Palm Springs to Ojai Road Trip

I got to get away from chilly San Francisco for a bit, on a little road trip through SoCal to celebrate mine and Spouse’s 11th wedding anniversary. It never ceases to amaze me how diverse the terrain and climates are within my home state, and on this trip I got to see some of the desert regions for the first time. We started off in Palm Desert for a friend’s birthday party and made our way back up north from there, stopping at Joshua Tree, LA, and Ojai along the way. Here’s a little photo dump and some highlights from the trip.

The town of Joshua Tree was this weird mix of big commercial business like a massive Walmart and then some quirky new age crystals stores. We stayed inside most of the time because it was so freakin hot! We only got to visit the Joshua Tree National Park at sunset and in the morning, because it was just so obnoxiously hot in the middle of the day. I would love to go back at a cooler time of the year to see more; there were so many interesting looking cacti and rock formations that I wish I had a chance to spend more time with without sweating out my entire body’s water content.

We stayed in the most perfectly decorated AirBnB in Joshua Tree that I did not take any good photos of but here is their Instagram. It was a millennial pink dream. We joked that it was haunted because a high pitched sound would emit from the hallway toilet at random times and the shower would start dripping in the middle of the night even though we never used it. Having a house ghost to keep us company in the middle of the desert somehow felt fitting.

Having a couple of days in LA felt really nice after a wild weekend in Palm Desert with our friends and melting away in the barren landscape of Joshua Tree. Oolong was especially relieved to be in LA where there were lots of grass patches and interesting flowering shrubs, after totally hating her time in the desert (hot sand, no grass, and the plants were all out to stab her). We stayed in Silver Lake, which is my favorite neighborhood in LA. The Silverlake Pool & Inn was so aesthetic and such a great location for nearby cafes and restaurants; Spouse spotted Steven Yeun at the Erewhon Market next door!

As usual, our time in LA revolved around food, including ordering Howlin’ Ray’s for delivery through Postmates and finally getting to eat a Bestia after years of trying to get a reservation there. Our meal at Bestia was INCREDIBLE and exceeded expectations. For a shared main, we ordered a slow roasted lamb neck with creme fraiche and baby gem lettuce. It arrived as a whole big meaty, simply-seasoned hunk of neck at our table, which we were instructed to eat by making mini lettuce wraps (like ssam!). I just thought this was such a unique presentation that really allowed the natural flavors of the ingredients to shine.

If you are looking for a place to get boba in Silver Lake, I think that the teas at Pine & Crane are super underrated. A strong tea flavor and not too sweet!

Ojai was so charming and everything I imagined it would be. A cute little town with lots of thrift stores, boutiques, and restaurants with beautiful patios; we spent an afternoon just walking around the main strip, popping into shops, and then getting some takeout to eat back in our Airstream. We stayed at Caravan Outpost, which is a collection of perfectly decorated Airstreams on lush grounds that feel like a desert oasis. I recommend staying here but I wish they provided some pots/pans and dishes to make use of the kitchens inside the caravans; I had packed dishes but not cookware so we had to look for a pan at a thrift store.

Do you have questions about Joshua Tree, Silver Lake in LA, or Ojai? Leave them in the comments below!

Photoshoots for La Playa Carmel and Brophy's Tavern

Last month, I went down to Carmel and shot some photos for a returning client, Classic Hotels & Resorts; they have two lovely properties in Carmel-by-the-Sea: La Playa Carmel and Hotel Carmel. When I shoot at a restaurant, I always try to capture their unique vibe and I love it when this results in a look and feel that is a bit different from what can be seen on my own Instagram account or blog. I am really happy with how the photos from these shoots came out, so I thought I would share some of my favorites here.

Road Trip Through the Pacific Northwest

I did a Q&A on Instagram about my experience as a first time RVer, so I also thought I’d capture some of my favorite photos here and share some takeaways, too.

