Frannywanny

Let me tell you a bit about my fan-girling moment. Since December, I stumbled upon a YouTube video of 3 cute toddlers playing pretend cafe with their parents. Their cute antics and very garbled but adorable sounding words just got me hooked since then. Day after day, I would follow their new vlog episode and it's then that I've gotten to know more about the Travis family . I guess one thing that I love about them is they're your normal, down-to-earth Asian-American family. There's  Benji , a half Japanese, half Irish dad who is a big advocate of healthy eating and drinking, then you got Judy , a long-time vlogger who's pure Filipina who grew up in the US. She is the mother of 3 cute toddlers namely Juliana or JB and twins Keira and Miyako . This may sound crazy but my day will not be complete if I don't get to watch their latest vlog. Through the months, I've learned to be more conscious about healthy eating too most particularly in choosing organic ingre...

"Health is wealth." This is what Papa would always remind us whenever we're down with a cough or cold when we were younger. It's his way of telling us that we have to do everything to stay healthy all. the. time. As it is his birthday today, I am reminded again of his famous line most especially now that there's an ongoing Zika virus outbreak here in the Lion City. Not only that, we've recently experienced the haze again last week and this got a lot of my colleagues coughing and sick for days. I really dislike seeing the doctor and drinking medicine so taking Papa's advice, I'm researching on ways to prevent these viruses through the best way I know how -- eating. Have you heard of Superfoods ? These are not the kind that superheroes eat but well, you might feel like one after consuming it. Hehe! Anyway, these are food items that's loaded with nutrients such as anti-oxidants, immune-boosting particles and more. Last year, Kale took the foodie wo...

"I'm craving for Pinoy garlic rice, tocino, egg and atchara..ugh!" This is what I suddenly messaged my Pinoy lunch group at work yesterday. It's the type of craving that you can clearly imagine the food in your mind and you're starting to smell it too. Clearly, I'm missing home and I'm really bummed that my supposed flight home tonight won't be pushing through. Anyway, happy thoughts again..happy thoughts. I got to admit that I didn't grow up eating Filipino food on a daily basis as we got a very Chinese-style kitchen back home. In fact, not so long ago, I wouldn't even consider Filipino cuisine as one of my favorites. Well as they say, " absence makes the heart grow fonder"  and that's how I am towards Filipino food for the past 3 years plus. This is also why we make it a point to visit a Filipino restaurant whenever we fly home. So, on our most recent trip home, we brought the entire family out for lunch at Wooden Spoon ...

After a very busy afternoon touring around Ubud on our first day in Bali, Indonesia , we told Swantika that we wanted to end our day tour with some traditional Indonesia Crispy Duck before heading back to the city proper and based on my friends' recommendations, we should go to Bebek Tepi Sawah which was also in Ubud. However, he told us that it's best that we go to Bebek Joni Restaurant or I Made Joni instead as it has a nicer view. Well, he's the expert and I were quite impressed and happy with the places that he brought us to earlier in the day so ok then, Bebek Joni Restaurant  it is. As he entered the huge compound, we noticed that we were the only ones there. Okay, maybe because we were there at 6PM so it was way too early perhaps for the dinner crowd. Not to worry though as the view was a-m-a-z-i-n-g. Save for the pesky mosquitoes that won't stop feasting on our legs, we love the soft rustle of the leaves, the smell of grass and the whole provincial vibe. I...

It's currently the ghost month in the lunar (Chinese) calendar and this means, it's the season where we try to avoid traveling, making big decisions, signing contracts, making big purchases and getting married. It's the most feared for month of the year as this is when they say, the ghosts and spirits would be most active. Yesterday, the 15th of the 7th month is said to be the worst day of all. During this time, people would offer food to the gods to ask for extra protection and would avoid places like hospitals, wakes and cemeteries. Come the 15th of September (a month from now), the ghost month has officially ended and it's time to celebrate! This day is called the Mid-Autumn Festival  where families gather to have a good meal and enjoy an abundant supply of mooncakes. While I love Chinese New Year food such as sticky tikoy  (glutinous rice cakes), tang yuan (glutinous stuffed rice balls), dumplings and yu sheng salad, Paul's favorite Chinese holiday is actual...

