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Trip Report: Vancouver - The Asian Food Paradise!

Actually to be precise, Vancouver is the Cantonese/Hong Kong food paradise! Back in the early 1990s, residents from Hong Kong were in an immigration frenzy to flee the then British colony that would be revert to the Mainland Chinese rule in 1997. Immigrants of different professions chose Vancouver as their new home, and among them were seasoned and celebrated chefs. As a result, Vancouver became this Cantonese food paradise. While many have returned to Hong Kong since, the Cantonese restaurants in Vancouver manage to uphold the food standard they set for themselves when they first opened, and because of that, visitors to Vancouver like us get to enjoy some of the world class Cantonese cuisine. I have to admit I came here mainly for the Cantonese food.

We started off our trip with a couple of mediocre meals. All I can say is that you are better off not eating dim sum in Chinatown or skipping a visit to Kintaro Ramen. The dim sum in Chinatown is plain old school with nothing unique to offer. As for Kintaro Ramen on 788 Denman Street, I know a lot of people rave about it and there is always a line at the door. But in my opinion it is mediocre at best, especially when compared to the ramen places in NYC. The ramen soup was bland and oily, the noodles really lacked in texture and the chashu (sliced pork) was such a joke. It was a meal wasted since I could have eaten somewhere else.

Fortunately, the meals that followed made up for these two meals, and a majority of these meals took place in Richmond, which is the unofficial Asian suburb of Vancouver. Our favorite meals include the seafood dinners at Kirin Seafood Restaurant (7900 Westminster Highway, Suite 200, Richmond) and San Sui Wah (4940, No 3 Road, Richmond), dim sum at Jade Garden (8511 Alexandra Road, Richmond), lunch at Pho Hoang (3388 Main St, Vancouver) and authentic Taiwanese snacks at Zephyr In The Sky (#100-7911 Alderbridge Way, Richmond) . We also had a good sushi meal at the famous and, if you ask me, overpriced and overrated Japanese restaurant named Tojo's restaurant (1133 W.Broadway, Vancouver).

Kirin Seafood Restaurant is a favorite among many Vancouver residents and visitors and I can understand why. The seafood there was simply fresh and delicious. We loved the crab pot, sauteed geoduck/scallops with snap peas and baby bok choy braised in a slowly simmered soup we ordered there. We also loved the roasted squab and the steamed grouper at San Sui Wah, the dim sum at Jade Garden (especially the mushroom dumplings), Taiwanese street food like Taiwanese style sausage and popcorn chicken at Zephyr In The Sky and the spring rolls and pho at Pho Hoang.

To get to these restaurants, especially those in Richmond, you can take the SkyTrain (the city's new transit system built for the winter Olympics) if you don't have a rental car. It is easy to get around in Vancouver.

Three days and three additional pounds later, Thomas and I were happy to have visited Vancouver and eaten the authentic Cantonese food there. We will definitely be back.

Trip Report: Eating Good In Cusco, Aguas Calientes and Lima in Peru

There are some places worth visiting in Cusco, Aguas Calientes and Lima aside from Machu Picchu, but these places are nothing to write home about if you are an avid world traveler. So I have decided to write about the good food we ate in these places instead.

Cusco sure has some great places to eat despite its size. We loved the following spots:

1. Granja Heidi, Cuesta San Blas 525, Cusco, Peru
A restaurant that serves up healthy dishes. Perfect spot for your first meal in Cusco as you are adjusting to the high altitude. Never eat too full will help.

2. LIMO Cocina Peruana & Pisco Bar, Portal de Carnes 236 | Second Floor, Cusco, Peru
They dish up great ceviche and believe it or not, decent sushi here. The ambiance is of a five star establishment in NYC but the price sure does not reflect that.

Being the capital of Peru, Lima sure has some world-class restaurants dishing up Peruvian and international dishes. We loved the following spots.

1. Alfresco, Malecon Balta 790, Miraflores, Lima, Peru
Seafood restaurant in Milaflores. Best are its ceviche and black ink squid risotto. The price won't break your bank.

