Frannywanny

It's no secret how much I love Cebuano lechon. Apart from my all-time fave, very sosyal  Truffled Stuffed Lechon , I love the saltiness of the Cebunao lechon and the fact that minimal dipping is required. Apart from this, I love Cebu . The Queen City of the South where you can get the yummiest finds. It's here where I load up on roasted meats, dried danggit (fish) and my ever favorite -- dried mangoes with chocolate. So, when word went around that Rico's Lechon from Cebu will open their first store here in Manila sometime back in August, I was really excited to give it a try. Unfortunately, being full time Mommy to my twins doesn't really make me as mobile as I used to be so even a short trip to the Bonifacio Global City entails a whole lot of coordination, planning and logistical arrangements. You see, every time I visit Cebu, I make it a point to have lechon. I have my go-to Cebu Lechon spot which I would frequent every time I'm in the city. Somehow, I know ...

Most balikbayans / OFWs will surely agree with this statement: "No matter how long your trip back to the Philippines is, it will never be long enough."  In other words, it will always feel like you just have so many things to do with so little time. The best solution for this? Multi-task . Believe it or not, I have begun creating day-to-day itinerary whenever we fly back to Manila. Every minute is precious and can never be wasted not doing anything. Of course, we have to make sure that we have set aside ample time to bond with our families too. For this particular trip, Paul had to go to LTO to have his driver's license renewed. Since we went right on the last work day before Christmas Day, we were greeted with a shockingly long queue and what used to just be an hour-long processing time took us almost half a day. Not wanting to rant that we have just wasted half a day waiting in line, it was a good thing that the LTO office was just right across Tiendesitas where t...

Just about the same time two years ago, Paul and I went to the US for a quick R&R. During the said trip to   California, we were able to try a restaurant called Umami Burger and believe me, they just got to have the best burgers in town (or at least from those that we were able to taste) . The flavor was just so intensely good that it left me in such a happy state days and months after. Just like the word umami  which is Japanese for  perfectly flavorful , Umami's burger was exactly that. It had all the right flavors that would make you want to close your eyes and savor one bite after the other. Here in Manila, there's a new restaurant at The Grove by Rockwell Land that shares a similar name -- Umami Hambaagu House is what it's called. The Grove is the up and coming premier property located right across Tiendesitas. At present, Starbucks Coffee has opened a branch there as well as Sunrise Buckets too. Expect more restaurants to follow suit in the coming mon...

We are down to the final leg before Christmas Day hits and with a little more than a week left, people will surely be out rushing to finish off their Christmas list. Here's a handy list that I came across in ClickTheCity.com where they have the complete mall hours to guide all the last minute shoppers (like yours truly) out there: please click to view full size shopping photo credit: http://brandkeys.blogspot.com/