Frannywanny

Calling all fellow food-lovers based in the Philippines! Here's YOUR chance to be on TV and be a STAR! The Asian Food Channel (AFC) is currently on a look out for the man/woman who'll be their Food Hero ! The winner will star in his/her own TV show on AFC and will have the chance to discover a whole new world of eating, cooking and travelling around the region! It's time to unleash your talent for the world to see.  So, do you have what it takes? Simply submit a video at www.foodhero.asia starting June 2, 2014 (Monday) showing the judges why you are the next Food Hero . Show your fun personality, passion and love for food, travel and adventure. There are no time limits on your video and no limits to your creativity. The video submission will first need to be uploaded on YouTube and must be at least HD, 1280 x 720 size. In order for the judges to access your video, don't forget to set the settings to Public .  Here's more! The AFC crew is heading to M...

My birthday is just a few days away and just like before, the celebration starts days before the actual day and it can go on and on weeks after that. This year, it began exactly a week in advance and I'm seeing that I'll still be celebrating my birthday up until the end of June. A month-long celebration, I like the sound of that. :) I'm really excited to celebrate my birthday this year because not only my family is coming over but even my dear MIL and FIL are flying in too! I'm so excited for our family dinner and the days that I'll be able to spend with them. Given that I'll be busy this coming weekend, I decided to have an early birthday lunch with the NKids at La Petite Cuisine last Sunday. This restaurant has been on my list for a few months now after my French colleague I told me about it. Well, a French restaurant recommended by a French lady, that says a whole lot about its authenticity, doesn't it? La Petite Cuisine is located a few blocks aw...

Back then, when Paul and I were still dating, we would frequent the malls on weekends. He often comments that I snack a lot. Say, we've just had lunch at 12 noon and come 3PM, I'd be dragging him to have some corn dog, maybe a cup of milk tea or perhaps some fries or nachos to munch on while shopping. After having that snack, I'd be looking forward to dinner. Yes, I love to snack a lot most especially when I'm out in the mall. So, this little habit of mine has kept him baffled and slightly amused for years and it was only when Mommy came to visit us a few months ago and Paul spent a full day with her as they went around Orchard Road, that he finally discovered the magical answer. Apparently, this love for snacking while shopping runs in the family and I obviously got it from my dear Mommy. My mom, being very health conscious though, is more careful with her snacking choices. She stays away from deep-fried snack items or those which are too sweet, creamy and salty. Nor...

Meet the newest kid in our office block! I've mentioned a number of times how I just love working in the CBD mainly because of the endless choices of food options that we get on a daily basis. Just recently, I visited a new cafe that opened a few months ago with fellow blogger A. If you know A, you'll know that he's the person to go to when you want to talk about coffee and to get tips on where to get the best cup in the country. It was just perfect that A also works in the area so we agreed to meet up for lunch one day. Gaest is one of the newest cafes which specializes in Nordic cuisine. I was initially confused what Nordic food is and a couple of research showed me how healthy it is. Using organic ingredients, Gaest serves four types of sandwiches -- Pork, Chicken, Potato and Salmon. What makes it so interesting is that they bake their own bread daily and almost all things that go into your sandwich is fresh. Just recently, they also started offering salads and...

So this is what curiosity can do to you! Inspired by a couple of Youtube videos and an Instagram photo of a friend, I decided to take the challenge and to do the Koala Shake ! So, first thing was to head to the nearest grocery and to get a box of Lotte Koala's March Chocolate Snack . For those who are not familiar with this, these are crackers filled with gooey chocolate! It's pretty good and can be quite addicting. Click here to see how it looks like. To show you how I did the Koala Shake challenge , please watch this short video that I've created:

I ♥ Salad! On days when I'm feeling really guilty for eating a lot of unhealthy and sinful food I'd then make up for it by having salad on my next meal. However, I'm quite picky on where to get fresh greens as I don't want to run the risk of ending up with a bad stomach or worst amoebiasis . I'm glad though that our local hawker stalls are taking the precautionary steps to practice proper food handling and hygiene all the time. Oh, one of the many things I love about the Lion City. Working in the CBD has its perks. One is definitely the endless food choices available. Since Amoy Food Centre is just a few steps away from my office, this has been my go-to place on days when I'm just too lazy to bring a packed lunch. Let me share with you one of my favorite stalls. Introducing The Salad Corner .

