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Showing posts with the label Chinese cultural

Article from Local Chinese Newspaper

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I’m grateful to know so many influential people in this community. Journalist Kevin W wrote a feature story on Southern Chinese News about my #ChinatownCrawl foodie event - when he attended my last event Dine with #Adriatico4J and Friends . The story gives readers a taste of past Chinatown Crawl events with photos. It’s just amazing when you know someone in journalism. As seen on my Instagram and Southern Chinese News on 11/1/2019 Here is my translation from the article: Chinatown Crawl is one of the popular activities in Houston Chinatown in the past two years. This foodie group is an extension of a well-known lifestyle and entertainment review network - Yelp in Houston. Autumn event debuted a few days ago. Diners came to 75 Hot Pot and BBQ Restaurant in Chinatown to taste authentic Asian cuisine. On the day of the event, Chinatown Crawl arranged to host a meet and dine with City Council candidate Nelvin Joseph Adriatico. He met with local residents to introduce why h...

Hot Pot Sauce Recipes

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Let's make some sauces for the hot pot dinner. Sauce is essential to the meal. What would you want it to taste? Spicy, Savory. Sweet. Mild. You name it. I collected these simple recipes from few websites in China and translated to English especially made for the Chinatown Crawl UYE at 75 BBQ & Hot Pot Buffet . These are just for looks. 2 out of 5 sauces are below my expectations. Look at the sauce bar first. These are on the line for you to choose from. But you must know how they taste first. Here are the hints. Left side of sauce bar Shrimp flavored chips - not sauce, just snacks Soy bean paste - deep fermented beans base Oyster sauce - sweet savory Seafood sauce - sweet savory Soy sauce - salty liquid Chili pepper - spicy condiment Crushed peanuts - nutty condiment Cilantro - savory condiment Cumin - savory condiment Chopped green onions - savory condiment Sesame - savory condiment Fermented bean curd - light salty base Right side of sauce bar ...

Let's Eat Hot Pot

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Let me explain hot pot in one sentence. Hot pot is a traditional meal with a group of people seating at a table equipped with a bowl of boiling soup. I started my hot pot UYE since last Winter Olympic Games. It's not difficult to prepare. But it can be humbug to shop and expensive to make it at home. Thanks to 75 BBQ & Hot Pot Buffet in Houston Chinatown. They made it easier for people like you and me to indulge a feast without costing a fortune. When you arrive at my  Year of the Dog UYE @ 75+85 ChinatownCrawl Sequel , let me find your table. Tell wait staff what you would like to drink and proceed to the buffet line. If this is your first time to this restaurant, be sure to watch the videos on the items at the buffet line  https://youtu.be/WGZkyPlZSgo and  sauce bar   https://youtu.be/sI0koJDkMuk . Sauce Bar It can be crowded when everyone is at the buffet line. You can start with a bowl to mix your dipping sauce at the sauce bar. There will be some...

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...

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...

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...

Time for Taiwan Restaurant Month 2016

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Here is a collection of all of my Time for Taiwan experiences in 2016. In order to appreciate Time for Taiwan Restaurant Month, I created events on Yelp in Houston and Dallas . I carefully edited out incorrect information and add what I know to post. Making it easier for Yelpers to simply click on the restaurant link and proceed to check-in or whatever they want. This is my 2nd year promoting Time for Taiwan on Yelp.  I didn't have enough time to recruit my Yelper friends to do the same in their cities. It's a very time consuming process and organizer made the announcement so late. They used last year's date to be the special promo day. It should be July 17, not July 11. There are so many restaurants in Houston, but not many serve Taiwanese food. Every weekend I visit one restaurant: 7/16 - Boba Lounge  - I tried Guaboa 割包 and Oden 關東煮. 7/23 -  Star Snow Ice & Teriyaki - I tried tofu soup 豆花 and braised pork over rice 滷肉飯. 7/29 -...

Jing 5 Translated

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The story about Jing 5 is posted on a mural outside of restaurant. But it's all in Chinese. I've decided to translate the entire text for your convenience, instead include it in my review . It's better than sitting outside looking at the wall and use Google Translate app tor translate word by word. You can find a mission statement posted on the interior of walls. “Wang Songlin’s First Jingwu Duck Neck Store” was established in 1991. It was located at the corner of Jingwu Street in famous Hankou. The store operates under the philosophy of first in quality, first in sanitation and first in reputation. It obtained a chain-business model and built a unique food factory base and sales network. There are over 200 stores, Wang Songlin’s “Jingwu's First Store” was the first to participate in the 8th Annual China Food Fair in 2002. It became China Food Fair’s designated supplier. “Jingwu First Store” received a registered trademark in 2003. It was awarded for Food Qua...

