Frannywanny

Our trip was quite short..a bit too short that we barely had enough time to visit other cities outside of LA. Still, we had a blast! Within the span of 14 days, Paul and I fell in love with one particular restaurant that made us go back twice. It was that good that the server even recognized us and thought we were locals. Let me tell you about Lucille's Smokehouse BBQ which, I believe, has one of the best ribs in this part of the world. I guess I've mentioned quite often how much Paul and I love eating ribs . We enjoy chomping down on a full rack of ribs, clearing out the meat till the bone ends up shiny and clean. Yep, we're carnivores that way. While others would go for huge tender perfectly grilled steaks, we'd choose ribs any day. We love sinking our teeth into the tender meat that falls off the bone in an instant. What more, the juicy barbecue sauce that covers it and the delicious sidings that come with it never fails to make our day complete. One evenin...

As Paul and I enjoyed our trip around California a.k.a. Burger Land, of course, we didn't pass up the chance to try one of their famous fast food burger chains -- In-N-Out Burger . I couldn't believe my eyes as I would see a line of cars outside the restaurant and a line of people inside at any given time of the day. We would pass by the nearest In-N-Out Burger in the morning and there's already a line of cars waiting at the drive-thru counter and when we head back home at night, the line just gets longer and longer. I asked my cousin-in-law J about it and he told me that that's actually a daily scenario at In-N-Out ! Wow! Business is really good for them! Their menu is simple, you get to choose among three types of burgers: Hamburger, Cheeseburger and the famous Double-Double burger . Add some fries or maybe a milkshake basically that's how simple their menu line up is. Yet, people just wants their burgers fresh, fast and delicious. No frills, no add-ons and...

During the first leg of my US trip, my colleague L and I stayed at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Irvine. Irvine, is actually like the central business district of California where tall skyscrapers line up the streets and it's relatively more quiet here at any given part of the day simply because everyone is busy at work. On our first work day, L and I decided to start early by walking around the neighborhood in search for a good place to have breakfast. Thanks to the friendly hotel staff, he directed us towards Specialty's Cafe & Bakery which he says serves pretty good coffee.

While planning for our trip to the US, Paul and I did not expect that we are about to embark on a journey to Burger Land! Everywhere you go, you'll surely encounter a burger stand or a restaurant serving the meatiest, biggest burger ever seen! From the famous In-n-Out, which I will talk about more in detail in my next entries, to the gourmet ones such as Umami Burger where my dear friend Karla brought us for dinner one chilly evening, we had a great time having a taste of all-pure beef with the freshest veggies and soft burger buns. Back in Manila, I'm not really a big burger fan as I prefer the non-meat choices such as Burger King's BK Big Fish or McDonald's Fillet o Fish sandwich however, since I am in Burger Land I have to try these burgers and see why the locals love them so much. As mentioned above, it was a very chilly evening where the temparature was at 8 degrees celcius. We buttoned up, pulled down our hats and shivered our way towards Umami Burger alon...

Whenever we travel, I look forward to waking up early in order to have a good breakfast. Wanting to just relax and to live the local life, we decided to skip flying to Las Vegas for another exciting yet exhausting day and to just stay in the city to shop, eat and walk around. Our lazy day began with brunch at Denny's Restaurant , a diner that has a lot of branches around the US and even in some neighboring countries as well. It's good that they have a number of value meals starting at $2. We began with a plate of Buttermilk Pancakes ($2) as I was determined to enjoy a plate of all-American pancakes in this trip. However, I was a bit disappointed that Denny's pancakes were not as fluffy as I was expecting it to be. We shared a piece of pancake eat and covered it with creamy butter and syrup. I still love our pancakes back home. We also had Country Fried Steak and Eggs ($9.99) which is a huge platter filled with meat, meat and more meat! Here's what we got: two s...