Frannywanny

Just a few days ago, I got into a conversation with a colleague. She asked me how many siblings I have and when I told her I just have Pan, my younger sister; she suddenly goes.. "ohhh no wonder! you're the eldest." There have been studies actually that people share similar personalities and behavior with someone of the same birth order. I actually do believe in this. For instance, most of my friends and relatives who are the eldest in the family tend to be natural decision-makers. We think and decide fast, this probably comes with the many years of leading the brood (well I just have one tagging along me all the time heehee) that we are used to being the leader. Most of the youngest in the family, on the other hand, are more carefree and fun-loving. This is not saying that we first borns are boring but it's just that by the time they're growing up, most parents are more lenient and would just let them do their thing. I may be wrong but that's all based on...

If given a choice, I would definitely choose to have breakfast food all-day long. There's really something about the traditional bacon-egg-pancakes trio that makes it so fun to eat. As much as I dream to have brunch with Paul on a lazy Sunday morning, that has yet to become a reality as it's really so hard to pull ourselves out of bed when there's a choice to just forget about the alarm and to catch up on sleep till noon. It's really a good thing that more and more restaurants are coming into existence and they specialize in one common thing : All-Day Breakfast . Hooray! Similar to how the food scene is in Manila, there seem to be a fast-rising trend on ramens and breakfast joints here in the Lion City . I think I've talked a lot about ramen already so let me focus on the latter. For breakfast lovers like myself, this is really good news. Now, you can have your favorite breakfast platter at any given time of the day.  A month ago, Paul and I had dinner wit...

Hi! I'm Frannywanny and I've been bitten (real hard) by a cupcake bug. It all began a few months back when our sweet and really thoughtful flatmate I came knocking on our door. As we opened it, there she was with a big smile on her face and a bright pink box on her hand. "Gusto nyo?" (you want?) was all she said. That was our cue to nod and reach out our hands to check what was inside the bright pink box. Twelve Cupcakes , it says. I got to admit, I'm not a big cupcake fan as I normally would scrape off the icing from the cupcake before taking a bite. Friends would tell me, I'm better off with a muffin and so I never really grew fond of cupcakes as in my mind.. I truly am better off with a muffin. I tried the Red Velvet cupcake as among all the cupcakes, its one that I know makes use of cream cheese frosting. Pretty safe for someone who can't take any heavy cream. Before taking a bite, I told Paul and we should share first to avoid wastage. How...

Dear readers, Please make my birthday wish come true! I'm up against 4 extremely talented food/cooking bloggers for the Tefal Chef Challenge and after attending a cooking demo conducted by Chefs Jason Vito and Benson Tang of ONAKA , we're now tasked to create our very own recipe! Sadly, voting is only open to all those with Singapore IC/FIN numbers (in other words, you have to be based here to vote!). Nonetheless, I would like to ask you to pleaseeeeee ask your Singapore-based friends and relatives to vote for me! All who sends in their vote get the chance to win their very own Tefal Blendforce Triplax Blender & Chopper woth $79.90. Everyone can vote once  a day! To all Singapore-based readers, I'm countin on you! *hugs* Please VOTE for ME!!! ♥, Fran Here's sharing with you the entry that I've recently posted at the official Tefal Chef Challenge website . Don't you just wish that the weekend can go on forever? Imagine not having to rush ou...

One thing I love about Singapore is that the government gives a BIG importance to food safety and sanitation. Wherever we go, be it a high-end restaurant or a hole-in-a-wall eatery, you'd see laminated colored letter signages on the wall of these food places. These are the sanitation grading that they have received and so far I've been seeing a lot of As and Bs and haven't came across a C yet. If Manila has fast food joints and Jolly jeeps in the Central Business District (CBD), here we have hawker centres which is not only limited to CBDs but can be found in residential areas too. I'm so lucky that there's one that's just a few steps away from my office and this is where I would buy lunch almost everyday. I love the variety yet at times, this can be quite challenging as I couldn't make up my mind whether I'd like to get chicken rice or duck noodles, or perhaps go healthy with some salad or to keep it light with a piece of curry puff with a fruit ju...

This particular entry marks my 1,192nd blog post here at Frannywanny.com . This means that I've written that much in the span of 6 years! Quite a LOT, isn't it? Out of all the entries, I'd say that 80% are on the different restaurants I've tried locally, 15% are those I was able to visit abroad and the rest are on shopping finds, home ideas, beauty, my occassional musings and a lot more. Therefore, if you do the math, I've visited about 953 local restaurants to date. Now, that explains why I'm still a far cry from having a supermodel body. Haha! Given the numbers I've mentioned above, there are still some restaurants that I'm surprised I haven't gotten around to blogging about. Thus, I'm making it my 2013 resolution to ensure that they make it to this blog site for me to share my favorites with you. One of those is my go-to place whenever the need to have some comfort food comes about. I'm talking about Conti's Bakeshop & Restaurant...

