Merry Christmas

300 San Jose (bowling alley)

I have passed by this bowling alley numerous times when we go to Oakridge Mall. It is located just behind Oakridge Mall if you're on Blossom Hill Rd. Last week me and a couple of friends decided to go there on a night out. I made a reservation for eight but turned out only six of us could make it.

300 chicken quesadillas

We got there early around six. There were not too many lanes occupied. There was a kids birthday party a couple of lanes down from us. I think the place in total have around sixty lanes.

Hai San Tuoi Song - Nha Trang, Vietnam

We had a late lunch early dinner sort of on our second day. We picked a restaurant on Hung Vuong Street. The young guy who was at the restaurant was trying to sell us his lobster while we were checking out the menu.

We finally decided to go in and order. We ordered grilled squid salt and chilli, tamarind prawn, fried noodle with seafood. As we sat down we watched the guy earlier busying himself running around outside to start the grill. He also took off a moment later on his motorbike to go get something (our squid, maybe?)

Fried noodle with seafood

Com Ngon Lanh - Nha Trang, Vietnam

Our first meal in Nha Trang the day we arrived. Based on the conversation with the front desk girl who told us that most restaurants were located on Nguyen Thien Thuat Road which was the street next to our hotel. We wondered passed a few restaurants and finally decided on this based on the look from outside and the menu posted outside the restaurant. Beside we were already hungry then :)

Chopstick cover for this restaurant

Meals on Vietnam Airlines

For this Asia trip this time we had a chance to try Vietnam Airlines for the local flights. With the price of tickets that we paid I was surprised that they even provide meals. It was simple meals but hey it's still not bad. I guess having been on most airlines in US that didn't provide meals, even the most simple meal was appreciated.

Sandwich, jelly dessert and water in plastic cup

Simple sandwich

Jovie Coffee & Pho- Campbell

I just happened to browse Yelp today and found out this place in Campbell. But as we were driving there I realized that we've been to that area before when we went to Le Quy. It's sharing the same shopping mall at the corner of San Tomas Aquino and Campbell Ave.

grilled pork with vermicelli

We got there at an awkward time. It was not exactly dinner time yet but we were hungry since we didn't have proper lunch. The restaurant was empty except for a table towards the back that seemed to be occupied by a few people. I was going to just go get myself a table when one those people on the table stood up to greet us.

Breakfast buffet at Asia Paradise Hotel - Nha Trang, Vietnam

Bun bo hue - noodle soup with beef shank and congealed pork blood

On our last day in Nha Trang we decided to splurge a bit and went on a breakfast buffet. The word 'splurge' here was compared to amount we spent the previous day on breakfast. The cost per person for the buffet breakfast was 95000VND (around USD5). So for US standard it wasn't too pricey at all especially when the buffet was actually at a 3 star hotel.

The Asia Paradise Hotel was just a few doors down from our hotel so we passed by a few times before and noticed the big banner advertising their buffet breakfast. When we walked in there was a front desk area just next to the staircase. We paid for the price and went upstairs. The dining area was pretty big with long tables of varieties of food. My first choice was some sort of noodle soup that looked yummy. Garnished with some  ground chilli and a squirt of lime juice and you're good to go. The noodle soup came with chopped green onion, shredded cabbage and mint leaves. I realized later on the noodle soup was called bun bo hue.

Never Again Dealing with Hong Kong Airlines

For our trip to Asia this time we needed airfare from Hong Kong to Hanoi and looking at the options available we chose Hong Kong Airlines. Boy was that a big mistake. From the beginning nothing seemed to work right with them. From the online reservation to the reservation itself.

Only after we made the reservation I started looking into them and found out lots of complaints. The most was about them changing their flights. By then we paid for the reservation already and could only kept our fingers crossed. But luck wasn't on our side. By end of August we received email notification of changing reservation dates for our itinerary. Apparently they cancelled our flight on October 1 and changed it to October 2. That was like a nightmare came true.

Our itinerary was pretty tight since the whole Asia trip was only for two weeks but included three countries. We couldn't afford to push our itinerary back one day. Beside what would stop them from changing yet another date once this one went through.