I am really about the least outdoorsy person you will ever meet. I love traveling to cities across the world, enjoying their local foods, admiring unique architecture, and getting caught up in the hustle and bustle of life in a place full of people. I don’t like to hike or really do any walking unless it involves exploring a unique street market or moving towards a delicious restaurant meal. But with COVID-19 locking us all down in our homes, I started to think about how I could safely enjoy a new change of scenery and a new experience, and a home on wheels seemed an intriguing solution. Unlike my city adventures across the globe, this could be a way to explore and appreciate some of those National Parks that my own country seemed to be so famous for—something I may never have done as a U.S. citizen were it not for the unique circumstances of a global pandemic.

So, my spouse and I rented the smallest RV we could find with a complete kitchen and bathroom that allowed us to bring our dog, Oolong. We wanted to be as self-contained as possible out of consideration for health guidelines. We ended up going with El Monte RV, but I wouldn’t necessarily recommended it because the RV presented minor inconvenient flaws throughout the trip (leaky sink, side mirror wouldn’t stay in place, reverse camera stopped working, stove stopped igniting without a lighter). But it did feel clean and spacious. Here is a very detailed video on the RV I rented, which we found on YouTube from a WA-based company; we were grateful to have found it because our own RV walkthrough from the company we used did not provide nearly enough of the necessary information as this video did.

Here are some quick notes based on the questions I received:

• It cost $4000 for us to rent for 13 nights. We also spent about $900 in gas.

• Dumping the waste tanks was okay once we (by “we” I mean my spouse) knew what we were doing. “Gray waste” from the sinks and shower and “black waste” from the toilet are both stored in tanks outside of the RV cabin, and we didn’t experience any foul odors getting in. The process is to connect the provided hose to the pipe on the outside of the vehicle and to insert the other end into the hole at the dump site, then release the black waste first followed by the gray. The gray waste helps flush out the hose to prevent the process from being smelly.

• We parked in a combination of free rest stops and “sno-parks”, national park campsites, other foresty camp parks, and random pullouts along the side of the road (so long as there were no signs prohibiting overnight parking and other RVs/campers were also parking there). We avoided “RV parks” that were just parking lots without separation between the spots.

• I would not recommend trying to drive the RV around for lots of different activities in a city with small streets and tight turns. When we were in Seattle, we parked the RV near a large park and walked downtown to avoid driving on streets that were not conducive to a large vehicle.

• Having a dog with is did not hinder us at all on our trip. However, we did choose to travel through the PNW because of the weather, knowing it would be safe to occasionally leave Oolong in the RV without it being to hot if we wanted to do a non-dog-friendly activity. We thought Oolong would have the best time of her life on this trip, because she loves going to the beach or sniffing trees, but we could tell on the road she had mixed feelings. She was anxious about the drive and bothered by the loud noises of everything rattling through bumps and turns, and she got carsick from a particularly windy road. However, we think she particularly enjoyed the Oregon Dunes, the Hoh River, and in general getting to sniff lots of different trees and bushes.

Highlights for me included:

• Digging for clams in the Puget Sound area and foraging for blackberries in Northern California

• Take-out Thai chicken rice from Nong’s Khao Man Gai in Portland

• Cooking over a campfire

• Having lunch while overlooking Crater Lake

• Picking up some amazing smoked salmon from Jack’s Fish Spot at Pike Place Market

• Waking up in a new place every day that was quiet and smelled of either the forest or the sea

I realize that many of my highlights involve food. Hmm…

Here is a map of some stops that felt notable to me:

Everything I Ate in Hong Kong

I just visited Hong Kong for the first time and even before I’d left, people were already asking me for food recommendations. After sending my haphazard Simplenote notes to a handful of people, I decided it made sense to clean them up and write a blog post.

One thing that surprised me when visiting Hong Kong was how not English-friendly it was, despite how recently Hong Kong was a British colony. I remember watching the handover ceremony on TV as a kid. There are probably plenty of modern, tourist-friendly places to eat where English speakers would not have any problems, but most of the places on my itinerary were about seeking out foods and experiences I couldn’t get at home in San Francisco (despite its large Cantonese population), so I had to rely on my sub-par Cantonese a lot when communicating in Hong Kong. Growing up, Cantonese was probably the most common language my parents spoke to each other but because they grew up in Malaysia and went to either public or English schools, they never learned to write Chinese. My vocabulary is limited to simple conversations we would have as a family and I don’t know a lot of specific food words outside of dim sum. I probably would have had a very different eating experience if I’d either known less or more Cantonese, and to some extent I think I get unduly embarrassed whenever I travel to a foreign place and don’t know the local language…which is why I am rambling on and on about language accessibility and include notes about it for all the places below.