Happy birthday to me!  On the 1st day of June, I will be turning a year older and hopefully, a little bit more wiser. This year's birthday will be a bit different for what I've been having in the past. For one thing, it will be simpler and more intimate too. It will be my first birthday away from home...away from everyone close to my heart. I don't think I'll still do my annual week-long birthday celebration. Though, I'm still eyeing to do a fun bbq pool party with friends here. :) Let's see how everything pans out. Just as I'm doing things differently this year, I also thought of treating two lucky readers to a delicious ramen dinner at Mistuyado Sei-Men . Consider it my birthday treat special thanks to the cool folks of Mitsuyado! :) Please do order my favourite dishes and if you can, have a piece of cake on my behalf! Deal? I've blogged about Mitsuyado Sei-Men a couple of months ago. As a marketing practicioner, I always believe that being the ...

In the past months that I'm away from home, I had this big realization . While everyone thinks that Long Distance Relationship is hard... Long Distance Friendship is just as challenging and truly a test to see who are the friends you seriously have to keep in your life. Not wanting to sound melodramatic but yes, we do know that we all have our own lives but real friends are there regardless of time, distance or whatever conditions are there. After all, that's what social media is for. It connects people . This is a sad reality that I'm coming to terms with but hey, that's life. Anyway, the reason why I brought this up is because everyday, I wake up thankful for the friends who would continue to keep in touch. Their presence makes us feel like we're not miles and miles away. During one occasion, I was even able to witness a special moment in the life of my friend B who tied the knot with her prince charming P. I saw them exchange their vows and had their first kiss...

For a few hours last night, it felt like Paul and I rode on a magical jet that transported us to Thailand for dinner and back to Singapore right after. In reality, we just had another visit back to Shangri-la Hotel Singapore to join a couple of online writers and bloggers for their media preview of the upcoming Spicy Thai Festival happening at The Line from May 17 (Friday) to 26 (Sunday) , 2013 . If you remember, a month ago, Paul and I were lucky enough to be given the chance to have a fun weekend staycation at the Shangri-la Hotel Singapore . During this time, we were also able to have a hearty Sunday brunch at The Line , the hotel's interactive international buffet restaurant. This time we're back to experience the new dishes that resident Thai Chef Ratree has in store for all The Line dinner customers from Friday onwards.   Let me share with you the dishes that we were able to try during our 6 course dinner last night:  Our dinner began with a ver...

Back then I used to think that the only way to go is to surround yourself with lots of friends. The more the merrier, they say. However, as I grew older, I learned (in somewhat the hard way..) that quality still beats quantity anyday. Today, I have learned to let go of the rotten apples in my life and to keep the best ones close ones to my heart. They say, the greatest friends you'll ever have in your life are those whom you've met in high school. I really think this saying is true. After all these friends chose to love you without any prior judgement on your status in life, the amount of money you have in your bank or who your family is. All they cared about is that you choose them as groupmate for the class project, you get to have lunch together and you're there for each other no matter what. I'm lucky that I found a number of great friends back in high school and even luckier that we're still very much in touch with one another at present. A few months ago...

You got it folks! It's THAT time of the year again where all foodies troop to one venue to spend one whole day eating, sampling, buying and learning how to COOK! I'd go as far to say that this could be the Philippine's very own National Foodie Day... it's Yummy Eats 2013 after all! So, if you're the kind who's always on a look out for what's yummy out there then please mark your calendar and remember THE date -- May 18, 2013 . I may be miles away but this event (and the magazine) is very close to my heart. I can still remember my very first Yummy Eats back in 2011 and I can't believe they're now on their 3rd year! Woohoo! This time, it's the baby of my dear friend ML so please show her the love and be there at the NBC Tent on May 18, 2013 (it's a Saturday!) from 10AM to 6PM . There will be 50 new food finds for you to check out and who knows, you might just find a couple of favourites. Yummy Eats 2013 will be one fun day filled...

A mother holds her children’s hands for a while, but their hearts forever  - Unknown While doing my research for work a couple of days ago, I chanced upon this quote and I liked it. For one, I think it's so true by just looking at how my own mommy cares for us. I've mentioned before that despite being an adult myself, I still do get my Mommy's weekly reminders -- eat well, exercise often, get enough sleep, don't stress yourself out so much, take vitamins, don't eat too many fatty/oily food, cook more veggies...and the list goes on and on. I live thousands of miles away from home and this doesn't stop my mom in sending me her daily sms to check whether I've had dinner, if I'm home and what am I doing up so late. Surprisingly, I do appreciate all these messages and nothing brightens my day than hearing from my family. Theater lovers -- Me and Mommy During one of my long walks home, I was able to think. Not about what I have to do at work, not abou...

