Taste of Formosa

Two days ago after eating instant noodles for the final exam week, I decided to eat out with my friends. Then I chose to have Taiwanese food. This place is much larger than you first see, with a cool upstairs dining room that features a flat screen tv looping chinese music videos. dining here, it kinda does feel like you're in a different place...

I walked in with a party of 3 and was greated nicely by the hostess. Then we ordered oyster vermicelli noodle soup and braise beef with noodle soup, salt &pepper chicken tender and fish in hot special cause. For drink, we all have the Beijing Sour Mill. This is the only restaurant I can have Beijing Sour Mill in bay area. I had never seen it in anywhere before. I love this kind of mill very much.

The waiting time for food was quick. Even the house is quit full, but still very fast. The oyster noodle is so good. It tasted just like the one I had in Taiwan before. I had been to try this noodle in several Taiwanese restaurant before, But I do not like that. Since those restaurant changed the original favor. The salt & pepper chicken was not so special. It just like any other store has. When the Braise beef noodle came, I love the smell. That smell brings up my memery. That was the exactly smeel of the braise beef noodle when I offen had in China before. When you smell it, you want to finish the whole bowl immedely. The fish  in hot special cause, I do not expect to have a good experience. Because that meal is not original from Taiwan, it was a traditional Sichuan food from China. Not all the restaurant can do it well. However, when I taste it, it suprises me. I think it was good. At least the flavor is very simmilar to the original taste.

Asking if I would come back to this place? Yes. And I would give a 4 star to this restaurant.

Happy hour at Schmidt's

This is my first time at Schmidt's in SF. The address is 2400 Folsom St (between 20th St & 21st St)
San Francisco, CA 94110. Business Hour: Mon-Sun 5 pm - 11 pm, Sat-Sun 10 am - 3 pmMy friend told me that Schmidt's has great looking happy hour and affordable beer and entrees. However their appetizers are a little small. We ordered the pea pancakes ($9) and there were three of them. Not three flapjack-sized pancakes, but three little saltine-sized things. That's like $1.25 per square inch of pancake, man! So yeah, my suggestion is to avoid those...

Beer was tasty and they have a respectable tap selection. We actually received different beer than we ordered (2 of X and 1 of Y instead of 2 of Y and 1 of X) and the waitress just gave the extra one to us. Nice service indeed. :) And the best part is that a 'large' portion is just $6, compared to $7 and up at Suppenkuche.

Two of us got the wiener schnitzel, one got the pork sausage, and one got the pork chop, which I think kind of stole the show as something delicious that no one had really ever had before. The wiener schnitzel was good but nothing mindblowing in the grand scheme of wienerschnitzels. Entrees, again, were pricey but not Suppenkuche level pricey. Schnitzel was $16 and other entrees were around that range.

I think I would definitely come here for happy hour but I'd hesitate to come here for dinner unless I was ordering very carefully to avoid the landmines of bad value.

top 10 best restaurants in SF

I love food a lot. I love to try new things. Every weekend, I do some research online to see which restaurants have the best ratings, then I will try it with my friends. Luckly, most of the time I get excellent experiences. Last weekend I went to a Japanese restaurant called

Katana-Ya Ramen Restaurant in El Cerritto. The comment that people gave by Yelp.com was 4 stars--good food, good service and inexpensive. I ordered a pot of seafood and my friend ordered the dragon roll. When the orders came I was suprised. The pot of seafood was so interesting. It was so small! Normally when I have hotpot, it always come with a big pot, and that served at least 4 people. I have never had a one person hot pot dish. Later on, I was suprised again. That little pot had so much food inside and I couldn't finish it by myself. There were shrimps, clams, fishes, squids, crab meat and noodles. It can definitely feed two people. That was out of my expectation--very valuable. Moreover,the food presentation was so nice. With yelp.com, I can always get good experience on trying new restaurants.

Here are the top 10 list on yelp.com, which I am going to try next. Can't wait!!

1. Boulevard

 Category: American

 1 Mission St
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 543-6084

2. Gary Danko

Category: American

800 N Point St
San Francisco, CA 94109

(415) 749-2060

3. S&T Hong Kong Seafood Restaurant

Categories: Seafood, Dim Sum

2578 Noriega St
San Francisco, CA 94122
(415) 665-8338

 4. Marlowe

Categories: American (New), Brasseries

330 Townsend St
San Francisco, CA 94107

(415) 974-5599

5. NOPA

Category: American (New)

560 Divisadero St
San Francisco, CA 94117

(415) 864-8643

6. House of Prime Rib

Category: Steakhouses

1906 Van Ness Ave
San Francisco, CA 94109

(415) 885-4605

7. Akiko's Restaurant

Category: Japanese

431 Bush St
San Francisco, CA 94108

(415) 397-3218

8. Enjoy Vegetarian Restaurant

Categories: Vegetarian, Chinese

754 Kirkham St
San Francisco, CA 94122

(415) 682-0826

9. Sotto Mare

Categories: Seafood, Italian

552 Green St
San Francisco, CA 94133

(415) 398-3181

10. Harris' Restaurant

Category: Steakhouses

2100 Van Ness Ave
San Francisco, CA 94109

(415) 673-1888

Using yelp.com to search restaurants in the area is very convenient. Reading through the comments can always give you some suggestions. I really enjoy using the online serch engine to choose a restaurant that I have never tried and it will always give me good experience.

