Frannywanny

Allow me to let you in on a secret.  It's the kind of the secret that I've carefully kept mum about for the past 13 years. However, I feel it's the right time to make the big reveal. So, here goes.... I found the ONE. That glorious plate of Baked Macaroni and I can dare say that it's the best that I've tasted in my entire 33 years of existence. Too good that I'm allowing myself to be melodramatic about it.  Welcome to Toll House . A home-grown neighborhood coffee shop found along the busy street of Sto. Rosario  in Angeles, Pampanga. Paul first took me here during our early days of dating and if I remember correctly, it was exactly after he officially introduced me as his girlfriend to his gwama and gwakong  which led to a short chit-chat a.k.a. interview. Yes, we had a " Meet the Grandparents " kind of moment and I guess it went pretty well so we headed to Toll House to celebrate. Haha! 

The Food Club went on another out of town trip and this time we all headed to Paul's hometown in Angeles, Pampanga ; where we stayed the night in Fontana Leisure Park . ( Read Rowena's blog entry about it here ) We got there around 11 in the morning and The Club decided to go Duty Free shopping first. After which, lunch was next on the itinerary and being the ones who frequent Pampanga a lot, I asked the group if they're game to have ribs for lunch. After all, I had my favorite restaurant in mind. I first encountered AC Rumpa a few years ago when Paul and I first watched the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta in Clark. As always, I went prepared ready with a list of restaurants to try after doing my research online and AC Rumpa got the most number of votes from our Hot Air Balloon group. AC Rumpa stands for Angeles City Retired US Military Personnel Association. I'm not really sure if the owner is an American or a Filipino but one thing I'm really sure of is that they ...

Paul has been going back and forth his hometown these past few weeks. During one of his visits, he found himself eating at Everybody's Cafe with his mom and little did he know, this marked the start of his love for.... fried crickets . Yes, you read that right. While he actually can bravely take in all sorts of exotic dishes such as Turtle Soup, Fried Frog Legs and a lot more, I don't think Paul really imagined the day that he would be having a spoonful of fried crickets with rice and meat. Since then, he has been craving for more thus the reason for our impromptu visit up north for lunch at (where else?!) Everybody's Cafe . To be honest, I wasn't as excited as him knowing that we are to dine at a restaurant that serves all sorts of local delicacies / exotic dishes. As you may all know, I can be a pretty picky eater and not a big fan of anything beyond the usual pork, beef, seafood and chicken. Still, I went there with an open mind and a growling tummy so I was q...

Let me tell you about the day I had the best cake in my LIFE! It as a Saturday and Paul and I took a spur-of-the-moment trip back to his hometown in Pampanga . Yup, my dear husband is a true blue Cabalen (and he's really really proud of it!) . Our plan was simply to go on a fun relaxed ride, have lunch, buy some pasalubong and grab a really good dessert on our way back home. Lunch was at a restaurant that Paul has been bugging me to try as it's known to serve all sorts of exotic dishes such as stir-fried crickets, stuffed frogs and a lot more. I really do not get why on earth Paul would think I'd be brave enough to go on a an exotic food trip. Well, let me tell you more about that on my next entry. For now, I'd like to share with you where we had dessert and the cake that truly made traveling all the way to Pampanga truly worth it. à La crème Cake Shop and Cafe is a local bakeshop that originated in Angeles, Pampanga a decade ago. Today, they have three bran...

I'd say old habits die hard...and so does this almost half-a-decade-long tradition. It has been almost 5 years since Paul and I have been traveling to his hometown in Angeles, Pampanga every February to watch more than a dozen hot air balloons fly up in the sky. In the past years though, we manage to book a hotel room and spend the night in Angeles giving us sufficient time to wake up just about the right time before we should head to the Clark Air Field to catch the sunrise. This year, we took the more challenging option which is to leave Manila at exactly 3AM to be able to get to Clark by 5. I guess word has really spread far and wide about this yearly event that we were faced with a bad traffic jam from the entrance of Clark up until the parking lot of the Air Field. At 430AM there was already a long line of cars filled with excited passengers hoping that they will make it inside on time. We finally found our parking spot at 530AM and thanks to Richard and Irene who got tick...