Frannywanny

"Are you turning into the ambassador of the Philippines in Singapore?" This was the SMS that I got from my sister after I shared a photo of myself and an old friend whom I met up with tonight. You see, the past weeks have been quite busy for me as I've been meeting up with visiting friends and relatives over lunch/dinner/breakfast/coffee/etc! While there's no denying how much I miss Manila, having people from home over makes homesickness more bearable for me and Paul. During our first few months here, we were so happy to have friends who really took the time out to drop by to check on us. They really didn't have to but they chose to do so. Aren't we so lucky to have friends like them? Two of them are our dear friends and newlywed couple E and S. They decided to do a stopover here in Singapore before heading to their honeymoon destination so when we got the invite from E to have dinner in Bukit Timah, we cleared our evening schedule to be able to spend s...

Ice cream has been around for decades..maybe even centuries. Growing up, this has been every kid's favorite dessert even before cakes and puddings came into our vocabulary. When Magnum was launched in Manila last year, I joined the millions of Filipinos who hoarded (yes, hoarded is the right word) packs of these yummy ice cream covered in premium chocolate coating in the grocery for my family to enjoy. Then, I was happy with the 3 basic flavors -- Classic, Almond and Chocolate Truffle. When I came to Singapore, I literally went wild upon knowing there there were more Magnum flavors and varieties! From the original size, they also have a mini version which I love very much. They also have more flavors too. Mint, Gold, Double Caramel, Limoncello, Irish Cream, Hazelnut Bonbon, Pistacchio and the list goes on and on. Every trip to the grocery is made more exciting knowing that I'll be taking a new box of ice cream back home with me. Recently, Magnum has launched two new flavo...

It's Friday and it's definitely TGIF! I know it's still a work day but somehow, waking up on a Friday gives me that happy feeling that the weekend is less than 24 hours away. Don't get me wrong, I love the weekdays too but to be able to have two full days where I can wake up later than usual, to lounge by our pool in hopes that I'd finally get a tan, to eat out and to catch the latest movie... who wouldn't look forward to the weekend?  Today, let me talk about one of my all-time favorites when it comes to fun, casual American dining experience -- TGI Friday's . T.G.I.F., as my mom would call it, is the perfect place for groups to come together. Every time I dine there, I see families, colleagues or friends enjoying a big platter of nachos, sharing the pasta or burger and others would cap the night off with some drinks. I can still remember how fascinated I was with the button pins that adorns the uniforms of the server that at some point, I really wa...

A year ago, Paul and I decided to renew our passports at the same time. This is despite the fact that my old passport actually had two years left before it expires. The reason behind this is because Paul wanted us to start having the same expiration dates for most of our legal documents as a family to lessen the chances of missing out on renewals and such. It made sense to me and so, I joined him at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) office one Monday morning. Actually, the DFA has made it easier now to renew ones passport as they've set up satellite offices in malls around the city. The reason why we had to go to the Pasay DFA office was because I also had to change my surname since I haven't done so after getting married. Of all the applications that we had to do for our travels, I'd say that renewing our Philippine passports was one of the easiest. Allow me to give you a step-by-step guide on how to have a stress-free passport renewal too: #1) Make an Appoi...

Given my slight OCD nature, I rarely eat with my bare hands. Yes, somehow I've learned to eat everything with the use of a spoon and fork, fork and knife and at times even with a pair of chopsticks. Friends would watch in amazement (or more like amusement) as I would enjoy my fries with a fork or crabs with fork and knife. Back in high school, I would manage to finish my spaghetti lunch while using a pair of chopsticks without any stains on my white and blue uniform. This talent I've inherited from my equally neat freak Papa. It was when I married Paul that I somehow learned to "loosen up and enjoy life", as he would proudly claim. This simply meant me learning to use my hands to fully enjoy eating a piece of drumstick or to get the itsie-bitsie crab meat pieces out. It took a while, I tell you, but at present I've learned to control my OCD tendencies and to just enjoy my food to the fullest. Perhaps, I still have my hesitations but if there's one food i...

I'll be honest in saying that it took me almost half a year to write about Villa Cafe . More than 5 months of trying to find the right words to say. This is just one of those rare cases wherein I went there full of hopes..too much of high hopes to be exact. I kept my eyes, ears and basically all senses open. Ready to soak in everything to enjoy it to the fullness. Then reality hits telling me that it was terrible. So terrible that I doubt if it's even worth a second chance. This is definitely a rare case because I'm the forgiving type...I really didn't want to relive those painful moments but okay, let me tell you all about it. It was a well-planned Sunday lunch with the family. Reservations were even made to ensure that we got a table ready for our party of 9. As we got to the restaurant at 12PM, it was empty. Too empty that we wonder if they were open as not a single wait staff was in sight. It was a good thing we heard laughter coming from the second floor and ...

Last weekend was probably one of the most relaxing that I've had here in Singapore so far. After all, it was my first time to experience a 4-day weekend thanks to the back-to-back Hari Raya Festival and the National Day celebration. Instead of joining the shopping crowd outside, Paul and I opted to just spend most of our time at home, catching up on our movie list and doing our household chores. Finally, I was also able to catch up on sleep -- one that I've been wanting to do for almost a month now. During one of those days, we woke up at exactly noon and realized one thing: we haven't prepared anything for lunch . *gasp* With all of our meats and seafood still in the freezer and our canned goods inventory running low, we decided to just call for delivery. It was perfect timing also that I got a S$50 voucher from Food Panda Singapore . This is an international food delivery system that caters to more than 25 countries worldwide. Here, you get to order from a number ...

