Frannywanny

For those following this blog, you would know that I am not a BIG burger fan. In fact, it was only a few years ago when I started eating beef again after a 5-year long hiatus . Don't get me wrong, it's not that I dislike burgers in fact I've had the privilege of trying some of the best tasting ones these past few years but it's not something I would crave for on a regular basis. Paul would tease me that I am such a picky burger eater. While he loves burgers and was so happy especially during our trip to the US where it was definitely heaven for all burger lovers like himself, I limited my burger intake to two all throughout our two weeks stay and for me, that was enough. Incidentally, two weeks ago, The Foodie Club received an invite from our friend Alvin to dine at his restaurant along Xavierville Avenue . The name is Boulevard Diner and I was expecting all out diner food like burgers, fries, milkshakes and a lot more. Well Alvin did not disappoint as he trea...

We all had a very busy summer. Some flew in and out of the country, others got busy at work while I..created a BIG event . Thus this trip was very much awaited by every member of The Food Club namely: Jane and Chris , Richard and Irene , Abet and Joan , Ro and Peter , Carlos , Trixie , Paul and yours truly . After all, I was already day-dreaming about lounging by the pool while bonding with my dear friends. We all stuck by our proposed time schedule to be able to make the most of our trip and to be able to have more time to bond with one another. We all agreed to meet up at 830AM to load our groceries and drinks and to begin the not-so-long drive up to Tagaytay where we all agreed to stop for lunch before heading to Punta Fuego where we will stay for the night. While thinking of where to eat, Jane and I decided to try Amoroma as I've heard a number of raves from my boss. He told me they serve "real slices of black truffles" and that was in fact the magic word...

May 21, 2011 -- The day that I will never forget. It was the day that we've all been waiting for while praying to God that everything will just fall into place. We've all worked so hard making sure we stick to our objectives and that is to give all Yummy Eats visitors the best experience ever. It was a mix of sweat, fright and tears (luckily, no blood shed here) and I'm proud to say WE DID IT! Yummy Magazine 's biggest event to date was a HUGE SUCCESS and we got all 1200++ guests, our dear sponsors and media partners to thank for. It surely was a fun-filled day where NBC Tent was filled with food-lovers in all ages. There were 3 cooking demos, one major culinary school cook-off and more than 30 food booths to sample from. Everyone had a great time but I think I'll just let my fellow bloggers tell you more about it. Before that though, check out this cool video created by Yummy.ph . Yummy Eats from Yummy Magazine and Yummy.ph on Vimeo . Read more ...

What's your comfort food? I've asked this question a number of times and for me my comfort food is simply a plate of Farfalle alla Genovese from Cibo . I can have this at any given time of the day and it never fails to put a smile on my face. After working our hearts out at the recently concluded Yummy Eats , my boss treated us to lunch to celebrate our victory and to unwind. His choice was perfect -- 2nd's . A restaurant that aims to feature comfort food with a twist. I trust my boss for his taste in food that I easily rely on him to give amazing restaurant suggestions and dishes to try. We arrived at Bonifacio Highstreet just in time to beat the lunch crowd and I initially wasn't able to spot 2nd's right away as there was nothing but a simple signage by the building's facade. To easily guide you, 2nd's is located across Cav Wine Bar currently occupying the space where Mag:Net used to be. We took the elevator up and followed the signage tellin...

For those who may not have noticed, Angel's Kitchen was my first entry in this blog . In fact, I was inspired to go back to blogging and to bring Frannywanny to life after my dinner at this restaurant. I love the homey feel and the fact that they serve really good food. Not known to many, Angel's Kitchen is owned by five ICA mommies who eventually became really good friends as they all share an immense love for food and cooking. Prior to the restaurant, they would spearhead cooking demos and they have even created an amazing cookbook that I'm sure is present in most kitchens owned by an ICAn. You might be wondering what on earth ICA is. It's my alma mater and I'm very much proud of it. ICA stands for Immaculate Conception Academy which is located in San Juan. Back then, no one knew what ICA was or probably that it exists thus we have to say "it's the girls school beside Xavier" that's when people would suddenly go "ahhh..." At pr...

