We headed to Far East Plaza early on Saturday for an early lunch, as in 11am early. There’s so many places opening shop in this plaza that I had to come back to check it out. This time it was to try out a Taiwanese restaurant recommend by a friend, Lao Tao. Yes! I’m so happy...

We were fortunate enough to land reservations Friday night during the opening week of Senia. A restaurant that specializes in farm to table cuisine leveraging the culinary skills of Chris Kajioka and Anthony Rush, former chefs at Per Se, a restaurant by Thomas Keller. I should also add that Anthony had worked at the French Laundry before Per Se....

A quick drive out of Waikiki, you can find Sushi Izakaya Gaku. A place that has been serving up creative dishes for izakaya while also providing some elaborate sushi. We happen to come here primarily for the izakaya. Not to say we didn’t sample some of that wonderful fish. But mainly we wanted a festive...

When it comes to food, the first thing people tell me about the Big Island was that I had to visit Da Poke Shack. A small place located in a set of condominiums that served fresh poke. Of course, they branched out to another location, but we wanted to try the original. Not to mention,...

With over 30 varieties, Cafe 100 has been an institution for this iconic local favorite, the loco moco. It’s a dish composed of four simple building blocks, rice, hamburger patty or patties, gravy (lots of it) and a fried egg on top. Though most historical records indicate, the fried egg was introduced after the original concoction. I...

Not to be confused with the original Umeke’s, Umeke’s Fishmarket Bar and Grill is the full restaurant with a bar. Plenty of room here to meet up with friends to eat and drink. With all of Sunday dedicated to happy hour why wouldn’t anyone want to spend it here. Well, that’s if of course you were tired of...

When Ino Sushi in Japantown closed down last year my heart sank. There went a great little shop that specialized in traditional nigiri, simply fish and rice with hardly any additives. It will be missed. However, moving into the space was the former owner of Koo, Kiyoshi Hayakawa. A place I loved for, you guessed it, traditional sushi. Not that the...

Thanks to Instagram, I learned about a Korean craze around cheese ribs. Whole pork ribs prepared and wrapped at your table with gooey mounds of cheese. I had to give this a try. My friends wanted to give this a try. So, we all did. My search brought me to a place in Los Angeles that...

Flying in early and finding yourself in downtown Los Angeles, you may want to check out Eggslut for breakfast. A popular spot that has lines of people waiting to get their yolk porn on. When I arrived the line wasn’t too bad, though it was the day after Thanksgiving. Only a fifteen minute wait until it was...

Time for another night of omakase and tonight we are checking out Sakae Sushi. It’s a modest size establishment on the corner of Burlingame, right across the street of the Caltrain station. So if you’re traveling by rail, this place would be convenient. But if you’re driving here, you should be able to find parking around...

Gen, one of LA’s popular Korean BBQ chains, made its way up to Northern California last year. You’d think the lines and hype would have died down by now. Nope. Still hordes of people waiting outside ready to feast on their $20.99 all-you-can-eat dinner. Lucky for us, we made reservations. We had a party of...

Saturday was about the perfect weather you could have the “Lumpia Palooza” Food Festival at the SOMA StrEat Food Park. Clear skies and sunny. So we had to get there early to secure seats and, of course, take advantage of our $35 all-you-can-drink tickets. Seating at this event was pretty tough to find. In the middle of the...

Sushi in kaiseki style is the theme of the omakase at Kusakabe. And that drew us here. Along with the fact that it was finally a bit easier getting a reservation. That is of course, if you don’t mind four weeks advanced booking for a table at opening time. We certainly didn’t. Inside there was seated and given...

New York’s Koreatown has some of the best BBQ restaurants around and today we could confirm that statement. My friend arranged dinner for us at Don’s Bogam BBQ, a favorite for this New York alumni. Little did I know, this was a Michelin Recommended restaurant that, come to think of it, was the first for me when...

On the list of restaurants to try is Momofuku. If it isn’t on your list, it should be. David Chang has several restaurants in New York with others worldwide, each one catering to a genre in Asian taste. I wouldn’t come close to saying it’s fusion or even experimental. I’d like to think of it as the classic journey of...

It was time for dinner and what else to have but steak. New York has some of the best steakhouses in the country. And if you were to ask anyone for a recommendation, you’ll be overwhelmed with the variety. Thankfully, my friend already had one picked out and I tagged along for dinner. The place was...

After getting situated in Chelsea it was time to find a bite to eat. Being close to Madison Square Gardens you’re surrounded by plenty of places to eat. However, if you just came off a red eye flight, took the train to Penn Station, and were still on West Coast hours, you’re probably looking for...