Hubby called and spoke to the representative about cancelling our reservation and refund process. We were told we could get our full refund if the airlines changed our itinerary. BUT we won't get our refund until six weeks later. Meanwhile if we're cancelling this airfare meant we needed to find a different way to get to Hanoi. And all these was just less than a month before our departure. Oh..stress

We contemplated for a day and two and decided to cancel the reservation. We made sure all the paperwork were done properly and as thorough as possible to ensure we receive our full refund. Meanwhile we also needed to change our Singapore Airlines itinerary to accommodate different ways to Hanoi. That costed almost another USD100.

Finally one morning about a week after we came back from our trip I saw a credit to our credit card account. I almost jumped up in joy. It did take about six weeks for the whole refund process. It was a lesson learnt not to deal with Hong Kong Airlines again if I have other options.

Golden Sea Hotel - Nha Trang, Vietnam

Got a reservation at this hotel through Agoda.We also made a request for airport transport knowing from experience that it saved time and also possibility of being scammed. Even though our plane arrived a bit late our ride was still there when we got out. What a relief.

We were ushered to a sedan waiting in the empty parking lot. The drive from airport to Nha Trang town was  scenic and at times a bit winding. After about twenty minutes drive we finally arrived at the hotel. There was only a girl in ao dai (Vietnamese traditional clothes) working behind the front desk. We told her about our reservation and gave her our passports. She took a key and brought us to our room herself just leaving the front desk area unattended.

Wang's Kitchen - Milpitas

We noticed this restaurant about three months ago. Happened to be in the area but just finished our lunch so we decided that we should give this restaurant a try later. Finally we got that chance this weekend. We did take out and enjoy it with some friends.

We got there around 12:30 and the restaurant wasn't busy at all. We looked at the menu and decided on five dishes. Paid for them and came back about twenty minutes later to collect them.

chilli chicken (dry) at Wang's Kitchen

Chilli chicken (dry). Out of five dishes we ordered, both me and hubby agreed that chilli chicken was the best. It was pieces of boneless fried chicken with light batter. Those pieces than got covered up with finely chopped garlic, onion and chilli. Fragrant and indeed spicy.

Newday Restaurant - Hanoi, Vietnam

This restaurant was recommended to us by staffs at our hotel, Sunshine Suites Hotel. It was just a few doors down from the hotel. When we walked in the few tables there were almost all occupied. We were seated and given the menu. There were quite a few items on the menu that we were familiar with like pho (Vietnamese rice noodle soup) but hey we didn't go all the way to Hanoi to eat pho. So we started with dish which we know was the local specialty like bun cha hanoi (meat patties served on rice noodle with sauce). And then I settled with some braised chicken. For drinks hubby got lime juice and I got passion juice

Tsui Wah Restaurant - Hong Kong

This is one of the chain restaurant in Hong Kong. The one we tried was just outside Temple Street Market.

We got a table on the second floor. It's not really a second floor but more like a loft (if there's a loft in restaurant) since it's not a full second floor. When we were checking out the menu I noticed the ceiling were all covered in mirror. Hm..interesting for a motel..but a restaurant ? ha..ha..

潤記 (Yun Kee ?) - Hong Kong

Store front (pic from Openrice.com)

This shop was just one of the typical cha chaan teng (tea restaurant) in Hong Kong. No English name and no menu or maybe there was just we couldn't understand. We would not have walked in had I not heard about a noodle place in Northpoint which served worth try wonton noodle soup.

So that morning on our second day in Hong Kong we left our hotel earlier and did a stop at Northpoint to look for it. Took the exit to Java Road and we were on the surface street. Walked to the right for less than 2 minutes and we saw Ibis Northpoint. That's our clue. The short article only mentioned that it was two doors down from Ibis Northpoint. There were only two businesses that matched this description. We picked one and went in. The lady owner only looked at us. We decided to just pick a table ourselves. Then the owner came to take our order. Hubby said wonton noodle to her (just some of few Cantonese phrases he knew).

Store name - in case anyone wants to stop by

Chuen Cheung Kui 泉章居 - Hong Kong

Outside of restaurant - no English name (Pic from Openrice.com )

We stumbled upon this restaurant while looking at openrice.com. It wasn't easy to find Hakka cuisine in SF Bay Area so having this opportunity we decided to give it a try.