66 Hot Pot, Mong Kok

Interesting style of hot pot. First you eat a pot of saucy chicken mixed with Szechuan aromatics. They really expect you to eat all the chicken before moving on to the next step—my spouse and I were gently scolded to eat more of the chicken first when we requested the broth too early. After eating the chicken they fill your pot with broth for a normal hot pot and you can order sliced meats, dumplings, veggies, etc to cook in it.

Verdict: Tasty but not mind-blowing. It’s on the pricey side. Hot pot ingredients are a la carte, but if you order the signature chicken pot, the broth top-ups are included.
English speakers?: No
English menu?: Yes, you order everything on an iPad.
Google Maps Link

Sun Hing, Kennedy Town

dim sum at Sun Hing

This is a really old school dim sum shop where I believe they make everything in-house. They only have the classics and you can just go grab them at the front yourself and have them mark what you chose on your tab. Very fresh. They open at 2am.

Verdict: Great for the first “morning” after you land if you’re awake and hungry at a strange hour and want to be immediately thrown into a chaotic Hong Kong style eatery. Expect simple, tasty food but not the best dim sum of your life.
English speakers?: No
English menu?: Technically yes, there was one on the wall, but it’s completely useless because you can only order what’s out on display unless you speak Cantonese.
Google Maps Link

Yee Shun Milk Company, multiple locations

cold double film milk pudding at Yee Shun Milk Company

Get their famous double film milk pudding. So simple, yet so good that I went twice during my trip. 

Verdict: Go there.
English speakers?: No
English menu?: Yes, with pictures of their most popular items.
Google Maps Link

Tiger Sugar / The Alley, multiple locations

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by lily • flatlays & foodtography (@lilybubbletea) on Mar 20, 2019 at 10:06am PDT

These two popular chains are both famous for their versions of the brown sugar pearl/boba/bubble fresh milk drink. (Don’t call it boba in HK though, that means big boobs.)  I didn’t find either version to be particularly amazing but I did prefer Tiger Sugar (Taiwan-based) over The Alley (HK-based). Check out my Instagram post for a more in-depth review.

Verdict: Not bad; not as good as ones I had in Taipei.
English speakers?: Yes
English menu?: Yes

Hot Star, multiple locations

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by lily • flatlays & foodtography (@lilybubbletea) on Mar 26, 2019 at 5:10pm PDT

This Taipei-based chain is famous for their XXL breaded and deep fried chicken cutlet, likely to be bigger than the size of your face. Read my Instagram post for a more in-depth review. 

Verdict: Loved it!
English speakers?: Most likely yes
English menu?: Yes

Mammy Pancake, multiple locations

Believe it or not, these egg waffles / eggettes are Michelin Guide recommended. There are lots of flavors to choose from, both sweet and savory. I got the squid ink salted yolk flavor, and could very subtly taste both elements. They were perfectly crisp outside and had a nice chew inside. 

Verdict: These probably are legitimately the best egg waffles out there. Personally, I wouldn’t go out of my way for them but if you love this type of snack you should totally go. 
English speakers?: Not sure because I ordered in Cantonese, but the staff were young.
English menu?: Yes

Yuen Kee, Sham Shui Po

There are other businesses with the same name but I’m writing about the dai pai dong—a licensed open-air food stall. These eateries are known for stir fried dishes celebrating wok hei, the flavor that comes from cooking in a wok over extremely hot flames (or some think of it as the energy/breath from the wok). These are sadly a dying food genre in HK because the licenses cannot be transferred even within the family, so definitely do some research around what dai pai dong suits you, if not this one, and go while you still can. We got a sizzling plate of fatty pork, black bean sauce clams, and Chinese leeks with dried fish, squid, and cashews, all based on the photos on the wall. Everything was a little on the salty side but also immensely flavorful and perfectly cooked—clearly meant to be eaten with rice to dilute the saltiness. This was my overall fave meal of HK.

