Hello! Welcome to Manila Spoon! Thanks for dropping by.

I am Abby Raines, born in Manila, Philippines but currently residing in the great state of Connecticut, USA. I am a lawyer turned stay-at-home mom. I am blessed with two wonderful children, William and Sophie and one sweet husband (Mark), from England, for whom I am very thankful to the Lord for. My life is truly wonderful because of them. The photo above was taken years ago when I began this blog but below here’s what we look like nowadays.

Yes, I have been blogging that long! The most recent photo of us below was taken on our trip to Paris to watch the 2024 Olympics!

ManilaSpoon came into being because I wanted to compile all my favorite recipes into one easy-to-access file. Having it all online not only makes it so convenient to find them (gone are the days of looking for the scraps of paper where I have written the recipes!), but it is also a lot easier to share them with friends.

So how did my love for cooking begin? Not naturally. Not right away. Truth is, I had to learn to cook out of necessity. As anyone familiar with the Philippines would know, when you grow up with a maid, oftentimes you never learn the wonderful art of cooking. Back then, I always knew that when dinner’s on, the food would be ready at the table, often prepared by anyone in the house but me. I did dabble a bit on cooking after college but never really pursued it passionately.

However, when I got married and settled in the USA, I had to really learn how to cook. Otherwise, my hubby and I would have starved to death!
Thankfully, the kind folks who help us settle in Grand Rapids gave us a copy of an American cookbook as a welcome present. Perhaps they sensed our predicament. That began my love for cooking and anything that has to do with food.

I learned to cook initially by following recipes to the letter but, eventually and more extensively, through trial and error. The results of my culinary adventures are shown in manilaspoon.com, which is simply a collection of recipes which my family have tried and enjoyed through the years.

I love to blog because it’s my ‘creative therapy’ allowing me to put into words and pictures things I enjoy and have passion for. So I do hope you enjoy reading the posts as much as I enjoy writing them!

And after just over 6 years of blogging, I am happy to announce that we finally have our very own cookbook – RICE. NOODLES. YUM. (EVERYONE’S FAVORITE SOUTHEAST ASIAN DISHES). It’s got 75 delicious and authentic rice and noodle dishes from Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines, of course! I have travelled all over the region and attended cooking classes and learned from both chefs and cooks alike who generously shared with me their ways and techniques on how to cook the tastiest Asian  food! I promise you, these are tried and tested and really yummy recipes. It’s now on pre-order so make sure to grab your copy here or click on the photo below.

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