When we got there we were not sure whether it was the right place. There wasn't any English name of that restaurant. Thanks to one of the picture on Openrice that matched the outside of the restaurant convinced us that it was the right one.

The restaurant was pretty big and surprisingly still busy at around 2:30 pm. People just sitting having meals and chit chatting, enjoying their Saturday afternoon. Kinda contrast with everything outside where people rushed through each other and intersection.

The Singapore Tourist Pass : Is It For You ?

We have been on short trips to Singapore before but never thought of getting one of those refillable cards (like the Octopus cards for Hong Kong). But this time hubby found out that there was a day pass for tourist that enable us to get on unlimited rides on Singapore public transport system. It's called The Singapore Tourist Pass. They came in three different price $10 (day pass); $16 (2 day pass) and $20 (3 day pass).

We thought of giving the tourist pass a try. Even if it turned out to break even at least we gained the experience. So we bought two cards at the Changi station terminal and boarded our train to the hotel. It cost an extra SGD10 per card for deposit fee which could be refunded. That afternoon we went to a few places, one station to another, one trip after another. And we even had the conversation of how convenience it was not having to purchase fares each time.

Mid Autumn Festival in Hong Kong

Growing up in Indonesia, Mid Autumn Festival was almost unheard off. Having been in US the last few years, the festival was more noticeable here. The Asian groceries would display a wide varieties of moon cake and some area would actually have an event in the park with booths and activities. But nothing can beat Hong Kong. This was the first time I have been in a very 'alive' Mid Autumn Festival. I was talking about like half a million people all in place.

Sunshine Suites Hotel - Hanoi, Vietnam

We found this hotel and got the reservation through Agoda. But when we arrived there we realized that there were at least another two different hotels that had names similar to our hotel. Not too sure if they were affiliated.

We found out from Tripadvisor people were saying that it's best to reserve airport transfer from hotel. It's around $15 but saves a lot of hassle. Learning from experience when we went to Ho Chi Minh we kinda agreed on that. So we requested a pick up. From airport Noi Bai to Old Quarter took about 45 minutes. It wasn't that far but it's the traffic.

Vietnam Visa

Two years ago when we first applied for our Vietnam visa we had to leave our passports with the travel agent. It took about a week and then we went and collected them. The visa was sticked to the passport. But this year we used a different travel agent so we were surprised when we were told that they didn't need to keep our passports. Really ??

Regular Vietnam visa - sticked to passport page

I was afraid that they charged us $80 for visa on arrival which basically was a piece of paper that we can exchange for visa when we arrive in Vietnam. I personally think this type of visa is a bit risky. We already paid for air tickets and hotel reservation and we didn't want anything to go wrong. But hubby assured me that the lady over at the travel agent showed him a bunch of other visas that looked pretty legit. Hmm..okay.

Big Bang Concert in Indonesia

We were in the mall on our second day in Jakarta, Indonesia when I caught a poster that announce free tickets to Big Bang concert on October 12-13, 2012 for purchase of Samsung Galaxy. I was like ...WHAT ??!! Big Bang is having concert here in Jakarta ?? What's the date ? What's today's date ? Wait, we still have time go to the concert.

So that night we researched more information and decided to purchase tickets the next day. We got tickets for seating on Tribune 1 for October 12. The tickets were not cheaper compare to US. I was surprised to know that the demand was actually overwhelming that the promotor decided to add an extra concert day.

五代同糖 - Hong Kong

I know I know....you look at the title and went WHAT !!?? There's no English name on this establishment. And knowing my Chinese I wouldn't want to translate it just in case it went totally wrong. It would be butchering people's business. But if I'm not mistaken, it literally means five dynasties with sugar.

We were lead here by our guide, Mr. Wong. He is quite a frequent visitor here. So he knew what he wanted but it took us a while before we settled with the mango shaved ice. The store wasn't very big. It's two smaller place with different entrance divided by an opening in the middle which was an entrance to a shopping small strip.

Mango shaved ice

Hui Lau San - Hong Kong

Hui Lau San is a franchise dessert place in Hong Kong. During this trip alone, I saw at least 4-5 stores. They call themselves Hui Lau San Healthy Dessert on their website. Supposedly it started as a herbal tea shop specializing in herbal jellies.

