Qimin’s Organic Hotpot

Qimin’s Organic Hotpot

Taiwanda'an district, food, hotpot, market, organic, taipei

There doesn’t seem to be that much information about this place, in English that is. But this place boasts both a grocer and a hot pot restaurant. It’s niche organic offering expanded to Shanghai where they source ingredients from their local farm. As you can imagine, this place won’t be your global chain. They’ll focus on

Hawker Center Eats

Hawker Center Eats

Singaporefood, hawker center, lavender, local eats, summary report

I spent a week in Singapore. This time around, I focused on work. I mean focus focused. I barely had time to visit friends let alone venture out. The heat didn’t help encouraging me to explore. So this report is primarily around highlights of the local eats I had. And boy did I go local. That

Itacho Sushi

Itacho Sushi

Hong Kongcauseway bay, japanese, sushi, tablet ordering, verdict: pass

There are tons of sushi restaurants in Hong Kong with a good variety of them in Causeway Bay. You can find high end establishments to your conveyor belt chains. What we chose was some where in between, Itacho Sushi. The prices weren’t too exorbitant and they had a huge selection of fish as well as some

Katte Shabu Shabu

Katte Shabu Shabu

Hong Kongalley, causeway bay, japanese, shabu shabu, verdict: pass

It was drizzling and, dare I say it, a bit chilly, here in Hong Kong. I was expecting hot, humid, and threatening thunderstorms in March. This was pleasant. Almost felt like I never left San Francisco. Almost. Anyways, it was hot pot weather. Being mid afternoon, I was alone and hungry. I looked up a place

Cravings Aside, EMC

Cravings Aside, EMC

Los Angelesemc, fresh seafood, korean mall, koreatown, lunch, raw bar

Funny thing was, I really wanted Korean food. We drove around looking for a place that served live octopus. My current craving though I never had it. Pretty daring. But I made a mistake, a really good mistake. We found EMC, a place my friend recommended when discussing the cuisine. She only mentioned it in the

Double-Take Divisadero

Double-Take Divisadero

San Franciscobi rite, brenda's, food, ice cream, soul food

We went back to my old neighborhood when we found out Brenda’s opened a new restaurant. Her famous soul food was no longer just in the Tenderloin, but out on Divisadero with all the other new shops. Man the area sure changed in a year. My only complaint would be why this didn’t happen when I

Swan Oyster Depot

Swan Oyster Depot

San Franciscofood, personal, polk street, seafood, small, unique

We thought we would be clever to hit Swan Oyster Depot on Monday, a holiday, and right when it opens, at 10:30am. Well, there were plenty of people who thought the same. Preparation got us parked and in line by 10:15, misfortune placed the cut off line for first seating right at us. That sucked. But

Pabu

Pabu

San Franciscofood, izakaya, ken tominaga, michael minna, omakase

Pabu is the type of place that can make you hate your Facebook friends. Every time someone checks into the restaurant, I was guaranteed to see posts of some delicious looking food. Now, it was my turn to return the favor. And after dining here, I understood why everyone was so excited. It’s a great

Seven Sushi

Seven Sushi

Taiwanairport, bus, food, layover, new cuisine, omakase, seven sushi, sushi, taipei, travel

I had another long layover in Taiwan. This time it wasn’t overnight, it was from 5pm to 11:30pm. Yeah, you guessed it. I went into Taipei for dinner. Don’t worry, there was plenty of time even though I hit traffic. For those of you who don’t want to do the airport’s free tour of Taipei,

Ippudo

Ippudo

Hong Kongcauseway bay, food, ramen, shopping

When I first heard about Ippudo, it wasn’t from my friends in New York raving about some new hot ramen shop. Nor was it during my time in Singapore when my friend suggested it was worth the wait. No, actually, the first time I learned about this place was on the plane. Foreign TV shows