Japantown, San Francisco, Part IV

At the end of July, hubby attended a work conference in San Francisco. We'd just moved into our house at the beginning of the month and everything was still a mess, but he had to give a talk and couldn't get out of the trip. And of course I couldn't pass up the opportunity to tag along, at least for old times' sake.

We had a blast living there and will always have fond memories of The City. Can you guess where we went first? Yup, Japantown ^.^

Tokyo Eats - Roppongi area Part VII

The last of the Roppongi food posts :(

Hubby and colleagues were super excited when Blue Bottle Coffee opened yet another branch in Roppongi (they're up to 6 branches in Tokyo now!), in the spanking new Tri-Seven Building across the street from Midtown. It made their daily coffee run much easier than, say, Omotesando (will post soon!). Hubby loved going there, and he loved to drag me along. I was more, umm, indifferent. Sure, I like coffee, but more so the flavor than the actual beverage, which can sometimes be too strong and bitter for my unsophisticated taste buds.

Tokyo Eats - Roppongi Area Part IV

More food in Roppongi, though probably not the last since I'm still waaay behind on photos. I'd thought to wait until I'm all caught up but the post will grow too long, so I'm posting what I have now, already pretty darn long as it is!

An art display at Midtown, along with even more photos of sakura that I didn't get to in the previous installment. I know, I'm posting spring photos in the fall and summer photos in the winter. Ha.

Tokyo Eats - Roppongi Area Part II (Picture heavy!)

Alright, I can't procrastinate on this post anymore because it's growing too long. More food ahead, folks. In the Roppongi area, same old, same old. Took some photos over the holidays too, trying to get just that special one for the holiday cards. Too bad they all turned out meh so no cards this year. Oh well.

Tokyo Eats - In the neighborhood (Picture heavy!)

Three months into our Tokyo stay and I'm finally posting about our neighborhood. It's very quiet around here, for which I'm thankful. We made a conscious decision to stay away from the boisterous and the lively after all. The only drawback is that most restaurants close at 8pm, the lights go out shortly after, and the small family-run shops and even parts of the subway station close over the weekends. We can always hop on the train if we want to go play, or walk, or if we're desperate enough, take a taxi, so I'm not complaining.

The first thing that jumps out at us in our neighborhood is Tokyo Tower.

Tokyo Eats - Ginza area (Picture heavy!)

Another place I hang out a lot is Ginza, not to shop but to eat ^.^ In fact, I would never go shopping in Ginza, because all of Asia and their sisters and brothers are there, thanks to several major department stores and the couture houses with their own buildings. On Saturdays and Sundays, the main street is closed from traffic and becomes a pedestrian street, which means it gets even more crowded. Took my friend J. here once because she's a fan of Zara, etc., and I think I might have scarred her for life ^.^"!

Wako Store is housed in a building dated to 1894, with the Ginza Mitsukoshi across the street. 

Japantown, San Francisco Part III

Been cleaning up my blog some recently. I'm combining a few posts into this one with the addition of a couple new ones (Kappa and Kissako Tea) ^.^

- Kappa: let's get this out of the way - this is NOT a sushi restaurant. Kappa is located at the corner of Webster and Buchanan and well hidden on the second floor, sharing an entrance with Milo Lounge. This tiny little restaurant serves up Kyoto style kaiseki in a very intimate setting - the place's run solely by the chef and his wife. And all that will cost you - the omakase 7-course set meal is $86/person. With drinks, you can easily run up a tab of $200+ for 2. Reservations are made by phone or email only. And the omakase must be reserved at least 1 day in advance. You'll see why below.

Osha Thai Restaurant, San Francisco

While I spent a week out at my company's conference downtown SF back in February, hubby and I ate  at Osha Thai a few times. To be more precise, hubby ate there twice (dinner and lunch) and I thrice (dinner, lunch, and lunch take out). Yes, I know, Thai food three times a week sounds like a lot, but that just shows how much I love the cuisine. Unfortunately, I didn't love Osha Thai so much. It was more poshy (and overpriced) than tasty.

The first dinner was for Chinese New Year, and it started out great! So we ordered a few neat things, like this bacon wrapped scallops appetizer, and it was good.