Lately, I've been craving for pancakes. Yes, visions of fluffy, pillowy soft pancakes with real maple syrup and butter has been flooding my mind for days. It doesn't really help that I can't find even a single box of pancake mix in our nearby supermarket and to make it worst, I saw photos of this not-so-recent brunch get-together that Paul and I had back home while organizing my files tonight. Once again, my mouth watered at the sight of a stack of 6 pancakes with blueberry syrup and a scoop of butter on top. Oh, sheer torture. Wish I can just quickly hop on the plane to have brunch in Manila once again. Well, call me crazy but I shall be telling you more about that practicular brunch experience at this relatively new restaurant called Maple in San Antonio Plaza near Forbes Park. Operated by the same group who's running Pancake House , Maple actually has a similar concept but it brings a more premium feel. While I will always go to Pancake House for their Tacos, C...

Admit it, what are the first 3 things that you do when you wake up in the morning? Let me make a guess -- stretch , reach for your phone/tab and check Facebook . Correct? I'm pretty sure there are more than a hundred of you nodding in agreement right now. Don't be shy... I do that too. Welcome to the social media world . Where every special milestone in your life is being celebrated by hundreds or thousands of people that's connected to you Whatever platform it may be, everyone in your network gets to witness you falling in love, getting into a relationship, being engaged and getting married. Later on, these people will also be the "first" to have a glimpse of your babies too. Social media has proven how it can reconnect lives. I personally was able to touch base with friends whom I haven't spoken to in more than a decade. That I believe is the beauty of social media.  Here at Frannywanny.com ,  I want to offer you a wider experience beyond reading ...

Here's another first! Last Saturday, Paul and I were able to watch our first movie here in the Lion City . Given that the tickets are not that cheap in this side of the world, we agreed to choose our movie wisely and to go for the big blockbuster ones to make it more worth our while (and money). Iron Man opened a week and a half ago and it was only last Saturday that we were all able to find a common time to watch it. For those who haven't watched it, I urge you to do so. I personally enjoyed the movie and the fact that I didn't fall asleep is a big indicator that the movie got my attention all throughout the 2-hour viewing period. The boys actually had mixed feelings about it but well, that's my own opinion. :)  We got to Vivo City (currently my favorite mall in Singapore) an hour before movie time. Thus, we have to find a place that serves quick and good food. It was a toss between Carl's Jr and Soup Spoon . Since Paul and I wanted something healthy, we w...

Frannywanny's note: A few weeks ago, I embarked on a new challenge. Yes, new home, new environment, new life...new challenge! 2013 is really something, noh? I joined the Tefal Chef Challenge  together with 4 other food/cooking bloggers and the first step was to attend a cooking demo with local Chefs Benson Tong and Jason Vito. Click here for the full website as I would be need all  your support very soon! Here's the entry that I've posted in the official Tefal Chef Challenge site . Just like anything in this world, one has to train in order to learn and to master whatever skill he or she would like to acquire. This training takes days...months...sometimes years and together with it comes a good amount of dedication and willpower in order to succeed. Of course, there's also the question of who should train YOU. In every field, we have the masters. One who's knowledge we wish would be imparted to us, the skill we hope we would someday embody and the respect that w...

From one foodie mecca to another. Putting cleanliness, ease in mode of transportation and security aside, Manila and Singapore still share a couple of similarities most especially in being the best place to be for food lover's like you and me. Back home, our neighborhood alone is quickly becoming a go-to place when you're in the mood to try new homegrown (a.k.a. local) food concepts. One thing we have to remember is that it was in San Juan where the country's milk tea pioneer, Serenitea , first opened shop. San Juan is also known to be the modern-day Chinatown. Here, you'll see a number of Chinese delis, Chinese specialty shops, three Filipino-Chinese schools, a Buddhist temple and a lot more. In the past year alone, more restaurants opened and one of those was Mu Noodle Bar . I must have been out of the radar but I felt like Mu Noodle Bar opened so quietly that it was only through hearsay that I found out about this modern Chinese restaurant. What prompted me to t...

Truth to be told, I've never voluntarily been to a bar ever in my life. Save for some work-related or a blogging event where I'm normally there before the party hour happens, I've lived all 30 years of my life spending my Saturday nights having a really good dinner in a restaurant, at home or hanging out at a coffee shop. Some might think my life is pretty boring but given a choice to live all 30 years again, I think I'd still do what I have been doing. At least it keeps my liver and lungs healthy and it saves my parents from staying up all night worrying about my whereabouts. Well, if there's one bar that I didn't mind hanging out in...it would be THIS. Welcome to Burger Bar . I first tried this during my despedida lunch with the Publishers Group. My friend and former colleague T took care of ordering the starters and desserts for all of us. All we had to do was to pick out our choice of burger from the list. My choice was simple -- the Rising Shroom (P...