miami beach: wmc weekend

Typical Winter Day in Miami

I returned from South Beach, Miami last week where it was sunny and warm to a gloomy and rainy week in the Bay Area.

Connie and I visited South Beach during the Winter Music Conference ("WMC") one of the most publicized annual music gatherings in the world. WMC attract artists and DJs from all over the world. Fans of house and trance music, such as myself, view WMC as a unity of electronica, pool parties, beach, good food, and beautiful people.

WMC Pool Parties

We flew in Fort Lauderdale on Virgin America and took a taxi to South Beach, a $75 ride (excluding the $10 tip). Virgin America had a great deal for $199 roundtrip from SFO during the winter time.

Collins Avenue runs parallel to Ocean, one block west. Collins is home to many historic Art Deco hotels, several nightclubs, and an ideal location for WMC party goers. Our hotel, The Townhouse Hotel, was located on 20th and Collins.

Front Porch of The Townhouse Hotel

Connie and I love to walk. Automobile traffic in the area was frequent, so getting around in South Beach by car proved more difficult than simply walking. We walked to many  eateries such as a hole-in-the-wall small Cuban cafe named Playa Cafe on Washington Avenue. Refreshingly cheap and tasty, the specials were all satisfying. I loved their Cuban sandwiches, made fresh before our eyes. The Spanish-speaking staff and the rusty Havana decor made our experience here quite Cuban-authentic. We also dined at Puerta Sagua, where I've had my first ropa vieja with plantains and rice. So delicious, I imagined these dishes to be home made by a Cuban grandmother.

Cuban Sandwich at Playa Cafe

Ropa Vieja at Puerto Sagua Restaurant

The Art Deco buildings around Collins Park were camera-worthy. We enjoyed the fine details of the exteriors and the interiors of the buildings. My personal favorite was the National Hotel, which showcased its original Art Deco artwork but without losing touch with its modern features.

National Hotel's Pool

After the WMC parties, we spent our last day at the W Hotel South Beach which was amazing. The full service pool and private beach areas were true blessings for our exhausted party souls.

1 of 3 Tom Sachs Sanrio Creations in Front of W Hotel

I missed Miami. A city with its timeless elegance, gorgeous people, unique architecture, warm winter days and unforgettable Cuban food . . . how can I not miss it.

LODGING:

The Townhouse Hotel

150 20th St
Miami Beach, FL 33139
(305) 534-3800

FOOD:

Playa Cafe

1515 Washington Ave
Miami Beach, FL 33139
(305) 538-1551

Puerto Sagua Restaurant

700 Collins Ave
Miami Beach, FL 33139
(305) 673-1115

paia: the charming hippie town of maui

Paia Town

We missed Paia, a beach town up the north shore of Maui.

We stayed at Paia Inn, an exquisite boutique hotel for two days, located in the heart of Paia. It was our favorite (and ideal lodging) during our five days on Maui. Room #10 was a spacious junior suite which resembled a beach bungalow. It featured an outdoor shower, a patio, and a sink and fridge.

Paia Inn Room #10

Paia town has a local-island-life feel to it. It was a refreshing change from the crowds and tourists of Kihei. All within walking distance, Paia town has 39 unique shops, 14 various restaurants, and beautiful and relaxing beaches. 

Paia Beach

Walking about, we were quickly charmed by its quaint surfer town vibe. We discovered instant favorites as we dined, shopped, and explored the town. Cafe Mambo, for example, served the best fusion creation we've had on the island: Crispy Kahlua Duck Fajitas. Crispy, tasty, and greasy duck meat with all the uber-fresh fixings for fajitas. Delicious. Then I purchased a lacy and racy bikini at the Maui Girl store for my future trips to Vegas and South Beach.

Enjoying the Duck Fajitas at Cafe Mambo

We couldn't help but eat shave ice at Aloha Island Shave Ice twice a day. With exotic and tropical flavors like lychee, guava, passion fruit and vanilla ice cream and adzuki beans additions, this was our ideal snack spot. They also offered rice plates. Grandma cooked the Kahlua pork and it tasted home made good.

We also tried seafood chowder, fish tacos, and burgers at Paia Fish Market where the fresh-catch was featured on their daily menu. Many people raved about this place, but I thought it was slightly over rated, particularly their fish tacos, which were bland.

Fish Tacos at Paia Fish Market

Paia was surely missed.

LODGING:

Paia Inn

93 Hana Hwy
PO Box 790100
Paia, HI 96779

(808) 579-6000

SHOPPING:

Maui Girl

12 Baldwin Ave
Paia, HI 96779

(808) 579-9266

FOOD:

Paia FIsh Market

2A Baldwin Ave
Paia, HI 96779

(808) 579-8030

Aloha Island Shave Ice

77 Hana Hwy
Paia, HI 96779

(808) 579-8747

Cafe Mambo

30 Baldwin Ave
Paia, HI 96779

(808) 579-8021

best brunch in the world: beast in portland, oregon

Connie invited me to go to Portland with her for a business trip during the summer time and I immediately agreed. My mother resided in Beaverton, a city approximately 12 miles from the PDX airport and it would be good to see her before our annual Thanksgiving international trip.