Verdict: Definitely recommend, but you may need to be amazing at charades if you don’t speak Cantonese.
English speakers?: Hard no. My Cantonese was good enough to let our waitress know we wanted to order dishes off the pictures on the wall plus two bowls of rice and a large beer.
English menu?: No, our waitress was not pleased when I asked for one! But ~15 dishes are pictured on the wall.
Google Maps Link

Kam Wah Cafe, Mong Kok:

bo lo yau and milk tea at Kam Wah Cafe

This place is known for their bo lo bao / pineapple buns and they totally lived up to the hype!!! Ask for a bo lo yau if you want that iconic slab of butter stuffed inside (I did!). My spouse enjoyed a HK style French toast with peanut butter stuffed inside. The milk tea tasted way too tannin-y or over-steeped to me, though I have been told that is part of the HK style milk tea. This is a cute little cha chaan teng (Hong Kong style tea cafe) but you can also buy their famous pineapple buns to-go from a little counter at the shopfront.

Verdict: This is where you should go to try pineapple buns.
English speakers?: They might understand you? At least they were friendly.
English menu?: Yes, though I believe it is not their full menu.
Google Maps Link

Yum Cha, multiple locations

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by lily • flatlays & foodtography (@lilybubbletea) on Mar 18, 2019 at 1:54pm PDT

Very cute but slightly expensive dim sum. Detailed review in my Instagram post.

Verdict: Go if you’re in it for the ‘gram.
English speakers?: Yes
English menu?: Yes; order by marking things off on your paper menu.

Tai Cheong Bakery, Central:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by lily • flatlays & foodtography (@lilybubbletea) on Mar 19, 2019 at 9:54am PDT

Best daan tat / egg tart of my life! Insanely flakey and buttery crust. More detailed review on Instagram.

Verdict: Yessss so good!
English speakers?: Yes
English menu?: It’s a bakery, so you can scope out what they have in the pastry case.
Google Maps Link

Lan Fong Yuen, Central:

Famous for inventing HK stocking milk tea—stockings on handles are used to keep the tea leaves separate as the tea brews, and then it is sweetened with condensed milk. Perfect to accompany the egg tarts as they are very close to each other. However, as I mentioned before, I personally didn’t love the over-steeped taste of this style of tea in HK, even though I get HK milk tea at bubble tea shops in the States. There is a full cha chaan teng, but there’s also a little shed in front where you can just order the milk tea to-go.

Verdict: Only if you’re in the area, to pair with the daan tats above.
English speakers?: I don’t think so, but if you order from the front, the only things you can order are hot milk tea (yeet lai cha) or cold/iced milk tea (dong lai cha).
English menu?: Not sure about the cha chaan teng inside but the front stall had all sorts of signs in Chinese only so I have no clue what info I was missing out on. I definitely tried to order from the wrong window at first.
Google Maps Link

Yat Lok, Central

This is one of the places that always shows up on lists about contention for best roast goose in HK, and I opted to go here because a friend recommended it. Roast goose was so damn good. I made the mistake of ordering a combo plate with BBQ pork cuz I wanted variety but really should have just ordered more roast goose.

Verdict: Order the roast goose, don’t bother with other things.
English speakers?: No
English menu?: Yes
Google Maps Link

Shake Shack, Central

We just stumbled upon this when we wanted dessert. Worth noting that there’s an HK themed dessert menu.

Verdict: If you’re in the area and want an ice cream based dessert, then maybe? You can see the Kowloon side’s light show across the harbor (the crappier side) but it will be set to the playlist I made in the early 2000s (a.k.a. the Shake Shack soundtrack blasting through their outdoor speakers).
English speakers?: Yes
English menu?: Yes, obvi
Google Maps Link

Tsui Wah, multiple locations

This was like the HK equivalent of Denny’s, open 24 hours. All the HK cafe / cha chaan teng options you can imagine, including all the wacky fusion dishes. Nice service. We got ox tongue on mushroom sauce spaghetti and it was good like how Denny’s is good but not really good at all.  

