Frannywanny

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...

Every time we fly home, Paul and I would go over our growing list of restaurants to try in Manila. I tell you, it has really been a challenge to keep up as there's just too many new restaurants and only a couple of visiting days available. As much as we love trying new restaurants, we also take this opportunity to re-visit our favorites. I'd say we get better in planning our itinerary through time. Take this recent visit for example, this is finally the only trip where we got to spend a lot of time with both families. Spending lunches with my in laws and dinners with my side, we took a break from our crazy back-to-back schedule to have quiet meals at home, long hours catching up or dining at our favorite places. So, for our first dinner in Manila, Mommy suggested that we go to Lugang Cafe . This has been one of my family's favorite restaurants as we are all fans of xiao long bao (steamed soupy dumplings) and Lugang Cafe makes one of the best in town. I'm so happy t...

From one foodie mecca to another. Putting cleanliness, ease in mode of transportation and security aside, Manila and Singapore still share a couple of similarities most especially in being the best place to be for food lover's like you and me. Back home, our neighborhood alone is quickly becoming a go-to place when you're in the mood to try new homegrown (a.k.a. local) food concepts. One thing we have to remember is that it was in San Juan where the country's milk tea pioneer, Serenitea , first opened shop. San Juan is also known to be the modern-day Chinatown. Here, you'll see a number of Chinese delis, Chinese specialty shops, three Filipino-Chinese schools, a Buddhist temple and a lot more. In the past year alone, more restaurants opened and one of those was Mu Noodle Bar . I must have been out of the radar but I felt like Mu Noodle Bar opened so quietly that it was only through hearsay that I found out about this modern Chinese restaurant. What prompted me to t...