Chasing foliage... chasing memories

I lived in CT, I lived in Boston, and now I am living temporarily in NYC. Always heard about chasing foliage, always wanted to go, never did. So when the chance came knocking on my door, I jumped at it.

Surprisingly, the chasing led me to Kent School, my high school in CT! I'm skipping all the other pictures and going straight to Kent.

Ivy hanging on the library

The following three are all on the Macedonia River

The sad part is, at no point while at Kent did I notice the beauty of The Fall. When we drove by Kent, I noticed The Villager, Fife and Drum, Shanghai Chinese, Pizza Garden, Coffee Shop (all eating establishments, obviously)... I recognize some of the shops and B&Bs... all the commercial stuff. And yet I don't notice the simple, innocent, stunning Fall views. For two years, I had the front row seat: right outside the windows of Miller Hall were these exact amazing views.

Anyway, I do notice now! I slowly examined the campus and took tons of pictures. And I look at the aforementioned results of capitalism and skipped them all.

While at the Shanghai Chinese Restaurant, the owner came out to greet me, telling me that I look familiar. Yeah right, sure. It's been 12 years! 10 minutes later, she runs out of her restaurant, and asks whether I had a brother who went to Kent. She does remember.

DeeCee FreeBee

The one thing I love about DC is that everything is free. If you can get a place to stay, the city can be explored for days without sweating too much cash. And find a place to stay I did.

I've been to DC twice... several things I'd recommend:

• Jefferson Memorial at night... it's more quiet than Lincoln Memorial, and the Tidal Basin is quite pretty

• Lincoln Memorial in the early morning where you can beat the crowd; ditto with any location on the Mall! All the memorials were nice and quiet in the morning.
  

• The Mall at night
  

• FDR Memorial is nicely tucked inside some woods and on the side of the Tidal Basin
• I liked the National Gallery and Portrait and I don't think anyone should miss the gallery for presidents; the other museums are really up to your own preference
• Apparently many miss the National Archives where you can see Constitution and the Declaration of Independence (and Bill of Rights too...)

One note: the food in The Mall is awful. You need to head a bit North to get decent food choices. Like Chipotle and Pot Belly. Yeah, it was that bad.

Overrated:

• Washington Monument... the outside is fine... you don't really need to go up and see DC through think and dirty glasses. Want proof?

• The Library at The Capitol... yes, it's pretty, but you can only see if from afar, and no photography allowed (who still uses a library for research anyway??)

Favorite pictures from Grand Canyon

Well, since Picasa idiotically insists that I can only upload four pictures at a same time, I succumb to the technology and painstakinglypicked out four.

I'm not sure if these four are my favorite, but they are up there for various reasons.

Our first sunset from East Canyon. Loved the light and shadows in this picture. The sun was to the right, so I wanted to go away from it a little bit and capture some of the rays and the changing colors:

Our first sunrise from Yaki Point. It's not a good spot for pictures because the sun doesn't really shine on any nice looking rocks after it rises. I framed the sunrise within a tree for this one:

Grand Canyon pictures have to have the Canyon, right? I'm not sure which one is the best, but I do like this one with changing depth, color, and shadows. There's a bit of distortion, but I can't go through all the pictures and pick - I'll end up picking 10 more or so.

The moon... I've always tried to take a picture of the moon with no success. Finally I realized that I have to do it during day time when the sun gives some light to the moon and it looks kind of faint and not overwhelming.

Food images from Boston

Disclaimer: when I was in Boston, I wasn't really looking for good food. I was looking for restaurants that bring back memories. So... advanced apologies if you are looking for a restaurant guide. (More pictures here)

How could I not go to Bartley's when I am in Harvard Square. I considered High-rise and Darwin's as well, but finally couldn't resist greasy burgers (Charlie's has even more greasier ones). Anyway, this you see is the Tom Werner, i.e. bacon cheddar (looks like Swiss... but it's cheddar) burger. I got it medium rare. Burger was disappointing as expected - Bartley's quality has dropped throughout the years. Closer to medium than medium rare, the burger was only slightly warm and the meat quality was merely average. The vanilla frappe, however, was very very good: smooth yet heavy in flavor.

