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Showing posts from 2017

My favorites of 2017

I have my favorites in 2017. I divided them into different categories. Outside of Chinatown Favorite Asian Restaurant - Pho Hoa Noodle Soup & Jazen Tea Favorite Non-Asian Restaurant  - Gumbo Jeaux's  Northwest Favorite Grocery Store - Trader Joe's  Westchase Favorite Bakery - EatWell Bakery Cafe Inside of Chinatown Favorite Asian Restaurant - 75 BBQ & Hot Pot Buffet Favorite Non-Asian Restaurant - Tamales Dona Tere Favorite Grocery Store - Great Wall Supermarket Favorite Bakery - Olympics Chinese Bakery

Year in Review 2017

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2017 was a thrilling year for me. I spent a lot of time on taking better photos and sharing more with the communities. Not just Yelp, I also Google a lot.  Funky YES! Here is my status on Yelp : Completed 111 reviews in 2017 Updated 14 reviews in 2017 Uploaded total of 8025 media files (7549 photos & 476 videos) since the day I started Yelping, March 2011.   As of December 30th, I had 6 Baronies. Somehow, it's no longer visible in 2018 (Android). I could never broke my record of 300 reviews from 2016. Due to reviews disappearance, I've included a counter at the end of each review. I also saved the direct link to each published review with my archive. This process was extremely time consuming. I completed my 111 reviews in 2017. You can only see 110 reviews because 13th review was removed. Here is my story .  As of January 2, 2018, before I added more stuff. As for Google, I joined Local Guides sometime last year. I am currently Level 8. Just

Save Now Save Later - Kohl's

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This is my 3rd of several blogs on merchants that offer cash back. I would buy certain items at Kohl's, Targets Stores, Amazon or elsewhere, only if I can get a bigger return based on their rewards program. Kohl's Cash First of all, beware. Don't use Kohl's Cash with discount. The value will be discounted. When you return an item purchased with Kohl's Cash will be deducted for the face value. My biggest complaint about Kohl's practice on the refund policy Do the math: 25% off = need $66.67 prior to discount to reach $50 than get a $10 Kohl's Cash 40% off = need $83.33 prior to discount to reach $50 than get a $10 Kohl's Cash Formula is $50 divided by (100%-40%) to get desired require amount. Here is my complaint: A pair of pants selling for $14.99. After applied $10 Kohl's Cash and 25% off coupon, it came to $3.74 before tax. Here is the calculation: (14.99 - 10.00) x 0.75 = $3.74. If just using the coupon, it's $11.24. The dif

Save Now Save Later - Best Buys

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This is my 2nd blog about merchants that offer cash back from reward points. Whenever I want electronics, I start my research on Best Buys' website. After analyzing the value on this blog, I realized its true value at the end of this page. One review gets 10% closer to earn $5 or 50 cents per review Best Buys Rewards - free to enroll. You earn 1 point per dollar spent after discount before tax. It will rounded off to full dollar. So you get only 1 point for $1.99 item. I will get a $5 off coupon for every 250 reward points. I'm getting closer to earn that $5. Buy Buy Buy. Bonus Points - "Review your purchase and get 25 My Best Buy bonus points" - after each purchase, I get invitations to write a review on the product. This encourages me to share my experience. This opportunity doesn't expire but the email link will. I would recommend write a review quickly because the item could be sold out or deleted from the list. That would be a waste of time. Ano

Save Now Save Later - Walgreens

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I would buy certain items at Walgreens, but only if I can get a bigger return. Buyer beware, some items are more expensive here. So, shop around before making the final purchase. This blog is meant to help me to calculate its value and if it's worth to get out of my way to shop at Walgreens. Question: How much do my Walgreen's Balance Reward points worth? Walgreen's has a very strict earning bracket How to earn the points:  "With Everyday Points, you'll get 10 points per $1 on almost everything," according to the  Balance Rewards page. Earn more points and perks: Prescriptions get 100 points per 30-day and 300 points per 90-day. Bonus points on featured products 20 points per mile when you link to a healthy behavior app, like Fitbit. AARP members get 50 points per $1 spent (Did you know I redeemed my annual membership fee for 3 years already?)  Coupons from emails and mails. Coming back with more coupons To redeem: Yo

