Frannywanny

There are many things that brighten up my day... ... impromptu lunch or dinner dates with Paul  ... video chatting with my parents and Pan ... seeing photos of my cutie doggie Scottie ... discovering a new delicious food place ... and receiving a surprise specially delivered to my doorstep I always believe that how our day turns out is fully dependent on us. Happiness, as I have mentioned previously here, is a frame of mind. It's only YOU who can control whether or not you want to be happy or not. In my case, I choose to stay on the positive side and find things that make me really happy. Of course, it doesn't hurt to get warm hugs, sweet kisses or a fat slice of Strawberry Shortcake (or okay, a Gongcha treat) every now and then too. ;) Speaking of receiving a surprise package delivered to my doorstep, that actually happened last week! I was so thrilled when Paul called me to say that a nice yummy-looking hamper was delivered to our house and not only does it look go...

For us, millenials (yes, kids, I am one of you bwahahah) . We were born in a world where burgers and pizza rule the gastronomic scene for at least the first 15 years of our lives. Growing up, our tastes have changed and became a bit more discriminating..more sophisticated..more choosy. However, let's face it. When it comes to comfort food, these two things will surely top the list. Don't you agree? So, when I received an invite to sample 4 of Hard Rock Cafe Sentosa 's legendary burgers which will be available all throughout June, my mind immediately screamed "hell yeah!" I was definitely so excited to give them a try. I have to admit that it has been years since I've dined at Hard Rock Cafe . I remember when it first opened in Manila sometime in the 90's and we would go there for dinner. It's amazing to see that the brand has expanded to 68 countries with a few more opening soon (get ready Reykjavik in Iceland!) and this includes cafes, hotels and...

Last week was pretty much a fun and memorable one. Thanks to our first-ever house guests A, D and little K. While we were busy making sure that they were comfortable around the house, we also rounded up the gang for a couple of meals over the weekend with our special guests. Since our group get-togethers now include 5 little ones in tow, the challenge is to look for a restaurant that's: a. spacious enough to accommodate all 15 of us and b. it's kid-friendly with menu items that's suitable for our little guests I spent a couple of hours doing my research and finally I zeroed in on Lokkee  at Plaza Singapura since it's the most accessible for all of us and it pretty much fits all our criteria above. Reading up about the restaurant, Lokkee  is one of Tung Lok 's newest concept that focuses on modern Chinese cuisine. From the food to its interior design, it exudes a classy yet modern feel such as the Star Wars brush arts which I wish I was able to point out to P...

"Life offers you a thousand choices...all you have to do is to take one."  - Frances Mayes, Under the Tuscan Sun Don't you just love the quote above? This is perhaps one reason why I love the movie Under the Tuscan Sun  aside from the fact that every scene is making me wish I can just hop on a plane and jet off to this sunny part of Italy. How I wish I can just spend at least a week of peace and quiet, far away from the rest of the world (or at least any cellphone signal) where I can just eat, sleep and write without a single interruption. Guess, it's time to start planning for my next trip! :) Speaking of trips and travelling, let me tell you about the time my family and I spent two days at our favorite getaway destination -- Tagaytay. We had Kong Kong (grandfather), A-I (aunt) and even my in laws in tow so with a big group, we seriously have to plan our meals properly. For one of our lunches, we headed to Marcia Adams'  as it's one of the few restau...

As we all know, hawker centers has been a part of Singapore's foodie life since the 1980s and this is where we've grown to love our Chicken Rice, Char Kuay Teow, Chili Crab and more. No visit to Singapore will ever be complete without dining at any hawker centers and likewise, every Singaporeans and residents have their own favorite hawker centers and stalls that they frequent on a regular basis. In Tagalog, we'd say, we have our own suking tindahan . I have my favorite mixed veg stall who knows me by face (sadly, not by name yet) and this is where I would also get my staple 1 meat/fish + 2 veggies + curry sauce on my rice from. Times are changing and there's that conscious effort to preserve the the Hawker Heritage . That said, we've seen a couple of modernized hawker centers opening all over town. What makes these different is it features up-and-coming food establishments that serves a more varied modern and international fare. It started with Salut in Bukit...