Ah, Bartley's, I can never escape. I remember driving around Harvard Square for almost an hour looking for parking so we can go eat at Bartley's. Good times.

I can't believe this was my first time to Parish Cafe. Awesome place. They basically take good sandwich recipes from around Boston and adopt it with the original restaurant's permission. This is The Summer Shack (from the restaurant The Summer Shack), a very yummy fried cod sandwich. Light batter, fresh fish, crisp bun. Yum. Definitely coming back to this establishment.

Spicy Fried Chicken from Cafe Mami. For those of you unfamiliar, Cafe Mami is in Porter Exchange and has been the cafeteria for every single Asian student at Tufts University. And the Spicy Fried Chicken is what I got for about half the time (the other half is usually Spicy Beef Bowl and some sort of steak burger dish). The chicken is still good but a bit too big now. They need to get back to smaller chicken pieces with more tender meat. The sauce is a simple combination of mayo and thai chilly sauce, but oh the combo is so good. Cafe Mami, maybe the restaurant that I've been to the most times in my life.

I've raved about Oiishi many times. This time we went to the South End establishment, and it was a complete disaster. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating. Judge with words, not with pictures:

An interesting make of the Tamago, this one passes

Black Miso was pretty bad... no flavor, not very warm
The bad black miso was one-downed by the tempura rock shrimp. Wasn't fresh and almost cold.

Cathay Pacific Business Class

I've written about the United flatbed business class seats before... here's a face off with Cathay's (from the same United post) "ridiculous diagonal facing Cathay seats with all the stinky feet sticking out in the hallway," which I finally got to try this time from New York to Hong Kong!

At JFK: "Mr. Lam, on behalf of the Marco Polo Club, we'd like to wish you a happy birthday! We would like to offer you a complimentary upgrade to business class!" (Note: I was wondering about this actually, and it came true! I'm 1 for 1 on birthday wishes)

Thank you, Cathay Pacific. Finally, I feel like a value customer again (after NY and NJ transit, car rental, and airlines, I've lost faith). More importantly, now I can actually experience the damn thing rather than hearing about others complaints! I've seen them many times on my way to economy, but have never sat in one. The seats (beds?) are pointed at a 45 degree angle towards the aisle (no doubt a major shock to the usual business class traveler when they first saw it). Since thtere are two aisles, there are a total of four seats per row (as oppose to the usual six or so in other airlines) that can go all the way down as a flat bed.

Two of the major problems with Cathay's business class is immediately apparent within seconds of me sitting down: it is SMALL and ISOLATED. Small, as in I can't read the newspaper without pressing my elbows against the side of the seat. Isolated, as in it protects privacy by erecting walls on both sides... on the bright side, nobody can bother me at all... on the not so bright side, if I'm traveling with PNGF, I won't see her for the next 16 hours (oh wait... hmm... nevermind). It is a terrible setting for couples (pregnant wife), family (kids gone from your view), and horny middle age business man (can't meet young blonde to impress his busines expense account).

Okay, on to the bed, chair, TV, food, service scores:

• Bed: Excellent since I fit in the chair just fine. For burly men like Arnold, I'm not so sure he'll like his shoulders being stuck. Oh, but the comforter they give you is so nice and warm and cuddly. I wanted to take the comforter home but the stewards came around to collect them before landing.
  
• Chair: Excellent but not as good as United... all the buttons make sense and I really enjoy never having to place my feet on the ground. The one down side is that since the feet all come out on the diagonal seats, walking the aisle is like avoiding touching someone's stinky feet.
  
• TV: Super super EXCELLENT. On demand TV with loads of movie selections. I saw Watchmen, Bucket List, The Wrestler, An Inconvenient Truth, and parts of The Matrix Revolution. On the way back, I'll hopefully watch The Reader, Revolutionary Road, Goodfellas, and Bolt. I'm giddy already. The screen is big and the headphones are really nice on the ears.
  
