Jan/102
juan’s for mexican
in yet another post in a never ending effort for me to write a non-food blog, i bring another food post.
one of the joys of going back to california is the huge variety of food from all over the world available. authentic food.
but sometimes, sometimes, you are just craving some dumbed-down american version of that nation’s cuisine. me? i love cheesy, big plated mexican food – the type you get from chevy’s or el torito or similar family style tex-mex places.
the week after new year’s, i was in berkeley with my cousin and her husband to watch my university take on the stanford university cardinal in a game of basketball. after a super satisfying beatdown, we worked up an appetite. i had mentioned i wanted mexican food – actually i wanted a burrito – but my cousin was horrified when i said that i had never heard of juan’s, which has apprently been around forever.
Jan/103
oaktown!
one of my best friends in the world just recently moved to oakland with her american football loving french husband. christie and gregory now live in this really cool little house in north oakland, and its really not a bad area of oakland (south berkeley really). i’ve always been a strong advocate for the east bay, since i did attend university in the east bay and i just liked the feel more than the snooty peninsula.
gregory and christie were kind enough to invite me over for pizza and watching the rose bowl on new year’s day. it was good to just hang out in someone’s house and watch football.
Dec/090
crab feed!
the more i try not to write about food, the more that i end up writing about food.
one of the great things about being back in california for the holidays is that i got to attend my cousin celia‘s annual crab feed.
crab might be my very favorite food of all time. i like it prepared hong kong typhoon style, or chinese style with ginger and oil or in fried rice (in the philippines, or the thai restaurant in rat alley in hong kong) but what i like the best is dungeness (off the north american pacific coast from san francisco north to vancouver) straight boiled and eaten plain. really. it’s the best, and celia’s crab feed is the best opportunity to fill myself full of crab.
Dec/090
home for the holidays
after an epic 4 airport (shanghai pudong, hong kong chep lap kok, san francisco international and san diego international) and 23 hour journey involving 2 cars, 1 train, 3 flights i finally arrived in san diego just in time to catch the poinsietta bowl, starring my beloved cal bears. while the game result didn’t go as i would’ve hoped, it’s good to be back in california for a little while. i’m here through the 2nd, and then i’ll be in new york through the 7th or 8th. here’s some photos from my trip home and the bowl game.
Oct/094
a post wherein gourmet vietnamese equals warmed over chinese food
last post about vietnam – well until the next time i go.
my last dinner in vietnam was wasted (WASTED!) on yet another higher end vietnamese restaurant. next time i’m eating all street level food.
hoi an is a highly rated vietnamese place specializing in royal hue cuisine – what your author failed to realize is that royal hue cusine is basically chinese food. and really expensive chinese food at that.
the meal started out well with this really wonderful place setting and china.
Oct/090
eating with brad and angelina
when brad pitt and angelina jolie visited ho chi minh city 3 years ago, they visited a vietnamese restaurant located in district 1 called the temple club
not because they went, but because of recommendations i went myself this last trip.
Oct/090
more thoughts from vietnam
while i’m in taiwan now, my trip to vietnam is still top of mind for me. mainly because i’d still like to be there, instead of neck deep in work like i am now.
one of the interesting things i noticed, which is a large contrast to the way things were when i first started travelling extensively around south-east asia was the presence of other asians travelling around.
for example, when i took the tour to the cu chi tunnels – of the 25 or so people on the bus, a good 8-12 were from other parts of asia. thailand, malaysia, singapore, taiwan . . . and me. one of the interesting things is how english is used as a lingua franca amongst quite a few people who don’t speak english. so behind me the girl from malaysia was conversing with one of the thai women – both using english. which got me thinking how lucky it was that i was born and grew up in a country that has english as its first language. i think all those predictions and (fears?) about how chinese is going to take over the world as the dominant language is forgetting 1. how difficult it is to learn and 2. of everybody who is multi-lingual already, english as one of their languages, or at least it anecdotally.
this importance was underscored that night at dinner when i was seated next to a chinese couple from guangzhou. as they struggled with the english/vietnamese/french menu, i leaned over and helped them out with a few translations. they remarked about how difficult it was to travel without knowing more than a few words of english – and they marvelled at my ability to switch english/cantonese/mandarin – even though my everyday work conversation is a horrible melange and mish-mash of all three.
to distract you, here’s a photo of a huey helicoptor on the roof of the reunification palace.
Oct/090
the day of bad museums
after watching the debacle that was the cal-usc football game, i finished my tourism activities by going to the museum of ho chi minh city and the vietnam history museum.
first up was the museum of ho chi minh city. a bunch of half-hearted exhibits which were poorly maintained in a falling apart building. however, one of the interesting things was that there were at least 10 couples there taking wedding photos. i thought the wedding photos were more interesting so i trained my camera on them instead.
Oct/090
com tam moc
according to wikipedia, C?m t?m is
C?m t?m in Vietnamese is cooked rice from fractured rice grains. T?m refers to the broken rice grains while c?m refers to cooked rice.
It is usually served with grilled pork (either ribs or shredded) plus a Vietnamese dish called bì (thinly shredded pork mixed with cooked and thinly shredded pork skin) over broken rice. The rice and meat are served with various greens and pickled vegetables, along with a prawn paste cake, tr?ng h?p (baked egg), and grilled prawns. Typically restaurants will serve this popular combination rice plate with a small bowl of n??c ch?m, as well as a small bowl of soup broth (canh) with garlic chives (to cleanse the throat).
in continuing my trend of eating what is essentially street food in gussied up tiny chain restaurants, for lunch yesterday i went to com tam moc.