Verdict: Go if you are literally on a bus from the ferry port back to your hotel and realize you are hungry but don’t know what else to Google to look for food.
English speakers?: Yes
English menu?: Yes

Yummy Cart Noodles, Sham Shui Po

my creation at Yummy Cart Noodles

Really wanted to try cart noodles and I could see from pics online that this menu had English and pictures so that’s how I ended up here. Meant to go to Man Kee but chickened out cuz the order card is all just Chinese text. My soup was a bit bland here but all my selected ingredients were great and there were condiments to add. Service was the friendliest of the trip.  

Verdict: Go if you want cart noodles but can’t read Chinese and are looking for a very pleasant noodle eating experience even if it’s not the tastiest one ever.
English speakers?: They try!
English menu?: Yes, with pictures. You mark what you want on a laminated card.
Google Maps Link

Sheung Hei (a.k.a. Good Taste Clay Pot), Kennedy Town

clay pot rice at sheung hei

Michelin Bib Gourmand clay pot rice. I thought it was meh. I think it’s very hit or miss depending on what you get; the strangers we sat next to liked theirs and it looked hella good. I ordered one with various preserved meats plus duck, and the duck was the tiniest, boniest pieces imaginable with what little meat available clinging in a rubbery fashion to said bones.

Verdict: Ask the locals next to you what to order or skip this one.
English speakers?: Nope.
English menu?: Yes, but you have to ask for it in Cantonese and then your friendly local table mate might have to remind them you asked for it.
Google Maps Link

Charles Tea Bar, multiple locations

The Mong Kok location is a cool little bubble tea stand. Had lots of interesting options that aren’t at bubble tea shops at home. I got papaya milk with mini taro and sweet potato balls and enjoyed it.

Verdict: Yes, if you are looking for some unique bubble tea options.
English speakers?: Yes
English menu?: Yes

Australia Dairy Company, Jordan

Simple but freaking good!!! They are known for their rude service but to be honest I felt it to be simply efficient, quite cordial, and less rude than other places I’d been to in HK. Due to the presence of my gwai lo spouse, we were handed an English menu upon being seated without having to ask for it. Yes, it is quite cramped and, as expected, we had to share a tiny table with strangers (who turned out to be a sweet old couple living in the San Francisco Bay Area who were making their annual trip back to their hometown!). We went at breakfast time when literally everyone else was ordering their set breakfast meal, so spouse’s French toast took a bit to arrive but was totally worth the wait. If you like scrambled eggs, this is a must.

Verdict: Go there for a new appreciation of scrambled eggs and plain white bread.
English speakers?: No
English menu?: Yes
Google Maps Link

ComeBuy Tea, Mong Kok

The fanciest bubble tea shop I’ve seen, in terms of their drink making process. They have these shiny machines that spurt steam out the tops and I am not exactly sure what they do but they made me feel like I was getting a high end bubble tea experience.

Verdict: Not a destination unless you are extremely fascinated with tea making technology but if you are in the area and want some legit tea, you could stop by.
English speakers?: Yes
English menu?: Yes
Google Maps Link

Long Jin Mei Shi, Mong Kok

skewers and curry fish balls at a random street food stall in mong kok

To be honest I just picked a skewer stall that looked like it had a lot of variety on my last morning in Hong Kong, and this one had a LOT of variety. (I subsequently had to find a picture of the stall and ask a friend for help reading the name so I could include it here.) This stall had all sorts of street snacks from curry fish balls to hash browns shaped like the ones at McDonald’s. I got a small bowl of curry fish balls, a squid skewer, a skewer with mini cheese-filled sausages, and a skewer with mixed beef offal. The beef offal one was amazing, stewed until suuuuuper tender and very flavorful! The sausages were also yummy. My gwai lo liked the squid one the best because it was the most bland and he likes bland things.

