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.

Legal Drinking Age

We odered beer while my friends and I were out for dinner tonight. As usual, a server came to check our ID. One of my friends brought up a interesting question, he asked " At what age when you first drank alcohol? And what is the legal drinking age in China?"
After home, I still have this question in my head, and it blew up to a bigger related question. It made me wonder the legal drinking age worldwide. Then I did some research. I figured out the following data.

Drinking and Purchasing of Alcohol Is Illegal

• Libya
• Sudan
• Saudi Arabia
• Kuwait
• Bangladesh
• Iran
• Pakistan ( for foreign nationals (non muslims) the legal drinking age is 21)

Legal Drinking Age = None

• Albania
• Brunei
• Denmark
• Poland
• Mauritius
• Georgia
• Cambodia
• Malaysia
• Macau
• Philippines
• Gibraltar
• Slovakia
• Netherlands
• Italy
• Slovenia
• New Zealand
• Malta
• Norway
• Portugal
• Romania
• Serbia
• Swaziland
• Thailand
• Greece
• Finland

Legal Drinking Age = 14

• Spain

Legal Drinking Age = 16

• Lebanon
• Eritrea
• Austria
• Bulgeria
• Botswana
• Zimbabwe
• France
• Luxembourg
• Germany
• Switzerland (16-18)
• Samoa

Legal Drinking Age = 17

• Cyprus

Legal Drinking Age = 18

• Ghana
• Kenya
• Canada (18-19)
• Puerto Rico
• Algeria
• Cameroon
• Malawi
• South Africa
• Argentina
• China
• Hong Kong
• Jordan
• Israel
• Fiji
• Australia
• Ukraine
• Sweden
• Russia
• Latvia
• Hungary
• Singapore
• Croatia
• Belarus
• Sri Lanka
• Taiwan
• Mongolia
• Guatemala
• Honduras
• Ecuador
• Columbia
• Chile
• Uganda

Legal Drinking Age = 19

• South Korea

Legal Drinking Age = 20

• Japan
• Paraguay

Legal Drinking Age = 21

• United States Of America
• Indonesia
• Palau

 I guess the U.S. teenager may want to travel Spain after reading that. It's because so many teenagers are curious about drinking, JUST LIKE MY COUSINS! While we are drinking wine in family dinner, they always get their glasses ready by the side, pretented they are adults, actually they are just 14 years old.

Restaurant sells breast milk ice cream

There is one restaurant in London selling breast milk ice cream, and called it Baby Gaga. Having breast milk inside your ice cream, don't you think it is a weird thing? For me, I couldn't accept!!
http://www.foodservice.com/news/human-interest/restaurant-sells-breast-milk-ice-cream/

No more Shark Fin Soup

Recently, California legislators have introduced a bill to ban the possession, sale and distribution of shark fins used in a traditional soup.  Personally, I like the Shark Fin Soup. Shark Fin iS consider to a luxury soup in Chinese cuisine. Not everyone can afford it in the past. A bowl of Shak Fin Soup cost about $40. Chinese people use Shark Fin Soup to treat their VIP. In the past few years, the demand of Shark Fin Soup has been increasing. The actitives said must be stop selling shark fin for protecting the ocean. Supporters of the ban say shark finning is a cruel practice in which fishermen slice the shark's fin off while the animal is still alive and then throw the shark back in the sea to die. After the bill has been introduced, some shark fin fan said they eat shark fin just like they are eating the ocean killer, since the shark eats lots of fiishes. However, many other people agree with the bill. We should protect the ocean, protect the mother earth. Even I am a fan of shark fin soup, I am not eating any more shark fin soup after knowing how the shark fin comes.

The Psychology of Menu Design

I have always been interested in the menu design. Everytime when I go to a restaurant, the first thing I look at is their decoration, then the menu. I always  have some assessments in my head: Is the menu match the decoration? Is the menu easy to read?...
Yesterday, I read an article about the menu design from http://www.restaurant.org/tools/magazines/rusa/magArchive/year/article/?ArticleID=162. I agree with the points the articel points out. A menu is really the matter of a restaurant. A menu can tell a lot of a restaurant. Like the article says, "The menu is part of your brand identity. It's a reflection of who you are in the marketplace. If you have a dirty menu, it sends out a message that you probably have a dirty kitchen. If it's a bright, clean, sharp menu, it looks like you're a bright, clean operation." Yea, I agree the menu can identified a restaurant, BUT I did not realize the clean menu would present a clean operation. I only thought about the $$. A nice designed menu present a large bill.That was the idea I had before.
"Align prices in a column on the right of the menu is a mistake" this is the second point I have realized. Kharasch said that kind of price placement lead customers to use the "shop-by-price method". No matter how nice the discription, people's eyes would be easily attracted by the price. My mom is the top model of this model. Every time she read the menu, the price will be follow by. She skips the description if the price doesn't fit her expectation. Then she would not think about that at all even sometimes she wants to try new things. If the price she can accept, then she read the description. This is the so-called customer's psychology. Like the article says not to put the price straightly on the right size, and put it at the end of the description would be a good idea.
Of course these are not only the things need to be aware in the menu, like the price setting is a big chapter. Howver, people always forgot the small things also need to be take care. Menu really can affect the sales volume of a restaurant. A poor designed menu may result in reduce the profit, and a well designed menu may increase the profit.