• Food: Pretty good food that blew me away. Decent steak on the airplane, who knew? And they had a shreaded pork bun that was so good I ate three. Kind of reminded me of the pork buns from Fatty Crab in New York. I ate THREE!
• Service: Surprisingly spotty. Just cus most of us are sleeping or being entertained by the great TV system doesn't mean you get to ignore me! I asked for fruit and none came; one of the guys was practically yelling at me; although the lady did bring me three pork buns and actually laughed about it

All things considered, I think I prefer the United flight. If only they flew direct to NYC... The best would be the United seat plus the Cathay entertainment. That would rock for a solid 16 hours of cross Pacific flying.

Statue of Liberty

ET came visiting NYC last weekend, so I took him and his wife out to Statue of Liberty. Years ago, I visited the top of the statue (the crown) and remember being amazed at this metal structure that was completely hollow.

Nowadays, the government doesn't allow tourists up the statue any more due to structural problems. Who knew?

Instead of climbing the statue, we settled for the audio tour around the island. The lady on the machine talked way too much, but we paid just enough attention to get the gist of the history. Actually, it's quite a good deal. For $20, you get a ferry ride to both Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island... and you get the guided tour to both islands. Now... if only everybody had the free time I had.

Yeah, I can't decide whether she's a he either...

We took our time around Statue of Liberty but rushed through the exhibits of Ellis Island, where all the immigrants were admitted and their future decided (for them). More time would be more fitting for such a historic place. Until next time... I have plenty!

1st week in NYC...

Hmmm... let's see... what does one do with free time?

Tuesday

• Met up with MBA friend AW... who now has a son O! With super chubby cheeks! By the way, Tea Box Cafe at Takashimaya has really good and healthy food... until the green tea creme brulee

• Line up for free cone day at Rockefeller Center; actually, I cut in line because I found PNGF and her colleague taking a 30 minute break from work already lining up. Sweet!
• Learn about classes at ICP
• Cook vegetables at home... contrary to popular belief, I can actually cook
  

Wednesday

• Met up with Tufts friend HW at Gramercy Tavern; absolutely delicious cheese filled meatballs... oh, and the ham sandwich wasn't bad either. Can skip the chowda... I miss the Chinese soup already

• Wandering to B&H to find some photography equipment (too expensive)
• Wandering more to Max Brenner at Union Square for hot chocolate... get the Italian... still a bit sweet, but quite amazing!

• Cook tomato fried egg at home; it's my second time coming this dish... first was in grade 8. GRADE 8! Great success, Borat style.
  

Thursday

• Met up with PNGF at Norma's, Le Parker Meridien - yup, another Le Meridien (see review of Shanghai Le Meridien) visited
• You know, the Chocolate Waffle with Peanut Butter and Toffee Crunch filling deserves its own bullet point

• Maybe a second bullet point... mmmmmmmmmmmmm
• Bumped into SPCC friend AL (now AT, apparently) in Rockefeller Center... what are the chances of that!?
  
• Met up with AG colleague ZL in Rockefeller Center... nice offices!
• Met up with PNGF to eat at a Pizza Parlor, who claims to be the most famous pizza in the world. I beg to differ, though the Hawaian wasn't bad.
• Watched a movie screening with PNGF - The Boys will be Back. I thought it was an "excellent" movie, though PNGF only thought it was "fair"
• Ron from Harry Potter makes a major screen appearance! As... you know it's coming... Harry (in the movie, was that too confusing?)!
• Walked by Serendipity 3 on the way back home. Last time we went to Seki Sushi and walked by it was closed due to health reasons... boo... twas overrated overall. Pecan pie was a big soggy and the frozen hot chocolate... I don't understand the fuss.
  
• No practicing of my awesome cooking skills tonight. Yay!
  

Friday

• Lunch at Payard with PNGF; I've never heard of it but it was a pleasant surprise
• The Chocolate Mousse also deserves its own bullet point

• Hm... what else happened on Friday!? Went to get a free pint of Ben and Jerry (yay!) courtesy of JK. Mmm... coffee heath bar ice cream... drool again
• Met up with Booth buddy RY at a coffee shop
  
• Cooked beef with vegetable. Great success again! Beef a bit dry but the sauce was right
  

Saturday (now)

• Learned about the newest female products on hand, courtesy of brother JL. Why didn't I think of this?
• Lunch with PNGF at her favorite Pho place in Chinatown... twas good... but no pupu platter
• Walked around Empire State building in anticipation of a tour with ET later tonight or tomorrow
• Pinkberry with PNGF after her guitar lesson... yum yum
• Bumped into long lost family friend in PNGF's apartment elevator - he's here to see apartments - what are the chances of THAT!? I'm starting to feel that NYC is a very small place
  
• Blog

Visiting the holy land of sushi...