2. Chifa International, Eleonor Roosvelt, Lima, Perú‎
There are at least 300 Chinese restaurants here in Lima since there are approximately a million Chinese living here. Many serve up the not so traditional dishes, but luckily for us, Chifa International whipped up some traditional ones like steamed fish and sauteed Chinese greens for us since we were craving Chinese badly. Yes we were hopeless (or at least I was!).

3. Palachinke Panqueques, Jr. Jr Schell 120 Int. 1, Miraflores, Lima, Perú‎
Website: http://palachinkepanqueques.com/
Great place for crepes. They dish up both sweet and savory ones. Warning - big portions!

4. Manolo's, Avenida Larco 608, Lima
Who doesn't love some churros dipped in hot chocolate? They seem to have the best ones here. They also serve other food like sandwiches and salads.

We ate at a few places in Aguas Caliente but found the best food at the restaurant of our hotel (Sumaq, http://www.sumaqhotelperu.com/). Sure we tried the CUY (guinea pig) and alpaca meat at another restaurant but find them rather disappointing.

Trip Report: Chronicle of Our Inca Trail Hike.

At almost 9000 feet above sea level in Cusco, I scrubbed and cleaned myself hard in anticipation of three days without access to any shower facility. I don't think my hiking mates did the same, but they were all getting ready for this big hike one way or the other. Some, like Susan, Alison and myself, started working out months ago in preparation for this. Others like Howard and Alex appeared to be hiking pros and had nothing to worry about. Then there was Ein who assumed it would be an easy hike and preferred not to train beforehand.

We used Llama Path (http://www.llamapath.com/) for our hike and had nothing but praises for them. We signed up for a private hiking tour and there were 11 porters, one cook and one guide to support us during the hike. Donned in bright red uniform, our porters looked like an impressive bunch. When moving in unison, they resembled a line of red ants walking uphill, carrying our personal items, tents and sleeping bags. Our cook would made us tasty meals of different variety everyday even though he didn't have a proper kitchen to work with. Our guide Roger had a great sense of humor and spoke good English. He also displayed such patience for us. These people had no doubt helped make our hike easier.

Day 1 was relatively easy. This was perhaps Roger's attempt to ease us in. We started at 8923 ft and hiked up to Ayapata at 10,829 ft. Along the way we saw different plants. We also had to dodge animal poop, mostly of llama's and donkey's, along the way. For a second there I thought I was hiking up the "Shit" trail. Our excremental experience continued that night at our campsight. The toilet facility featured the squatting toilets and many campers did not know how to use them. A lot of them had "missed the target". It was not a pleasant experience if you ask me.

After spending a rather restless night (a lot of us had to get used to sleeping in the wild without the police siren going off in the background), we set out for the second day of our hike. This was considered the most challenging day since we had to trek up "Dead Woman's Pass" at 13779 feet followed by the second pass at 13123 feet. It must be the excessive amount of coca leaves I had ingested since I was the first one among the 400 hikers to reach these two passes. Months of strength training and working out to "Body by Jake" dvds had paid off. The rest also did well. It took Ein longer than others to complete the hike but at least she trudge on and completed it . Kudos to her determination (but not to her unwillingness to train and exercise beforehand)!

Some of us started off day 3 with sore knees, calf and thigh muscles. It was an easier hike compared to the one on the previous day. We descended down to 8792 feet and immediately felt the warmer climate. We visited a couple of Inca sites along the way before resting at our camp site. This camp site had a restaurant which also housed a shower facility so we all took advantage of it. It was sure a great feeling being clean after 3 days of only wiping ourselves.

Day four was the final and big day of our hike. Today we were supposed to arrive at the Sun Gate followed by Machu Picchu. Even though we would only hike for a couple of hours today, we had to get up before the crack of dawn since we wanted to watch the sun rise at Machu Picchu. Despite leaving our campsite at 4am, we were the second group in line waiting for the entrance to Sun Gate to open. We relied on our headlights to trek in complete darkness for an hour before we got sunlight. We arrived at the Sun Gate with the view of Machu Picchu in our sight . We then hiked for another hour and reached Machu Picchu just before sunrise. After four days of hiking, bitching, eating and more hiking, we finally got to this famous UNESCO world heritage site. We then toured the site for a couple of hours and headed to our hotel in Aquas Calientes for a good rest.