Aside from its beautiful beaches and sunset views, Bali is also known for its coffee. Actually Indonesia is one of the world's top coffee producers and Bali, in particular, is known for a certain type of coffee called kopi luwak . It's actually one of the more premium kind and this is because of how it's produced. Kopi Luwak otherwise known as civet coffee  is produced by this tiny furry creature called the civet cat. They're fed coffee cherries and the coffee beans actually comes out when they poop. I know it sounds gross but people believe that the enzymes produced by the civet cat and the fermentation that happens inside is body brings more flavor and improves the quality of the coffee. So after they excretes it out, the farmers will then clean it, roast and grind it before brewing the coffee. Every time Paul and I travel, we love to inject a bit of history and cultural learning about the place that we're visiting. So, when I proposed the idea of visitin...

Happy National Day, Singapore!  During lunch time yesterday, B, our former intern, came to join us as it was also M's (another intern) last day. B is leaving for the UK in a month's time to pursue her university studies and I asked her one thing -- "What Singaporean dish will you miss when you're away?" She answered "Laksa" in a heartbeat and this got the rest of us thinking too. While I may not be born Singaporean, but having lived here for a couple of years; I know that if ever I leave this beautiful country, I will definitely be missing that delicious plate of Char Kway Teow  over time. So, while I can, I'm stuffing myself with all the delicious local dishes that I can have. Recently, Paul and I went back to Street 50 Restaurant and Bar  and we were introduced to a couple of the additions to their menu. I have to admit that our first "egg-perience" at Street 50  wasn't very memorable as we were not too crazy about all those egg-l...

Here in Singapore, it's pretty common to hear restaurants and cafes opening left and right on a weekly basis. Back when we first moved here, I really tried my darnest to keep up and to visit as many new places as possible. However, with the speed of restaurants opening all over the country, I've come to realized that it's pretty impossible to keep up and it's definitely not very financially and physically smart to do so too. We then resorted to relying on some of our favorite foodies here to point us to the places that we have to try and prioritize. Our friend D is one of the foodies whom we love and respect so much. We trust his taste and with the number of places that he has brought us to plus the different yummy baked goodies that he has sent our way, D and his amazing taste in food has never disappoint. So last year, we had our first taste of Masizzim with D . If you remember, this was the place where there's forever a long queue and people would continue t...

As we were researching for our trip to Bali last year, Paul and I noticed that the cafe scene in this beautiful Indonesian island is totally booming. This really got us so excited as we're both fans of cafes and we definitely love visiting new ones too. We actually have the option to take our breakfast in the hotel but since we were only there for 3 full days, we didn't want to waste spending more than one meal in one place. On our first morning in Bali, after taking a million and one shots of the ocean view, we headed to Seminyak to try Sisterfields . This is one of the top cafes rated in Tripadvisor and it was highly recommended by local bloggers and Instagrammers too so we definitely took their word for it. Seminyak is just the next district to where our hotel was thus, making it a short and stress-free 10 minute ride via Uber. Here's a tip: when in Bali, just use Uber (or Grab) as hailing a cab wasn't very much recommended by our hotel receptionist as there ...

One way for me to tell that I've been having a major backlog in blogging is my ever-static travel folders. I can't believe that I haven't told you all about our full trip to Cambodia which happened two years ago, our trip to Bali which was almost a year ago and what about our foodie-filled nth honeymoon to Tokyo? I promise I'll try to catch up! If only my offline life isn't that busy and crazy this year. *whew!* Okay, let me get started on my Bali trip by telling you one of the foodie highlights of our weekend getaway there. This trip was actually to celebrate Paul's birthday with his closest cousins and since we started this "tradition" by going to Kuala Lumpur two years ago, we agreed to celebrate once again this time in Bali. There are no plans yet on where we're celebrating this year but I'm hoping that for once..it will be somewhere cold-er. On our first day in Bali, Paul and I found ourselves alone as his cousins were scheduled to f...