Ever since I moved back to the Bay Area there seems to be more and more sushi shops. I’m not talking about the serve-you-the-usual-assortment-of-fish places. These places are catering to the eager nigiri lovers looking for hard to get fish paired with creative flavors. The one we went today was a relatively new establishment in Hayes...

There are many places around South Bay where you can go to enjoy some food and drinks with your co-workers. For starters, you have all those restaurants around downtown Mountain View on Castro street. Of course, most of them cater to the power lunch crowds. You can’t blame them since business rents in that area are as astronomical as residential...

Once again, not in San Francisco, but in San Mateo do we discover good sushi at I would add, very affordable prices. A 30 minute drive south of the city is DASH Japanese Tapas and Sushi. Located right across from the movie theater, you’d probably overlook it if it weren’t for the lines. We had reservations...

A little south of the San Francisco airport is where you can find the New England Lobster Company. A bit out of the way but when you’re craving a good lobster roll, you might want to make the hike. It’s not in a strip mall or near other restaurants. It’s just there, surrounded by warehouses and...

When it comes to lively sushi places, Sushi Sam’s Edomata nails it. This place had been on my dinner list for quite some time. Countless number of friends posting delectable pictures and raving about their times here was getting unbearable. Even with the number of good sushi restaurants opening up in the city, this restaurant...

We took a chance coming to Yakitori Kokko without reservations. It’s usually filled with people waiting outside. But today, we got out of work early. So we headed there right when they opened to see if they had any seats. Luckily they did. And I have to stress that lucky part. They already had a...

Every major city has seen an influx of ramen restaurants. Washington D.C. was no different. However, in 2012, Toki Underground hit the scene. Not only did they bring ramen, but they brought their creativity along with some new takes on Taiwanese favorites. In my opinion, saying this stuff was fusion really takes away from their...

We had this great recommendation from a friend, Surawon, a low key place in a very unsuspecting part of Koreatown. Sure, it’s on Olympic but it’s not in the heart of where all the new places are popping up. So it was fantastic for parking and even more wonderful that we didn’t have to wait...

What’s for lunch after yesterday’s amazing sushi dinner? Sushi. Yes. It’s sushi time again. However, it’s at another well known establishment, Akiko’s Restaurant. Not to be mistaken for Akiko’s Sushi Bar on Mason. My friends made that mistake and I hear it happens quite often. The Akiko’s I’m talking about sits on Bush near Grant. There’s no...

You hear of good sushi places all the time. And if you’re like me, you have a bit of skepticism. But when it came to Saru Sushi, it wasn’t how many people said it was amazing, it was who, plenty of fellow skeptics and food snobs. And after coming here, I get it, it’s good. It’s...

It may have been over a decade, but I can finally scratch this place off my list. The Salt Lick is a place that’s always been on my mind when I visit Texas. This time we were in Austin so that 45 minute drive out to Driftwood didn’t feel so bad. And sure, there’s some...

Little Tokyo is brimming with new restaurants and attracting top talent from around Los Angeles. One such place was the new restaurant Simbal, a place that serves up playful Southeast Asian cuisine inside a nice and open floor plan. You can see the chef himself, Shawn Pham, managing the kitchen. We did happen to get a photo...

Funny thing was, I really wanted Korean food. We drove around looking for a place that served live octopus. My current craving though I never had it. Pretty daring. But I made a mistake, a really good mistake. We found EMC, a place my friend recommended when discussing the cuisine. She only mentioned it in the...

We went back to my old neighborhood when we found out Brenda’s opened a new restaurant. Her famous soul food was no longer just in the Tenderloin, but out on Divisadero with all the other new shops. Man the area sure changed in a year. My only complaint would be why this didn’t happen when I...

We thought we would be clever to hit Swan Oyster Depot on Monday, a holiday, and right when it opens, at 10:30am. Well, there were plenty of people who thought the same. Preparation got us parked and in line by 10:15, misfortune placed the cut off line for first seating right at us. That sucked. But...

Pabu is the type of place that can make you hate your Facebook friends. Every time someone checks into the restaurant, I was guaranteed to see posts of some delicious looking food. Now, it was my turn to return the favor. And after dining here, I understood why everyone was so excited. It’s a great...

I looked out of my office window today and saw JapaCurry. A food truck I heard about and being that I love Katsu Curry, it was on my list. And with them sitting outside the office, I had to run down and give it a try. It’s your typical food truck. Order in one window,...