In my opinion, the trip was definitely worth all the planning I did leading up to it. I am sure the thousand other young Asian Americans I encountered on the hike would agree with me. I had never seen that many Asian Americans visiting a destination like Machu Picchu other than the outlet malls and casinos in the States. Machu Picchu must be a rite of passage for them.

Aside from hiring a reliable and efficient tour company like Llama Path, here are some tips to help make your hike a smoother and more comfortable one..

Tip 1: Do not be overly active on your first day of arrival in Cusco or overeat during the first couple of days of your hike to avoid altitude sickness. Also avoid drinking alcohol.

Tip 2: Train for the hike (running and strength training exercises help)

Tip 3: Apply some Tiger Balm ointment under your nose before you use the campsite's lavatory (trust me, it helps!).

Tip 4: Bring a small towel for the hike (you will get to shower on day 3 and trust me, you will need it badly!)

Tip 5: Layer yourself. You will experience weather that ranges from 30F to 85F during your hike. It's like experiencing four seasons in a day.

Most importantly, think positive and always take that one step ahead of another, be it at a fast or slow pace. Never take a long break. It will only tire you down.

We are all so glad we did it. We burned a lot of calories in the four days and probably offset some if not all of the calories burned by binging in Lima after our hike. My blog entry on Lima and Cusco will follow shortly.

Trip Report: Appreciating Guilin, China.

I had a free weekend while I was on a work trip in Shanghai so I took the opportunity to visit Guilin. Guilin is a picturesque city located in the Guangxi region of China. It is said that Guilin's scenery is best among all under heaven and I could not agree more. I took a cruise on the famous Li River and saw the beautiful mountains located on both sides of the river. The weather was a tad cold for my liking and the river dried up in some parts thanks to the drought (there hasn't been much rain since fall of last year), still the scenery was something of a Chinese mountain painting.

I also visited the Elephant Trunk Hill (yes the hill does resemble an elephant) and the Seven-Star Park. In my opinion, the former was nothing spectacular but the latter was definitely worth a visit. In the Seven-Star Park, you will find the famous Seven-Star cave where you can enjoy various limestone formations that are well lit. It's really up to your imagination to decide what the limestone formations look like. Some resemble dragons while others resemble humans or Chinese gods. The most amazing part of the cave is that it maintains a year round temperature of 70F even though it could be 40F out there.

In the Seven-Star Park, you will also find a zoo that houses a couple of cute panda bears. I had to pay these national treasures of China a visit because they are just so darn cute!

Guilin is not a city known for its cuisine but it does have a couple of dishes worth trying. One of them is the famous Guilin rice noodles. It can be served as soup- noodle style or lo-mein style. I like the latter better. It's usually served with spicy radishes, roast pork, garlic and peanuts. The locals usually eat it for breakfast. You can get this dish everywhere in the city, from street vendors to unsanitary looking shops. You can even get it at restaurants in five star hotels.

In short Guilin is a nice place to visit if you enjoy the scenery in movies like "The Painted Veil" or "Joy Luck Club". These movies were made there after all.

Trip Report: Good Eating in Shanghai, Beijing and Guilin.

A week of work in China gave me the opportunity to eat some good food there. I am biased when it comes to my Chinese food preferences. Raised by a Cantonese mom, I prefer Cantonese cuisine which is always well-balanced and never too greasy or salty or even sweet. Nevertheless, I do find good tasting dishes in other Chinese regional cuisine, even though they are often oily (Shanghainese cuisine) or too meaty (Northern cuisine). Here are a few dishes I particularly liked during my one-week stay in China last week.

In Beijing, I loved..

1. A few dishes served at DADONG on 22, Dongsishitiao in Dongcheng District. There are also two other locations in Beijing.



The Peking Duck is crispy and not oily in one bit. Aside from the standard way of eating it (which is with a moo-shu wrap), you can also dip it in sugar or put it in a crispy sesame bun that is empty inside.



This tofu dish features silky tofu with stuffing. I enjoyed the yellow one which is stuffed with XO sauce (dried scallop in a spicy sauce).