I guess our love for food truly runs in the family... I strongly believe in this as every member in the family loves everything and anything about food. From cooking to trying out new dishes, from visiting new restaurants to actually writing about them , we can just talk about food for hours and which actually makes a very interesting dinner topic. However, my cousin took a step further and opened his very own deli. That, in itself, is a true testament about how passionate he is about food and that he would love to share this with his customers. Meet the Deliboys . The brainchild of Wilcon Syjuico and Perry Choi , this cozy looking deli located at the 3rd floor of the newly constructed Northeast Square is your go-to place of delicious cheese, cold cuts and steak. The best part is, these are sold at very reasonable prices making you want to go back for more. One afternoon, wanting to unwind so badly, I was invited by my mom to have a light afternoon snack at my cousin's deli...

Here's a new trivia about me: I come from a bread-loving family. This is the reason why I didn't grow up having rice for breakfast everyday and instead we have loaves of bread on the table and we panic when we ran out of them and couldn't rush to the nearest bakery to refill our stock for the next day. As a result, we each have our own favorite type of bread. Mine would always be Ciabatta , my sister Foccacia , Mommy loves freshly baked pandesal and monay while my dad, a no-frills man, always goes for his 4 slices of Tasty in the morning. Together with our breads, we each have our own favorite spreads to. I love anything savory while my dad and sister prefer something sweet. Still we all love to shop for new jams, spread and fillings while doing our respective grocery shopping. Take my recent trip to the US for example, I went nuts inside the Knotts Berry Store as I hoarded on bottles of Strawberry and Apricot jams. Paul just stood beside me shaking his head and ...

I now officially close my Taipei series. I can't believe it has been a month since we got back and still the memories of the delicious things that we had during our short 3 day visit still remains fresh in my mind. To guide you all, here's a summary of what you should do and must try when in Taipei: 1) Get Tourist-y! Book a hotel and make sure to get a good one: I highly recommend Ceasar Park Hotel Visit the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall and learn a thing or two about Taiwan's colorful history. Climb up the Taipei 101 to win bragging rights that you've been to the 2nd tallest tower in the WORLD! 2) EAT your hearts out!! Visit these food markets: Danshui Food Street and the beautiful Fisherman's Wharf XiMenDing Night Market and the Red House Shilin Night Market These are some great food finds in Taipei: Mala HotPot (and make sure to indulge in their eat-all-you-can Haagen Dazs and Movenpick ice cream!!) Agnes B. Cafe Din Tai Fung -- ...

Aside from exploring the various tourist spots found in a country and treating your taste buds to the taste of their local cuisine, pasalubong (souvenir) shopping is always a part of one's travel itinerary as it gives you the chance to take a piece of your travel destination home for you to remember. Pasalubong comes in different types. My friend J collects magnets from all the countries that she has visited, while I make sure to drop by the local Starbucks store to buy myself a City Mug to add to my growing collection. My sister, on the other hand, makes sure that she stocks up on local snacks and food items that she can share with the family back home. If a trip to Manila is not complete without buying boxes of sweet Dried Mangoes and Goldilocks products, we found out that while in Taipei, we have to make sure to buy boxes of authentic Pineapple Cake to take home. Of course, we have to look for the best and thanks to fellow bloggers Richard and Leslie who gave high praise...

*SPONSORED POST* “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I think I’ve heard this question a number of times as a child. Relatives, family friends, basically everyone and anyone older than me have thrown that question my way hoping I’d give a kiddie beauty pageant answer like “when I grow up, I want to: a) be a doctor to save lives.” b) be a lawyer to defend the poor.” c) be a superhero and save the world.” Sadly, probably to their disappointment, I had a very simple dream… “I wanted to be a housewife.” Yes, even as a little girl, I knew I wanted to meet my Prince Charming, have the cutest and smartest kids and live happily ever after. Blame it on Cinderella or Snow White but in my little world, I just want to live happily and to have a life filled with love. I never thought I’d be part of the corporate world and in fact am enjoying every moment of it. Sure, in college, I dreamt of working in a magazine industry and I was pretty specific then that I only wanted to be part of...

When in Taiwan, we were told to check out their night markets and of all the night markets there is in Taipei, we were advised not to miss the biggest night market of all -- the Shilin Night Market . This place has been mentioned repeatedly in travel guide books, blogs and even the Taipei handy road map. Thus, we scheduled our visit to Shilin Night Market on our second night in Taipei. It was quite unfortunately that it began raining late in the afternoon and didn't stopped till dinner time. Still, my friends were determined to check Shilin out even if this means walking under the rain and getting our feet wet. In contrast to XiMenDing which had a very cosmopolitan Tokyo vibe, Shilin was more oriental and laid back. We entered the main Shilin Market and came face to face with rows after rows of food stalls. There were lines forming everywhere! From milk teas to fruit stalls to a kiosk selling the biggest chicken chops I've ever seen and a lot more! It was like a big ...