Here’s one thing I’ve been noticing around Los Angeles, late night happy hour menus as Shabu houses. What a great way to spread crowds our through the night. They definitely got me. Tokyo Shabu Shabu was the second place I went to during my trip. On a gamble I stopped by this place for a...

No visit to Maryland is complete with out some Maryland blue crabs. Correction, a lot of blue crabs, steamed and smothered in Old Bay seasoning. And I don’t mean like a dozen. They talk bushels here in Maryland and in this particular case, it was all you can eat, which can mean multiple bushels depending...

I met a friend for lunch here at 8407, courtesy of a look up on Yelp. It was nearby where I was staying. Yet knowing it was in downtown Silver Spring, I was worried about parking. Don’t fret, it’s right next to a large parking garage. Bring quarters or have your smart phone ready. You...

We had some time before my presentation at UMCP, so we did some sightseeing. First we went to the National Cathedral and then… nothing else. On the way down to the White House, we saw Shake Shack. Actually, scratch that, I saw Shake Shack and some how convinced everyone to stop for an early lunch....

This Japanese restaurant opened up earlier this year. And while a friend of mine works there, I wanted to give it some time before trying. Not that I wasn’t eager. My friend kept posting delectable pictures on their Facebook page. Metal note: block food porn. So many months later I found myself making reservations at...

One of the few places around the city that specializes in, as the name suggests, prime rib. They take a classical approach. A standing rib roast carted out to your table in this silver domed contraption. For some reason, with that Hindenburg looking thing and the cozy wood trimmed atmosphere, I felt like I was...

I go by this place everyday. Each time it gets more and more enticing. The aroma that comes out of here makes me feel like Winnie the Pooh around a jar of honey. My steps gets lighter and my grin was unstoppable. So unfair to deal with that each and every day. Maybe I should...

The food cart scene is a little different than the food truck scene. Though there are some that are mobile (see below) the “scene” is based around pods. That is, areas around town dedicated to these businesses. They look more like food stands with kitchens, the ones you find at food festivals. However, they’re permanent...

This place was calling my name. Literally. Get it? Okay, fine. I’m horrible at humor. I’m an eater not a comedian. And hopefully, my obsessive eating will help you out. Especially for this restaurant, Ox, which happened to be close to my hotel. I’ve been reading about ever since I landed. I would have tried...

The Bacon Maple Bar was a wonderful end to the night. Tip, Voodoo Doughnuts is open 24 hours and Voodoo Doughnuts Too is less of a wait. Just throwin it out there!...

Want good bar food? And no, it’s not a trick question. You got it. This place was a local recommendation. Good beers and surprisingly good food for a brewery. And to be honest, I don’t expect much when I go to these types of places. After eating here though, I realized I should expect good...

This place was right around the corner from Puppet Labs, a place we were suppose to be later. More about that toward the end. You’re here for this sushi place that I looked up. Not too hard to find when you’re walking around the area. It’s on the corner and had outside seating. Best of...

Sunday night and places were busy. At least two of the places I moseyed on over to had horrible wait times. I can’t wait an hour and a half to eat. I hunger. Thankfully, by the third attempt we found a place with open seating. Andina. A lovely Peruvian restaurant that had two floors of...

Not sure how I ended up at this place. It sat on the second floor in the blocked out street of Buchanan. I think it was relatively new, because come on, I’d notice the ramen sign walking by this area on the way to karaoke. Oh so many karaoke memories. “These guilty feet have got...

Another regional style of ramen you say? From the opposite end of Japan? Well sign me up for a bowl. Literally, it seems like half of LA waiting was outside of Shin-Sen-Gumi. The other half was waiting for Daikokuya, a place I’ve eaten many times. This place, however, was new for me. It opened in...

I’ve read about this place when it popped up on Eater LA (doing some due diligence on places to eat this trip). It was a surprise to see a Taiwanese place pop up in Silverlake. Sure I’ll buy into the hype. We didn’t have any ideas for lunch. Everything good in Little Tokyo had a...

We happened to mosey on by State Bird Provisions one afternoon after a movie at the Kabuki Theater. My geeky explanation of why I didn’t like Captain America was cut short. We came across State Bird Provisions, where I had to reboot my story telling of impossibilities to that of getting a reservations at this...

On a walk to one of my favorite watering holes on Friday, I saw this place. One of three actually, on the way towards North Beach where I’ll sit in a tiny bar and cry out my day’s miseries. But first thing I do when I see my bretheren was to mention the onslaught of...