Growing up in a tropical country, I've grown to seek comfort in a bowl of frozen treats. From gelato to yogurt, even to ice creams of all shapes and sizes -- scoops in a cone, a scoop in a bowl, served a la mode, ice cream with mix-ins, you name it, I've tried it! There must be hundreds of different combinations and ice cream creations in the local Philippine market. Thus, you can just imagine the excitement that rocked the entire nation when Selecta introduced their newest line of premium ice cream called Magnum . This kind of ice cream is not new. I grew up loving vanilla ice cream on a stick encased within a hard chocolate shell and for some, even sprinkled with nuts or local rice crispies we call pinipig. It was just about the same time last year when I had my first taste of Magnum's Almond Ice Cream and boy, I was hooked! For Php. 50 a stick, I got to admit it's way beyond my regular budget for ice cream but I didn't mind. I would buy 6-8 sticks every time I...

We just stayed in Macau for two days yet we truly enjoyed ourselves. Being able to see the contrast between the church-filled, more laid-back Macau Peninsula and the casino haven Cotai Strip . I have yet to visit more sites in Macau such as Coloane where the famous Fernando's Restaurant is location. For first time Macau visitors like us, here are the must-see and eat places that you shouldn't miss:  Where to Stay: Hotel Sintra Macau Travel Guide A Lorcha -- the highlight of our trip! Egg Tarts in Lord Stow's Bakery and Margaret Cafe e Nata It was indeed a short trip and I can't wait to put on my traveling shoes and to visit Macau again! 

When Paul and I went to Macau a year ago, we really do not have any set itinerary then. It was an overnight stay and we're just open to going wherever the wind (or in our case, the shuttle bus) took us. There was just one thing though, we wanted to try authentic Portuguese Egg Tarts as we're both crazy about it. In Manila, we'd frequent Lord Stow's Bakery and figured that if it was already yummy in Manila, what more if we go to its "homeland"? So on our first day, we saw Lord Stow's Bakery at The Venetian and despite having had our lunch an hour ago, we parked ourselves in a small corner table and had a piece of Egg Tart each. The line was quite long and so it took me about 10 minutes before I finally got our order. I carefully brought the warm bag of egg tarts to our table where Paul was excitedly waiting for me the egg tarts ( *sigh* who am I kidding? ). Look how the top glistens in this photo? I'm happy to say that Lord Stow's egg t...

A few months ago, my sister,  Pannywanny , received her first ever food item for review from Yellow Cab Pizza ! To say that she was tickled pink would be an understatement. Over Skype..or was it iMessage, she showed me the box of pizza and narrated what she thought about it. I was dying with envy! If only she could teleport a box to me, that would have made my day. You see, I am in dire need of good quality pizza over here and nothing can beat my two loves namely: Yellow Cab and S . Sorry but I'm not a one-pizza-woman. Pannywanny was so happy that she had to express her feelings through a letter. How sweet! Here it is: Dear Mrs. Hudson, Hope this finds you well. Recently, I have been introduced to one of your creations and I must say; prosciutto on pizza is a brilliant idea ! From the moment I heard of this, I didn’t have my doubts since I have always loved prosciutto and to have this with my ultimate comfort food -- pizza, is like having Christmas all year around. I ...

Macau is such a small city with a total of 29.5 km 2 land area. Just to put things into perspective, Metro Manila has a total land area of 683.6 km 2 and Singapore is just slightly bigger at 710 km 2 . So in essence, Macau is about the same size of Mandaluyong City (21km 2 ) and San Juan City (7km 2 ) combined. That said, it is indeed possible to tour around this city in a day. However, I recommend that you stay overnight as the night life (light) scene here is really amazing! With two days in Macau, here are some things that you should not miss: 1) Senado Square  (Largo de Leal Senado) I've seen a number of Asian soap operas that have been filmed in this iconic square. I'll be honest in saying that I was really expecting a beautiful Spanish-like city square where kids play, people hang out and entertainers do short performances. Somehow, what I saw fell short of my expectations. No, it's not ugly as I truly adored the artsy floor tiles but it was just extremely c...

The first time I came across the super cutesy blog called Googly Gooey s was about 2 years ago when they were one of the winners of the Nuffnang Asia-Pacific Blog Awards (NAPBAS) which was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Sadly, I wasn't able to physically be present during the awards night but I cheered with the entire blogosphere as a new batch of bloggers were given the recognition that they truly deserved that evening. Googly Gooeys won the Hidden Gem award and I'd say, I felt like I've truly stumbled upon a hidden gem when I first visited their blog. The more I read their entries, the more the pink and blue characters named Tipsy and Ponggo respectively became more and more endearing to me. Somehow though, I never really thought about how they would create each entry until that fateful afternoon when I walked into the Nuffnang Philippines' HQ and met the real-life Tipsy and Ponggo. Talk about being star-strucked! Tipsy a.k.a. Tippy was busy drawing on a cl...

You know, back when I was a kid, I dreamt of being a newspaper editor. I wanted to be on top of the news and that I would be right at the center of where the action is. With my notebook and pen, I wanted to interview the politicians, big businessmen and even celebrities to have a glimpse of their interesting lives. . Most of all, I dreamt of being able to get a big juicy scoop and to have the chance to run to the printers while shouting "stop the press!" Well, today, that dream will somehow become a reality as I'm interrupting my Macau travel series to share with you guys a yummy piece of good news. Look at my newest discovery -- Ovomaltine Crunchy Cream . Initially, I thought the name was a bit odd as it had two contradicting words attached to the brand name ( Ovomaltine ). How can one be both crunchy and creamy at the same time? It didn't took me too long to get my answer. All I did was to open the jar and there I saw bits of crunchy Ovaltine granules mi...