Frannywanny

“Change is good” , they always say. While my OC-self tends to squirm at the thought of dealing with any change in my routine more so a change in my comfort zone, I can’t help but agree. With change, come new discoveries and opportunities, after all. I also believe that change helps us grow in life. We deal with new challenges; we conquer bigger obstacles which leads to a more fulfilling reward at the end of it all. We come out a winner after every change. So one big change happened to one of my favourite Italian restaurant here in the Lion City. Dolce Vita Restaurant 's head chef,  Chef Marco Manocchio , who has been with the restaurant since 2015 recently launched a new menu featuring some of his personal specialties. How's that for a good change? I was one of the lucky ones (thank you my lucky stars!) to be invited to try a simple repertoire of Chef Marco’s new dishes. Let me share them with you!

"People who love to eat are always the best people."  - Julia Child I totally agree with this quote as come on, eating is such a joyous occasion and people who love to gather around for a good meal are naturally joyful and happy, don't you think? Take my food-loving friends for instance, there's never a sad or dull moment with them as we all enjoy discovering a new restaurant or when we do get to discover a winning dish, we all share that same amount of excitement and thrill over it. Our friend D is one of those people whom we just love hanging out with. Often times, I would tell him that he's such as a nice and down-to-earth guy. He's always true to himself even when that means having the appetite to order almost everything on the menu and not being ashamed to do so. Of course, Paul and I will always support this "dreams" and we would be game to pig out with him too! Kidding aside, we're really blessed to have a friend like D and how cool is...

Back when I was starting this blog, I honestly had no idea about good food photography much less food styling . In fact, if you scroll down to my first few blog posts, my photos were pretty grainy and tiny as I used my then trendy Nokia phone to take those *ahem* amazing photos. A few years after that, Paul got into photography and the quality has improved so much. Later on, he learned the basics of proper lighting, setting the right angle and food styling. All those, we do in order to give you the most mouth-watering photo possible with the least amount of editing as that's one skill neither of us are good at. We like to keep things natural anyway— #nofilter as the youngsters would say. Social Media and this blog have changed our lives in such a creative way. Cooking at home is not just merely frying something in a pan, transferring it to a plate and ta-da, it's time to dig in. Nowadays, it involves taking a photo of the ingredients or if you dare, creating a Snapchat vi...

Remember the first ever blog post that my sister Pan wrote here at Frannywanny.com? It was about her Top 10 Tokyo Sights which you can read about here and here . Well, looks like someone had loads of fun sharing her travel adventures with you all that she decided to write more! Today, the one and only Blue Eagle in the family would like to share with you her first ever restaurant review on Chubby Chicken -- a casual university food stop located right across her alma mater in Katipunan Avenue. To make things more exciting, we're also treating one lucky ready to an all-out Chubby Chicken meal worth Php 500!!!  Now, that's my cue to stop writing and to give the virtual stage to my sister Pannywanny. :) It has been a few years back where Katipunan has been my second home, studying at Starbucks, buying last minute items at National Bookstore and having breakfast, lunch and dinners in the different food establishments available. It is, after all, just a foot bridge or a trike ...

Who doesn't love pizza? Growing up, this has been our staple during group meetings in someone's home, during a class party or even one's birthday party. Nothing beats the bonding experience as you share a box of pizza with your closest friends. At home, Pan and I would always have pizza for our afternoon merienda back when we were studying for our quarterly final exams. Mommy would leave additional allowance for us to be able to have a box of pizza delivered and this is something we both always look forward to quarter after quarter. To me, pizza is a comfort food. Someday, I'll be a cool mom and have pizza nights with my family. Haha! However, when it comes to pizza flavors, I like the basic ones. The simpler, the better. This has been my motto ever since. Call it fate that Paul actually believes in the same thing. He has been loyal towards Hawaiian flavored pizza which is also one of my favorite pizza flavors equally same with the all cheese or seafood flavored pizz...

I've mention time and again how much I love hanging out with friends. However, I also do enjoy spending some time in my lonesome. In fact, there are actually some activities that I'd rather do on my own. Take shopping, for instance, I treasure the moments wherein I can easily go through one store at a time at my own pace. It's simply that quality me-time that I regularly treat myself to once in a while. Yup, I'm unique like that and I honestly don't get it why people would take pity over those who chooses to spend some time alone. Last week, after finishing a major presentation due pretty soon. I treated myself to a quiet dinner at Joey Pepperoni , a casual dining restaurant located along Pioneer street in Mandaluyong City. I entered the restaurant and noticed that there were quite a number of tables occupied by big groups. After telling the server that I'm dining by myself, he ushered me towards a table by the door and handed me the menu. I was craving for pas...

For days, I have been craving for pasta... Oh how happy I was when our trusty helper prepared a huge serving of the good ol' spaghetti for me to bring to the office one day. Pasta ranks definitely as one of my top comfort food. This is together with Sentro 1771's Corned Beef Sinigang and Cibo's Potato Chips . I haven't had lunch yet and I'm starting to feel my stomach growling... what better timing that to receive an email from Delifrance announcing that they have two new additions to their pasta line up. click to enlarge