If you didn’t look this place up online, you would have walked right by and missed out on a great dining experience. It’s nestled between a convenience store and residential apartments. Although the sign was right there in plain view, the whole place just somehow blends in. Maybe it’s because you never get a full...

This place opened up a few years ago, and although I tried it last year, I had to come back to give it a full review. There was nothing memorable last time I tried it, but I did pick a boring set, the shabu shabu. Sure, they could have made this really good, but why,...

Here’s the deal. I’ve been meaning to head up to Tomales Bay for some oysters for years. Ever since I moved up to the Bay area four years ago, I never got the chance. Until now. And of course, this technically wasn’t Tomales Bay. But still, this place was in the vicinity about thirty minutes...

Airbnb, what a great service. For a friend’s birthday, we booked a room out in Napa Valley. Wine country for those who don’t know. It’s a little getaway for those of us in Northern California. Only an hour away from San Francisco. I do wonder why I don’t go as often as I should. Gotta...

A winter reward after 15 grueling kilometers, totally worth it! http://www.hotchocolate15k.comk...

Generally I wouldn’t write about sports. And if you talked to my friends, they’d say the same thing. However, this day I couldn’t pass up writing about. It was the day I got to watch the Niners battle the Panthers. But not only did I get access to the field before the game, I got...

It was all about hitting the late night eats tonight. That’s because we did our run during the day. Something that set us up for the “I don’t give a fuck what’s for dinner” attitude. A perfect way for us to try out new places. At first we went with a suggestion from our friend...

Yep, another hike, a popular hike too. Filled with tourists chugging up the path. It’s not a difficult hike, but it can be a hot one. There’s really not too much shade and if there’s no breeze, make sure you have that bottle of water handy. However, when you get to the top it’ll be...

The day was dedicated to being on a boat, a catamaran to be exact. You know those boats with two hulls in the water and like flat top for you to lay out on. They are awesome. Fast and nimble, they got us to the first snorkel site in under an hour (getting out of...

It was time for snorkeling. Rounding up a group of twenty friend and family was challenge we accomplished by simply starting off with a mass text, “Leaving for Shark’s Cove at 10am.” And then we were off, in our little subgroups. Room after room left without the need to caravan with one another. We just...

It’s not often you can get all your friends and family together. Especially when you grow older and time becomes more of a precious commodity. But somehow we got about twenty eight people together to watch a few friends renew their vows. Maybe it was allure of Hawaii or the prospect of just getting away....

Cousins were due to arrive by 2:50pm right in the middle of the afternoon. What else to do, but to hunt for some good eats near the airport. I read about this place, Nico’s Pier 38 from a couple of blogs. Little did I know, Yelp had two entries for this and I followed Apple...

Day one of my vacation and somehow I was convinced to do physical activity. I realized this after I was halfway up a trail over in Kailua, sweat soaked and regretting why I decided flip flops were okay. The trail was short but steep. Within minutes I saw the first military pillbox perched on the...

Well. It was time to say goodbye to my old home town. So good to have see all my friends and family. Sometimes we forget how lucky we are to know such good people. Especially the ones that accept you even when you don’t keep in touch like you used to. Age and time have...

The big day… for my brother, and yeah, myself since he made me the best man, which meant, the speech. I only had enough time to outline a speech. But I figured, I’ll get it straightened out after hanging out with my friend and his daughter at the playground. The day was perfect. And apparently...

It was rehearsal day. A time for me to drive around the beltway and head on up to Columbia. But of course, I had a splitting headache from the endless number of drinks last night. There were shots I believe, shots from my old friend Jameson. What a prick. So during my groggy drive, I...

Probably one of the few times you’ll hear me say, “I’m so glad it’s raining”. That’s because after these flash-flooding, zero-visibility, majestic thunderstorms, the temperature was going to drop. And that’s a good thing knowing I’ll be outside in a tux on Saturday. The bad thing was that it hit us right at the start...

Once again I’m back in DC to have lunch with a friend. This time, it was at The Hamilton, a place where I imagine all the power lunchers congregate. It’s a classy place with the lush cushion seats, polished wooden tables, and an attentive wait staff at every corner. Surprisingly, as the lunch crowd rolled...

Walking around DC in September can be such a challenge when the weather gets in the way of everything you want to do. You first need to know that the Washington DC area gets all four seasons as well as its extremes. At the close of Summer, August and September, Summer usually makes one last...

I was heading to the National Air and Space Museum in Virginia when I noticed I forgot my camera. These days I hate driving and to head back was not what I preferred. Plus it was getting hot and the AC in my car was barely keeping up. So, I decided to go shopping. It...

