February 29, 2016
High on our list of things to do in Chengdu was eat mapo tofu at the restaurant chain that started it all — Chen Mapo Tofu. No one can say for sure if they truly were the original restaurant to create the dish, but everyone just assumes it by now. Any taxi driver in Chengdu […]
July 20, 2015
Cha’s Restaurant felt like the Mission Chinese of Shanghai as a hip, fast food joint serving savory dishes that pack flavor. Specializing in the Hong Kong cha canting–style (tea restaurants that tend to be fast and affordable) Cha’s menu consisted of all kinds of soy milks, sandwiches, instant noodles, braised seafood, fried rice plates, light beer […]
July 13, 2015
Frog is big in Shanghai. Frog dishes are on almost all menus. It’s like the chicken of America. As someone living most of my life between the Bay Area and Tokyo, my encounters with culinary frog have been sadly few and far between. I remember eating frog as a child once when in Taiwan, but […]
July 6, 2015
As you may know, Google does not work in China. Savvy travelers would know to install a VPN service on their phones before taking off into China. We were not savvy. So I guess we got the REAL Chinese experience: Page not found. This situation made getting around challenging and finding Speak Low was no […]
June 29, 2015
For years, I longingly listened to my grandma’s stories of her golden years in Shanghai. Her sudden move from rural Japan to French Concession Shanghai in the 1930’s exposed her to opera, Gauguin and film noir. Before she met any friends or her future husband, this cosmopolitan city was her first love in a new […]
June 15, 2015
When I was traveling with Washi in Chengdu last month, he was trying to fight off a bad cough. The day we landed, his cough was escalating to Malboro Man heights, so we decided to go to a Chongqing hotpot place to try and chase the cough (and our jetlag) away. We were going with […]
June 8, 2015
It’s kind of embarrassing, but I really didn’t do any research about Chengdu before touching down on the tarmac. The only reason why I picked Chengdu was because I wanted to eat spicy noodles (not because of the cute pandas) and I kind of just took the path of least resistance from there. Direct flight […]
May 22, 2015
*Yoko is in China for 10 days! And with no access to Facebook or Instagram, she is sending us photos the old school way — via postcards. We’ll be featuring these snapshots from Yoko in Chengdu and Shanghai all week here on the blog. Enjoy! – Kayoko Breakfast today was at the neighborhood hot spot […]
*Yoko is in China for 10 days! And with no access to Facebook or Instagram, she is sending us photos the old school way — via postcards. We’ll be featuring these snapshots from Yoko in Chengdu and Shanghai all week here on the blog. Enjoy! – Kayoko When I saw this bottle of Chinese wine […]
*Yoko is in China for 10 days! And with no access to Facebook or Instagram, she is sending us photos the old school way — via postcards. We’ll be featuring these snapshots from Yoko in Chengdu and Shanghai all week here on the blog. Enjoy! – Kayoko One of the many advantages of staying in […]