Feedback on Local Guide Meetup 2

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In October, I hosted another meetup to invite Local Guides in Houston. I want to give LG another try on LocalGuideConnection.com website, which is changed to https://maps.google.com/localguides. They didn't tell me that. (this is usual with Google. I'm not surprised.) My event was called National Cookies Month  meetup in Houston TX. I limited 10 guests as I usually do. But I received a message from someone really wanted to attend but there was no more opening. That's odd. Among those 10, there were only 4 replied had reviews in Houston. Jawahir (Finland) - Level 2 - 109176936456734675648 Bunda Imoet (Indonesia) - Level 6 - 114393280060569328492 salvatore porru (Italy) Level 5 - 113940019571382231665 Ericka Flowers ( Houston ) Level 3 - 106689765669046657086 Vito Montanaro (Italy) Level 3 - 102425615440366601261 MrAHMED SAEID (Egypt) Level 4 - 101547467045030028617 William Daniel (Thailand) Level 3 - 115909375203005254472 Siddharth srivatsa ( Houston )

Send to Phone

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Yelp has this convenient feature on the website similar to Google Maps' Send to Phone feature. Just in case you are at a computer not your own, like in a library or public places, send a page to your phone to bookmark it. It is also convenient to share a location with a friend who is looking for places to eat. I discovered this feature early April 2017 From a biz page, look for "Send to your phone" link. sample Enter your cell phone number and hit "Text Link"

Yelp Workshop Venue

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This is part of my Yelp Workshop during the Zoom Zoom 100 & Beyond UYE . We are going to talk about the features on the Yelp app (Android) and website. Houston Yelp Houston First of all, I have no affiliation with Yelp. Second of all, I am not getting paid by anyone to represent Yelp. Most of all, #iYELPaLOT. I love to share what I know about Yelp and help Yelpers to get the most out of this app. Once you know how things work, it will be more fun to Yelp about. Featured topics: Friend or Follow Missed You on Yelp Yelfie 101 Yelp Cash Back Yelp List on App Auto-Friending Feature (website) Where's my Badge Last 90 Days Stats Send to Phone (website) Yelp Talks The Local Yelp (fka The Weekly Yelp ) If you want to create a list for Yelp Challenge, please be sure to bring your user name and password to login to my laptop. Or, you can bring your laptop and you can use my mobile hotspot to connect to the internet.

Claimed or Not Claimed Biz Page

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Whenever I write a review, I have to check if the biz page has been claimed by an owner or not. It makes big difference on the outcome. Claimed biz vs Unclaimed biz It doesn't mean I would give a claimed biz a 5-star for no reason or purposely write reviews at claimed biz. But reviews at claimed biz are likely to be read more often than unclaimed biz. However, biz owner can later claim a biz. It would change the dynamics. Biz owner can then delete my review if it's not to their expectation without warning. They can also remove my photos with undesirable caption. For example, my photos were removed from the page of Bel Furniture before I wrote a 5-star review. Anyone with less than 5-stars are removed, as I saw it happened.

Friend or Follow

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To reply my Yelper friend's question from awhile back, "Why do I see some people on my feed but they are not my friends?" Answer: You marked to follow them. Doesn't matter if you are friends or not, anyone you follow will be showing on top of all feed, reviews and tips. It's good to follow someone on Yelp. It's completely anonymous until November 28, 2017. After that, any new follower will be visible ( updated per Yelp Blog 11/02/17 ). They don't know you are following them. Befriend with someone on Yelp will reveal each other's check-in messages. I don't see any harm to follow your friends. Except, the contents from people you follow will go to the top of everything. I like extremes. Porsche posted over 17k media. From what I know besides reviews, tips, photo post notifications, you'll receive notifications from your friends' interests in Events and posts on Talks on the feed. It's much easier to read them on the app because