We stayed at the Nines Portland Hotel, which was retro-glam amazing. Centrally located, we walked to nearby food trucks and brunch spots, discovering one of the best kept-secret culinary cities in the United States.

Portland was also where I found my all-time favorite brunch experience at the Beast Restaurant.

Only on Sundays with either a 10AM or noon seating and advance reservations, the Beast was a tough ticket. But we scored a noon seating.

Be mindful of the fact that there is no menu substitutions, either you'll eat it or you won't. Simple concept to adhere to.

Blackboard Writing Inside Restaurant

Had the following the prix fixe menu ($28) including the wine paring ($20):

*Cherry Clafoutis with Vanilla Whipped Cream & Maple Glazed Bacon - Tasted like a light cherry souffle with an amazing glazed bacon topping. Be careful of the cherries . . they were not pitted. Delicious starter.

Cherry Clafoutis with Vanilla Whipped Cream & Maple Glazed Bacon - Before

Cherry Clafoutis with Vanilla Whipped Cream & Maple Glazed Bacon- After

*Beast Hash - Tails & Trotters pork shoulder, market potatoes, corn, zucchini & cherry tomatoes, poached egg & hollandaise was MY FAVE. Man oh man. The freshness of this dish was simply evident with every bite. Pork was tender and flavorful. Nicely done.

Beef Hash

*Selection of Steve's Cheese, Gathering Together Summer Greens with Aged Sauvignon Blanc Vinaigrette, and Champagne Infused Apricot - Holy crap, that apricot stole the show. It tasted like orange syruped candy. Freshest greens I have ever had. 

Preparing the Summer Greens

Beautiful Greens and Cheese with the Best Apricot

Man, Portland has it good.

*Chocolate Truffle Cake Topped with Rose Geranium Whipped Cream and Gold Flakes - The rose geranium infused with the whipped cream was heavenly. So French. So in love.

Chocolate Truffle Cake

This brunch meal was the best brunch meal experience I could only dream of. I highly recommend a visit when you're in Portland.

Beast

5425 NE 30th Ave
Portland, OR 97211

(503) 841-6968

www.beastpdx.com

dungeness crabs are in season in california

The official kickoff of Dungeness crab season for the San Francisco Bay Area is around the second weekend of November. My dearest friend, Connie, invited me to her mother's for a traditional Taiwanese crab dinner which was nothing short of fabulous. Several weekends later, I decided to buy a few pounds myself and made Thai Crab Country Curry for two. The curry sauce tasted wonderful, especially with the ginger, shallots, and coconut milk (recipe below).

Thai Crab Country Curry

Ryan decided to do battle and made Roasted Garlic Crab with Garlic Noodles, inspired by his previous visits at Crustacean, a famous Vietnamese restaurant in San Francisco. He found a very good recipe by Rasa Malaysia.

Roasted Garlic Crab with Garlic Noodles

We also plan to make Chili Crabs for another weekend using another one of Rasa Malaysia's recipes. 

THAI CRAB COUNTRY CURRY

Ingredients:

• 1 lb crab meat
• 2-8 chopped hot chiles, such as serrano or Thai
• A 2-inch piece of galangal or ginger, grated
• 6 cloves chopped garlic
• 5 chopped shallots
• 1 T ground coriander
• Zest from a lime
• White parts from 1 stalk lemongrass, chopped fine
• 1 t shrimp paste (optional)
• 2 cups coconut milk
• 2 T fish sauce (optional)
• 1 t. sugar
• 3-4 lemon or lime leaves (optional)
• Salt
• Black pepper
• 2 T chopped cilantro

Preparation:

Add the chiles, galangal or ginger, garlic, shallots, ground coriander, lime zest, lemon grass, salt and shrimp paste and pound it into a paste with a mortar and pestle.

In a large pot or wok, simmer the coconut milk for 5-6 minutes. Add the mixture from the mortar and stir it into the coconut milk, stirring constantly for 2-3 minutes. 

Add the crab, fish sauce, sugar and lime leaves and let cook for about 5 minutes, until the leaves begin to give off their aroma and the crab is warmed through.

Serve over white rice and top with black pepper and the cilantro leaves.

red onion restaurant in karon, phuket

Our hotel taxi driver suggested Red Onion. I was somewhat turned off by the non-local customers and the gaudy pictures-filled menu. It was catered to tourists. But what I eventually found out, the whole country was catered to tourists.

It was a popular restaurant and there was a 10 minute wait on a Sunday night. There were plastic red chairs in front of the restaurant for your waiting pleasure. 

