Frannywanny

The past 3 years were filled with lots of life-changing experiences. From experiencing the first ever (and hopefully the last) pandemic in my life to being on lockdown for a really long time, to learning to accept the change and adapting to it and to finding new hobbies and interests while confined within the four walls of our home.  It was in 2020 when I discovered the Kdrama Crash Landing on You  and luckily, I had my dongsaeng (lilttle sister) J at work who shares the same interest for kdrama (or in her case, all things Korean) with me. I'm not new to watching kdrama, in fact, I have watched the likes of Full House and Winter Sonata many years back. Life just got so busy that I never got around to watching more plus it was harder back then as you had to either patiently download it on the internet or buy a DVD to watch it. Thankfully, we have Netflix now taking all our kdrama watching to a whole new level.  The show Crash Landing on You  (CLOY) took the entire n...

Let's take a short trip down memory lane. Well, sometime in 2017, Paul and I had one of the best babymoons at the Marco Polo Ortigas Manila  where we also celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary . I remembered even writing about it and I quote, "After all, this will be the last wedding anniversary where it's just the two of us. Next year, we will be joined by our beautiful twins so looks like it will be a family getaway from then on." Three years after that memorable staycation, we found ourselves back at our favorite hotel in the city and yes, this time we have our twins in tow. Often times, we'd toy with the idea of take a quick couple-only trip and to leave our twins in the able hands of my parents and Yaya M. However, #momguilt never fail to take over and so I've chickened out so many times as I can't bear the thought of me being away from my twins for more than 24hours. I guess I'm just not ready for that. Any moms out there who can relate with ...

Rise and Shine, Manila!  Breakfast has always been my favorite meal especially when I'm on a vacation. Lately though, I would always find myself up and about at 6am with a growling tummy. I guess, I got two hungry babies calling my attention so early in the morning! Luckily though, Cucina starts their breakfast service really early too and so I joined a handful of hotel guests a little past 6am on a Sunday morning. I've always been a fan of Cucina 's as I love the well-curated dishes available in their buffet spread. Their breakfast offering didn't fail to impress as well. Let me take you on a quick tour around the breakfast buffet line: Start off with something healthy in the morning! They have a good variety of muesli, yogurt and oatmeal for you to choose from.

It's been a while since our last visit to Lung Hin but I can still vividly remembered how delicious everything was and the ambiance also added to the over-all wonderful dining experience that we had. It just made perfect sense to go back to Lung Hin during our anniversary weekend stay at Marco Polo Ortigas Manila . I know it's more customary to go for a nice romantic steak dinner to celebrate an anniversary but hey, who ever said you can't have Chinese food on a dinner date too? Our dinner began with our personal choice of soup. Spinach Seafood Soup  (Php. 330) for me and Hot and Sour Seafood Soup  (Php. 295) for Paul. We love starting our meal with a bowl of soup to warm our tummies and prepare it for the feast ahead. My Spinach Seafood Soup  was so packed with a lot of ingredients! Minced seafood, tofu and what I suspect could be egg white. It was so filling and yummy!

It's no secret how much I love going for Afternoon Tea. There's something about unwinding while enjoying a selection of sweet and savory bite-sized pasties delicately displayed on  a tall multi-tier rack. Since Paul had work on Saturdays back when we were in Singapore, I'd spend those free time with my girl friends as we would try the different hotel high teas around the city. Since high tea is traditionally very British, I'm happy though that this practice is picking up pace here in the Philippines where the American influence is relatively strong. After checking in and settling in our room at Marco Polo Ortigas Manila , Paul and I headed back to the 24th floor where Connect Lounge is located. They have an ongoing high tea promotion for only Php. 788 per pair and we were excited to give it a try. Similar to all dining establishments in the hotel, Connect Lounge also boasts of an amazing view overlooking the Ortigas and Antipolo area. Within minutes, our three ...

