Frannywanny

The food and beverage business is a fast rising industry where brands and come and go. Yearly, we see new restaurants and food stores opening left and right and at the end of the year, we see a good percentage of them close shop as well. It's an exciting yet challenging industry that only the strong ones last for years. Here in the Philippines, we're lucky to have a couple of home brands that has survived the test of time for more than a decade. Some are still around for 20, 30 or even 40 years. What makes it also more amazing it when I would get to meet servers who have been loyal to the said restaurant since the beginning. Anyway, when it comes to cream puffs, only one brand comes to mind -- Beard Papa . I often wonder where Beard Papa originated. After all, not only is it available here in the Philippines but you can find it in Singapore, Japan and even as far as North America. A quick search on Google led me to their story. It began in Fukuoka, Japan in 1999 by a man na...

It was been said so many times before that being a mom is no easy feat. Put aside all the sleepless nights, the big and small sacrifices that you have to do, the pain, the anxiety... lately, I realized that no matter how hard you try to shield your babies from all the viruses in the world. That's just not possible. My twins have been falling sick for the past month. They caught a bad cold three weeks ago and quickly recovered from it then Paul got sick and just as he was about to recover, my twins caught the bug AGAIN. It's one of those moments that I just want to pull my hair and raise my hand to surrender. I love the rainy season but I got to admit that together with it comes the rise of flu and even more scary diseases like Dengue.  I still remember how awful I felt when I had dengue. I was 7 years old then and I remembered  drinking Slurpee one afternoon with my cousin and the next morning I woke up with really bad headache, high fever and a painful tummy. I initi...

If you're familiar with the story of King Midas who's a man that turns everything that he touches into gold, then the Japanese, I believe, are the type that turns everything that they create into something that's super cute and pleasing to the eye. I love how the Japanese gives so much attention to detail that even a regular gift-wrapped item turns into a work of art. Then there's their sushi and sashimi creations that just never fails to wow everyone. It's the precision, the balance and how they continues to achieve perfection no matter what. That said, my heart skipped a beat when I received a beautiful present from Kumori Philippines about a month ago. It's a box of Puffy-O Donuts  and it's available in 3 flavors -- Banana Walnut, Chocolate Caramel and Cheese. I was actually out when this beautiful box arrived so our reliable helper decided to store these in the refrigerator in order to prolong its life. So, as soon as my family and I were ready to...

Just like that, the Ber months have officially begun. Slowly. we're starting to take our Christmas decors out from their usual hiding spot, dusting them to bring back their sparkle and soon enough, I'm sure we can start to hear Christmas carols playing all over town again. It will be my twins' 3rd Christmas and I hope I can make it extra special for them. Anyway, new month, new recipe! Recently, I experimented with a new main ingredient. One that I would always have in my freezer but all I do is to ask our helper to fry it. I'm talking about our National Fish -- Bangus  (Milkfish). I still remember learning about this little fact back in grade school. True enough, I think bangus is one of those fish that makes your dining table truly Pinoy . In fact, I had a hard time looking for bangus when I was in Singapore and I would ask my mom to bring me boxes of Rellenong Bangus  every time she and Papa would visit. We love boneless bangus as I honestly do not have the patie...

It's raining quite hard as I type this. The twins and I just woke up from our lazy Sunday nap and after playing with their Mega Bloks which ended up with a little fight as L tried to "demolish" her twin brother's beautiful architectural creation. I swear, I love it when I watch J working his creativity with the Mega Bloks, somehow I feel I'll have a future architect and he'll someday build our dream house. Anyway, I honestly like the sound of the rain gently pitter-pattering on our window pane (that wasn't really intended to sound like a song lyrics) but growing up, my heart would leap with joy whenever I'd wake up to a rainy morning hoping that classes will be suspended that day. I'm pretty sure a lot of you were like that too! As a mom though, days of rain means more challenge in drying our laundry and worst, the fear of it smelling like malodor (kulob) . I have a very strong sense of smell and sometimes I feel that my nose is directly atta...

I really love how more and more brands we love while residing in the Lion City are also making their way to the Philippines! Case in point, fashion and home-wise we got H&M, Muji, Uniqlo, Forever New and even Pottery Barn present in some of the biggest malls in the country and when it comes to the food scene, oh we got a lot! There's Kam's Roast , Ippudo , Llao Llao , Pezzo and just recently.. Popeyes made a comeback! Hold a meeting on top of Popeyes? Why not! The opening of Popeyes clearly stirred a lot of excitement as we've been seeing numerous board ups all over the metro yet there's really no specific announcement made on when it will open. Finally, its first outlet in Arcovia City  opened its doors in May and we've been hearing about the long queue and the wait that can go on for an hour. With my kids in tow, I really don't think it would be wise to join in the long queue so Paul and I decided to wait it out a bit more. Finally, sometime in Jul...