Eat. Travel. Eat!

Inspired by a post from Wandering Chopsticks , we decided to visit Bhan Kanom Thai--essentially the place to go for Thai desserts in Thai Town. With a whole host of homemade desserts, as well as a onset of special ethnic snacks, Bhan Kanom Thai truly is a fun place to be. So much so, that its dessert options have been featured on Buzzfeed , amongst other media outlets.

What happens when my writing queue becomes so long? Restaurants change: they close, change owners, or have new menus and pricing. Dumpling 888, for example, had already changed owners when I visited it in El Monte. Now, the original owners have moved to a new, larger location: Atlantic Times Square in Monterey Park.

After eating lunch at Zen Chinese Cuisine, a thirty-minute ride on the MTR whisked us off to our next destination, Hang Hou; that is the second to last stop to the right on the purple line in the picture. Having recently experienced other subway systems in the United States, I really appreciate the clarity and simplicity of the MTR system. Easy-to-hear prerecorded announcements are made between each stop, and the busier lines have interactive maps (as seen in the first picture) that make it easy to identify one's location. The purple line did not have these maps, but the clear announcements made up for the lack of those maps. When our friends met us at Hang Hou, they immediately treated us to egg tarts and milk tea at Honolulu Cafe, a chain that is quite famous for its egg tarts in Hong Kong. The egg tart and milk tea was a great starter to our Hang Hou visit. The Honolulu Cafe Egg Tart (4.5 HKD) had an eggy custard, and the crust was flaky while not being too o...

We were shopping around one day at Costa Mesa's South Coast Plaza and Metro Pointe and wanted to eat somewhere. However, Metro Pointe had barely interesting to us, and so my Irvine friend recommended us to visit Mitsuwa Marketplace's food court for a meal. No, it was no Charlie Palmer , but I had heard quite a lot of positive comments on Mitsuwa's food courts, so along we went.  (Santouka- with food displays and water/seasonings to the side) This was certainly the largest Mitsuwa I had ever seen- there was a food court section, a full market, and a smaller area with lots of small vendors selling various foods (like mochi and cookies) as well as other items. At the food court, there were also plenty of options- traditional Japanese food was served by three vendors, there was one vendor selling Chinese food, and lastly Italian Tomato who sold cakes and desserts. Although we were enticed with all these options, we stuck to what we knew. I remembered reading ab...

When I visit Santa Monica, I am certainly not the one in charge of where to eat and what to do. Some pointers: I haven't found any interesting restaurant in the food blogs I have read that have posts on Santa Monica, and simply I don't do the research unlike what I do for other places, as my dining companion knows Santa Monica well. So every visit, it's an interesting thing about what we will eat and see, as it is almost all a surprise. Parking was definitely not easy. In fact, getting to Santa Monica on Sunday was hard. Due to the newly opened Santa Monica Place, people were crowding into Santa Monica. Both lots for the Santa Monica Place were full, with 5 dollar parking available. Valets were busy, and where were we to park? Plus, my dining companion didn't find his planned restaurant until going around Santa Monica's block once round. But then, he stopped somewhere along a street, and we were in. 5.50 USD parking, at Ivy at the Shore, the restaurant for the day. ...