Umami Mart

In the first post of this series Chinatown, Bangkok, I covered a little family run cockle and mussel stand. I mentioned, “Two stalls hawking some of the finest seafood around,” and promised to follow up with an additional post. While it’s been nearly a year, I’d like to post my experiences now of the neighboring stall: T & K Seafood. […]

It took us five days to finally get to our first shaved ice experience. Not because we didn’t try! Everyday would begin with wishful exclamations like, “Let’s get shaved ice today!” But the stars never aligned — the lady in town closed after two hours of service because she was “out of ice.” She cursed […]

Aloha from Kauai! Yoko, Washi, Johnny, Keisuke, Jay, Rie and I have been lucky enough to spend five nights in Hanalei Bay — a picturesque town on the North Shore, surrounded by staggering mountain ranges and captivating turquoise waves. It’s truly paradise here and we are having a blast ringing in the first week of […]

Believe it or not, I was only in Kuala Lumpur for four days, one of which was spent with family outside KL and another stuck in traffic in KL. Did I mention how terrible the traffic is over there? We spent 1.5 hrs in what should have been a 15 min journey. Sigh. After arriving […]

Last week a reader asked if I had tried Chibiscus. Apparently it had been compared to Tsujita — a bold statement. I promised I’d check it out. I assumed it was the random shop that opened on Sunset Blvd earlier this year around the same time as Maki Maku on Hollywood Boulevard. I tried it […]

The temperature readings for the past week have been falling to lows of nines and elevens (that’s Celsius, for all you Americans out there). Ladies and gentlemen, I hate to admit it, but summer has passed us by. You could still kind of pretend in September that it wasn’t so, but we’re now well and […]

After my visit to Sri Lanka earlier this year to see my parents, we stopped off in Kuala Lumpur to meet up with my sister’s family for a few days of shopping and serious eating. The last time I was in KL, I was one year old and my mum was bringing me home to […]

I may have missed the recent LA Ramen Yokocho Fest due to an unavoidable trip to Ohio, but I lucked out into finding out about Mitsuwa Market’s Hokkaido Festival in Torrance. It was this past weekend and the next best thing to actually being in Hokkaido — which I was, just a few months ago. I’ve […]

By Marta Bernal Valencia Last year I decided it was time for me to reinvent myself. It sounds daunting, but if you settle on some goals, it’s a vibrant experience! I lived in Madrid for the last seven years, working in the sales department of a successful publishing house. Everything seemed okay, but I wanted […]