Interstate Driving

***Warning: this post may bore you ^.^

You already know hubby and I temporarily moved to San Francisco. We didn't actually "move" all our things. Rather, we just packed up our car with what we thought we'll need for a few months' stay and drove ourselves over. Now that I have a moment to take a breather, I thought I'd share some of the pictures we took along the way during our drive. We had specific goals for our rest stop by the end of each day: Salt Lake City by the first night, Reno by the second, then straight into San Francisco bay by the third. So these pictures were taken by me or hubby while the other was driving, because at no point could we stop for photos.

How do you like my fashionable interstate driving? xD Actually, the hat was to help with the sun, because sitting behind the wheels for hours will get you toasted to a crisp if you don't cover up properly.

Taipei Eats - Zhongxiao East Road area Part II (忠孝東路, Picture heavy!)

More food ^.^

Hotpot is a must-try in Taipei, especially spicy hotpot (麻辣火鍋). That said, surprisingly hubby and I weren't too thrilled. I like it enough and hubby does too, but for some reason the spice really bothers his stomach and so we didn't eat it as much. When my sister visited though, we did take her along with J., her old friend from high school, to a hotpot restaurant, Artisan Hotpot (火鍋世家). 

The place is a chain, and it's nothing fancy or "famous," but it's unique in serving "individual" hotpot, as in everyone gets their own hotpot and no sharing is required. If you ask me, it really defeats the purpose of hotpot but whatever, we weren't too picky and the place was packed, so we figured it couldn't have been that bad.

Taipei Eats - Zhongxiao East Road area (忠孝東路, Picture heavy!)

Hubby and I haven't explored the area around Zhongxiao Road (忠孝東-西路) much. We've only been there a few times to shop for knick knacks for the apartment or to meet up with friends. It really helps to have friends wherever you go, because thank goodness for their recommendations that you are never bored.

That said, I have to admit our first visit to the area was a complete failure. We exited MRT Zhongxiao Dunhua Station (忠孝敦化站) and after wandering around aimlessly for about an hour we randomly picked this Sichuan restaurant. I was iffy about it the moment we entered the place, because it was too, umm, poshy. I was right. It was alright, not terrible but not good either, and expensive as hell. A bad choice all around, so I didn't bother to take a picture of the place because I'd never come back.

Pickled cucumbers and plum juice.

Spicy diced chicken with bone in and "Sichuan style" beef noodles that was actually regular but meh beef noodles at 3x the price. 

Dessert was on the house - coconut jello. It was okay.

Shida Night Market Eats, Taipei (師大路夜市, Picture heavy!)

Here's your warning - long post ahead!

Hubby and I live about a 10-15 minutes walk from Shida Night Market (師大路夜市), and since we can't cook in our tiny apartment (we don't really want to, why would we?), every other night is a leisurely stroll in search of good food to eat. 

Keawjal (Thai Cuisine) Part III

Had to take care of somethings in the Minato Mirai area and so stopped by Keawjal for lunch. Haven't been there for ages, and I'm talking about at least half a year!

My noodles lunch set with fried rice, salad, and dessert.

Keawjal (Thai Cuisine) Part II

Happy August!!!

Went back to Keawjal for lunch recently and to my utter delight, they served up cendol!! Cendol (bánh lọt, 珍多冰) is a popular dessert in Southeast Asia that is sadly only found along with larger population of Southeast Asians (Thai, Vietnamese, etc.) in places like California and Texas. It is made of rice starch with green coloring and flavor from the Pandan leaves and is usually eaten in a concoction of coconut milk and palm sugar, though it makes appearance in a wide variety of puddings and sweet dessert soups in Southeast Asia.

Gai Pad Prik Pao (Thai Chicken in Chili Paste)

Gai Pad Prik Pao is hubby's favorite dish and he likes it so much I make it pretty much every other week ^.^ It's a really simple but delicious Thai dish that doesn't involve an array of exotic seasoning ingredients. Usually, when I make this dish, I a whole big pot so we can pack bentos and still have some left over for brunch the next day. What, Thai food for brunch? Oh hell yes, a small portion of rice top with this stuff and a sunny side up egg is a damn good (and filling) brunch!

This was dinner though :)