Our local guide took us to one in Causeway Bay. Couldn't quite tell you where exactly in Causeway Bay. But you won't miss it if you run into one. It has a distinctive red color signboard with Chinese character and English name below it.

Econ Inn @ Beach Road - Singapore

Due to the change of our itinerary we had to spend a night in Singapore. It wasn't bad at all but it was kinda last minute so we needed to find accomodation for that one night. I liked the hotel we stayed in last time - Mayo Inn. But hubby didn't like it because it was noisy to its location next to Jalan Besar.

Then we found Econ Inn in Bugis which used to operate under different name. We got a deluxe room to guarantee a room with window. From the airport take MRT and get off Bugis station. Take exit C towards Bugis Junction. But instead of going in the mall, take the other exit that will bring you to the street level. Look at the map above. Cross North Bridge Rd towards Liang Seah St. Walk Liang Seah St towards Beach Rd, just before you reach Beach Rd, there's a small road that leads to the parking lot. Turn into that small road, and you'll see the sign for the inn and also a small entrance. So the entrance to the inn is not on Beach Rd but rather on the small street paralel to Beach Rd just behind the inn.

Hong Kong Style Breakfast

During one of my visits to Hong Kong years ago I have learned about this type of breakfast. A lot of stuff from my younger years wouldn't have made it to my palette including this HK style breakfast. But I have evolved since and broaden my horizon. This time around I gladly take the offer to try anything the locals eat.

The HK style breakfast is usually served at cha chaan teng (茶餐厅) - literally means tea hall. Most of the cha chaan teng are mom and pop style of shops. Menus were all written in Chinese. Good thing we had our local guide, Mr. Wong to do the ordering for us.

Ibis Sheung Wan and Central - Hong Kong

This hotel was just opened back in September 2012. Everything in the room feels new. Who knows, we could be even the first guests to use that room !! We got a standard room on 30th floor with view to mountain and neighboring buildings. Room was bigger than expected. There was a custom built-in desk/clothes hanging area. Enough room to put our two medium size suitcases.

Singapore Airlines Meals (SFO - HK)

Having chosen a kosher meal last time attracted a lot of curious look from the flight attendants. This time flying with Singapore Airlines I decided not to choose any special meal and to accept whatever is offered. One suggestion though if you need to specify your special meal and the Singaporeair.com is a bit buggy (as it happened to me) just go ahead and call their customer service number. The agent there was very helpful.

sliced pork with fried rice

The supper meals offered for our flight this time was potato with braised chicken and sliced pork with fried rice. The appetizer was smoked salmon with green beans and the dessert was brownie. Both the chicken and pork were decent for airlines food. Though the chicken was a bit challenging to 'navigate' since it was a whole big piece. I couldn't say much about the appetizer nor dessert. Just didn't have appetite for them.

braised chicken with potato

The second meal which was served as breakfast prior to landing in Hong Kong was omelette with potato or Chinese style stir fried noodle. We were ready to each pick one to see which one was better. But than we were told that they ran out of noodle. What ??! But they still had Indian meals available. I jumped at that option since I was always curious to try.

Breakfast omellete

Compare to the supper, the breakfast option was actually better. Or was it because we were hungry ? The omelette was creamy and moist. I could not wait to try the Indian meal. It had pancakes, chunk of rice cakes and  some sort of chutney. The pancakes were savory with hint of spices and so were the 'rice cakes'. I ate them together with the chutney. Later on I found out the Indian names for them. Masala uttapam, kanjeevaram idli, sambhar and coconut chutney. And the rice cakes were actually steam rice and lentil cakes. Not bad at all.

Indian breakfast meal

Cafe Artemis - Campbell

Had lunch with a friend here last week. It’s situated in the Pruneyard shopping center, behind Trader Joe’s. The café had outdoor seating area under the tree so it was nice and shaded. But we got an inside seating. Lunch was in full swing when I got there. My friend already got us a table. I’ve never been there so I asked him for suggestion. In the end I settled with chicken kebab and he chose a wrap.

