Frannywanny

Let me talk about Singapore's national dish once again -- the Hainanese Chicken Rice . This is really such a popular dish that no hawker centre or food court is complete without it. However, when it comes to searching for the best, Paul and I ventured out even to places that's not quite accessible by the MRT in order to have a taste of what some people would call THE BEST.  Let's see about that. First stop was at Boon Tong Kee in River Valley. Our first visit was exactly a few days after we got here a year ago. I can still remember it clearly though, Paul and I went to Sunday Mass and we agreed to have dinner at Boon Tong Kee which was located just around the corner. Can you just imagine how hard it was for me to concentrate during the priest's sermon when my mind was filled with visions of that tender white chicken meat, shiny and fragrant rice and more? Oh what a challenge and such a delicious temptation. 

O's birthday is coming up and he decided to celebrate it with the Normanton kids (NKids) a little bit earlier. So one Sunday, we traveled to the west *background music: Go West by Pet Shop Boys*   to have lunch at the new Westgate Mall . It was our second time here and I really like this mall a lot. While the zoning was a wee bit confusing, I just love the good mix of restaurants that you can find here. There's Tim Ho Wan , Ippudo SG, Paradise Dynasty, Miam Miam, my favorite Poulet , Tsukada Nojo and Skinny Pizza to name a few. One thing about the Nkids is that we are all up for trying out a new restaurant every time we go out together. So on this special day of O's, we tried Chicken Hot Pot which is a franchise from Shanghai, China. As the name suggests, this restaurant specializes in hot pot which is also known as shabu-shabu or steamboat. However, what makes it different is that the pot comes with a whole lot of meat and less soup initially. After you get your first...

I'd say, living in Manila, we were spoilt with a wide array of choices when it comes to Hong Kong / Cantonese - influenced dishes. Dimsum, for one, is abundant and almost all Chinese restaurants offers this. In fact, we can get siopao and siomai even from our neighborhood convenience store! With all these choices, then comes the inevitable questions -- where's the best dimsum in Manila ? Once again, I'll start by saying that taste is subjective so for Frannywanny, it just got to be Shang Palace at the Makati Shangri-la Hotel .  I love it so much that every visit I make always should include having lunch at Shang Palace just to enjoy their dimsum! We've been here so many times and yet there's no sign of us getting tired of it soon..maybe not ever in this lifetime! Luckily, our family loves it too making it such a breeze to round up the gang for some dimsum feast. It makes it so much better whenever we're given the function room allowing us more priv...

I ♥ ♥ ♥ SUSHI! Together with pesto pasta , a bag of corn chips and a box of Putong Ube , sushi one of my all-time favorites and definitely my ultimate comfort food of choice too. This is also why I just love dining at rotating sushi restaurants as I really enjoy choosing and feasting on dozens and dozens of fresh hand-rolled sushi and sashimi. Here in the Lion City, my go-to place for good but very affordable sushi is Ichiban Sushi  and its sister restaurant, Ichiban Boshi . I'm not really sure what the difference between the two are as I'd see one or the other in most of the major shopping malls all over the country. Both has that sushi conveyor belt, the same set of bento boxes and donburis and pretty much the same menu. I have this notion though that Ichiban Boshi  is slightly a notch higher than Ichiban Sushi  but I may be wrong. Does anyone know what's the difference between the two? Anyway, whenever visiting VIPs (a.k.a. our dear family) in town, we would alwa...

The temperature outside has been rising at such lightning speed! Almost everyday, we would complain of how hot it is outside and to cool down, all the more I start craving for ice cream, shakes and I've been entertaining thoughts of going for a nice relaxing swim at the pool or in the beach ( I miss you Boracay! ) It's THAT time of the year wherein I'd happily swap my staple Caramel Macchiato with a tall cup of Frappuccino any given time of the day. That's exactly what Paul and I did over the weekend when we had our regular coffee date. Instead of going for our usual orders (CM for me, Caramel Hot Chocolate for him), we tried Starbucks Coffee's newest drinks -- the Caramel Ribbon Crunch Frappuccino and the Banana Mango Frappuccino . Don't they just look so yummy and refreshing?

Over the past few weeks, my social media walls have been filled with photos of beautiful Korea where most of my friends and even some of my relatives went to for a nice vacation. These made me remember how much fun Paul and I had went we went to Seoul for a 5 day long trip two years ago. Almost everyday, we would have our favorite kimbap, Korean fried chicken and of course, beef bulgogi. Korean food is one cuisine that I don't think I'll ever get tired of having. I love it just as much as I love Chinese and Japanese food too. Since there's a small chance that we will go back to Seoul this year, we decided to just treat ourselves to a Korean dinner at the newly opened Chef's Noodle at Harbourfront Centre one evening. I've heard of Chef's Noodle back in Manila as they have a branch along Annapolis Street in Greenhills and they have expanded since then even tapping a couple of celebrities as endorsers. It's actually rare to have a restaurant open first in Ma...

I'm back from my short  Lenten hiatus and it surely was a good 3-day well spent organizing, getting artsy and creative as well as enjoying my life offline. How about you? I'm pretty sure a number of you are on your way back from an amazing vacation! Tell me about it below, okay? Anyway, do you remember the old nursery rhyme that goes like this: Hot cross buns!  Hot cross buns!  One a penny, Two a penny,  Hot cross buns! In some countries, it's a tradition to have a Hot Cross Bun during Good Friday . Well, it was my first time to see a real Hot Cross Bun  up close and the moment I saw it, I got every single flavor there is in Cedele Bakery Cafe . We then had this at home for breakfast last Good Friday and it was fun doing a little taste-testing on which flavor is the best.