On the first of October, I embarked on an incredible, if brief, trip to India to attend a friend’s wedding in Jaisalmer. Our journey went like this: Manhattan to Newark by train (1.5-hours with some hiccups). Newark to Delhi (14-hour flight). Delhi overnight. Delhi to Jodhpur (1-hour flight). And Jodhpur to the palace outside Jaisalmer…
Oh, Ohio. I grew up in Ohio from middle school through high school, but my visits now are few and far between. It was such a pleasure to be back for Karen and Sam’s beautiful wedding in the state capitol and then return to Cincinnati for a week too. We started off in downtown Columbus….
The first week of September, I got to do something I hadn’t done in over six years: attend a wedding as a guest! I headed to Kansas City, Missouri, (and a little bit of Kansas too) to play Jesse’s +1 at our college friend Kellyann’s wedding. I had never been to Kansas City, so of…
I’ve been having such wonderful foodie adventures all over the place, it was so lovely to turn around and visit a highly-rated restaurant right here in Oakland. Commis is Oakland’s first and only Michelin-starred restaurant. Its tasting menu is priced at $85/pp, and with a seat at the chef’s table in the center of the…
After a week at TAF, we drove back up from North Manchester, Indiana, to Chicago. I visit the city regularly, about once or twice a year, and though I’ve never lived in Chicago, it always feels a bit like home. Our days after TAF were still filled with TAFers, doing our classic post-TAF gathering in…
Sixteen years. That’s the number of times I’ve attended the Taiwanese American Foundation (TAF) summer camp. It’s a long time to spend with anything (so long that I lost count and spent the entire week thinking that I was on my fifteenth year), and I found myself struggling with the question, how do you stay…
Over the Fourth of July weekend, we took a little trip up to Montreal. Yes, we celebrated America’s birthday by running away to French Canada. We actually picked Montreal because it was close by (1 hour flight from New York) and it had been on both Jesse and my lists, but neither one of us…
I made my second New York trip of the year at the end of June. The visit was sandwiched between weddings in the midst of peak season, but we managed to pack in a ton of good food and great company, as usual. And as if completing the entire Thomas Keller restaurant collection (with Bouchon…
I have visited Boston a handful of times since college, and I have really been charmed by the city. So much so, I once visited for just five hours on a layover, and this month, I ended up visiting Boston twice in two weeks (with a return to California in between). The first visit to…
I had an absolutely beautiful June weekend in Rhode Island. I had never been to Rhode Island, but I was so excited to be there for Mairin and Nikhil’s wedding festivities. We stayed in Providence the first night and then joined the wedding guests in the seaside town of Newport. Day one, Kevin went for…
I have a special nostalgic flutter in my heart reserved for North Carolina. I spent four years of my college career at Duke University in Durham, and while I had my ups and downs in college, I still love Duke in the end, and I still get incredibly excited to be back for a visit….
What an incredible experience it was to dine at one of the world’s best restaurants with a group of twelve friends. The French Laundry is Thomas Keller’s much-lauded restaurant in the heart of Napa Valley. With its three Michelin stars and countless accolades, the restaurant is always booked to the brim, and it’s usually impossible…