Friendly staff and nice family ambiance. Smokers were scattered throughout the restaurant, so be forewarned.

My mother and I ordered our coconut juices, red curry with prawns, pad thai with prawns, and steamed mussels. 

The pad thai was simply amazing. I haven't had good pad thai until I visited Thailand. Man oh man, Red Onion delivered the tastiest, freshest, and the best pad thai ever. With a squeeze of lime juice, the noodles, the prawns, and the bean sprouts, blended well together in my mouth.

The red curry was very flavorful and not too thick or rich. The prawns were big and fresh. We ate the curry with rice.

I didn't like the mussels. A bit too dry for me, but my mom enjoyed them.

Our complete meal was 440 baht. Which was $13 USD. Yes, dinner for two with drinks was friggin $13. Incredible, right? Fantastic value.

HIGHLY RECOMMEND.

Red Onion

486 Patak Rd.
Phuket 83100, Thailand
076-396827

bangkok street smart tips

 My mom and I absolutely LOVED Thailand. Temples were amazing, food was fantastic, and shopping was phenomenal. But there were a few things I would should tell you about Thailand.

The *Land of Smiles* CAN be deceiving if you are gullible and stupid. Most tourists unfortunately are. 

HERE ARE SOME IMPORTANT TIPS:

(1) Taxi. Make sure the meter is on. I have yelled at many taxi drivers who try to *negotiate* the prices by not turning on the meter. It's total bullshit and needs to be called out. If they try to hassle you, pay the price but don't tip. They'll often *pretend* not to understand you. Just tell them repeatedly, "turn meter on" and if that doesn't work, you have every right to leave.

(2) Negotiating in Open Markets. Don't flaunt your jewelry or your name-brand clothing and bags while shopping. Common sense, right? You'd be surprised how some of these people would try to negotiate pricing while flaunting their wealth. Hello.

(3) Bring CASH. Cash is king in Thailand.

(4) Food is better on the street than in the restaurants. The street food is really good and really cheap. I haven't been impressed by most of the restaurants in Thailand vs. the street vendor food carts.

(5) Make copies of your passport and keep them in the provided lock boxes at the hotel rooms. You don't need to haul around your passports. Gawd forbid someone pick-pockets you and you lose everything. Keep your important possessions inside that lock box, including extra cash.

(6) Print out a copy of your itinerary and grab some extra hotel business cards for the taxi. This is especially useful if you don't speak the language and you are too drunk to function.

best place to travel abroad during thanksgiving - south east asia

 

Thanksgiving, in my opinion is the best time to travel abroad.  This turkey-laden holiday is not celebrated in Europe nor Asia, so these destinations can be quiet and tourist numbers tend to dwindle, especially in Europe.

I usually take my mother on a trip every year. This year, I wanted to plan something special for my mother during Thanksgiving week.

I was going to book the Paris 6 night package through Air France ($899 for 6 nights), but due to the political unrest (President Nicolas Sarkozy's unpopular pension reform) and recent terrorist alerts, I decided to look into South East Asia instead.

After further research, I realized that South East Asia was an ideal destination  for us during Thanksgiving:

1. Costs

Comparatively, Paris would be more expensive anyway with the weak U.S. dollar, pricey hotels ($200+ a night for a 4*) and foods. In contrast, Thailand would be a better deal. Sure, the airfare to Europe and Asia were petty much the same, around $1,000+ per person in economy class, but the hotel costs, food, and activities were much less in Thailand.

For $1100 per person, I booked Cathay Pacific Airlines with 2 stops: Hong Kong and Bangkok, good starter destinations in South East Asia. I also booked an excursion to Phuket for 2 nights for $200 per person airfare on Thai Airways. 

I selected these hotels:

YWCA - The Garden View in HK - $90 USD a night (2 nights)

Adelphi Grande Bangkok - $80 USD a night (3 nights), included wi-fi, breakfast

CC Bloom's Hotel in Phuket- $87 a night (2 nights)

So the price breakdown was this:

Airfare: $2200 (for 2) (from SFO airport)

Lodging (3 and 4* hotels in HK, BKK, and Phuket) = $600

Total: $1400 per person for 10 days in SE Asia

2. Weather

The weather is much more favorable in Thailand than Europe. The best time to visit Thailand is from November to February when the northeast monsoon is blowing cool, dry air which helps from the heat.

November in Paris is rainy and chilly, with low temperatures approaching freezing. Factor in wind chill and fewer daylight hours and you'll immediately understand why Thailand was a better bet.

3. Activities

I factored in costs as well. Tours, dining, and shopping in Thailand was relatively cheap. I mean, you can get a full meal for under $10 for 2-3 persons. Hong Kong is a different story, but that can be managed well.

After experiencing both Hong Kong and Thailand during Thanksgiving, I would attest that South East Asia is worth every dollar.