Frannywanny

For locals here in Singapore, Crystal Jade has been a household name since 1991. Today, it's the leading Chinese dining concept with more than 120 outlets all over the world. In fact, my first taste of Crystal Jade was in Manila when it opened a couple of years ago. I could still remember the long queue that would form almost all throughout the day in the V-Mall branch. That's also where my love for Dan Dan Mian began. Often times, I would say that dimsum is one of my top 3 favorite food in the world and having steamboat or what we commonly call hotpot / shabu-shabu  for dinner is always something that I look forward to. Never mind that my kitchen diva skills are not Master Chef level yet but at least, I get the opportunity to cook even if it means tossing everything into the boiling pot with the confidence that everything will still be so delicious. So, when Paul and I were invited to have dinner at Crystal Jade Steamboat Kitchen in Plaza Singapura, this was one of th...

O's birthday is coming up and he decided to celebrate it with the Normanton kids (NKids) a little bit earlier. So one Sunday, we traveled to the west *background music: Go West by Pet Shop Boys*   to have lunch at the new Westgate Mall . It was our second time here and I really like this mall a lot. While the zoning was a wee bit confusing, I just love the good mix of restaurants that you can find here. There's Tim Ho Wan , Ippudo SG, Paradise Dynasty, Miam Miam, my favorite Poulet , Tsukada Nojo and Skinny Pizza to name a few. One thing about the Nkids is that we are all up for trying out a new restaurant every time we go out together. So on this special day of O's, we tried Chicken Hot Pot which is a franchise from Shanghai, China. As the name suggests, this restaurant specializes in hot pot which is also known as shabu-shabu or steamboat. However, what makes it different is that the pot comes with a whole lot of meat and less soup initially. After you get your first...

Huat Ah!* In the spirit of the Chinese New Year (yes, the celebration never ends!) , let me continue my story-telling on how my family and I celebrated this special occasion back in Manila. After tossing our Yu Sheng salad to bring in all the good fortunes, happiness and luck, we headed out for a family dinner at Huat Pot , a newly-opened hotpot restaurant in San Juan . Stepping inside Huat Pot , we were led towards our table that the far corner of the restaurant which was quite cramped and definitely could not comfortably sit 5 people. Oh dear! Sadly, the entire restaurant was filled to the brim so we had to make do with a little adjustments here and there. As soon as we were all seated, Paul, Pan and I were tasked by our parents to take care of getting the food. The set-up reminds me of our favorite hotpot restaurant in Taiwan where all the meats and veggies were neatly stored in a huge chiller and there were a lot of drink options and the best part of all -- free ice cream!...

While eating is a fun experience on its own, I personally find greater excitement when I get to cook and eat at the same time. This is the reason why I'm such a fan of shabu-shabu (hotpot) restaurants or those that have table-top grills where we can cook our choice meats to perfection. To be honest though, Paul is a greater cook than I am. So, more often than not, I leave the cooking to him while I happily chew away. He's such a natural with a spatula on one hand and a pair chopsticks on the other. One evening while trying a new restaurant called Taza Mix with some members of The Food Club , I was so lucky to be seated beside Paul and Irene , two of the more talented cooks of T he Food Club (this special category also includes fellow bloggers Carlos , Jane and Joan -- you should really try their kitchen specialties!) . Just imagine how Richard and I were enjoying having our plates filled with delicious shabu shabu balls, strips of lamb and chicken, kani sticks, veggi...

16 years. That's how long most of us have known each other. It all began on the 1st day of class in 1996 (yes kids..no loud gasp please..Auntie Franny is not THAT old) when we all went back to school after summer break. It was our first year in high school then. It's part of the system that we all get reshuffled right after 7th grade. I guess the reason behind this is to give us more chance to get to know one another more. Much to our dismay then, this system worked out pretty well as we graduated High School knowing almost everyone in our batch of 240++ students. High School really was FUN. It was the time where we were still so carefree, all filled with hope and optimism and we didn't have much to worry about day in and out. I enjoyed playing matchmakers to friends during our Prom and Ball seasons and everyday I look forward to just three things: Recess, Lunch and Dismissal (ok, fine, maybe I also love Cooking Class and Club days too) . It was during these years that...

I initially wanted to share with you my Taipei experience in chronological order. However, as I try to recall the three amazing days spent in beautiful Taiwan, I can't stop drooling over our last lunch at Mala Hotpot . Therefore, I'm skipping forward and will begin my food adventure series in my new-found favorite restaurant in Taipei. Months before our trip, my friends and I began fixing our itinerary. It's a good thing that we all wanted to shop and eat. Jeanny and Karl, having been to Taipei before, were tasked to take care of our last day. Initially the plan was to feast on Xiao Long Baos at Din Tai Fung for lunch and have a special eat-all-you-can hotpot dinner before heading to the airport. However, we had to move our schedule around as Mala Hotpot cannot accomodate us for dinner and has only one slot for us that day -- 2PM to 4PM . Still, we were all determined to give Mala Hotpot a try after Jeanny told us that they have eat-all-you-can Haagen Dazs and Moven...

I love to cook and I love to eat, put it together and for sure, I'll have a great time during a shabu-shabu dinner! However, more often than not, it's my husband Paul who takes the center stage in the cooking arena. Take Amah's (grandmother) birthday two week ago for example where my family decided to head to Green Maris for an intimate shabu-shabu (hotpot) dinner. While most would probably expect the ladies in the family to stand up and cook all evening, it was in fact the men namely Kongkong, Aku, Kuku and Paul who made sure that all ingredients made it to the pot and they also were the ones putting all sorts of meat and seafood into our respective bowls. Such gentlemen we have in the family. :) Fast forward a week after, Paul and I joined half of the Club at King One Rotary Hot Pot in Macapagal Avenue where we went prepared with an empty stomach ready to enjoy an assortment of meat, seafood and more! I'm glad that Richard and Irene , who have dined at King One m...

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...

Since I've been drinking this nasty Chinese herbal medicine for a week to help cure my stubborn cough and colds, the side effect of this is making my stomach go berserk! Thus, I've been shying away from events that will make me stay out of the house for more than three hours. Hopefully, after drinking the final batch last night, I hope my stomach will finally stabilize the same way that my cough and colds have miraculously disappeared. I almost turned down an invite yesterday to join yet another food blogger's event but thanks to the persistence of Achi Didi and Sophie who were so sweet to pass by for me and to my stomach who remained cooperative throughout the night, I had a blast eating, laughing and bonding with fellow bloggers over pots of boiling shabu shabu! The Magic of Shabu Shabu For those who might be wondering what on earth is a shabu shabu and before you might further conclude that we underwent some kind of illegal activity last night, shabu shabu is actually...