A Good Day.  You know, those days wherein you definitely woke up at the right side of the bed and instead of grumbling and slowly dragging yourself to get ready, you spring right up and out of bed, full of energy and ready for a fun new day to start. All throughout the day, you're still running like an Energizer bunny with that same smile plastered on your face. No amount of negative vibes can pull you down, you're on top of your game and you're loving it. That was me a few Thursday ago. So, let me continue to tell you what happened after that. After work, I rushed off to Traders Hotel Singapore to meet up with fellow bloggers as we were to feast on.. CRABS . There you go, the major reason why I was such in a good mood that day. All day long, images of those juicy crab claws keeps coming to my mind and as the hours go by, all the more excited I got. Our dinner began with a basket of prawn crackers or keropok as what it's locally called. Together with it came t...

Over dinner at Prata Planet one evening, my friends and I began talking about steak. Yes, I was in the presence of steak-loving guys who take their cuts of meat seriously. I asked around where's the best steak in Singapore and I got a number of recommendations. My list of places to eat in Singapore is starting to get really long... hooray! One of those recommendations given was Morton's Steakhouse at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Well, that's one restaurant that I can happily put a check on my list as I was able to visit this a few months back. Let me tell you about my Morton's experience.  Stepping inside the restaurant, Morton's Steakhouse has a similar feel to most fine-dining steak restaurants -- heavy wooden interiors, dimly lit with candlelights on every table (or in this case a really cute lamp), servers in black and white. The menu was pretty simply and straight-forward. We were served with bread for starters. I have to admit that I wasn't ab...

Once again, Paul and I visited the west side of Singapore one weekend. Back at Clementi where we planned to do our weekly grocery shopping and hopefully to grab some Baskin Robbins ice cream on our way home. We were hoping to meet up with our friends N and T but sadly they had other plans. Of course, they're such sweet friends that they still sent us a couple of restaurant recommendations for us to try. One of those is Prata Planet . How funny that ever since we moved to the Lion City, Paul and I do enjoy the local Indian fare most especially the 3 Ps : paneer, papadum and prata. O also joined us that day and with the address on one hand and our Singapore Map app on the other, we went out to search for the restaurant. Prata Planet is located a block away from the Clementi MRT station. It's actually at the ground floor of one of the housing estates in the area. It was quite easy spotting the restaurant as it's facing the street. As soon as we settled into our tabl...

Being a foodie is a tough job. With the wide-variety of food available and the opportunity to eat to our heart's content, I'd say, we're lucky to live in a world where achieving gastronomic satisfaction is indeed possible and for some, it happens quite often too. I'd say though that as one bids goodbye to his/her wonderful twenties and slowly enters his/her 30s, 40s and even 50s, there's that great need to be more mature and responsible about the things we put in our mouth. Beyond being fit and good-looking, there's also our blood chemistry, the rise and fall of one's cholesterol and sugar levels and a lot more. I'll be honest, two years back I was at my heaviest and definitely not at my healthiest. It was hard to say no to all the food tastings coming my way. A lot of them really made me swoon and jump with glee as they were just so delicious. All day and night, I think of food . Then, I woke up and realized, it was time to push that RESET button....

Every weekend, Paul and I have been trying to expand our radius by travelling farther than the usual towards the different areas in Singapore . One weekend, we went North West to visit a friend in Punggol, another time we went up north in Ang Mo Kio and a few weeks back we went back to the West in Boon Lay. Since Singapore's subway and bus systems, I can say, are pretty much the best in the region, it's really easy to go from one point to another all over the country. So anyway, one evening we found ourselves at Jurong Point , a mall adjacent to the bus terminal and MRT station in Boon Lay. It was for an impromptu dinner meet-up with friends N, T and O. Luckily, N and T are such foodies too so they took care of deciding where to eat. After a couple of blog hops, our dinner venue was at Yaki Yaki Bo Teppanyaki which was part of the mall's Japanese Food Street. Operated by the same group who owns Ichiban Sushi and Ichiban Boshi , Yaki Yaki Bo offers reasonably priced Ja...

For the past few weekends, I became a bit anti-social as I've been turning down invites from Paul and friends to go out and check out the city. I would, in fact, declare that all I want to do is to stay at home the whole day. What have I been up to? You probably might ask. After weekends spent getting crafty, with all the blood, sweat and tears (yes, there were indeed some), I'd like to present to you all... My Works of Art It all began one day as I was browsing through Groupon Singapore 's page. A certain ad showing a photobook deal caught my eye. I've been wanting to organize our photos for years and putting them in a neat and pretty photobook just made perfect sense. So there, I bought a couple of coupons worth $20 which is good for (1) 40-page photobook each (retails at S$91).