For a country, like the Philippines, who loves to eat, it's then expected to have such a booming food industry and boy, competition can be very very fierce! There's basically a lot of options to eat from such as the basic carinderias , to the growing number of food parks, then there's a wide array for restaurants specializing in all sorts of cuisines and cooking techniques then we have our hotels. Within one hotel, you can expect to have more than 3 F&B outlets such as a traditional Chinese or Japanese restaurant, a coffee shop and our favorite -- an all-day dining restaurant which offers its culinary masterpieces buffet-style. Now, it's not really a big surprise how come Paul and I would always pack on so much weight after spending a couple of days back in Manila. Most of the time, we just eat, eat and eat! During our recent visit home, we checked out Cucina  at Marco Polo Ortigas Manila . We've loved this hotel after dining at Lung Hin and we told ourselv...

It's no secret how Paul and I love to travel. However, given that we have very limited leave dates at work and more than half of those are spent in Manila for Christmas, Chinese New Year and for family birthdays, we barely had any days left to really go on a vacation. That said, this is one reason why we love taking staycations every now and then. You see, we both love taking some time off from work to unwind and recharge. We both lead very hectic work lives so this is the only chance that we get to spend one entire weekend clearing our minds and catching up on sleep. Not to mention that we get each other's undivided attention as we don't have to worry about household chores or running errands too. During one of our visits to Manila, we spent the night at Edsa Shangri-la Hotel . As you may have read in my past entries, this hotel holds a special place in my heart as I've spent a lot of weekends with my family here. I love how it's located right at the center of ...

For those who have been following me on Instagram , you may have noticed the continuous photos that I've been sharing during my recent visit to Manila. We spent 6 amazing days eating, spending a lot of time with family and catching up with our closest friends too. One of the biggest highlight of our trip (and reason for our flight home, in fact) happened a week ago when my one and only sister Pan tied the knot with my new brother-in-law E.  It was such a joyous occasion for both families and everything went perfectly as planned. Of course, we got my sister's dream team to thank for too. The most crucial time was the night before and the day of the wedding. This was where a lot of last minute preparations took place and the endless pouring in of suppliers come the wedding day. So, when my sister was scouting around for that perfect bridal suite for her on-the-day preparations, we unanimously agreed that Discovery Suites  in Ortigas was definitely the best choice. Of cou...

Who would have thought that you can actually find really good food at the 2nd floor of a business hotel that's located right at the heart of the Ortigas Central Business District (CBD)? That was one of our realizations after having such a yummy lunch at Mesclun in Linden Suites last January. Last January, Paul and I have been eating out non-stop with friends and family who were so sweet to spend some quality time with us. I actually wasn't planning to say yes to dining invitations anymore given the state of our social schedule. However, the girls behind Mesclun were just so sweet (and persistent hehe) that we just have to say YES to their email/Twitter/Facebook invite (beat that!) . Well, I honestly am glad I did.  We have been to Linden Suites before to attend a work-related event as well as to be surprised by our own friends and my sister as they threw us a joint bridal/stag party in one of their suite rooms a few years ago. What I love about Linden Suites is t...

When I first met Paul 9 years ago, all I remembered was that he's the guy in a blue shirt and who was wearing a gray cap. He barely spoke a word the entire evening and just sat quietly beside his friend N who invited him to our group's dinner that day. I was busy catching up with my girl friends and was obviously oblivious to the fact that there, at one corner of the room, the same quiet guy was staring at me...or so he claims he was. *blush* Fast forward months after that, we began exchanging messages online and via SMS. Later on, as we found out that we live so close to each other, we began meeting up for afternoon merienda or after dinner coffee chats once in a while. One of the first things that I liked about Paul was the fact that he makes a great eating partner. Having met guys who have a million and one conditions when it comes to food (read: no veggies, no spicy food, no exotic dishes, etc etc etc) , I was elated to find out that Paul was really game to try anything a...

