Frannywanny

"The great gift of Easter is hope." – Basil Hume Happy Easter, everyone! Time is zooming by so fast and as the number of COVID19 cases continue to rise, my only wish is that we get to end this fight against the virus soon. Let's all do our part, shall we? Stay home, practice social distancing, sanitize sanitize sanitize and go and get the vaccine when you can .  I'd also like to add one more tip too -- let's continue to support local businesses as believe me, our economy has been hit so badly and it is just too painful to see one restaurant/retail outlet/business close down after the other. Along with its closure means people losing money, jobs and a livelihood.  With that, allow me to share with you one of my favorite home food business whom I have been supporting since late last year -- Salmon HQ . I first tried their fresh salmon sashimi and sushi bake sometime in December when I prepared my sister's going-away lunch. I know that they will most probabl...

 Annyeong! It's been a while since my last blog post and boy this year is zooming by oh so fast!  So, how has everyone been?  As for me, I've been extra busy with work as I recently took on a new role that's equally exciting and challenging but really, I love theAsiaparent and I love my team and I am so excited to grow with everyone this year. On the domestic side, Yaya M has left us (again and for good this time) and we wish her luck in finding her one true love.  Meanwhile, my twins have started pre-school this year so Paul and I have also took on our new roles as Teacher Mommy and Teacher Daddy. I'm still sad that my twins will most likely not experience nursery life such as meeting new friends, being part of school programs, gaining independence and more. Pre-school life was so much fun for me and it breaks my heart knowing that by the time the pandemic is over, they might have to enter big school already. *sigh*  I'm glad that we enrolled them in Kindermusi...

Woah! I can't believe it's November and in 8 full weeks, we're bidding 2020 goodbye. Are you excited for that? If 2021 means having a better and fresh beginning that's free of sickness and calamities then I'm so ready to bid 2020 goodbye.  I had a very relaxing weekend that I think I just kept on napping whenever I can. In fact, I intend to spend my weekends that way. 101% of my time focused on my family and catching up on sleep whenever I can. My kids are growing up so fast and I just want to savor every moment with them. See, a few weeks ago, they celebrated their 3rd birthday. Can you believe it? It just feels like yesterday that I delivered them and Paul and I were still trying to learn the ropes on how to take care of newborn twins. Today, they're very opinionated toddlers who are not afraid to speak their mind and they can really make choices too. Anyway, more on the twins' birthday party as I can't wait to share how it went with you too.  For now,...

The internet is a space so vast that you'd think it's just impossible to meet someone real and much more, carry out a genuine friendship from that. After all, we have our online and offline personas. Some mirroring each other, the others totally different that would even put Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde to shame. When I started Frannywanny.com and joined the local blogging community 13 years ago, Didi a.k.a. canDishhh was one of those who welcomed me so warmly and I gotta say that we hit it off instantly. Well, I guess, it's also because we both went to the same high school so that's one big similarity and we share a lot of common friends too. Besides that, I've always loved Didi's personality. She's very down-to-earth, brutally honest and is one of my very loyal friend. Back then, Didi and I were two single girls, not even engaged to be married and motherhood is totally far far away from the picture. I remembered how we would go out for dinner or would just chat ...

I finally did it! For years, I've been wanting to make stuffed veggies. When I was growing up, whenever we would visit Hong Kong, we would always make sure to have dimsum for Sunday lunch. Somehow, it's a common practice for locals to go for dimsum brunch where the entire family would feast on baskets after baskets of the best dimsum creations paired with their choice of hot tea. They would eat for hours as this is the time when the family also comes together. There would be a handful of aunties pushing the wooden dimsum steam cart and some would have the deep-fried cart too. As you order, they would put a stamp on a piece of card and that's how they would later tally your total bill. It was definitely one of my best childhood memories and the reason why I love dimsum so much. Anyway, during one of those dimsum brunches, I remembered having Stuffed Bell Peppers with Minced Meat. It was so good. Being a kid then, I was never fond of vegetables but if you stuffed it w...

I'm indeed a very very lucky girl. Why, you may ask? It's because I come from a food loving family and I married into one as well. I've probably mentioned this some time before that Paul's family hails from the foodie capital of Luzon called Pampanga where you can find the most delicious yet heart-stopping delicacies and dishes that has ever graced our tables. From the famous pork sisig, the very umami tamales and bringhe, loads of kakanin variants and a lot more. It's not a big surprise then that Paul and his family are such foodies that our annual family Christmas gathering would start at lunch and could last past afternoon snack with food being served non-stop and we would sometimes even have enough to bring back to Manila. So, when I found out that one of my cousins-in-law is selling her special Baked Macaroni, I quickly dropped her a message to place my order. Of course, primarily, I'm also all for supporting family and secondly, I'm curious to try ...

How are you, my dear readers? If there's one thing I love about being a Filipino is how we can be very resilient. No matter what the circumstance may be, wherever the wind takes us, we are probably one of the most flexible individuals in the region, to quickly adapt to changes and to seek the positivity in all things. It's no wonder that the Philippines was once voted as one of the happiest place on earth . Take the current situation that the entire world is facing, we were once put on Enhanced Community Quarantine which has led to business closures except for those offering essential goods like supermarkets and drugstores. With just a handful of restaurants offering take out services and public transportation not available, quickly people took to social media and messaging platforms to offer their products. Suddenly, there was a barrage of marketplaces being set-up in almost all communities imaginable. For years, you've never bothered to know your next door neighbor...

