boston.

i took a little vacay to boston this weekend with joanna.

i know, who the eff would want to go to boston in january?

let me rephrase that:

who wouldn't want to see their friend play cimbalom with the bso, sip on the best fig cocktail in the world, purchase some fabulous dresses on newbury street, have an amazing dinner at oleana* {complete with a chocolate tahini tart and halvah ice cream}, gorge on pancakes and linguica with two of the sweetest people on earth, and run into the first dude i ever went on a date with?

my hands are still thawing,

but holy smokes was it worth it.

i love boston. i'd love it more if it were tropical,

but oh is it loverly!

-yeh!!!

*a thousand zillion thanks to jess for this recommendation 

park güell

if ever i want to laugh until i'm about to pee,

i think back to that time when maria, hannah, and i

visited park güell, in barcelona.

perhaps, on this gloomysome new york day,

i will pack a bit of this silliness in my bag and be off to work.

-yeh!

honk honk sugar

one day i will stop pretending like life after hong kong

doesn't exist. but today is not that day. today i am dreaming

of black sesame gelato that is rich but not too sweet,

that is a little bit smokey and filled with full black sesame seeds,

and that makes you pray you won't immediately run into maestro or your kindergarten best friend and her entire family {that actually might have happened} before you have time to floss, 

lest you have a massive black speck in your teeth.

...and i am also reminiscing over the egg custards 

that cost the equivalent of about 50 cents,

that i ate on a boat. that were extremely eggy tasting.

and, of course, the little cake from ms. b's that was 

worth every bit of the embarrassing amount that i spent on it.

{it is not every day that a boutique cake shop has a vertical 

garden on the exterior.}

the sweets that i ate in honk honk were never too sweet.

they always kept their distinct flavor.

even their 16 handles equivalent {where i got 

blueberry mochi on black sesame, almond, and taro yogurt}

kept it's tasty integrity. 

it was subtle... and fascinating...

-yeh!!!

sweet places i lurved:

xtc gelato: marry me, black sesame gelato

australia dairy company: sweet warm {almondy??} egg custard

ms. b's cakery: go, if even just to look and drool

honk honk sandwich

imagine your girl {the queen of everything doughy}

craving a crusty baguette like its the rose cafeteria honey mustard. maybs it was the jetlag, maybe it-- no actually it was because crust really does not exist in hong kong. in the grocery stores, yeah, bread has a dark brown layer around the edge, but the texture never changes. in restaurants? forget about it. twice i was tempted to ask them to leave the crust on, until i realized that, wait this is actually miraculous. {because crust is just one of those things i am obligato about since i turned eight and learned the meaning of tact...} so for my entire time in hk i didn't ask questions and indulged in extremely simple sandwiches on milk bread. none of them had mustard, but that is another story. here is a run down on the sammies i ate in hong kong:

pork, mayo, tomato {lan fong yuen, top photo}: hopefully you are either with someone who knows, or are thinking logically when you walk by a really long line that seems to be snaking around behind a rando milk tea stand. because you don't want to miss this little pork bun that looks like it should be in a happy meal, but tastes like you need eight more. 

egg, mayo, tomato {deli & wine, second from top}: something got lost in translation when i ordered this at breakfast time, expecting a breakfast sandwich. it was, in fact, my first exposure to egg salad.

egg {australia dairy company, third photo down}: by the time you've done your time on line, been hurried through a room packed with hong kongese families that is reminiscent of a jewish deli, sat at a tiny table with strangers, and directed to a menu completely in chinese, you are ready to shit your pants. but if you've done you're research, or have eyes, you know just to get the scrambled eggs with bread. you have no idea where these eggs are from or what is in them, but they are hands down the best scrambled eggs you've ever had.

beef brisket, special peanut sauce, steamed buns {crystal jade, bottom photo}: shocking. i would fly back to hk just to eat these.

ok.

can someone talk to me about why some countries are all about crust and others just aloof to the whole thing?

-yeh!!!