Who could turn down some greens? This is garlic sauteed pea-shoots, a common Cantonese dish. It used to be very difficult to get leafy vegetables like this in the North, but thanks to the improved transportation network between the North and the South, it's much easier to get them in cities like Beijing now. Knowing to cook them well is, however, a different story.

In Shanghai, I loved..

1. The pan-fried broth buns at Xiao Yang Sheng Jiang (multiple locations)



The one I went to is located in the food court area on the second floor of the Shanghai First Food Store located on Nanjing East Road. In fact, this is the best place to come sample all the famous Shanghai delicacies including these succulent pan-fried buns if you are pressed for time. Soft on the top, crispy on the bottom and a burst of crab meat broth that delights your taste buds once you bite into one. No one can really pass these little suckers up!

2. Typical Shanghainese dishes served at Xiao Nang Guo (multiple locations in Shanghai and other major cities). They also have a website (http://www.xnggroup.com/)



The crab meat broth dumpling is a must-have here (or anywhere in Shanghai).



I also liked the crab meat tofu pot and my leafy greens here.

3. The Shanghainese pastries sold at Wu Yuan Bakery on 255 Yan-Ping Lu in Jing-An District.



You may be put off by the guy behind the counter who's enjoying his puff of the hour, but this place does serve some of the best classic Shanghainese pastries like the savory yellow crab shell pastry (Xie Ke Huang) and the turnip pastry. Don't worry, the former is not made of crab shell! It's just a literal translation of its Chinese name. It is made of crab meat and other ingredients like flour and sesame. It is to die for especially when eaten warm.

4. The Mushroom Medley appetizer served at Charme restaurant ("Gang Li"). It has multiple locations in Shanghai.

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A variety of mushrooms are tossed together with a touch of spicy chili oil and placed in this Shanghainese wonton-like wrapper. Simple but tasty.

5. The authentic Shanghainese dishes served at the Jade Garden restaurant (Su Zhe Hui) in the Jing Mao building in the Pudong area.



Stir fried rice cake with crab on top. Heaven!



These semi-candied lotus roots are stuffed with rice cakes (notice the Shanghainese's love of using rice cakes in their food?) and covered with dates. They bring a hint of sweetness but not overpowering enough to ruin your taste buds for the other savory dishes.



Fried yellow fish. The batter is just right. Not too oily but tasty and crispy.

In Guilin, I loved...

1. The Guilin rice noodles served at many dingy looking locations.



This is the most famous dish in Guilin. It is available in soup noodle form as well as tossed noodle form. I suggest going for the latter. Spicy radishes, roast pork, garlic and peanuts are usually added to the noodles. At 40 cents a bowl, you can observe the Dolly Parton diet easily by having just one bite and sending it away if you don't like it (or if you are watching your waistline).

There you have it. The highlight of what I ate and liked in China in the past 7 days. Now it's back to steamed broccoli and brown rice to undo the damage I have done. I hate eating healthy!

Trip Report: Dubai - Fascinating or Not?

Despite the amount of travel I had done (not to mention the amount of damage I had done to my bank account), I had never been to the Middle East. I avoided this travel area not because of the region’s Muslim religion and its conservative practices. After all, I grew up in a moderate Muslim country so I am quite used to these practices. I avoided this area because nothing really interests me here. In my opinion, I had already been to Turkey and Egypt and experienced the best of Arabic/Persian influences like smoking a hookah/sheesah or eating a shwarma (which is also widely available in NYC). However, I did have a mild interest in visiting Dubai. It is a city that has been in the news a lot as of late. For my friends who have been there, half of them loved it while the other half loathed it to the core. I decided to take a trip here during President’s Day weekend to find it out for myself if I belong to the former or the latter group. So what’s the verdict? You will have to read on to find out.

The 12 hour flight on United from DC to Dubai was rather uneventful. It was nice to be able to depart on time after the U.S. capital was slammed with a foot of snow the day before. Dubai is unique in a sense that it doesn’t require visitors to fill out a visitor arrival form. Immigration was also very efficient. 30 minutes after we landed, I was already in a cab heading to my hotel. The best time to visit Dubai is in the winter months (November – February) and I couldn’t agree more. Weather during the day is in the 70s and at night is in the 60s. Yet the sun is still scorching and you will need to apply sunscreen when you walk outside. Just imagine visiting here during the summer months when the weather can top 120F (!!!) during the day. I can hear the sizzling sound of my skin burning at the thought of that.

