shockingly long queue and what used to just be an hour-long processing time took us almost half a day. Not wanting to rant that we have just wasted half a day waiting in line, it was a good thing that the LTO office was just right across Tiendesitas where t...

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...

Who would have thought that you can actually find really good food at the 2nd floor of a business hotel that's located right at the heart of the Ortigas Central Business District (CBD)? That was one of our realizations after having such a yummy lunch at Mesclun in Linden Suites last January. Last January, Paul and I have been eating out non-stop with friends and family who were so sweet to spend some quality time with us. I actually wasn't planning to say yes to dining invitations anymore given the state of our social schedule. However, the girls behind Mesclun were just so sweet (and persistent hehe) that we just have to say YES to their email/Twitter/Facebook invite (beat that!) . Well, I honestly am glad I did.  We have been to Linden Suites before to attend a work-related event as well as to be surprised by our own friends and my sister as they threw us a joint bridal/stag party in one of their suite rooms a few years ago. What I love about Linden Suites is t...

November is finally here and for the past weeks, Mommy has been bugging us to organize a Thanksgiving Dinner for the family. Note that we've never celebrated Thanksgiving before and the only times I've had turkey was at Dad's Eat All You Can Buffet, the US Potato Board's Annual Thanksgiving Dinners and at Disneyland Anaheim where Paul and I shared a turkey leg. After all, it really would take a good chef to be able to impress me with turkey as I normally find it bland and dry. Thus, I really do not know why Mommy suddenly wants to celebrate Thanksgiving but I have a strong feeling a major craving for turkey has something to do with it. *wink* When Paul and I got an invite to celebrate Thanksgiving last August, we excitedly headed to Damaso Residencia which was the private residence of our dinner host, Chef Bambi Sy Gobio . Chef Bambi is also the talented lady behind the restaurant Restaurante Pia Y Damaso in Greenbelt 5. No thanks to color coding, we were the l...

My family has been a long time loyal patron of Buon Giorno Tagaytay . Every trip to Tagaytay would not be complete without two things: a meal at Josephine's and lunch at Buon Giorno . Yes, that's how loyal my family can get. For as long as we love the food and we find the price reasonable, expect us to be back regularly. After lunch at Buon Giorno my parents love to spend more time around the area as we enjoy the cool breeze and the beautiful sight of the Taal Volcano. Once in a while, my mom would crave for something Italian and to her dismay not a single Italian restaurant here in Manila could satisfy her craving as much as Buon Giorno could. Her request is simple: fresh ingredients, balanced flavor, top quality meat. Our favorite is the Smoked Salmon with Mango Dill Sauce and their Risotto. We were so happy when Buon Giorno opened their first branch in Metro Manila along Shaw Boulevard. Sadly though, the ambiance there just doesn't match with that of their Tagaytay br...

After our fun reunion dinner with Ei at B&T last month, we were back again a week again this time with The Club to sample more of what B&T has to offer. We were a huge group of 10 and despite being seated in a long table, Philip of B&T still managed to fill up our table with food, food and more food! Let me share with you a number of B&T dishes that I really enjoyed that evening: While waiting for the others to arrive, we had baskets of Chips and Chili con Carne (Php. 180) to munch on. I had this also during my first visit and I love the crunchy colorful nachos. It's lightly salted allowing the Chili con Carne dip to shine. I'm glad that it doesn't have a hint of spice making it very kid-friendly.

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 fellow bloggers Chris and Jane once said, it'll surely be a Prime day . True enough, I took a break from my usual office lunch consisting of a homemade sandwich and a small piece of banana and headed to 22 Prime at the Discovery Suites in Ortigas to join a couple of bloggers for a steak lunch. What I did not expect was that we won't be having the usual rib-eye steak that's good for one but instead we came face to face with the biggest piece of meat that I've ever seen! Introducing the Tomahawk Rib-Eye Chop that's approximately 1 kilogram heavy. As Chef David Pardo de A yala carried this out from his kitchen, I couldn't help but wish that I have Paul or my dad there with me as they are long-time steak fans in the family and would definitely be amazed by the size of this! I can just imagine having the entire piece of lunch which I think would take me the entire day to finish! What a HUGE piece of Meat! Lunch began with basket of bread and thre...