Time for Taiwan at Tainan Bistro

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Crawlers, this is the recommended menu for #TimeForTaiwan #ChinatownCrawl event at Tainan Bistro. Sunday, August 13, 2017 Everything on the menu is single serving, not family style dining. But feel free to share with other Crawlers. I have carefully selected dishes for those people who is: Vegetarian - steam buns and dumpling may contain eggs Pescetarian - can be vegetarian contain eggs Gluten intolerance or sensitivity Restricted on the consumption of pork Allergic to shell fish - see below, but skip fish and seafood on the name Vegan - Not on the menu, but it can be prepared from the kitchen Vegetarian and Pescetarian: 凉麵 $5.25 - Cold Noodles (dry) - tell kitchen to hold the shredded chicken 炸醬麵 $5.95 - Bean Paste with minced pork Dry Noodles - tell kitchen to hold the pork 素炒麵 $5.75 - Vegetarian Chow Mein 酥炸魚排飯 - $7.75 - Fried fish steak over rice 綜合素炒飯 $6.00 - Vegetarian fried rice 鮮蝦炒飯 $6.50 - Prawn fried rice 三鮮水餃 (15) $7.00 - Three Seafood dumplings 煎素餃

Tainan Bistro Menu Translated

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Tainan Bistro serves lots of delicious Taiwanese food. Unless you read Chinese, you can't understand what's on the menu hanging on the wall. So, let me break it down for you. There are 5 panels: Side Dishes (check the cooler for availability) Noodles Dumplings Pot Stickers Rice Dishes Beverage & New Items Noodles (2nd Panel) Noodles Panel 牛肉麵 $6.95 - Beef Soup Noodles 牛肉蓋澆陽春麵 $6.95 - Beef Topped Noodles 榨菜肉絲湯麵 $6.00 - Preserved mustard with pork strips soup noodles 雪菜肉絲湯麵 $6.00 - Preserved vegetable with pork strips soup noodles 番茄雞蛋麵 $6.00 - Tomato scramble eggs over noodles 鮮蝦小餛飩麵 $6.75 - Shrimp won ton soup noodles 豬排麵 $6.95 - Pork chop soup noodles 雞排麵 $6.95 - Chicken Steak soup noodles 魚排麵 $7.75 - Fish Steak soup noodles 切仔麵/米粉 $5.50 - Minced Pork Plain Noodles /Rice Noodles 凉麵 $5.25 - Cold Noodles (dry) 全家福 - Family Portrait - Fish, pork 砂鍋牛肉粉絲湯 - Clay pot beef strips rice noodle soup 蝦炒麵 $6.75 - Shrimp Chow Mein 雞炒麵 $6.50 - Chicken

UYE, Meetup or just Event

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For those of you familiar with my #ChinatownCrawl UYE (Unofficial Yelp Event), there is a scenery change. You won't see my UYE on Yelp Event page at the beginning of my announcement. In a perfect world, my Yelper friends receive notification on the app when I create an event and interested in an event. But lately, I don't see any response after the UYE page sitting there for 2 weeks. I guess there are too many notifications on their app. You may not know this. It's very time consuming to use Yelp Event page to invite my Yelper Friends. On average, it takes about 2 to 3 hours to "share" my event to everyone lives in Houston from Event page. This share actually sends an email to their personal email address. But some people are invisible most of time or they don't check emails as often or get notified with incoming emails. Then, I have to use another method to get their attention - private message, compliments or check-in message. Other than that, they are

Google Meetup Feedback!