Verdict: There’s something for everyone here, whether you like bland things or super interesting animal parts!
English speakers?: No
English menu?: No, but just point at everything that looks interesting and give it a try! This was a great final stop before leaving Hong Kong.
Google Maps Link

Toasts From My Childhood

For National Toast Day, I want to talk about some toasts from my childhood. But first, here’s my reimagining of those childhood flavors as an adult.

As a kid, these probably would have all been on pre-sliced white bread. I don’t think my mom would have even gone for the Wonder Bread name brand; we probably got the generic supermarket brand white bread. But for this dressed-up adult version, and because I worked damn hard in life and now I can, I went for one of the most luxurious (but still square-shaped) breads available at my local vegetarian grocery co-op: the Josey Baker Bread Adventure Bread. Here’s what you’re looking at (clockwise from top-left):

Whipped buttercream and brown sugar. Inspired by my memories of having toast slathered with margarine (from the plastic tub) and a scoop of sugar sprinkled over. I don’t know why my mom thought this was a legitimate thing to serve a child, but in fairness I never had any energy and was scared of playing outside, so sugar intake was not an issue.

Creamy peanut butter and apricot preserves. Because yes, even as an Asian kid, I had peanut butter and jam. I never liked grape jelly.

Condensed milk. I think everyone knows about condensed milk toast now. I made my own condensed milk for this because I didn’t want to open up a whole can just to smear a little bit on a tiny piece of bread for a photo. (So I made a whole jar of it by laboriously stirring for 45 minutes over the stove instead? Adult Lily logic.)

Pandan kaya jam. Yes, I’ve been having this ever since I was a child even though you may have just learned about it from seeing someone post about it on Instagram. This is really what I wanted to talk about.

Kaya toast is having a moment right now here in San Francisco. Thanks to the popularity of Bread Belly’s version, with a bright green pandan kaya piped diagonally across the surface of the bread, kaya toast is showing up on my Instagram feed more often that the ubiquitous avocado toast these days. I haven’t made my way across town to try it just yet, but they seem to be a great little local business and I am happy for their success over presenting Asian-inspired flavors in high-quality baked goods. Seeing kaya toast blow up this way is a little weird for me, though. You see, Bread Belly did not invent kaya toast, nor do they make any claims that they did, and I have been eating kaya toast since I was a little kid. It’s a flavor I associate with visiting my family in Malaysia, when—even though I wasn’t considered a picky eater as a kid—my aunties were kind enough to give me toast and cereal for breakfast because they knew I wasn’t used to having curry or nasi lemak in the mornings. I associate it with avoiding eye contact with tiny lizards on the walls and the rotting-fruit smell of ripe durian caught in the humid air as I made my way down the stairs in their homes. I do not associate it with eating for the ‘Gram.

This must be what it was like for Japanese people when all of a sudden everyone started losing their shit over ramen that didn’t come out of a styrofoam cup or for Danish folks when everyone suddenly realized that putting stuff on bread looks more aesthetic when served open-faced. I’m excited that a food so Malaysian/Singaporean in origin is rising in popularity but part of me feels strangely worried that almost none of the people flocking to it know where it came from. Do they know that you can get a jar of kaya (a jam made of coconut milk, sugar, and eggs—pandan optional) from the Southeast Asian section of the Asian supermarket for less than $4? Because that’s the kaya I’m familiar with: not the nice, handcrafted, vibrant looking stuff that makes toast pretty, but rather the fresh-from-the-jar gooey stuff, as everyday as the processed peanut butter I used in this photo. Should I care about whether or not people know this?

I never bought it before in the States because I wanted to preserve that specialness that I associated between visiting Malaysia and the flavor of kaya but now I’ve gone and purchased it for $3.19 at Pacific Supermarket right here in San Francisco for purposes of this photo and the story I wanted to tell with it. I wanted to do my part to share with people where kaya came from and try to describe how weird it is to suddenly see everyone getting excited about it. I’ve always loved it and it’s always been exciting to me. I’m glad you like it, too.