Lou MC Yelps a Lot

At the end of 2019, Dwight Sung, President of Asian Pacific American Heritage Association (APAHA), reached out and invited me to join their Board to build community engagement with restaurants in Houston’s Chinatown. Since I often promote businesses in Chinatown with my quarterly foodie meetup event, Chinatown Crawl HTX, I gladly accepted the offer.  After the Lunar New Year Festival in late January, I met with Xfinity Indirect Sales team member Hong Sang who coordinated outreach efforts with local sales teams at area Chinese supermarkets. Unfortunately, this year’s Festival had a lower turn out due to public concerns of the Coronavirus outbreak in China and the possibility it would also come to Chinatown. Additionally, distressed shop owners were sharing how business has gone down in their stores. When I heard this, I was a bit skeptical because I usually visit Chinatown stores during the middle of the week and I didn’t notice any change in foot traffic.  I decided to l...

Since there is no more Review Challenge contests, here is my list of all the reviews that I have written in 2019 - total 171 reviews. 5.0 star SING 1/4/2019 · ROTD 4/5/2019 5.0 star Little Caesars Pizza 1/19/2019 5.0 star Holcombe Medical Supply 1/24/2019 4.0 star Meccha Matcha 1/25/2019 ROTD 7/22/2019 1.0 star Sichuan Noodles 麵麵聚道 1/29/2019 Updated review 5.0 star Bite of Spice 2/3/2019 5.0 star UYE: Viet-Ventures Ep 1 @Pho Ga Dong Nai 2/5/2019 3.0 star YEE: Valentine Chocolate Tasting at Cacao & Cardamom River Oaks 2/7/2019 First to Review 3.0 star L P Trading 2/8/2019 Updated review 5.0 star Lunar New Year Festival 2/11/2019 Updated review 4.0 star National Culture 2/16/2019 First to Review 3.0 star Hotpot Year Of The Pig #ChinatownCrawl UYE 2/17/2019 First to Review 2.0 star TeaWish 2/18/2019 5.0 star True Texas Boil House 2/19/2019 2.0 star Kroger Store in Medical Center area 2/23/2019 5.0 star Solstice Medicine Company 美国蘇氏藥業有限公司 2/25/20...

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 marketi...

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...

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...

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...

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....

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...

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 ...

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...