Frannywanny

I call myself lucky because in the rare times that I'd get sent to a business trip..I was sent to the United States. Also, of all the states there is in this country, I ended up flying to California where my Ahia Jeff is based. So, on the first day of my vacation here in the US, I made plans to have dinner with my cousin. I guess being a food-lover runs in our family (in my case on both sides) as Ahia Jeff made reservations at Bouchon Bistro , a popular French restaurant owned by a Michelin-star awardee Chef Tom Keller . Aside from Bouchon Bistro , he also owns the high-end restaurant French Laundry . We agreed to meet at 7PM but traffic was so bad that despite leaving an hour early, we got stuck along the freeway and arrived 45 minutes past 7. Sadly, due to this, Ahia Jeff lost his reservation as it takes one more than a month to get a table here as it's always packed with guests every night. We ended up having dinner at the bar area at the ground floor. Our server was so...

Tonight, L and I celebrated the start of our real vacation here in the US. She's heading to the east to bond with her siblings while I will be joining Paul as we explore cool and laid-back California. Taking the recommendation of our business partner here in the US, he told us not to miss out on visiting Fashion Island in Newport Beach . This area is part of my list as I would love to check out the setting of the hit TV series, The O.C . Although, I'm not a fan nor a viewer of the show, I'd still like to see the place myself. As Irvine is purely a business district filled with tall office buildings, Newport has a different vibe. With huge houses and lush greeneries, it definitely looks and feel like this is the upscale part of the Orange Country. Fashion Mall is HUGE! I'm simply amazed that major retailers would really acquire a huge piece of real estate as most shops in this part of town is almost of the same size as our average supermarket back home. This, I...

Greetings from cold and sunny California! After 16 long hours of trying to keep still and stay as comfortable as we can in the plane, Paul, Leah and I finally made it to the U.S.A.!!! While I'm trying to decide whether to catch some sleep as it's already 3 in the afternoon here and run the risk of staying up the entire evening later or to just withstand the urge to shut my heavy eyelids to be able to enjoy a deep slumber later, I think I'll just share with you how our transit was via Delta Airlines . The Good Things First and foremost, I love the service. We were well taken cared of by the flight attendants at any given point of the flight. I particularly liked one Chinese flight attendant who was very attentive to our needs. Upon knowing that Paul and I are Chinese too, she began speaking to us in Mandarin which I struggled to respond in small broken phrases and relied on my husband to supply the missing words. (Oh, how I wish I took my Mandarin classes more seriously ...

Here we go again! We've packed our bags, double triple checked our documents and printed out our itinerary. We're off to a trip that took only two months for us to prepare and boy, am I excited!! :) I can't wait to see what the USA has to offer! I'll be back soon with more stories and food discoveries to share. So it's goodbye for now! :) See you soon, dear readers. p.s. thanks to my sweet Mommy for the new bag tag! I ♥ it! Signing off, Fran

Early this year, when I was creating my list of restaurants that I would like to try for 2011, Paul gave me a great idea -- why don't I challenge myself in finding budget-friendly places that will be able to give me a complete meal for P180 or less ? I guess he noticed that majority of our savings really do go to food and it's really time to spend wisely. I was definitely up for the challenge. Thus, I officially launch a new series here at Frannywanny.com called Budget Eats ! Today, I start with Binalot, a popular food chain that I've been forever curious to try. For the past years, I've been seeing a lot of my colleagues having their lunch wrapped in banana leaf -- it's our Pinoy-version rice toppings with a generous serving of rice and their choice of meat served with salted egg and tomatoes. Binalot has been known for their rice meals and how successful they have been with their menu line-up can be seen with the numerous branches that have been growing li...

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...

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.

My sister and I live under the same roof yet in these past few weeks, I hardly had the chance to chat with her. She has been very busy with work that she would come home late at night while I've been feeling extremely tired lately that I was already in bed as early as 10PM (sign of early aging? I hope not!) . I guess she misses me so much already (haha!) that she sent me an SMS last Friday inviting me to an afternoon bonding session before heading home. I immediately said yes and I was so excited that I hardly could sit through all my meetings that day. Finally at around 530PM, I left the office to head to Podium for our much-awaited bonding session. We agreed to meet at Borough , a restaurant that I've been wanting to try out. I'm glad my sister was game enough to take that longer walk to Podium from her office instead of just hopping over to SM Megamall. See, she misses me THAT much! :) I bought a P495 coupon from Deal Grocer a month ago. It's a set consisting...

Through this blog, I was able to chronicle how we have been celebrating our Valentine's Day for the past 4 years. First, there was that delicious pasta dinner at Pizzeria Toscana in 2008 and then we went Filipino over at Bagoong Club last 2009. While in 2010, we satisfied our craving of ribs at Tony Roma's . Despite how we would seem to just do the same thing every year, which is to dine out, I always look forward to this red-letter day as I know each Valentine's date is always special with Paul. All the more, I was really excited this year as it will be our first Valentine's Day as a married couple. Before going to bed last Friday, Paul decided that we're having our Valentine's lunch date the next day at Umu in Dusit Thani Manila . Even how much I'd still like to sleep till noon, the thought of enjoying platters of sushi and teppanyaki dishes made me really excited. At 11PM last Friday, my tummy was growling loudly, perhaps it's its way of ...

Four years. It has been four long years since college friends Daff, Anne, Tim, Len, Paul and yours truly shared a meal together. Call it falling out. We've had our own drama episodes in the past until little by little we've learned to pull down our pride and agreed to start on a clean slate. After all, that's what friendship is all about, right? Paul and I would regularly double date with soon-to-wed Len and Tim and last Wednesday night was no different. I sent Len an SMS to ask how she's doing and she invited me out to dinner. Only this time, she asked if I am game to invite Anne and Daff to join us. Without hesitation, I texted back, "sure, why not?!" I haven't seen them for a long time and it would really be nice to catch up with old friends..after all, we've known each other for more than a decade already. Looking back, they were all seated at the front row as they watched my love story with Paul unfold. We agreed to meet at Shi Lin a...

Last Monday, Chris invited the Club to dine at Coco Asian Kitchen at the Greenhills Promenade. Paul and I are familiar with this restaurant that opened last 2009 but never got around to trying it as we were loaded with wedding preparations for the first half of last year and an assortment of trips for the second half of 2010. This just goes to show how time flies, while we frequent the Greenhills Shopping Center almost twice in a month, we would just have enough time to run our errands of paying the bills, buying some groceries or having our clothes altered. It has been a while since we had the privilege to leisurely stroll around and try the new restaurants in this area. I'm glad that 2011 seems to be a more laid-back year for us. Giving us sufficient relaxing weekends and weeknights where we can unwind either as a twosome or with our group of friends. We were introduced to the owners of Coco Asian Kitchen , a local concept with dishes taken from various Asian cuisines. With...