Improv Chinatown Crawl SJC

This was my first time to host a Chinatown Crawl event within 24 hours and away from home. It only took me 20 minutes to plan an improv event and post it on Facebook. During my vacation to San Jose Bay Area last August, family members got interested with my food crawl style meetup in Houston. But there is no way for them to experience it.

So, I decided to host a Chinatown Crawl in San Jose to give them a firsthand experience. It also gave me an opportunity to test this concept. After the successful Asian Heritage Celebration @ North Golden Sun Plaza being outside of Chinatown, I knew this would be a breeze.

First, I asked my nieces and family friends where they would like to eat. I told them about my fond memories from a longest running crawl event - Year of the Dog UYE @ 75+85 ChinatownCrawl. My focus would be about BBQ and Hotpot in San Jose.

Originally, we planned to crawl Silver Creek Market Place on Story Road. We can dine at Q Pot Korean BBQ & Hot Pot and having dessert at Teasociety. But my nieces couldn't make it to San Jose until after 8 and we won't have enough time to just eat at one place, we moved our venue to a different strip mall.

I left Bay Area right before the turn of millennium. I have very little local knowledge of East San Jose. But I know how Asians gather, I found a strip mall 8 miles away in Berryessa Neighborhood. It was just perfect for my crawl to happen.

First stop, we went to Chef Liu Restaurant for that real Chinese BBQ experience. After dinner, we stopped at Tastea for dessert drinks. It was a Monday night. So, we skipped shopping segment. I was very happy to see 8 guests enjoyed my Chinatown Crawl experience within 2.5 hours. This helped me to plan my next Crawl UYE when I visit San Jose again next year.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Foodie Adventure PGH Edition 2023

Image
Ever since my coworker Chang Shu from Northeast Division said she was interested to learn about how I host Chinatown Crawl events, I began to show her how I host these types of foodie events. But explaining in emails is very limited. I decided to do it in person. On October 29, 2023, I took a group of coworkers to a Foodie Adventure in Squirrel Hill Pittsburg Pennsylvania.  Finally meeting everyone in person as we planned virtual events during Covid Back in May, me and my foodie friend, Nahun booked our airfare to visit Pittsburgh. After chatting with Chang, I learned Squirrel Hill as the area of interest. I started to plot my plan on which restaurants to feature.  Few months later, I created a Google Map with restaurants that I thought might be a good fit for this progressive-dinner event. She started to share the event with her teammates and contacts. Meanwhile, I started to read the restaurants reviews on Yelp and get familiar with the area. For the ease of RSVP to the event, I cre
Read more

North Golden Sun Plaza

Image
Here is a newfound strip mall that resembles a strip mall in Chinatown. It's called North Golden Sun Plaza ( Google  |  Yelp ) in North Houston. The zip code should be 77014, but many still using 77068 because it's separated by a street. The street address is 3645 Cypress Creek Parkway, aka FM 1960 W, between TC Jester and Walter Road. According to an article on  Chron.com , North Golden Sun Plaza was established when Sun's Club moved in 2015 after Wal-mart moved across street (zip code 77068). Then, the lot owner expanded from one building to this horseshoe-shaped 3 buildings. Thanks to the Facebook folks who live around this area for the history and the proper street name of Cypress Creek Parkway. FM 1960 was renamed within last few years ( article on ABC13.com ). Therefore, you'll see some newer businesses are using Cypress Creek Parkway on their business cards. Either way is correct. However, not many business owners attach their suite number on their marketing
Read more

Dim Sum Menu at Arco Seafood Restaurant

Image
Here is the Dim Sum Menu at Arco Seafood Restaurant.  Because images from Yelp and Google are very hard to read. I decided to make this information readable and searchable.  Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with the restaurant nor commissioned by anyone to provide you with this information. It has been scanned and double checked to match to the original as mush as possible. Therefore, I am not responsible for misprint on the restaurant's omission. You can view this dim sum menu on Yelp. Dietary Preference Indicators: S = Seafood; Y = Soy; P = Pork; V = Vegetarian; D = Dairy Price of each item is indicated by sizes: S = $3.95; M = $4.95; L = $5.95; XL = $6.95; XXL = $7.95; 3XL = $9.95 Arco Dim Sum Menu - Steamed 蒸點 1 東海鮮蝦餃 Steamed Shrimp Dumplings S XL 2 瑤枉糯米雞 Lotus Leaf Sticky Rice w/Chicken   L 3 家鄉粿蒸粽 Bamboo Leaf Sticky Rice w/Pork P L
Read more