Breakfast at Lai Lai

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Lai Lai Dumpling House is one of my favorite restaurant from the northern cuisine choice. Since the new owner took over in 2016, I have been more interested to try their new specialties. For one, I have to try all of the items on  the Breakfast Menu . I don't think any wait staff is able to explain what they are in English. So, here. Let me help them to help you pick one to try. All in Chinese. Read below before ordering. Here is the translation. 煎餅果子 $3.50 savory crepe 煎 蛋   $0.60 Fried egg 油條   $1.50 Chinese Donut 茶蛋   $0.60 Tea egg 豆腐腦   $1.99 Northern style tofu soup 豆漿   $1.50 Sweeten Soy Milk, hot 大米粥 $1.50 Millet Porridge  油炸糕   $1.25 Fried rice cake with red bean  鍋巴菜   $3.50 Pancrust soup 大蔥油餅   $3.50 Chives pancake 雞湯餛飩   $3.50 Wonton in chicken broth 牛肉夾餅   $2.50 Beef slice sandwich 鹹菜   $1.50 Appetizer Side dis...

3rd Annual Asian Heritage Month UYE

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Ladies and gentlemen, I'm proud to announce this year's Asian Heritage Month UYE in Houston. It's my pleasure to introduce the growing popular UYE year after year, besides my Lunar New Year celebration. In the past 2 years, we've dined at Thai/Chinese @ Thai Jin  in 2014 and Vietnamese @ Pho Binh 59  in 2015. I want to bring Asian Heritage to Chinatown this year. I want to showcase a few of my favorite businesses with my Chinatown Crawl UYE model - Dine, Dessert & Shop on one day. Do you know any of these regional food types in Houston? Dine - The main focus of the evening is eat authentic noodle soup at  Strings Noodle . You get to watch how the hand-pulled noodles are made in front of your eyes.  Shop - we are climbing a few steps above Strings to shop at  Fit Japanese Store .  Dessert - we are going to Six Ping Bakery next door. After that, I'll guide you to find tapioca drink among 10 bubble tea joints at Dun Huang Plaza. ...

Chinatown Crawl UYE Ideas

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This is the beginning of a new concept to event planning. I welcome your comments and suggestions to make this Chinatown Crawl UYE possible. Please post your reply here or on the Talk thread . I have been the Baron of Chinatown on Yelp for over a year. I can't say I'm the expert with restaurants, but I could help you discover the best of Chinatown. Even if I don't know, I can try to find the answer for you. Where's Chinatown? Most people refer to just the businesses on Bellaire Blvd, from Gessner to Beltway. But in reality, it covers one huge area being the most diverse Super-neighborhoods in Houston. Yelp defined this Chinatown neighborhood On the Chinatown Crawl UYE, I want to take you one strip mall at a time. You can experience different Chinese regional cuisine, popular dessert items and a show-n-tell of what you can find at a grocery store. The following is a list of existing strip malls: Welcome Center 惠康廣場 - 9180 Bellaire Blvd Diho Plaza  頂好廣場 ...

UYEs in review

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A new category for UYE, only available from a computer post. I love to plan events, especially UYE's (Unofficial Yelp events). Once I learned how to use the event feature on Yelp site, everything comes naturally. Many Yelpers who attended UYE's often ask me, "how many UYE have you submitted?" Well... I never bother to count. But, I decided to publish it here. Name Date Purpose Biz Page Attended Review UYE: Eat Hot Pot like you're in Winter Olympics 2/23/14 Chinese New Year here 7 Yes Asian Heritage Month UYE 5/15/14 1 st Annual Asian Heritage Month here 7 Yes Pholkloric UYE 11/9/14 Meeting Elite Yelpers couldn’t attend Elite Events here 11 Yes UYE - 2B or Not 2B UYE - 2B or Not 2B Sequel 1/27/15 Before / after of a lite-bite YEE (new concept) here 20 Yes Year of ...