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Category Archives: through the looking glass
The Forbidden City: emperor’s “office chair”
Westin In Beijing
The Westin in Beijing (on Financial Street between Changan Avenue West & Wudinghou Street) looks just like any other Westin in big cities, completely with a upper scale shopping mall right across the street (the kind with a super market and a food court in the basement even!) The only thing that reminded us that we are no longer in Kansas is the fact that a Quart tub of Ben & Jerry costs over $10!!
Note to self: Eat a lot of ice cream once we get home!
I am a sucker for great bathrooms so I am very happy with this Westin. I believe the bathroom is as big as an average-sized dorm room, at least the one I had in grad school…
This shows how much a country bumpkin we are: we thought the blinds for the glass between the bathroom and the room are broken, and I was quite puzzled by this single neglect by this great hotel. Turns out, it is motorized! The kids had too much fun with it before I yelled at them.
Now we need to go out and find our first McDonald’s in Beijing. Sigh.
Maybe we will wind our way to Tian An Men Square & the Forbidden City which is only 2 or 3 stops away from this Westin.
A great yet little known Taiwanese-style restaurant in Taipei
I did not know about this tiny gem of a restaurant until my girlfriend from college took me there last night. Lu Sang restaurant in Yongkang Street may strike you as yet another roadside Japanese restaurant in Taipei from outside because of its bamboo-focused decor, but a quick peek inside, the modernized traditional-style tables and chairs will tell you that this is a restaurant for Taiwanese food. Great Taiwanese dishes with ingenuous twists. Experiments that actually worked.
We tried miso tripe, baked pumpkins, deep fried Japanese tofu. All were done with great aplomb. Kudos to the chef really.
Best scallion pancake in Taipei
When you are in Taipei, you need to seek out scallion pancakes no matter where you are. Chances are, they are good. But if you are adventurous and are a foodie, then you need to make a track to 永康街 Yongkang Street. This stand is at the corner of a building, on the first floor of a Vietnamese restaurant. And there is always a line. I was there at 11 pm last night, and there was a line! On a Wednesday night! No wonder I am always so bored in the suburbs…
“Gashapon”, cheap souvenirs for kids, sort of like pressed pennies…
Ok, maybe not really like Press Pennie. But in spirit, just like pressed pennies, these "toys in a plastic egg" thingy are low-cost souvenirs that get my kids motivated. They are called Gashapon in Japanese and are everywhere we go, and the varieties are impressive, so is the quality. Only that, as you could see, some of the toys may get the not-so-young crowd motivated as well, albeit for completely different things…
Can't imagine anything like this to be mixed up with Hello Kitty and Winnie the Pooh… Asia is a place where, whichever way you turn, you stare at paradox right in the face.
See and download the full gallery on posterous
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Corporate Sponsorship at Its Finest… Microsoft invading school?
Saw this sign outside of a high school that we past by and was amused. Folks are probably simply happy that their kids are using the latest computers at school, but I cannot help but feel mildly concerned… (That's also a sign I spent way too much time reading the anti-MS talks on the bulletin board at work…)
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What the hack is this? The simple plant that inspired so many jokes…
After my son posted with the REAL plant from which Wasabi is made from, he was horrified when we came up with many nicknames for the said plant…
Somehow I doubt he would include the picture with him holding this in his scrapbook for this trip which is to be shared with his classmates upon his return…
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The HOT Netbook, aka my son’s new toy…
Right after I finished reading the article in Wired, "The Netbook Effect: How Cheap Little Laptops Hit the Big Time" in the latest issue, my nephew called me and said, "I have bought two netbooks for my cousins!" Apparently, these are the hottest "accessories" in Asia, since almost everybody has an iPhone now. (Not in Japan though, despite the "controversy", I have been told by a few folks in Taipei that Japanese for some reason are not going gaga over iPhone, unlike people here in Taiwan…)
Granted that the netbooks my kids got, at 4GB, would be considered a joke, my kids absolutely LOVE their new "toys." Asus Eee PC costs just a bit more than Nintendo DS here. No processing power to speak of, nevertheless, perfectly fine for surfing the web.
Although I thought about whether it is a good parenting choice to let my kids consider YouTube as just another standard entertainment channel, I feel optimistic about Pros weighing more than Cons: my 6-year-old boy googled the weather in Beijing on his own when I wondered out loud, "Hmm, I hope we don't need jackets when we go to Beijing,"
Here is another prediction about this phenom: Soon Oxford Dictionary will add "netbook" as one of the new English words.
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Enos @ Intercontinental Chicago
Wine with chocolate. Need I say more?
Sent from my iPhone
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