Frannywanny

I guess I've mentioned quite a lot of times before how happy it makes me when friends come to visit. Much more when they do come to visit and make time for me and Paul! Being travelers ourselves, we know how crazy one's trip itinerary can be so we don't normally demand people to meet up with us as we know they'd rather spend those hours exploring beautiful Singapore. So, when friends would message us and ask us if we're free to meet up for a meal, we'd make it a point to say yes and would go through great lengths to ensure that they'll indeed have a good meal. It's the least that we can do for their thoughtfulness and love, right? So, when my favorite foodie friends Dedet and Cyrene flew to Singapore over the weekend, we agreed to meet up for dinner. Dedet's only request was to have something uniquely Singaporean. I don't know why but the first thing that came to mind was Ah Hoi's Kitchen , our go-to place for delicious crabs and their mo...

Huat Ah! This is probably the first Singlish phrase that I've learned when we moved to the Lion City exactly two Chinese New Years ago. As half of the city went overseas and the other half were busy visiting families, we took this time to make our visit to IKEA to quickly furnish our new place. All around us, people were tossing shredded vegetables while screaming " Huat Ahhhhh!! " I had no clue what they were doing then but who would have thought that this would be one exciting practice that I always look forward to every Chinese New Year -- Lo Hei . Paul and I loved it so much that we even brought back packs of Yu Sheng Salad to share this "veggie-tossing" practice with our families in Manila.  This is just one of the many things I love about Singapore and the Singaporean culture. Another thing we love (and we're pretty sure the rest of the world do too) about Singapore is the yummy hawker heritage . Many have been saying that hawker centres won'...

A food lover will always be a food lover. No matter where we go, Paul and I make it a point that we get to have a wonderful gastronomic adventure in our trips here and abroad. Luck must have been on our side as we just recently found out that the Singapore Food Festival will happen just around the same time that we're there. Of course, this was immediately included in our itinerary. It has been drizzling all day but it didn't stop us from taking the MRT all the way to Clarke Quay in order to check the festival out. From the station, it was a short walk crossing Swissotel Merchant Court and soon you'll see the Singapore River with lots of small stalls selling shirts and other retail items. The Clarke Quay Food Street was located along the Read Bridge. It wasn't difficult to locate this as all we had to do was to follow the steady stream of people going in one direction. After going around each and every stall, we decided to buy our very own Kopi Tiam card ...

While having lunch with our friend HK during our first day in Singapore , we asked him where's the best place to have Chicken Rice and he immediately answered " Wee Nam Kee" . Hainanese Chicken Rice is a staple and is probably one of those dishes that made Singapore very popular in the foodie world. Visit any hawker center can you'll definitely see a stall selling Hainanese Chicken Rice. My sister and I also grew up loving Hainanese Chicken Rice. I love the oily ginger sauce and my Chicken Rice will never be complete without it. My sister, on the other hand, adds a touch of chili sauce before enjoying her piece of chicken. We planned to meet up with our Singapore-based friends and I wanted to make sure that we'll be able to feast over good food as this will be our continuous wedding celebration with them. Following HK's recommendation, I left them all a message to meet up with us at Wee Nam Kee, boy was I excited! It was not difficult to locate Wee Na...

It was our first day in Singapore and after spending the entire afternoon resting at our hotel , Paul and I decided to grab an early dinner nearby. Luckily, The Swissotel Stamford was perfectly located near the Esplanade , which is a durian-shaped theater/convention center, right at the heart of Singapore's CBD. In fact, it only took us less than 10 minutes to leisurely walk from our hotel to The Esplanade. It was very accessible indeed. We went around The Esplanade and watched a live free concert happening at the activity hall. It took us a while to locate our target destination, it was a good thing that some locals were nice enough to help us. Finally we found it -- Makansutra Gluttons Bay . It was just 630PM and the place was almost filled! Following the local practice, we got a small pack of tissue from my bag and placed it on an empty table. This is their way of reserving the table in any hawker center while the "owner" goes around and get his/her food. Our ...

It was just another busy weekday for Paul and I as we had to run a couple of errands late in the evening. Driving along Banawe Avenue in Quezon City, we were looking for a place to have our (very late) dinner. I always enjoy visiting this part of town due to its numerous food choices. Growing up with my grandparents, I remember how fun it was when my Kongkong (maternal grandfather) and Amah (material grandmater) would take my sister and I for a ride down Banawe everyday for our afternoon snack. More often than not, we would end up in the same place -- Mami King . Kongkong loves their halo-halo and so every single day of our summer vacation was spent there. Aside from Mami King, which sadly is not operational anymore, there are a lot of dining spots that keeps their own food secrets. There's one that serves the best creamy crabs, one that has to-die-for Chicken and Taro Hotpot and a number who serves the best noodle soup, dimsum and tofu drink. Following the lead of fellow...

Twas the night after Christmas and despite our hectic schedules, my friends and I all agreed to meet up to have a better-late-than-never dinner to celebrate the holidays. I guess this is what makes real friendship works, nothing will stop us from seeing each other no matter how far, how late or how short the meet-up would be. Following last year's fun and successful Christmas dinner, we agreed to have it at Tong Yang but this time in their Jupiter branch. We were all so excited to spend an evening cooking, eating, talking, laughing and just having a great time. Since we were a big group, we were given a private room. Their servers were very attentive that it wasn't difficult at all to ask for assistance. With our stomachs growling loudly, everyone headed to the buffet table the moment we arrived. Paul and I began with the appetizer section where we filled our plates with yummy sushi, siomai and kimchi! It was truly a mix of all things we like! Korean, Chinese and Japanese! I e...