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I tried to like this Local Guide Houston on Google+ Community. It has over 19k members with too many spam messages and unrelated topics. The worse part was my question on meetup was unanswered. Everyone seems disinterested with everyone else. I felt like it's a bot world. So I tried localguideconnect.com, a little better but still many unrelated replies. It seems people just want to get badges. I sent a message and never had high hope for a response back. But it has to depend on how they receive notification. For me, I receive updates on gmail. I get instant alert on my phone. Now, they want to know how my meetup went  Here are my answers to the survey: Any other feedback you’d like to share? The meetup event on LGC site is useless. Only 3 out of 9 showed up from there. I would rather use Google+ Events to be my only source for RSVP.  Please link to a photo album from your meet-up I tried to use Google Photos app. But it uploaded all unrelated photos on my phone

HAAPI Films Gave me Good Vibes

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Past weekend was the final week of HAAPI Film Festival. It was my pleasure to attend the screening of MELE MURALS and meeting the film director Tadashi Nakamura. I'm a big fan of his work. I watched his earlier film Jake Shimabukuro: Life on Four Strings on Xfinity on Demand in April, when it was available from CAAMFest sponsorship . So glad to pose with my favorite Asian film director, Tad Nakamura I couldn't believe he is a fourth generation Japanese American lives in LA and never lived in Hawaii. But he was able to bring the best of his ability to help the audience to experience the actors' reality. Both movies are based on true stories with a documentary format. However, it requires more knowledge about Hawaii when you watch Mele Murals. I asked someone after the movie as if she knew certain cultural references. But without those Hawaiian terms, the movie will not make sense. Tad was at CAAMfest in SF. So...Same feeling with Kumu Hina from last year's sc

Google Local Guides vs Yelp Elites

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I've been an Elite Yelper for 6 years. I was curious with a constant popup from Google Maps app to join Local Guides. Here is a quick comparison with Google Local Guides and Yelp Elites. Lack of Connection - There is connections with Google Maps reviewers and the readers. If you are a Local Guide, there is LocalGuidesConnect.com to have some sort of conversation. Most of conversations are fillers - users wants to get badges. Lack of Social Interaction - Unlike Yelp, you can't follow a reviewer and read his/her reviews first. The reviews are sorted chronologically with ratings (non-verbiage review) on the bottom. It's meaningless to write a long review on a popular destination. I normally say a few words with dozen of photos. It knows you're here. Some biz don't have one. Content Quality - There's no standard with Local Guides.  Level 5 Local Guides - Unlike Yelp Elites, there is no prestige to be recognized. Anything over 500 points is Level 5.

Xinjiang Dinner Explained

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3 years ago when Brian D hosted his first meetup at Xinjiang BBQ, I already set my eyes on hosting an UYE (Unofficial Yelp Event) myself. This is not a remake. Instead, this unique traveling experience will take your taste bud around the western, northeastern and northern regions of China. Today's cuisine is from Xinjian to Dongbei to Jiangsu. Geographically speaking, Xinjiang is in the far west of China (light brown shaded area on the map) It's close to Mediterranean. So, the food tends to have more spices, but not pungent like Sichuanese food. Charcoal grilled skewers are made popular in this region. Let's begin our journey with two of each  Lamb Skewer  ($11 per 10) 新疆羊肉串 and  Beef Skewer  ($11 per 10) 烤牛肉串 per person. I do not recommend eating every skewer flavor on the menu. Because it lacks variation with spices. It will be extremely boring at the end. Trust me. I don't want to disappoint you as I did this before. Instead of a typical stir fried vegetab

Chinatown Crawl Expanded

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Did you know my Chinatown Crawl UYE (Unofficial Yelp Event) made one year? It started with a trial last May during Asian Heritage Month Celebration . The response and popularity were increasing on Yelp and Facebook. Managing guests list has been a chore using Yelp Events. I am experimenting a new system by posting my meetup on more event sites like Google and invited Google Local Guides to attend. Extended my invitation to Local Guides The hardest part of hosting a popular meetup event is attendance headcount. It has always been above my original expectation. But by how much? Finding a suitable restaurant with enough seating is important. When my count of 18 guests at December's Night Market UYE grew to 22. Sherry at Yummy Kitchen was able to find solution at the last minute. Again at February's Hotpot UYE , 12 guests became 16. I had to rely on restaurant to accommodate expandable crowd. Speaking of accommodation, creating a good relationship to restaurant owner

