I am on a quest. I am determined to find the best beef noodle soup in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I will eat a hundred bowls of noodles if I must! Beef Noodle Soup, (niu rou mian in Mandarin), is a traditional Taiwanese dish. It’s my comfort food, and it’s one of my…
We walked amidst giants. The trees towered over us, scenting the air with that distinctive redwood smell. We breathed it in, grateful for this salubrious excursion outside the city. It was the perfect Presidents’ Day adventure with three of my friends, all newcomers to San Francisco. We kick it off with some images from the…
We had spent the whole day lounging around on the beach at Half Moon Bay, just down the cliff from the elegant Ritz Carlton. It wasn’t until Jesse asked the concierge for suggestions on what to do next that the tide pools listed on the pamphlet caught my eye. It was already 4:30, and the…
Many thanks go to my friends and to my boyfriend for celebrating my birthday with me. Jesse flew in for a few days, escaping the snow in New York and trading it in for some sunny California adventures instead. Our first meal: Roka Akor, a Japanese robataya house. We got seated at the bar, right…
I spent Christmas Day lounging around at home until it was time to head to the airport. Overnight, I flew cross-country to New York City, and there I arrived, dark and early, at 6am. This was my first time spending the holidays in New York, and with all the crazy snowstorms this year, it was…
2013 was a force of a year. It was the kind of year in which big things– gigantic things– kept happening, one after another. Right off the bat, my friends and supporters raised over $12k for my Pointe of View project, and I published a book! I traveled to four countries, two of which I…
From one holiday to another, here’s a glimpse back at my Thanksgiving week spent in Cincinnati, Ohio. Homemade mixed berry tarts with almond filling! And homemade bread, made from wild yeast starter which we learned to do in our Sour Flour workshop the week before. Me & my mom at Thanksgiving dinner… and not pictured…
We stood facing the sunset with the soothing sounds of the ocean crashing against a coastline lit up in vibrant hues. It was everything I loved most about the California Coast: our strange but beautiful sense of the seasons (autumn at the end of November); the color tinting our succulents rather than deciduous trees; the…
When you head out of San Francisco on the Golden Gate Bridge, driving northward under the iconic International Orange towers, you cross into a decidedly different peninsula. The first stretch is undeveloped hills, and then through a tunnel and off to the right, you can visit the town of Sausalito, a posh little area lined…
I am often guilty of taking tons of photos when I travel elsewhere but totally neglecting my own beautiful surroundings when I’m back in California. The solution? A hearty dose of staycation (vacationing at home!). My boyfriend Jesse was coming to San Francisco for a business conference, just as he did last year (when we…
It’s our little tradition to document Jenny and Kevin’s love story and to create a beautiful leather album every year. For this, our fifth shoot together, we opted to document a slice of their lives in their first home together, which we have lovingly dubbed the “Yauhaus” (after their last name, Yau). We started with…
For my boyfriend Jesse’s birthday this year, he had a dinner party with fifteen friends. But it wasn’t any dinner party– it was a privately catered event with Luca and Bri from MasterChef! If you’re a fan of the show, you’ll know that Luca is the lovable Italian guy who won the whole thing, and…