The lunch took longer than I thought it would. Maybe because it was lunch time and they were busy. But it’s not a place that you could get your lunch in like 15 minutes. I think it took about 25 minutes or more. It’s a good think I wasn’t in a rush to go back to office otherwise I would probably have to ask for it to go when it’s ready.

chicken kebab platter

Kokyo Sushi Buffet - Hayward

A friend took us to this buffet this weekend. Being a buffet aficionado we wouldn't say no to an offer like that. ha..ha.. So we met up at their house and drove together to Hayward.

When we got there it was just slightly before 6 pm. Quite a lot of people had early dinner to go somewhere else or maybe just to beat the crowd ? We were seated on a patio seating. It was a covered with thick plastic and curtain. Nice trick to block cold breeze and also sunlight. It also gave a cozy feeling.

No time to waste we went and scout the buffet area. The first long table was the salad and veggies. The second one we passed by was hot dishes. I saw gyoza, Alaskan crab legs, egg rolls among others. The next table had a few different types of soup like hot and sour soup, clam chowder, miso soup, etc. Then korean style beef, chow mein, steam rice, eggplant, etc. I was thinking where is the sushi ? Then we made a turn back and on the table against the wall there was again another table for dessert, pudding, fruits, etc. Next to that table was the sushi with the sushi chefs behind refreshing the platter as necessary.

First plate : varieties of sushi

SK Donuts - Los Gatos

Had a friend who was nice enough to drop off a box of donuts. Upon checking the box, they were from SK Donuts in Los Gatos. I am not really a donut person so I let my coworkers do the judging. We had donuts from Maple Donuts in the past courtesy of another coworker. So the votes that I have collected so far was SK Donuts 1 and Maple Donuts 1. ha..ha..

SK Donuts
1440 Pollard Rd  Los Gatos, CA 95032  (408) 374-3718

Thai Spice (revisited) - Los Gatos

Our weekend project brought us back to Los Gatos last weekend. Looking for lunch we decided to give Thai Spice another try. We did a take out from that restaurant a couple of months ago. But this time we wanted to try their noodle dishes instead.

My Happy Kitchen - San Jose

Seafood pho

Passed by this place so many times and today decided to give it a try. The place looked tiny from outside but inside got enough space to put a few tables and could possibly fit 20 people.

We ordered seafood pho and chicken pho. I guess it was probably the wrong choice since pho wasn't their specialty. I had a bad feeling about it when I saw how sad the basil and bean sprout looked when they were brought to our table.

My First MRI

source :  brainimaging.waisman.wisc.edu

My knee injury from three years ago came back to haunt me again. This time beside patellar tendonitis, my new doctor suspected a tear in the meniscus. To support the finding she suggested MRI. I totally jumped on that offer. All this time I only had x-ray done and to my knowledge those x-ray didn't really give a lot of information on any soft tissue injury.

But my doctor raised the question : are you claustrophobic ? Hm..I never thought that I do but who knows right ? So I went in the MRI room with a rather big anxiety. The technician was friendly and trying to make it sounded pretty easy. But my anxiety grew bigger when I found out that it would take 25 minutes instead of 15 minutes my doctor told me.

Thai Cafe (revisited) - Milpitas

We've been to this restaurant a couple of year back and we liked it. It's been a while so we decided to give it a try again. Here's the previous review

We were there during lunch time and there were two tables occupied. After we were seated I took a look around. Decor was nice and bright. We got a corner spot with partial chair seating and rounded bench corner with red cushion. I didn't remember much about their decor last time so couldn't quite tell if there was any changes. But the crews didn't look very Thai to us even the young lady behind the register which we guessed should be the manager/owner. Could there be a change of ownership?

Ca Mau Restaurant - San Jose

Bun bo hue - noodle soup from Central Vietnam

I stumbled upon this restaurant when I was browsing Yelp looking for inspiration. When we got there on Sunday afternoon, it was in full swing. There were a bunch of people waiting in the small waiting area. I saw a clipboard for the wait list and jotted my name down. The restaurant itself wasn't big but one wall was covered with mirror so it did help give the impression of wider than it was. The other wall was covered with a huge mural depicting Vietnamese girls in aodais (the traditional Vietnamese outfit).