One reason why I just love working in the Central Business District (CBD) is that the choices for places to have lunch is ENDLESS. Seriously, on my first week with the company a little more than a year ago, it would take me half an hour to choose where to get lunch as I would walk around the block and still end up undecided where to either dine in or to tabao (take away) my food. From Japanese to Mediterranean , not to mention we got the Amoy Food Centre just a few steps away, our office area is every working foodie's dream come true! I love going out for lunch with my colleagues at least once a week as it gives me a good breather even just for an hour. Lunch meetings are fun too as you get to do something productive while enjoying a good meal. That's what I'd call hitting two birds with one stone . So, during one of our lunch meetings a few months back, my colleagues and I decided to have it at Moo Bar & Grill which is just a few steps from our office. Its locat...

For someone who spends her weekends trying a restaurant or two, there are just days wherein I would go back to the ones that I've tried and "tasted"  through time. These are the restaurants that I have full confidence in bringing a guest to as I know the best dishes by heart and I have full confidence that it will be just as good as how I've enjoyed it the last time..and the time before that. One of my favorites here in Singapore (and basically in most parts in Asia) is Din Tai Fung . A restaurant that originated in Taiwan, they are very popular worldwide for their to-die-for Xiao Long Bao which is one of my all-time comfort food wherever I go. In fact, our first taste of Din Tai Fung was back in 2010 here in Singapore . We've been to a few more outlets after that, even to the one in Taiwan too.  It has been 4 years of non-stop patronage and loyalty still Din Tai Fung serves consistently the best Xiao Long Bao for me. In addition to their XLBs, let me...

I've been bitten by the ramen bug!  It has been months and every now and then I'd continue to crave of a bowl of piping hot, al dente ramen noodles! Guess this ramen craze of mine will go on for a little while longer... after all, Singapore is literally bursting is a lot of good ramen shops and it's just so hard to say no to all of them. As they say... if you can't beat them, join them ! So, here I am spreading the ramen love to one and all. ♥ When our friends J and A came to visit us a month ago, Paul and I excitedly met up with them at Ramen Champion in Bugis+ Mall. It's just perfect that J and A are such fun foodies to be with so we happily tried a couple of bowls of ramen that evening until we finally declared the winner. Ramen Champion is a cool restaurant concept wherein it has a number of ramen stalls inside one main establishment. As you enter, you are given a card which you'll have to present upon ordering your choice of ramen. The payment ...

It has been a while since Paul and I had our weekly hawker challenge and we just felt that it was time to go for one again. What a perfect timing that the Chinatown Food Street recently re-opened making it our next hawker stop destination. Admittedly, compared to the two other hawker centres that we've visited and reviewed, this one had a more touristy feel. It was better ventilated, the kiosks are quite limited but have a good mix of basically anything and everything you'd like to try in Singapore, tables are cleaner and you'll see a lot of tourists dining here all day long. We were a bit hesitant to do the Hawker Challenge here simply because we know that anything tourist-y also means it can be pricey but as Mommy would always tell me, you'll never know unless you try . The first step is to walk around . Visit every stall and see what they have to offer. Most of these were specially chosen from all other hawker centres so you're assured of getting pretty ...

While walking around Raffles City a couple of months ago, Paul and I chanced upon this cute purple shop that sells... MILKSHAKES ! Now, if you're like us whose childhood includes eating loads of ice cream and drowning ourselves in those thick creamy milkshakes, then you can probably imagine how excited we both were as we got closer and closer to the store. "Welcome to Once Upon a Milkshake !" The server greeted us! What a catchy name. I love it! Looking at the menu, we would chuckle every so often as one of us would point out a flavor which was given a funny name. Imagine ordering Sir Cookies & Cream or Baa Baa Naa! Humor aside, it was really a challenge to just choose one as more than one flavor brought back a lot of nice childhood memories and it just sounded so yummy! Finally we went for the Spooky Mocha in a Regular (S$4.90) cup as it was almost dinner time.

Exactly 29 years ago, our family was blessed with a new addition in the form of a bouncing (or perhaps are jumping) baby girl. Months prior to that, I actually thought I was going to have a little brother so when I met her for the first time, the 2 years and eleven month old me somehow couldn't understand why was she wrapped in a pink blanket and instead of having to call her " shoti" as what I was taught to say, everyone was now correcting me to call her... SHOBE . Meet Pannywanny -- my one and only little sister. Today's her birthday so I'm taking a break from all the food talks and I'd like to dedicate this special entry just for her. A lot of people have told me how amazing it is to see that my sister and I are so close to one another. Yes, it's something I'm really proud of and I'm glad that I'm blessed not only with a sister but with someone whom I can bet a gazillion dollars on that she'll be there for me for the rest of ...