Colorful Holi Festival

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I was among thousands of people to attend Holi Festival last Saturday, March 25. I enjoyed that perfect day drenched with vibrant colors and endless Bhangra music. The weather couldn't be better then a quick spring shower rinsed spring dusts away the day before the festival. Holi powders were on sale by the entrance Everyone was covered with color   Lots of children also take part at the festival. Catching some shades next to a fake car I was novice to Holi Festival. I've only seen the Holi Festival photos online. It's definitely a different feeling when I was among those friendly strangers, everyone was in good spirit. I love that hand print on her jeans. The festival was held at Houston Farm & Ranch , which houses Harris County Fair and many other festivals. The organizer used the huge grassy area for live performances. Tented booths from the community and food vendors lined along the edge. Children's moon walk was in the shaded area wher

Yelp Review Police

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Back in January, I wrote my first review as the review #300 to start year 2017 right. Less than a month I noticed my review number dropped, not little bit but a lot. Then, began to add serial number on all of my reviews. Real soon, I'm going to "audit" my reviews. I felt violated without any warning. I have been saving my reviews since 2015. I really hate it when I spent time to write and ended up disappearing from my audience without a trace or warning. I received an email from HQ today about a review got deleted because "did not appear to describe a firsthand customer experience" at Express Rolls . Heck, I went inside and talked to a lady who was clueless about poke but want to make me a poke. No thanks. What could be worse? Mention a clueless employee or just brushing off? Below was my 13th review on Express Rolls. What a bummer. I really want to give this place a try, even when I know poke won't meet competitions. Now, I'm sad that it&#

Sheep Scorpion Hotpot

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This is for my guests at  Hotpot Year of the Rooster UYE @ 75 Yummy Kitchen .  Today’s menu is based on a popular hotpot style in Beijing with Sichuan spices. It’s only available at 75 Yummy Kitchen. In Chinese 羊蝎子火锅 literally means “Sheep Scorpion Hotpot”. No worry, there's no scorpion in our food. But the shape of goat spine resembles scorpion.  Sheep Scorpion hotpot menu at 75 Yummy Kitchen The chef at 75 Yummy Kitchen prepares the goat meat by the pound and cook up the soup with Sichuan spices. Our guests can indulge in a hot pot with the following ingredients: Fresh vegetables like: Napa cabbage, lettuce, shredded potatoes, chrysanthemum 茼蒿, cilantro, dried tofu skin, enokitake mushroom, youzai 油菜, black fungus 黑木耳, button mushroom, sweet potato slices, lotus root, konjac 魔芋, taro, lunch meat, kelp, tofu cubes, daikon,   We can order additional meats: duck's gizzard, intestine, shrimp, sheep, beef, fish ball, shrimp ball, pork blood pudding 猪血, fish fillet,

BOTM Anniversary

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Mike M has been hosting BOTM “Burger of the Month” UYE since last February. This was from a Talk thread when Rachel B returned from her ACRONYM meeting in 2015.  After a long gap in Houston, BOTM was born. First few months, they were hosted by Rachel B. Then, Belly G, Jamie A finally, Mike M. This mock up t-shirt was an idea to generate interest.  Here is a quick overview of his 12 successful BOTM's. The attendance has increased month after month. It has became a popular and well-known event in Houston. UYE Page in… Event Page February 2017 UYE: February Burger of the Month @ Rachels Cafe January 2017 UYE: January Burger of the Month@Stanton's City Bites December 2016 UYE: December BOTM @ Bernie's Burger Bus November 2016 UYE: November BOTM @ Killen's Burgers October 2016 UYE: Burger of the Month@Little Bigs September 2016 UYE: September Burge