Food Touring

Trying food from all over the world, at home & abroad!

Laos: Khao Piak Sen

Restaurant: Green Champa Garden null
Address: 42318 Fremont Boulevard
City: Fremont, California

My mom’s brother and sister-in-law came to visit from Australia! They wanted to eat Asian food except Chinese while they were in town, because they don’t have as much variety of Asian restaurants and beef prices are higher in Australia. I wrote down a list of restaurants arranged by country, and Lao food was chosen for tonight’s dinner.

Green Champa Garden is a restaurant that specializes in both Thai and Lao cuisine. We ordered mostly Lao dishes. I’ll be blogging about two dishes we had, an appetizer and a noodle soup dish (this post).

We had a noodle soup called ‘khao piak’, also known as ‘khao piak sen’, which was homemade noodles served in chicken broth with chicken ($7.95 USD). Continue reading →

Posted on by Mango in Laos

Laos: Tam Mak Hoong Sen Khao Poon

Restaurant: Green Champa Garden null
Address: 42318 Fremont Boulevard
City: Fremont, California

My mom’s brother and sister-in-law came to visit from Australia! They wanted to eat Asian food except Chinese while they were in town, because they don’t have as much variety of Asian restaurants and beef prices are higher in Australia. I wrote down a list of restaurants arranged by country, and Lao food was chosen for tonight’s dinner.

Green Champa Garden is a restaurant that specializes in both Thai and Lao cuisine. We ordered mostly Lao dishes. I’ll be blogging about two dishes we had, an appetizer (this post) and a noodle soup dish.

Green Champa Garden makes their papaya salad in two ways. The Thai version has papaya mixed with lime juice, garlic, dried shrimp, chili pepper, long bean, tomato, and peanuts. The Lao version has papaya mixed with lime juice, garlic chili pepper, noodle, and tomato with fish paste, with rice noodles on the side. Both versions were priced at $6.50 USD. We went with the Lao version and requested mild spiciness. Continue reading →

Posted on by Mango in Laos

Food for Thought: Portland, Oregon

I went to Portland in August to visit Beeta. When Beeta was unavailable to drive me around, I asked myself, “How easy is it to get around the city? Do I need to rent a car, or how easy is it to get around by public transportation?”

Well, it’s actually easy to get around Portland and its nearby cities! TriMet is the mass transit agency in Greater Portland. You can get around by train or bus! There’s also the WES Commuter Rail which goes from Beaverton to Wilsonville (west of Portland to south of Portland) but it only operates during rush hour. Continue reading →

Posted on by Mango in Food for Thought

El Salvador: Papusa w/ Curtido

Restaurant: Taqueria La Bamba Ay Caramba null
Address: 580 N Rengstorff Ave
City: Mountain View, California

A few coworkers liked this one Mexican/Salvadoran restaurant near work in Mountain View, but the original location closed and relocated to a bigger and nicer location. I had recently come back to the Bay Area from Asia, so I was craving something non-Asian. So, we decided to check out the restaurant’s new location for Foodie Friday!

Taqueria La Bamba Ay Caramba is a popular lunch spot for burritos and other Mexican foods, but they’ve got dishes unique to El Salvador (Salvadoran) as well. I got something of both, fish tacos and papusa. The latter is Salvadoran.

Papusa is a round cornmeal-based tortilla filled with cheese, pork, and refried beans. It was served with curtido (lightly fermented cabbage salad) on the side. Continue reading →

Posted on by Mango in El Salvador

Japan: Roasted Pork Fried Rice w/ Snow Crab & Egg White Sauce

Restaurant: Yu-Raku null
Address: 104 S El Camino Real
City: San Mateo, California

I visited a friend in San Mateo, and we had dinner at a Japanese-Chinese restaurant in Downtown San Mateo.

Japanese food includes sushi, sashimi, and ramen. But did you know there are Japanese-Chinese (Chuka) dishes as well? It originated from China but had been modified over the years for Japanese tastes. Here’s more info, from Wikipedia: Continue reading →

Posted on by Mango in Japan

Thailand: Crab Pad Thai

Restaurant: Amarin Thai Cuisine null
Address: 174 Castro Street
City: Mountain View, California

I had a farewell lunch with coworkers at a Thai restaurant near work in Downtown Mountain View. This restaurant was chosen because Amarin has a separate menu for vegetarians and vegans.

Each diner was given three menus- vegetarian/vegan, lunch special, and standard menus. That was a lot of reading and took some coworkers a bit of time deciding which to order. I noticed that the pad Thai with chicken or shrimp was on the lunch menu, pad Thai with tofu was on the vegetarian/vegan menu, and the crab pad Thai on the standard menu.. It’d be so much better if there was only one menu given to reduce clutter and confusion.

Most Thai places here use chicken breast for chicken pad Thai, which is healthier but on the drier side. I also didn’t want shrimp or tofu, so I went with crab pad Thai. Continue reading →

Posted on by Mango in Thailand

Hong Kong: Cha Chaan Teng @ Tsui Wah Restaurant (翠華集團)

Restaurant: Tsui Wah Restaurant (翠華集團) 
Address: Terminal 1, Departures Check-in Hall, Hong Kong International Airport
City: Chek Lap Kok, Hong Kong

Cha chaan teng (茶餐廳) is on almost every corner in Hong Kong. In the United States, they are known as “Hong Kong style café”. Here’s a short description of the term, from Wikipedia:

Cha chaan teng (lit.: tea restaurant) meaning tea restaurant, is commonly found in Greater China, including particularly Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and parts of Guangdong. They are known for eclectic and affordable menus, which include many dishes from Hong Kong cuisine and Hong Kong-style Western cuisine. Since the 1980s they can also be found in the Chinatown districts of many Western countries like Australia, Canada, United Kingdom and the United States.

Cha chaan tengs are a way of life in Hong Kong; food is affordable and service is quick even though it’s unhealthy. Tsui Wah started in Mong Kok in 1967 and have expanded all over Hong Kong since then.

I ended my Hong Kong trip at Tsui Wah Restaurant at Hong Kong International Airport (HKG). Yep, there’s several sit-down restaurant at the airport, in the non-restricted area just before the security checkpoint! We ordered three dishes, plus one milk tea for myself. I managed to take a photo of every dish, and have included the restaurant’s description of the dish underneath most of the photos. Continue reading →

Posted on by Mango in Hong Kong

Hong Kong & South Korea: Häagen-Dazs’ Ice Cream Crispy Sandwich

Hong Kong is infatuated with Korean celebrities! Kim Soo Hyun and Lee Min Ho were on advertisements everywhere in Hong Kong. Check out my photo album on Flickr to see what I’m talking about! According to SCMP, Hongkongers even picked Korean heartthrob Kim Soo-hyun as Man of the Year, ahead of poltiticians and protestors. How crazy is that?!

At every Häagen Dazs vendor, there was an ad showing Kim Soo Hyun holding an ice cream crispy sandwich (脆皮雪糕三明治). Continue reading →

Posted on by Mango in Hong Kong, South Korea

Hong Kong: Cha Chaan Teng @ Kam Chui Yi Noodle House (金翠怡麫館)

Restaurant: Kam Chui Yi Noodle House (金翠怡麫館) 
Address: G/F, 73 King Fuk Street
City: San Po Kong, Hong Kong

After dim sum, my family friend drove me around Kowloon and Kowloon Tong to get a glimpse of the area. Then I needed my milk tea fix, so we went to a cha chaan teng for afternoon tea across my family friend’s flat. I had to have milk tea everyday while in Hong Kong! Continue reading →

Posted on by Mango in Hong Kong