It was a blast from the past to see KB in Tokyo and have her bring me to the Holy Temple of Sushi - aka Tsukiji - to get sushi breakfast. As I've said before, this was a complete accident trip and wouldn't have happened if I didn't get bump off a flight due to weight restrictions - yes, I'm still deeply offended that someone would tell me I'm not on the flight due to weight restrictions.

Good restaurants in Chicago and New York are great... but they don't compare to Tsukiji at all. It's not that the food is so much better... it's just the entire experience of it.

I didn't attend the morning tuna auction at 5am. I did get up at 4am wondering if I should do it or not. I glanced at the clock and decided no. I was going to meet KB at 6:30am and that's probably good enough.

As usual, she arrived at 6:50am. I should have known. Just like old times. As I stood outside the subway, however, loads of tourists came up to me and asked if I knew where the market was. Um... turn around, it's right there, mate.

No tuna auction... but hey, I can take pictures of the bustling market! If I had more time (and no companion), I'd spend much more time to talk to the fisherman and take more pictures. Fascinating market where you have to be careful while you walk cus little motor hangers are running around like mad men. I got honked at more than 10 times. All sorts of fish and seafood are on display. Next time, I'm definitely doing the tuna auction.

Here are some of my favs:

Octopus

Tuna

I was told this following restaurant is the holy grail of sushi. Well, the line was too long. We went to a nearby one where photography is not allowed (Sigh). But the tuna/uni rice bowl was delicious. Especially the uni. Mmmm.... Uni. Next time, I will visit this store too. (And KB told me about the best sushi restaurant she has been to in Ginza... that's on my list too)

Miss Shanghai

No, not the beauty pageant... I mean I actually miss Shanghai sometimes. And with no doubt, I will miss my Le Meridien room the most. In fact, I'm thinking of buying a place in Hong Kong that has the exact room measurements so I can model my home after my hotel room. Sad? Maybe. See before you judge.

The hotel room is the junior suite in Le Meridien. I've been in the bigger suites but have always asked to move back to the junior suite (no, I did not try the presidential suite, as I did in the haunted Taipei Grand Hyatt) cus I like it so much.

In essence, it is a big studio separated by a TV. A rotating TV, to be specific. This way, the room still feels big and at the same time separates the living room from the bed room. Really liked the setting and the idea. Highly highly recommended hotel (if you get this room).

Rotating TV (from the sofa)

Rotating TV when brushing teeth

I've also miraculously lost weight in Shanghai. All thanks to this guy: the electronic weight. Amazing what monitoring your weight every day can do to your diet. Among the findings: Italian food increases your weight by about 2-3 pounds. A night sleep makes you lighter by ~3 pounds. If you have the "full" feeling, you will likely pack 3+ pounds vs. the night before. In winter, my clothes and shoes are about 5-8 pounds.

Speaking of weight loss... I had a bit of fun doing this... but here's a not-so-patented system. The DEWLEI (Canton people will understand the inside joke):

DEWLEI, pronounced Diu-Lei, or Daily Electronic Weight Loss Enforcing Indicator:

1. Buy highly accurate electronic scale with at least one decimal place
2. Place in bathroom
   
3. Weigh yourself right before you go to bed, in your PJs or naked (Naked recommended)
4. Record the weight on a piece of paper
5. Go to sleep
6. Wake up, go pee, and weigh yourself in the same clothes or naked (Naked recommended) - be careful not to take a shower yet
7. Record the weight on a piece of paper
8. Go to the office
9. Open Excel
10. Enter your weight - night and day weight
11. Calculate 5-day running average for night and for day
12. Plot it on a chart
    
13. Think about the chart; think again;
    
14. Do something about it

As an added bonus, if you are truly dedicated, think about what you ate and did that day as the avg goes up or down. That will help tremendously.