After a night of fun and a morning of recovery, it was time to head to Loch Raven Skeet & Trap Club. There was a competition there this weekend. Luckily it was only on Saturday. On Sunday, there was plenty of room for us. If you’ve never fired a shotgun before, I have to say,...

Well I’m back in Maryland. And for the weekend it was man’cation time with my brother and his friends. It’s really for his bachelor party, but being the little brother I’m just gonna think of it as a guy’s weekend of golf, steaks, drinks, ****, and guns. Yeah, the Texan blood still runs strong. And...

These events were usually about opening up the traditional Chinatown facade to DJ’s, food trucks, and street vendors, a sorta night market, neon style. However, this night was not only in honor of Chinatown’s 75 anniversary, but it was about the unveiling of the first Bruce Lee statue to be raised in the U.S. And...

We started this day a little groggy from the drinking adventures we had around Koreatown. Gotta hand it to some of the expensive places. Some of them had really good pours and as you may know, some of them didn’t. Does it all even out? No. Because there was expensive and expensive’er. Only found one...

When the weather gets as good as it does like today – sunny, bright, high sixties, with random cold breezes. It was a perfect day to spend outside. Really. Any warmer around here and all the fedoras would look even more ridiculous. No joke. Anyways, being outside with food was the goal and we needed...

Bay to Breakers has always my favorite race. A time where people come together to show its colors in a journey from the one side of the city to the other. For some it was a goal to the finish, for the rest of us, it was to find all the fun. The funnest parts...

Weekend trips to LA always means at least one night out in Korea Town. This was actually a healthy improvement over all the other time my friends and I come to visit. We would do nothing but lunch at a Korean place, dinner at a Korean place, drinking at a Korean place, and top it...

To spare you on the back story, I got treated to dinner for a hot tub incident. Yeah, I said I wasn’t going to talk about it. So let’s just say, out of it, I got to go to one of my favorite Japanese places, Eiji. It’s a small little place in the Castro near...

The main reason I was down in LA was to be at The Undeniable’s book launch party. But before the event, I headed down to Orange County to visit a friend and, of course, to eat! Felt like ages since I’ve been in the area. So many things have popped up since I lived down...

I was heading to Los Angeles for the weekend and after a long drive, I decided to stop by a restaurant I always wanted to try out, Animal (or for you Yelpers). The place might be a little hard to find having no sign, but if you look for people lining up on Fairfax, that...

Why is there a picture of musubi, albeit my favorite cucumber, egg, spam musubi from Iyasume? Well, that’s because I wished I had one while we were hiking. Not that it was a difficult hike. It didn’t even take half an hour to get to the top. No, I simply was dreaming of this stuff....

It was a scattered rain storm day. And rain storm isn’t quite the word. It was a chaotic down pour if you got caught in one of these rain clouds roaming the island. Unfortunately, one of them came out to Waimea Bay to ruin our snorkeling and beach afternoon. We ended up searching for other...

Today was all about staying around the hotel. I mean why wouldn’t we venture out in this great part of the island. Can’t let the tourist scare you away. Oh wait, I’m a tourist too ain’t I? Well, the stuff that’ll scare you are all the street performers and brochure hand outs that make you...

So I don’t usually do the touristy stuff, but it’s my third time here and I haven’t checked out one of the most historical landmarks here in Oahu, Pearl Harbor. The very place where tragedy struck only to make a country more resilient. Impressive. And even more impressive was the Missouri, a battleship that was...

It was a day of kayaking and swimming. Kailua beach may be windy but it’s a nice escape from busy Waikiki and not as far as North Beach. Not like 30 minutes further meant that much further, but you know what I mean. Just a close get away. We rented a kayak for half the...

Gotta do a luau in Hawaii right? Gotta try it at least once, right? Well, it’s my third time and this time, we’re going all out at the Polynesian Culture Center. Must say, moving up to the prime rib option was well worth it. A break from Hawaiian/Japanese food into good old American gluttony with...

You kinda realize it when you’re walking past people, getting agitated in line, and trying to get straight to the point, which was to relax. Problem was, my mind was still at silicon valley speed. Not quite like New York light speed, but that under the skin angst that you know time is limited. Oh...

First stop in Oahu and what do should we do, eat. C’mon, 5 hours of flying and having nothing more than peanuts and airline food what did you expect? Not to mention I was nursing a kick to the head by das boot from Supenkuche. So what else to have in Hawaii but Vietnamese food....