One of my favorite time of the year is here and we only got 2 weeks to enjoy it! It's time for Melt Cafe 's annual Flavours of India  promotion and if there's any buffet theme that I love the most about Melt then this would probably be it. You see, Melt Cafe offers a wide range of dishes from a good selection of fresh seafood to an interesting line-up of salads, roasted meats, desserts, cheese, Western and Asian dishes but did you know that they also serve one of the yummiest Indian dishes in town? For instance, always make sure to try their freshly made prata (I love the garlic and cheese variants) as well as their curries and tandooris too. I was fortunate to try last year's Flavours of India  where we had an interesting wine pairing dinner which was actually my first time to have wine with Indian food. Normally, I'd go for some Mango Lassi to balance out the possible spiciness of some of the dishes. This time around, Chef Santosh Kumar outdid himself aga...

Perhaps after I finally get over my Japan hangover and I'd stop daydreaming about sushi and gyoza, I would go back to my all-time favorite comfort food -- pasta and pizza. These two have never failed in putting me in a happier mood especially on a very challenging day. I remember how Mommy would make it a point to cook pasta every Monday as she knows that this is definitely not our favorite day of the week. Also, Pan and I have this tradition of ordering our favorite thin-crust pizza during finals week which we would enjoy as an afternoon snack while reviewing for our exams. So, when my good friend D suggested that we go check out Marco Marco in Circular Road after our indoor cycling class one time, I was so game! Marco Marco actually has several outlets all over Singapore and it's a casual dining restaurant that offers a wide array of pasta dishes and pizza flavors to suit everyone's discriminating taste. Each flavor is named after a city or a travel destination so you...

food porn (noun) : a glamorized spectacular visual presentation of food.  Before anyone things that my blog is starting to get into adult content, don't worry. Frannywanny.com is still very much safe for general patronage. It just makes perfect sense to start the busy week right by talking about my favorite meal of the day -- breakfast . Also why not share some photos in hopes that I'm doing all the yummy food some justice while describing them to you. There's really something special about breakfast, don't you agree? Especially when you know that you're waking up to the yummiest breakfast fare from sausages to bacon, to all kinds of egg dishes, stacks of waffles or maybe pancakes and for Filipinos, a wide array of -silog options! If you ask me, breakfast can really get me excited to jump out of bed and to quickly get ready. After all, the faster I'm done, the sooner I get to eat. So, when I was invited by O' Coffee Club  to have breakfast for dinne...

If there's one mall that I would recommend for visiting friends to go to, that would definitely be Suntec City . It's amazing how this mall has transformed itself through the years. I remembered when my family and I first visited Suntec sometime in the 90s. We went to check out the wishing fountain and had dinner at Tony Roma's after checking out the Warner Bros store. Fast forward to 5 years ago, the mall has expanded to several more towers and while the Warner Bros. store wasn't there anymore, it has been replaced by countless other retail shops and more F&B outlets too. Just when we thought they're be happy with that and no more expansion will be done, then Suntec had another renovation and expansion two years ago where they have added more wings. Today, it's one of my favorite malls in Singapore because of its wide variety of restaurants and cool foodie concepts such as Pasarbella and the Sky Garden which has been converted into such a hip and happ...

I know my birthday isn't for another 25 days but as you know, I celebrate it wayyyyy in advance and even for weeks after. So, during my recent visit to Manila, I decided to celebrate my birthday with both my side and Paul's side since we won't be home on the actual day.We stayed for a very short time only so I had a joint celebration with my dear niece, Julia . :) I just love my in-laws and I'm so glad that we were all complete that night. We didn't had a lot of time to prepare not even to go out and to buy food so thankfully, I met the cool guys behind Seven Comfort Cuisine  who took care of our dinner line-up. All I had to do was to email them to inform how many we will be and to share some of our diet restrictions too. They are so quick to respond and they willingly suggested the dishes based on our specifications. So, that night, we had: Savory Chicken Mushroom Pasta  (Php. 600 / Php. 1,000), Caramelized Peppered Pork  (Php. 750 / Php. 1,250) and Cheezy Sa...

I'm backkkkk!!! I've been very delinquent in blogging lately but I have a good reason why. It's because Paul and I went on a much-awaited trip to Tokyo, Japan with a brief stopover in Manila . We've been planning this trip since last year and despite that, I still had to cram our itinerary a week before we flew off since I had to deal with moving flats sometime in between! Oh dear life.  Anyway, all's good and I'm so happy we made the most of our first-ever visit to Tokyo and believe me, this is definitely the first of many returns! We took the red-eye flight to Tokyo via Singapore Airlines  because Paul has work on Saturdays. Since we're flying out Singapore at 11:55PM, this gave us ample of time to do all our household chores, run last minute errands, do last minute packing, shower and slowly made our way to Changi Airport . We even had time to grab a bite at the lounge too! On-board SQ 638 , the first thing I noticed was that the aircraft seems t...