DIULEI, it works.

Okay, back to the blog. I'm treated as a royal in Le Meridien... but the most important treatment of all is the breakfast buffet. This is my little creation every single morning. Assorted fruits with assorted nuts and raisins. I add some cereal and dry oatmeal sometimes. LOVE IT. Too bad this will cost a fortune in HK (we import all our fruits). Oh well.

Pictures from Taipei and Danshui

Yesterday I posted about traveling to Taipei... well, here are the pictures!

Weekend in Taiwan

Spent a weekend with my parents a couple weeks ago in Taiwan. A family friend played host for a day and brought us to 淡水 (Light Water...?), a cute little city to the north of Taipei. I've been there years ago... and my only memory of it was food.

The locals showed us something much better.

There's a geological park with some oddly-shaped rocks along the coastline. The following are all naturally-formed rocks.

Odd, eh? These rocks are formed this way because Taiwan is in an earthquake-zone. Above: When the rocks were pushed up and there was water left on the rims. Erosion was faster there and a ball-shped rock on top remained. Below: rocks are pushed up and the erosion happened at the lower part of the rock. This one, in particular, is best well known to be the "Queen's Head".

Also near 淡水 is the 朱铭 Chu Ming museum. He's most famous for the Tai-Chi series of outdoor sculptures. Unfortunately, it was raining that day and the outdoor pictures didn't turn out too well. Definitely a museum that I want to go back on a good day.

Quite remarkable is that Chu actually owns this museum. He bought land to place his own exhibits, so it's quite a remarkable collection of everything he has done. Of course, the best ones have been sold (Bank of China in Hong Kong has two very nice Chu Ming Tai Chi sculptures)... but this is a very comprehensive collection.

Here's a wooden sculpture of a relaxed business man (hard to find a real one these days).

I think of my job when I saw these copper sculptures. It was raining outside too... so it was a nice coincidence.

Oh, and there's food too... for another post!

Flying Shanghai Taipei

Is there a way to know which flight route is the newest in the world? I bet Shanghai Taipei rank right up there!

The trip from Shanghai to Taipei used to take a ridiculous 8 hours (door to door, plus wait time) via Hong Kong. Now, there are direct flights between the two thanks to some good common sense by both sides.

When I checked in, I walked over to the Air China (Mainland's airlines, which is very very different from China Airlines, the accident-riddled Taiwan national airlines) to check in. At the counter, the lady kindly tells me "Sir, Taipei flights are over at the international counters in H."

International counter, eh? Since I was at the counter 10 minutes before the gates closed, I didn't inquire further. But as I was walking to the Air China "international counters," I couldn't help but wonder how long it took the two governments to make this work. Did someone mandate that the Taipei check-ins had to be in the international counters (HK and Macao's are there too, I might add)? I bet that took up a solid three days of negotiation to clear up.

Flight was short and sweet. Food was terrible.

United business class #2

Well, just when I thought I've seen it all about United, here's another experience on United business class, on my way back from NYC...

• Sitting in the old reclining chairs (not bad, by the way), I was watching Death Race (my condolences to Joan Allen) when there was a small commotion behind me. I was sitting in the second to last row on business class. Turns out the lady sitting behind me had sneaked in from economy! During lunch, they finally found out that the number of meals didn't match match the manifest on business class. I think she pleaded innocence. Likely story.
  
• Right before landing, there was a pool of water that was seeping through the carpet. Ew.

United business class

For the past year and a half, I've been spoiled by the excellent Cathay Pacific (and Bain's financial support). Every now and then, I visit NYC and I have to venture away from world's best airline.

I had the fortune to travel on United's new business class on my latest trip to Chicago (on to NYC). They have the new flatbed service that's now so prevalent in premium airlines. Some quick comments... as consultants, we have to break everything into framework... so I submit my own: bed, seat, TV, food, service:

• Bed: Excellent! I've actually never been on a flat bed before and I really like it. Bottom line: it's easy to fall asleep on. Chairs that recline to the Nth degree are not bad... but the positioning of your feet really affects how well you can sleep. Flat bed solves that problem. The only caveat is that sleeping sideways will be difficult if that's the way you sleep... you've be facing the side of the chair which can be disturbing.
  