The key tourist activities in Dubai, aside from admiring the extravagant shopping malls and lying out on the fine sand of Jumeirah beach, center on the famous Dubai creek. Here you can take the abra like the locals from Deira to Bur Dubai (both are touristy and commercial areas) to work, meet friends, do business etc. Speaking of locals, you won’t see a lot of them here. Dubai is a city of migrant workers. On my first day here, I thought I was in Manila, New Delhi or Karachi depending on where I was. There are a lot of Pinoys working in the service industry, while Indians and Pakistanis also work in the service industry and own businesses. You will also see a smaller group of Chinese owning stores in the Deira area. A Pakistani cab driver told me that only 5% of the population in Dubai consists of locals. This is clearly a city where people come to make money and bolt once they have gotten enough of it.

Along the famous creek you will also find the disappointing Dubai Museum, the Souqs where visitors buy spices, fabrics, trinkets etc, the Heritage House where one learns how locals used to live here and the Bastakiya quarter featuring wind-towered residences that were once home to the wealthy Persian traders. The Bastakiya quarter is all repainted which doesn’t sit well with me. In my opinion, it doesn’t have much historical feel to it. It seemed too new and made me think that I was walking in the “Aladdin” quarter of the Disney theme park if there was ever an attraction like that there.

The Jumeirah beach with its turquoise blue water was beautiful but definitely not as beautiful as the wealthy homes that line the streets along it. The two malls that I visited, Dubai Mall and Mall of The Emirates, were simply over the top. The highlights of both malls are the indoor ski resort at the Mall of The Emirates and the gigantic fish aquarium at the Dubai Mall. Talk about having too much money and not knowing where to spend it! Shopping is tax free in Dubai so you will see a lot of burqa-wearing ladies with their hubbies dropping money like they have a money fountain at home (more like an oil well in their backyard!). Clothing and eletronics are popular items among tourists here.

The spotlight in Dubai is currently shone on Burj Khalifa – the tallest building in the world. I am sure it’s just a matter of time when another country decides to beat its record by shelling out billions of dollars to build a structure taller than it. I wanted to go up for a visit to couldn’t since it was closed for maintenance.

In terms of restaurants, I loved the refreshing Farah’s refreshing basta special (lime and mint juice) and the grilled haloumi, asparagus and mixed lettuce salad served at Basta Art Cafe in the Bastakiya quarter. Mumtaz Mahal (Arabian Courtyard Hotel on Al-Fahidi Street) makes a great Indian food destination with its tandoori specialties. I also loved the food court selections at Dubai Mall and Mall of The Emirates and the cafeterias that sell shwarmas along Al-Sabkha road in Deira.

Dubai strives to be a modern city – yet her religion is holding her back somewhat. No alcohol is served except at hotels. There is a hotline set up for husbands, who caught other men starting at their wives, to report on these staring offenders (you know, men who are caught staring at that tiny slit of their wives’ eyes). Any website of pornographic or homosexual nature is banned (even any websites with the word ‘gay’ on it), yet two men holding hands or kissing (on the cheek that is) in broad daylight is completely fine.

Dubai is currently bankrupt. The government has a foreign debt of about $100 billion and companies have started laying people off since last year. Many foreigners who were lured by the lavish lifestyles here are sent packing these days. The economy simply grew too fast without any solid foundation. People here, like other countries in the Middle East, work from Sunday to Thursday. So it was weird to me that the malls were empty on a Sunday.

My impression of Dubai – she just doesn’t have any uniqueness to it. The city may have the most luxurious seven-star hotel (Burj Al Arab) or the biggest shopping malls (The Dubai Mall, Mall of the Emirates), but she lacks the charm, history and culture that other world class cities like New York or London have. Everything is man-made, much like that of Las Vegas. People here don’t feel the pride of living here. They just want to come here and make a quick buck. I don’t dislike this city, but I don’t love it either. It was good that I came and experience it for myself but my likelihood for a repeat personal visit is very low. It’s just not that kind of city that will draw you back for a second visit.