Frannywanny

I'm back from my short  Lenten hiatus and it surely was a good 3-day well spent organizing, getting artsy and creative as well as enjoying my life offline. How about you? I'm pretty sure a number of you are on your way back from an amazing vacation! Tell me about it below, okay? Anyway, do you remember the old nursery rhyme that goes like this: Hot cross buns!  Hot cross buns!  One a penny, Two a penny,  Hot cross buns! In some countries, it's a tradition to have a Hot Cross Bun during Good Friday . Well, it was my first time to see a real Hot Cross Bun  up close and the moment I saw it, I got every single flavor there is in Cedele Bakery Cafe . We then had this at home for breakfast last Good Friday and it was fun doing a little taste-testing on which flavor is the best.

The celebration continues! For the past years, celebrating the Chinese New Year for me means wearing red on that auspicious day, sharing a delicious meal with my family and receiving ang paos (red money packets) from the elders. I have to say that living in Manila, the celebration normally just lasts for two days max. After that, life pretty much goes back to normal.  When Paul and I moved to the Lion City a year ago. We arrived exactly right after the Chinese New Year and one thing we noticed was that the celebration seems to last longer than what we were accustomed to. We would still hear the dragon/lion dance trucks in almost every corner, office buildings would have those huge kiatkiat plants, people would be in red and restaurants are still busy hosting CNY lunches/dinners. I had my first taste of what CNY was like here in Singapore during my company lunch wherein I had my first Lo Hei.  "What's a Lo Hei?" I still remember asking my colleague K about ...

Every single time I dine at Mario's Restaurant in Tomas Morato , I can't help but reminisce about my childhood years. The time when I would dine there with my parents and we would order their Grilled Tanigue with Dill Sauce for starters, have our own plates of Caesar Salad and this immediately will be followed by our respective choice of main dishes -- on most occasions I would switch back and forth between the Lamb Chops or the Chicken Parmigiana. Our meals will never be complete without looking at their dessert cart where my sister and I would always choose the gelatin with fruit cocktail inside. Oh how I always feel like a grown-up woman every time we dine at Mario's as I would carefully slice through my lamb chops or fork through my crisp salad. Fast forward a little more than ten years after, I'm back at Mario's this time really as a grown married woman with my husband sitting beside me as we attended a special dinner hosted by Fil and Anton Benitez , the ...