The first time I heard about Din Tai Fung was from my mom who, after coming home from her Singapore trip, couldn't stop raving about this restaurant that serves the best tasting Xiao Long Bao that she has ever tasted in her life. She and my aunt loved it so much that at some point my aunt even considered bringing this amazing brand to Manila. It didn't took that long for me to also try Din Tai Fung myself. Ten months ago, when Paul and I went to Singapore for our Honeymoon, we set a dinner date with his cousin J for a fun Xiao Long Bao dinner at ...where else?!... Din Tai Fung ! We were fortunate that there was a branch located at the mall adjacent to our hotel. We had a great time! I love their Xiao Long Bao and Pork Chop Fried Rice . Needless to say, Paul and I have officially added Din Tai Fung into our list of favorite restaurants. Read more about our DTF Singapore here. Fast forward to our Taipei trip, of course Din Tai Fung was in our list of must-visits as th...

Admittedly, I am not the most patient person in the face of the earth. While I manage to keep a happy disposition most of the time, my patience quickly runs out especially when pressed for time or when faced with an important task that I want done right away. I move fast simply because I want to complete my work ASAP. Take my wedding preparation a year back for example where Paul and I were given a long list of requirements by the church before they can fully processed our papers for our BIG day. Given that both of us have day jobs, we basically just have the weekend to attend to all our pending tasks and we simply have no time to line up to request for any essential documents as we both know this could take up the entire day. Luckily I chanced upon Teleserv , a local website where I can request for all our NSO documents such as our birth certificates and the CENOMAR (certificate of no marriage) with just one phone call. Of course I was hesitant at first but after chatting with ...

Everyone has their own collections and fascinations, take my husband Paul for example -- he loves wearing caps thus he has a growing collection of caps bought from all over the world and even funny looking ones that he came across at some point in his life. His collection is quite huge that it took him a while to finally decide that he needs to leave some behind when we got married and moved into our humble cozy...room. I, on the other hand, love collecting tickets and souvenirs from my travels. Thanks to my best friend T who gave me a pretty travel journal, I enjoy filling each page with photos and tickets taken from our trips. I also love my name thus my growing collection of keychains, stickers, magnets with my name on it. Call me vain but I love keeping my items personalized. It all began during our honeymoon trip to Kuala Lumpur where we came face to face with the 5th tallest tower in the world : the Petronas Twin Towers . For one whole day, we stared and took lots of photos s...

Back when I was working for the Green Siren , I learned how to mix my own drinks. Along the way, I learned to be creative. Adding a shot here and there, combining two syrups to create a new flavor or changing my milk to lessen the calories. Those, however, were only limited to espresso based drinks. With the cold Frappuccino blended beverages , we can't do as much. Back then, all Frappuccinos had a pre-mix base thus it's either you want it cream or coffee based. From there you choose your flavor that determines the syrups that will be used. I guess the farthest customization that I've done with my Frappuccino is to add more syrup into my Strawberries n Cream Frappuccino or adding a shot to my Mocha Frappuccino. That's basically just about it. It has been almost three years since I've professionally bid the Green Siren good bye. Thus my visits have lessened as opposed to my bi-weekly store visits before. It was only just recently when I dropped by our favorite ...

Months before our much-awaited trip to Taiwan, I asked my Taiwanese friend to give me food tips like the must-try restaurants and dishes to look out for. Her reply was simple: "Well for me, you can find the yummiest things on the street and they're all very cheap!" She said this with her Taiwanese husband nodding beside her. Paul was relieved, this means we can travel on a smaller budget and can still manage to eat, eat and eat. One of the main things that I love about our hotel -- Caesar Park Hotel is its amazing location. Walk out the side door of the hotel and you'll come face to face with street after street of food kiosks! We later found out that there are a number of schools within the area thus a lot of small eateries and milk tea shops decided to open here. Our hunger pangs were immediately attended to with just a few steps needed to get to the nearest stall. On our second morning in Taiwan , we decided to have breakfast within the area. Our first stop...

