Frannywanny

More than a month before our January visit home, I've been hearing friends and fellow food lovers talking about this new restaurant called Kettle  that recently opened at Manila's newest hangout spot, where else but in the East Wing  of  Shangril-La Plaza . This new structure of the mall houses a number of interesting food concepts from Chef Rob Goco's Green Pastures to another addition in the ramen competition, Ikkoryu Fukuoka Ramen  to name a few. Since I don't get to go home that often, I have a long list of restaurants to try and one of those is Kettle . I am very lucky to be blessed with really supportive high school friends. As we were planning for our dinner out, they allowed me to choose where I want to eat as they are very much aware of my long running list. We all agreed to dine at Kettle and to ensure that we have a table ready for us as we're dining on a busy Friday night, a reservation has been made. We were a loooong table of 12 so it can be quite...

No matter how many days our vacation in Manila may be, we always end up feeling that we should have stayed longer. *sigh*  It just goes to show that time truly flies when you're having fun more so when you're with your loved ones and your dearest friends too. During my recent visit home, I made sure to make time to meet up with two of my good friends and I have to admit, my two favorite food bloggers too  -- Jin and Leslie . Being with them always makes me and Paul feel very comfortable and we would always look back and say how much fun lunch/dinner was with them. ALWAYS. I guess it's because the three of us share a lot of common interest -- FOOD is one, traveling is another. We also share a number of common friends here and there. Needless to say, our table conversations have always been always fun, funny and definitely negative vibes free. Recently, we were invited to dine at Kitsho Japanese Restaurant at Traders Hotel Manila . We've been reading up and hearin...

From the moment I blew out my 30th candle, I began creating my bucket list. From the major life-changing ones to the simple, easy-to-achieve wishes, crossing out every item on my list gives me a reason to celebration big and small life victories. Don't laugh but one item on my list reads "try the new Spiral at Sofitel Manila." Yes, I'm a true blue foodie, alright. After all, Spiral is one of the best hotel buffet outlets in the country and after hearing raves from friends who have dined here after it opened again to the public after 13 months of renovation, I knew I just have to give it a try myself. Paul and I have shared a number of good dining memories at the old Spiral. Luck must have been on my side when I got an invite to visit Spiral during my recent visit to Manila. Of course, despite my crazy and busy schedule, I said YES! So there we were on our last day in Manila, ready to have a gastronomical lunch at Spiral. The location was the same and there'...

During our staycation at Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria , Paul and I decided to have dinner at Seven Corners . It has been a while since we've had a buffet dinner and what would make our visit home more enjoyable than to allow ourselves to indulge, right? Having had the privilege to try a number of hotel buffets in the Metro, Paul and I have grown to love a number of hotel buffets for one or two of its specialties. For instance, we love one hotel buffet for their to-die-for Caprese Salad , another one would be for their abundant seafood choices , another one would be for their impressive Japanese selections ...and the list goes on and on. While I wasn't my usual self that evening that I just tried a few dishes and quickly waved the white flag, I happily watched my husband enjoy the buffet selections of Seven Corners . I got to admit, Seven Corners have quite limited choices but we all know that quantity doesn't always equate to quality right? We began our dinner wi...

As much as I love to try new restaurants, there are just some that I do not mind going back to again and again. These restaurants are part of my list of favorites and they're the same ones I'll always trust when it comes to having consistently the yummiest dishes and the best service to boot. I've mentioned a few when Cathie interviewed me for her blog and I realized that I missed out on the one that I love the most -- Lolo Dad's Cafe . My love affair with Lolo Dad's began in 2011 when Paul and I went on a double date with friends R and I. We went back the year after and months after that . To date, I've been to Lolo Dad's for a total of 5 times and perhaps if only I don't live a thousand miles away from Manila, I would have probably been able to visit the restaurant more frequently. Recently, I went home to celebrate the birthday of my first love -- my Papa . As early as April, I booked my flight home as I wanted to make sure that I'll be t...

From the moment that I got engaged, I simply thought that Paul and I will be able to have more time to spend dating, going out on regular movie nights, enjoying a weekly massage and a lot more. In other words, I never thought that after being married for two years, our schedules would turn from hectic to crazy to crazier! Every weekend, we have deliveries to attend to, a growing business to take care of and a number of functions and parties to attend. That's how our two day weekend run and we don't even have a baby to worry about yet! Our weekends are normally filled to the brim that we truly cherish rare lazy weekends with not a single thing to do. This is the reason why both Paul and I love having impromptu dinner dates that allow us to unwind and to just enjoy a really good meal. A few months ago, we got an invite to we spend a quiet night at Dusit Thani Manila 's Italian restaurant -- Tosca . We've dined at Tosca before, first, for an event for work and second, a...

It's raining very hard as I type this and times like this I love to snuggle in bed while catching up on my favorite TV series or with a good book. This is bed weather after all and how I wish I can stay in under the sheets all day long. The rainy cool weather also makes me want a bowl of piping hot ramen. I was then reminded of a dinner that I had with Paul, my sister Pan and her best friend C at a newly opened restaurant called Kokoro Ramenya . It was upon an invite from a friend to try the restaurant out and we were all so excited as Japanese remains to be one of our favorite cuisines. Kokoro Ramenya is located in the newly constructed Avenue of the Arts Building along Roxas Boulevard. It offers traditional Japanese dishes such as ramen, donburi, tempura, sushi and sashimi and a lot more. I liked the bright and casual interiors making the restaurant look even bigger than it already is. We started our meal with a plate of Gyoza (Php. 155). The wrapper had a good texture ...

As Paul and I followed the week-long news coverage on the wake and funeral ceremony of the late King of Comedy, Dolphy , it has been mentioned a number of times by friends and loved ones that Dolphy loves going to Hizon’s or he would gift someone with a box of Hizon’s ensaymada. At some point, this led to Paul telling me that he has never dined at Hizon’s or more specifically at the coffee shop adjacent to it called Za’s Cafe . I was shocked! Between the two of us, he grew up in Manila and I just can’t believe he has never been there. Whereas for yours truly who was born and raised in Quezon City , I has been frequenting this classic restaurant since I was a toddler. I guess that just goes to show that I would really go the distance for good food. Anyway, I really love sharing a piece of my childhood with my husband. Be it trying a glass of halo-halo that I grew up enjoying or something like this – taking him to Za’s Cafe one rainy Sunday afternoon. I am pretty proud of mysel...

After combing through the narrow alleys of 168 mall and haggling our hearts out till we were able to get a good deal, our group headed to Charlie's Tea House in Ongpin for lunch as this was highly recommended by fellow blogger Abet and his lovely wife Joan . Luckily, Joan was able to secure a long table for all of us thus we were immediately seated as we entered the tiny eatery. When your hungry and people around you were happily eating, it makes it extra harder to choose what to order simply because everything just looks so good! Irene suggested that we all order family style and share the dishes among the 7 of us. Great idea! Our first order was one whole HK Fried Pigeon (Php. 320) as Abet got me excited about it when he was describing what was good in Charlie's Tea House. The pigeon was quite small that you get only 4 slices (one quarter each) however complete with the must-have salt and pepper dip. It was delicious and not too oily. I'm definitely going back to C...