There are times when you just want to let your guard down and to just be able to relax, have fun with friends and most importantly, have a good and truly satisfying meal. My first encounter with Uncle Cheffy was last year when my sister-in-law chose to celebrate her birthday at their Burgos Circle branch. I helped her order our lunch and I was really happy with the two choices of thin-crust panizza and the seafood dishes that we got for the family to share. There were just so many restaurants and so little time that it has been 5 months since our last visit. I can't believe it took us this long to be able to go back to Uncle Cheffy again..what a terrible "nephew" and "niece" we were! So there we were, one weeknight at Uncle Cheffy in Ortigas Center with dear friends Richard and Irene . It was a fun double date and we were there ready to feast on Uncle Cheffy 's house specialties. Dinner began with the Uncle Cheffy Salad (Php. 175/230). I love eatin...

Don't you just love going out for lunch? Taking a short breather away from the office and having a really good and filling meal? That's what I did a couple of days ago. I was invited by my friends over at Discovery Suites to try their lunch buffet at Restaurant 5 and luckily, I was there on the day that they were highlighting a couple of Spanish dishes. Spell P-A-E-L-L-A !! My love affair with that orange, baked rice will go on for a lifetime! I love the flavorful Arborio rice cooked with the juiciest meats and the finest catch from the sea. The best part of course lies at the bottom of the pan. Socarrat , as they call it is the thin burnt layer that is so crunchy and good.

A couple of Fridays ago, The Food Club was invited to have dinner and a few glasses of wine at Café 1771’s The Winebar . This came as a perfect timing given that it was the end of a stressful workweek and a great way to welcome the much-awaited weekend. We arrived just about the same time and as we made our way up to the 2nd floor of Café 1771 in El Pueblo , we were all impressed with the sudden change of ambiance. From the bright pink and blue décor of the Whimsy section, climbing up the wooden staircase led us to an all-wooden interior that reminds me of a scene from The Godfather or one of those Al Pacino films that Papa loves to watch over and over again. After leading us to our table, we were offered some wine to get things started. I sadly had to decline as I’m not really much of a drinker…an “eater”, yes…a drinker, no. Nonetheless, my companions seem to enjoy their selection of wines which I think went perfectly well with our wide-array of dishes that evening. In true Ca...

My family has been a long time loyal patron of Buon Giorno Tagaytay . Every trip to Tagaytay would not be complete without two things: a meal at Josephine's and lunch at Buon Giorno . Yes, that's how loyal my family can get. For as long as we love the food and we find the price reasonable, expect us to be back regularly. After lunch at Buon Giorno my parents love to spend more time around the area as we enjoy the cool breeze and the beautiful sight of the Taal Volcano. Once in a while, my mom would crave for something Italian and to her dismay not a single Italian restaurant here in Manila could satisfy her craving as much as Buon Giorno could. Her request is simple: fresh ingredients, balanced flavor, top quality meat. Our favorite is the Smoked Salmon with Mango Dill Sauce and their Risotto. We were so happy when Buon Giorno opened their first branch in Metro Manila along Shaw Boulevard. Sadly though, the ambiance there just doesn't match with that of their Tagaytay br...

Back when I was still a kid, my parents would bring me to this classy Korean restaurant called Arirang. It's a three-story fully carpeted restaurant where we would order plates of Korean bbq meat to grill and later on dip this in their delicious sesame soy sauce before enjoying it together with a spoonful of fragrant sticky rice. As kids, we were pretty blessed as we would frequent this restaurant almost every week. It was definitely sad news when Arirang closed down and later on, bid adieu to the Philippines. Since then, we would try various Korean restaurant in the metro but nothing still came close to our memorable dining experience at Arirang. Then, my dear college friend Sandy came to visit after leaving the Philippines for the US 7 years ago. Of course, her visit was a momentous one as I've been waiting to see her again and to catch up on each other's lives. I sent her a message asking if she has any preferred cuisine or is currently craving for something. Her ...