Hand Pull Noodle House - San Jose

House Special Noodle Soup

We were there for an early dinner. Only around three tables occupied. The inside looked kinda dark since the restaurant used a thick layer of curtain to block the sunlight out. 

Since the name of the restaurant is hand pull noodle house, we should give their hand pull noodle a try. So we ordered the house special noodle soup that was served with beef and veggies. And we also ordered another eggplant dish.

AT&T, You Suck

So we were thinking of switching our cable service from Comcast to AT&T. I know that in term of customer service, AT&T wasn't exactly the champion. But I seriously didn't think they would suck big time in our case.

We first signed up the service way back around mid of July. We got a confirmation saying that our installation would be on July 27. We tried to see if it's possible to avoid the costly $100 installation fee that we had to pay. But we were told that it's not possible for the type of internet service that we signed up for.

Gyu-kaku - Cupertino

Found out about this restaurant a couple of months ago and finally had a chance to see what people were saying about it on Yelp. Turned out that Gyu-kaku has quite a long list of franchise, not just in US but also in other countries like Canada and a few countries in Asia.

Revisited : Thai Grata - San Jose

Another crave for Thai noodle brought us back to Thai Grata. This time we tried their rad na and spicy crab noodle. Rad na is basically stir fried wide rice noodle with gravy. Spicy crab noodle was something new that we tried that day. It used the same rice noodle used for pad thai. The idea was similar to pad thai with bean sprout and wedge of lime served on the side to be mixed the noodle when ready to be served.

We called in our order and picked them up 15 minutes later. The gravy for the rad na was packed separately. But that day was such a hot day that the broccoli seemed to be overcooked hence looked yellowish. Hubby didn't seem to care that much. And it also helped that they actually packed us two separate small tub consisted of chilli paste and pickled serrano chillies. The pickled serrano chillies went awesomely well with the rad na.

On the other hand my spicy crab noodle was well seasoned. Spicy enough even for me. And the portion was humongous. I wonder if they just hired a new chef. :)

Thai Grata 
846 Blossom Hill Road San Jose, CA 95123 (408) 224-8600

Today's Lunch : Ice Cream Cake

A coworker's birthday today. So we got him an ice cream cake from Coldstone. By far they have the best selection for ice cream cake. For cupcake lovers : they also have cupcakes ice cream !! Too bad they didn't have it at the location I went to.

http://www.coldstonecreamery.com/

Pho Thanh Long - Santa Clara

We have been to this pho joint quite a few times. But today we noticed the difference. They have done some renovation. The place looked brighter and the AC was way colder than before. We thought they changed ownership but I recognized the guy behind the counter. Beside their menu looked the same.

Hubby got the seafood pho large and I got the bun cha ha noi. Mind you if you're ordering large. The large size here is no kidding. The bowl is almost the size of those Asian wash basins. The amount of noodle will guarantee your carb intake for two meals.

Online Reservation with Hong Kong Airlines

I officialy started planning on my Asia trip this morning. It was started with making a reservation with Singapore Airlines for a flight to Hong Kong. Then in the afternoon I made another reservation with Hong Kong Airlines for an outbound flight to Hanoi, Vietnam.

I have never fly with HK Airlines before. I have started looking at this option ever since we decided we would venture to Vietnam on this trip. And HK Airlines provided the best price so far. When I looked at the reviews it seemed fine to me.

Erawan Thai - San Jose

Last weekend we felt like having stir fry noodle. Thai style to be exact. So I called in to order a pad see ew with pork and a pad kee mao with prawn.

Both dish used big flat rice noodle which in South East Asia also known as kwetiau. The pad see ew was stir fried with broccoli and dark soy sauce. It had the familiar smoky smell but the noodle wasn't separated enough so some of them bunched up together and when we separated it was still white. The pad see ew was a bit more sweet than savory.

The star of the day was the pad kee mow which was the rice noodle stir fried with sliced of carrot, bell pepper and zucchini. The difference between those two noodle dishes was pad kee mow was done with some sort of chilli paste. If you like spicy stuff try pad kee mao. Tell the waiter how spicy you want it and enjoy it.

http://erawanthaicuisine.com/menu.html
Erawan Thai
# 150, 5945 Almaden Expressway  San Jose, CA 95120
(408) 268-3200