• Chair: Call me silly, but I love the United buttons. There's a button for take off and landing so I don't have to fidddle away with different buttons to get my seat upright. Comfy and no complaints. Seats are either forward or backward facing (none of the ridiculous diagonal facing Cathay seats with all the stinky feet sticking out in the hallway). Me being me, I was seated at a backward facing seat that looked straight into economy. It's a bit weird during take off when the large white lady kept staring at me wondering why Asian parents spoil their kids with business class and her kids wouldn't upgrade her. (Thanks, Mike, for the wonderful seat) Not bad though... sitting backwards gives you a new perspective on how the engine works though. You have to see it.
  
• On-Demand TV: Well, put it this way... the screen is bigger than the TV PNGF uses in NYC. Nice TV. I played around with all the functions, including the Audio book (not going to work, but good try) and games (might elbow the passenger next to you... it's still fun though). The only problem I had was that the programs weren't that great. Whereby Cathay economy had shows such as 24 (all episodes!) and some of the latest and greatest movies (I saw Iron Man, Hancock, Hulk, Cars, Blood Diamond, and Indiana Jones during roundtrip to NYC last October), United's lineup paled in comparison. Maybe it's January and all the blockbusters have expired. I ended up watching Clone Wars, Wall-E, and Vicky, Christina, Barcelona (review another day). On the flip side, for TV, there was House, Entourage, and Desperate Housewives (just kidding). Ultimately, since I'm using the TV to pass time, this will do.
• Food: Honestly, I can't remember any of it. I guess that means a passing grade. I wish there were ice cream on board though. (Cathay didn't have any... nor does United. But DragonAir from HKG to Shanghai always did)
  
• Service: As usual, US service cannot compare to Asian services. Some would argue the American service levels are "more friendly"... I say it's more of a lack of attention to detail and formality. For example, don't try and pour water into an empty cup while it sits on the arm rest. Take the cup, place it on your tray, then pour water. Will reduce spill risk to zero. I'm just saying.
  

The worst is Continental. I don't want to ever think about it. Bed: N/A. Seat: bad. TV: Almost N/A. Food: bad. Service: very bad.

Cathay economy is surprisingly good. It has on-Demand TV and that's all I ask. The seat is kind of plasticy but it slides just enough for me to sort of be comfortable. Not that I really have to though, thanks to the TV. Bed: N/A. Seat: pass. TV: excellent. Food: pass. Service: good.

United economy is in between. It's more comfy than Cathay but the lack of TV hurts it a lot. 10+ hours on a plane and you realize how nice it is to have something distract you. Anything. Without TV, it's a grind to complete the the trip, especially with a transit in Chicago. Bed: N/A. Seat: good. TV: Almost N/A. Food: pass. Service: pass.

Thoughts on Shanghai

Alas, I've been stationed in Shanghai for almost three months... or is it four? I'm loosing track. Took some pictures around Shanghai to share with my 3 readers (Mom asked to be included in the reader list... so, if you are counting, it's Bro, PNGF, and Mom).

Smog is part of every day life in Shanghai. It starts when the sun comes out and ends when the sun sets. I've been staying at the Le Meridien facing the Bund most of the time. I think there's one morning (in three months) where I've felt good about looking outside my room.

This is not one of those mornings.

Speaking of the Le Meridien, it's quite a nice hotel. The staff all know me by Mr. Lam and they start saying things like "welcome back" and "same old, Mr. Lam?". Somewhat disturbing, me thinks, when strangers start to know all your habbits... such as my morning office destination and that returning at 1130pm is "you're home early". Just to clarify: NOT early. NOT home.

Here's a picture of my Shanghai "home" from People's Park

More pictures from People's Park

And the aforementioned (in a previous post) about the marriage advertisements. This is the small crowd that I felt comfortable taking pictures of. There's a MUCH bigger crowd nearby...