Alexander's Patisserie, Mountain View

Upon exiting Maison Alyzee, I promptly crossed the street for Alexander's Patisserie. Talk about a literal patisserie face-off--they're staring each other down from across the street. Fine with me though. More patisseries means more sweets for me to enjoy ^.^

Maison Alyzee, Mountain View

As hubby and I grabbed a quick snack at the Hong Kong Bakery & Cafe, I couldn't help but notice Maison Alyzee right next door. After he left to do work stuff, I went in to check it out despite having had a snack. I could never pass up a patisserie. There's always room for desserts in this tummy ^.^

Mountain View, California

Last year, hubby had to make a few short work trips out to California, once to SF in late July and twice to Mountain View in the fall (beginning of September and end of November). I tagged along each time and took some photos while wandering about (and yes, I'm still perpetually behind on posts...).

Both of the trips were super short. Each time, I had just a couple of hours in the afternoon to explore and get myself some snacks while hubby got some work stuff done, then we met up with old friends for dinner and went home the next day. So I ended up just wandering up and down Moffett Boulevard/Castro Street (downtown Mountain View) and took pictures of the shops that caught my eyes (mostly food :P).

Tokyo Eats - In the neighborhood Part III (Picture heavy!)

More food posts because we eat out a lot ^.^ The spring was spectacular with all the blooms, though I nearly clawed my eyes out because of allergies. I took lots of sakura pictures but I'm behind as usual, so I'll post them later when I get there.

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.

Inner Richmond, San Francisco (Picture heavy!)

Ack, May already! Time to play catch-up again with my posts! Let's start with Inner Richmond. Instead of Chinatown, hubby and I go here for Asian food and groceries. I've read that foggy Inner Sunset is another great neighborhood for awesome Asian food, but Inner Richmond is more conveniently located for us and so we haven't been too tempted ^.^ We'll see, when we get bored of Inner Richmond, we'll probably find our way over to the foggy side...

There are many many shops and restaurant in Inner Richmond and this is just a brief glimpse of the few hubby and I absolutely love. 

- Brothers Restaurant (Korean BBQ/yakiniku): Hubby and I LOVE Korean BBQ/yakiniku, and wherever we go we'd always make a point to find ourselves a good Korean place to get our yakiniku fix. We've tried several places here in SF, several others in different states, even in different countries, with the exception of South Korea itself which is definitely on our list of places to go. But hands down Brother's on Geary is the best yakiniku we've had. Surely there are better Korean food elsewhere, hell, there might be better right here in SF, but we wouldn't know it because every time we come to Brothers, we'd leave in a food coma and have no brain power left to ponder whether the grass is greener across the street.

Afternoon Tea at Craftsman and Wolves, San Francisco

Went to Craftsman and Wolves with A. for afternoon tea one day. Interesting name for a bakery, right? Someone recommended it to us after having seen me lurking around Crown & Crumpet one too many times. Being a fan of afternoon tea, I was totally game to try something new. 

Fillmore Street, San Francisco (Picture heavy!)

Being the close vicinity of Japantown, inevitably Fillmore Street is my second favorite part of town, which means every time I visit Japan Town, I have to visit Fillmore Street also ^.^ While there are numerous fun streets in SF, Fillmore is quite special. There's the ollection of neat little shops lining both of its side. And then there's the slow rise slowly to a high point (Broadway Street) before the steep drop all the way down to the ocean, directly to the Marina Green with a spectacular view of the Golden Gate Bridge at left, Alcatraz Island at center right, and Fort Mason at far right. 

So, the shops. My favorite is probably Fillmore Bakeshop, food, of course :P Fillmore Bakeshop is home my favorite buttercream filled French cookie sandwiches, the colorful macarons. I do agree that the food coloring is a bit too garish and the macarons themselves can look bulky, but be rest assured they're yummy, you bet because I've tried macarons from several other places and those didn't quite hit the spot. My favorite from Fillmore Bakeshop is the Irish Coffee macaron, which has the best coffee cream ever! Hubby's favorite is the coconut macaroons (no, that's not a typo, and yes, they're two different cookies).

Japantown, San Francisco (Picture heavy!)

Long post ahead!

After spending two memorable years in Japan, are you surprised that my most favorite part of San Francisco is Japantown? It speaks to my fondness of Japan, and how much I miss the place, that I roam Japantown and its surrounding areas at least once a week! Of course it's nothing reminiscent of the sprawling underground shopping mazes mall at the major Japanese train/subway stations, nor is it anything particularly special or nice or even culturally authentic. It's really just your average mall with shops selling overpriced let's-pretend-Asian things. And don't even get me started on the pathetic "Japanese" food they try to pass off there. Just thinking about it makes me mad. But I like the place anyway :P When my cousin J. visited from out of town, we spent a day and a half there exploring all the shops ^.^

Let's start at the intersection of Buchanan and Sutter Streets, where Buchanan Street turns into a pedestrian walk with mostly restaurants lining both sides. This Buchanan pedestrian walk goes one block south towards Post Street, crossing which you will arrive at the Peace Plaza with the concrete Peace Pagoda. The Peace Plaza joins the Kintetsu East and West Malls, pretty much the center of all the attention in Japantown ^.^ And by the way, it was a Monday afternoon in mid March when J. and I were there, which is the reason the whole place looks like a ghost town in these pictures.

Looking back at Sutter from Post on the Buchanan pedestrian walk, with Post Street directly behind me.

Taipei Eats - Ximending area Part II (西門町)

Want to get these food posts up too lest I get too distracted and forget about them!

I went back to Yu's Almond Tofu rather frequently up until we left. I just couldn't get enough of their almond milk shaved ice! And then one night, I worked up the nerve to branch out and tried the old style breakfast almond milk with almond jelly in it. It was served warm and oh my I loved every bite of it! It was mildly sweet but was warming and soothing, especially when the weather was cooling down a bit.

Still like the almond milk shaved ice better, but I was glad to have tried something else too. Every subsequent visit thereafter I ordered both the shaved ice and the breakfast milk with jelly LOL! 

Old breakfast style almond milk with almond jelly - yum!

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. 

The Little Chef Pastry Shop, Princeton

Last post on our one day whirl-wind visit in town is reserved for this little patisserie I love so much - The Little Chef Pastry Shop. Let's just say I used to lurk around here all the time, as the shop sells out very quickly. Usually, by 2p.m. you'll have nothing left to choose from and that's that, which is particular hard on me since, well, I sleep in till noon on the weekends :P It's just as they say, you snooze you lose.

***Picture from yummyinthetummyblog's flickr.