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...

My final outing in this wonderful city was omakase at 游壽司. Inside the restaurant you’ll find the seating is all around the sushi bar. Set up for an intimate session with your chef. However, unlike other places, it’s not small and stuffy. There’s plenty of room at the counter and a good number of chefs to...

Hot pot culture is huge in Taiwan so when you find one that stands out, you kinda want to tell the world. And that’s what I want to do with this very modest looking restaurant,宅涮涮鍋. Inside, however, the quaint little place was very nice. The decor was modern with single seating at the bar. More...

When you’re near the docks in Magong City, you’ll find plenty of restaurants displaying tanks of fresh local seafood. It’s a fun experience to shop and discover what each place can prepare. That is of course, if you spoke Chinese. Thankfully, the group I was with had no problem and knew specific places to go to....

The southern most island in Penghu rests the Qimei township. A place where you can find the Twin Heart Stone Weir. We took a tour which included the boat and bus ride tour of the island, including some other points of interests around the area. Unless you have your own transportation this would be the...

Out in Penghu, a small island chain west of Taiwan, there’s a local tourist activity of squid fishing. That’s right. Just when you thought shrimp fishing was challenging enough, here comes squid. I guess these things do get caught somehow. Now we, and a boat full of others, will find out how. I take that back,...

My traveling partner in crime had read up about a shabu place in Kyoto. A place that’s been hypothesized as the birthplace of modern day shabu. So what to do, but to venture out and find this place called Junidanya. However, within historical area of Gion where each building has minimal signage, it was a bit hard...

Dinner was all about fugu, pufferfish, a delicacy with that deadly reputation of killing people. But really? At this day and age the percentage of people getting a lethal dose of poison is getting rare. There’s rigorous training for chefs to be certified and you can bet restaurants do everything possible to make it safe. One episode,...