*SPONSORED POST*  3:30 AM, onboard Cebu Pacific flight 5J 311 My short one-hour and a half nap was interrupted with this message from the pilot: “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Local time is 30 minutes past the hour of three in the morning … I’d like to thank you for joining us on this trip and we are looking forward to seeing you on board Cebu Pacific again.” Yes, I am finally back in Manila and my amazing three day vacation in Taipei has finally come to an end. I was feeling a bit light-headed as sleeping in the airplane was not exactly what I’d call comfortable nevertheless; our flight was pretty smooth all throughout. After speeding past through immigration and customs, we found Mommy and our driver Kuya M waiting for us at the Arrival Gate. Traffic was non-existent at this hour so we were able to zoom pass EDSA in minutes. Arriving at our neighborhood, I asked Mommy if we can grab something to eat. Obviously, everything was close...

One of our agenda as we were planning for our trip to Taiwan was to make sure that that our evenings are well-spent in various night markets scattered around Taipei . Reading up on Taiwan, we found out that there are a lot of night markets all over the country. It surely looks like everyone in Taiwan has an amazing gastronomical night life ! This is one thing I was looking forward to and my excitement grows as the day gets nearer. On our first night, we took the MRT from Danshui and headed to the Ximen Station . It was around 5PM when we got to Ximen and decided to check out the Red House which is just a few steps away from the MRT exit. This is an old market turned into a movie theater turned into a gallery/cafe/performance hall. It has been around for more than a century and still they have maintained the beautiful red exteriors that we saw up close. From The Red House, we crossed the street and followed the huge crowd towards the Ximending Night Market . Near this area is a...

Every time, every single opportunity I get, I try to improve this site in the best way I can. I listen to requests sent by readers and I try to apply them here in order to give all of you the best reading experience possible. Thanks to Nokia Ovi , I was given the chance to create a new medium where you, my readers, will be able to access Frannywanny.com and be updated with my food and travel stories anytime, anywhere. Downloading is simple. Just visit my official landing page at the Nokia Ovi Store and press the "Send to Cell" button. In a few minutes, you will be receiving a message in your phone with a link that will lead you to where to download this app. EASY! If you're like me who likes to while away time while browsing the net, then this app is perfect for you! You'll be able to read this blog through your mobile phone wherever you may be at whatever given time of the day! This is the reason why I love technology, it speeds up productivity while mak...

After visiting the Taipei 101 , which is the second tallest tower in the world, little did I know that we were about to have a fashionable afternoon tea. It was starting to drizzle and with our legs starting to cramp up from too much walking, we decided to just look for a coffee shop at the nearby Eslite Mall . Arriving at the ground floor, my sister saw a cozy looking coffee shop and directed us there. It was an Agnes B. Cafe , one that Paul and I have been wanting to try out every time we're in Hong Kong . I'm so happy that Taiwan has this as well. We probably all know Agnes B. for her pretty bags and dresses but this brand is also starting to gain popularity in the cafe scene. I love the sleek white and black interiors. Can you see how inviting the pastry shelf was? It really did pulled my sister and I closer until we couldn't resist leaving without ordering. Paul simply wanted a cup of coffee while my sister and I couldn't stop starting at the sandwiches...

Here's a story about a quiet city at the northern tip of Taipei. We first heard about this place from our friends Richard and Irene who have nothing but raves about their market. Researching about Danshui more, I found out that it's also a must to visit the Lover's Bridge and the Fisherman's Wharf which are both located a good fifteen minutes bus ride away from the main station. This was our next stop after our cultural morning at the Chiang-Kai Shek Memorial Hall . It was very easy to get here, just hop on the MRT and ride up until the end of the Red Line, that's Danshui Station . Coming from the station, we walked towards the riverside and followed the steady stream of people heading towards the Danshui Food Market. You won't miss it! From the station, look for Mister Donut and turn right, you'll go through a park and keep your eyes to your right. The first thing that you'll see the Ji Guang Delicious Fried Chicken kiosk . This one seems to b...

Hello May! We are getting a lil bit closer to the end of the first half of 2011 and I welcome May with some GREAT news! The countdown begins (yup! 20 days to go as of this moment) , Yummy Magazine will have its first ever food fair and YOU'RE ALL INVITED! Check out the Yummy Eats which I promise to be a fun cooking and eating fair for all of us! It's on May 21, 2011 from 10AM to 6PM at the NBC Tent, Bonifacio Global City . Just last week, I was fortunate enough to meet majority of our hand-pick food concessionaires who will be present during the event and was able to sample their best-selling items! All I can say was...they're all YUMMY ! The entire day is also filled with various activities such as cooking demo, culinary school cook-offs and a lot more! Of course, lots of prizes will also be raffled off! So, mark your calendars, spread the word and see you all on May 21 !! :)