It's no big secret how much I love dim sum. I can definitely have it at any given time of the day. Case in point, I actually found myself craving for dim sum when I was pregnant with my twins. I remember how happy I would be whenever Papa would come home with a box of Bola-Bola (pork meatball) siopao and as one box would have three pieces, I could easily wolf down two mini siopaos in one sitting. Guess that's alright as I literally have two buns in my   oven  then. He he he! View this post on Instagram A post shared by Frances Ang (@frannywanny) on Jul 18, 2017 at 12:15am PDT Anyway, I wasn't even very picky with the brand of siopao then. For as long as the buns are soft and chewy, the filling was not too fatty and it still came warm and ready to eat, then I'm all for it. One time, my gokopo   (5th grand aunt)  heard that I was craving for fried siopao, she then sent over a dozen of freshly steamed...

The Chinese cuisine is probably one of the most varied types in the world. We all know about the Cantonese-style dim sum or the fiery hot Szechuan-style dishes but there's also Beijing-style, Shanghai style and the one that's closest to my heart... Hokkien-Style . The reason is simple, my ancestors came from Amoy (Xiamen), China which is the province of the hokkiens. Thus, I can speak Hokkien (our dialect) and grew up eating Hokkien-Style dishes which were lovingly prepared by my mom or my kongkong. Hokkien-style of cooking makes use of a lot of vegetables and seafood. This is because Xiamen is located at the Southern portion of China where it has direct access not only to its neighboring provinces and countries but to water resource as well. Given that, I feel that each dish gives a very comforting taste and feel or maybe it simply because it's the kind that I would also link childhood or home memories with. Some of my favorites are my Kongkong's Kiam Peng, my mom...

Oh man! Since when have I turned into a serial snacker? For the past months, I've been snacking all day long! From chips to cookies to cakes and even to a glass of cold milk. I am forever hungry especially in between feeding the babies so after nourishing them, off I go to the dining room to feed myself. I sure hope that I can maintain this weight even after breastfeeding as I seriously am eating like there's no tomorrow. Anyway, here's the fun part though. Discovering new snacks and goodies along the way. A few months ago, I stumbled upon Milk Box PH  while browsing through Instagram and was instantly lured by their Hokkaido Cake. I messaged them right away and well, what do you know?! I got two boxes of Hokkaido Cakes delivered to my doorstep the very next day which coincidentally were the #AngTwins' 3rd month celebration. Thanks so much R for the very very efficient service. Each box holds 6 cups of Hokkaido Cakes each and it sells for only Php. 380. So what ...

So, for Mommies like me who's up at the wee hours of the morning while feeding a sleepy and hungry baby...what do you do? Stare at your baby's face? Stare into space? Surf the internet? I've done all of that and even once attempted to blog but I was just so scared to squish my baby which will surely wake her up in the process. Believe me, a startled baby who suddenly wakes up because of sudden movements is not a happy baby and you wouldn't want a wailing, unhappy baby at 3 in the morning. Thankfully there's my phone and Instagram. I normally would scroll through my feed to see what my friends are up to. For some reason, I always stop at my friend Spanky's post who shares mouthwatering "food porn" shots (and random sexy girls photos too for the interest of all the men out there hehe). Spanky has been my dessert guru as of late. Since I gave birth and officially joined the no-sleep club, I love seeing Spanky's photos of cakes, cookies and wha...

Not so long ago, I received a message from my former colleague K asking me if I'm game to try her Lolo (grandfather)'s sans rival. Of course, I don't say no to cake more so when it's sans rival! This is probably one of my favorite cakes as I just love anything nutty, nougat-y and the butter frosting totally beats regular cream frostings any day. What I just recently learned though is that this particular sans rival has a story that dates back to 50 years ago. Cipriano Sans Rival  (Php. 850) is the recipe of K's grandfather and it's the kind that has been perfected over time. This is definitely not the mass-produced kind. Instead, K's grandfather has been making his sans rival for most of their family gatherings. Each layer carefully crafted, the frosting with its intricate fork design and that generous amount of nuts sprinkled on top to cover any flaws and at the same time works double time to complete your sans rival experience. Today, my friend K has p...

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...

My family loves Hainanese Chicken Rice. Guess this is because we used to frequent Singapore back then that this has been our staple meal throughout our week-long stay there. Sadly, while a lot of restaurants do offer Hainanese Chicken Rice (HCR), only a few really came close to the real thing . Can't blame them, for one thing perhaps some ingredients used for the authentic Chicken Rice are not available in Manila. Another would be if they would really cook it the exact same way the Singaporeans would when preparing their HCR. Thus, when I heard about this guy named Stevie from Bel-Air, Makati who sells really good Hainanese Chicken Rice , I knew I had to take time out one Sunday morning to order a set from him and to take this home for my family to try. Ordering was a breeze, all I did was to call two days in advance (although I think 24 hours notice is allowed too, I was just so excited haha) and placed my order for a Hainanese Chicken Set with Traditional Rice (Php. 98...

I am a fan of tea. Any tea flavor for the matter but after having my first taste of Genmaicha Green Tea a couple of years ago, I always catch myself favoring green tea before any other flavor. I love the taste of toasted rice that never fails to give that calming effect after a cup of green tea. The tea craze is really on as more and more entrepreneurs are getting into the business of creating unique tea blends and tea-flavored desserts too. Having had the privilege of tasting a wide-array of desserts from the well-loved chocolate cakes to the fruity flavored ones, I was very excited when a pack of Green Tea desserts were sent to me by Chris Chan , the man behind Wild Bites . My family loves tea-flavored food items too and we were all so excited to try Chris' Wild Bites . After lunch last Sunday, we tried each Green Tea dessert and named our favorite. Mine was the Green Tea clusters (Php. 75 for 10 clusters), very similar to Baguio's choco flakes only this is covered with wh...