Having funs in Taipei

When thinking about traveling to Asia, Taiwan is always a good choice. Taipei is my favorite city in Taiwan. It is not only the financial distrct, but also has the most entertaiment. The city is open 24 hours a day. You will never get bored!
The local food has always interested me the most. Speaking of local food, you can't miss the night markets. Here are the four most popular night markets: Shida night market, Raohe street night market, Shilin night market and Danshui night market.

 

Daytime entertaiment in Taipei: Ximending shopping, wufenpu market, hot spring spa, Taipei 101, Maokong(it is like a cafe, has very good environment, you can have a cup a coffee and then read a book, just enjoy your peacful afternoon), etc. Night life: night markets, karaoke and night clubs. The night clubs there is totally different from the United States. In Taipei, night clubs open 7 days a week, and many clubs would open until morning.

Taipei is really a very interesting place to travel. People there are extremly nice. What amazes me the most is the shopping. The Taiwanese sales are the most professional in the world, except for the Japanese. When I was on the street, I did not plan to buy anything. I was just looking around with my friend. A young girl(the sales) came by, and told me many interesting stories about the products that I just touched. The sales was very friendly, speaking with a very nice tone, just like chatting with a friend. After a while, I felt so bad that I didn't buy anything from her. Then I bought something. This happened many times, I bought around 3 items each day even I knew that was the sale strategic of them, I still bought more than 10 items that I had never thought I would buy.

Tips For Saving $$$ During Vacations

When planning a vacation, one of the biggest concerns is your budget. I am a person who love traveling a lot but I am not from a rich family. I try to do a lot of homework before I travel. Now I have some ideas to share with you all:
How to save your money on planning a trip?
1. Many people like to book their package by online travel agents, I did the same thing before. However, I figure it out there is other way is a lot better--use groupon(you can find this on facebook). There are some packages always have good deal; for example, buy 3 get 1 free. Then  ask some of your friends if they want to travel together. If they don't, then make a post online to find the same interest travelers.
2. Self traveling. The first save is the tour guide fees and the tips to the tour guide. Second save is find some travelors with the same interest, then travel together. This way you can share with the transportation fees and the accomodation fees, food and some ticket fees.
3. Avoid the busy seasons. Traveling during peak seasons means that you will need to spend more than the nonbusy days.
4. If you need to buy gifts, avoid those big, popular towns. You can always find the same thing in other place which cost a lot cheaper.
Those were my personal experience, hope it could help you plan on your next trip if you need a buget trip.

why we travel

Why do we travel? This is an interesting topic. newyork times.com had a post for people to upload their funest traveling pictures to represent their reasons. Here is the link: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/02/18/travel/20110217-WHYWETRAVEL.html?ref=travel
My reason-explore the natural.


 Can you imagine what is life without traveling? Is it possible? Whatever your reason is, traveling is a part of people's life. There are different reasons that people travel around.    

1). Many people travel for famiy/friend reunions because they have relatives or friends who live far away from them. This group of people travel mainly since they get the invitaions from their relatives or friends.
2). Business traveling is an indispensable part for work.
3). International study is a trend that already last for long time. In order to make the dreams come ture, students travel from country to country for their study. Also, choosing a school in different cities also increase stuednts' traveling.
4). Many people loves adventure! These people may travel to other cities, states and even other countries to fulfill desire.
5). Enjoyment and relaxing are always the reasons people travel for. After working for a while, people  want to escaping from their living environment, then travel is their best choice.
6). People travel because they want to learn others cultures. They want to see the difference between their culture and other cultures. One particular thing about the culture is the food. They want to know how food is prepared and how it is done. Obviously, we all love to eat.

Bring your favorite book or music album

Just read a very interesting post on my friends blog--Bring your favorite book or music album if you were born after 1980, you can get 15% off. That was a private youth Inn's promotion. After 3 months advertising on the internet, the booking has raise triple. Some Guests on the interview said that they love that experience. Since they could save money, and also that was a good place to  meet people who has the same hobby. Some other people said that they would love to try in the future.

For me, definitely I love that idea. I think that was so special. I am glad that I am qualify that two conditions, I can save money and meet the same interested people. Next time when I am on my vacation, that Inn will be my priority lodging to stay.