Vive la France! Part 1: The Food (of course)

Several months ago, my cousin and I went to France!  We had a wonderful time.  So, with the blogging... I'm just now getting around to writing this out.  Actually, I've been writing and then deleting and writing again... So, hopefully, I will finish this blog during my Christmas break!

There were many wonderful things about France!  And I think the struggle with writing this blog is that I had so many experiences on this trip compared to many of my other trips.  I mean, we were on the go most of the time.  We didn't have much of a rest.  So, there were so many things I could write, and it might actually take me a few blogs to get it all out.  To help me out, I will go back through my photos I posted on Facebook to get my mind going...

One of the things I really love about Paris are the restaurants and cafes that line the streets.  They are everywhere!  It makes city life more lively, and that people enjoy dining outdoors.  My cousin and I went to a few of these.    

The very first one we dined in was a crepe restaurant. We had just arrived in Paris from the airport, so we were hungry.  Whatever crepe I had was fantastic.  

On my cousin's list was an American barbecue place, lol.  So, we went there for lunch one afternoon and sat outside.  We were also served ICE!  And not just a little bit, it was a full glass of ice!  (So, in Europe, people don't use ice.  Most of the time, if they order a soda at a restaurant, it does come cold, but expect no ice.  Except American-themed restaurants, I guess.)  

We also had plenty of croissants and coffee at these little street cafes.  There was also a cafe, Les Deux Magots, where Hemingway had patroned and its famous for their hot chocolate.  It was heavenly.

We also dined in a few of indoor restaurants.  One place we went to in Paris, twice, was La Coupole.  It's mainly known for its seafood, but they also had a good variety of other dishes on their menu, such as beef tartar and steak.  The first time we went there, my cousin and I had raw clams (which I ate), raw oysters (I didn't eat them), cooked mussels, and of course escargot.  This restaurant probably had the best escargot of the entire trip (and we had escargot in a few other restaurants around Paris).  Also, to satisfy our Asian palettes, we went to eat at a Vietnamese restaurant, and it was alright.  We both had beef pho, and the broth was pretty clear, but it wasn't very flavorful.

 Another surprising thing was the bakeries at the train stations.  France has more of a train culture when it comes to long distance traveling, so their train stations are similar to a small airport.  There are food and stores, and confusing signs.  On our trip to Normandy, we stopped by a train station bakery, which had wonderful breakfast pizzas, and of course, croissants.  Even on our way back to Paris, the Rennes station had a bakery that sold "crookies": cookie dough baked inside a croissant.  Why haven't the Americans thought of this???  

Other things we ate: salads, ice cream, duck confit leg (it was amazing), the breakfast buffet at the hotel (which was mainly deli meats, cheese, bread with butter, croissants, scrambled eggs, and hot sausage, with coffee, juice, or tea), cheeseburger with "home fries" (not French fries, lol... although I have also seen pomme frites also), creme brulee, ice coffee (although not that great), country pork cheeks with a little salad bar (some random roadside restaurant but one of the better foods we ate), croque monsieur, their Burger King's "ice burger" (it was a pastry stuff with ice cream and Nutella), charcuterie (of course), French onion soup (or they just call it onion soup, haha), this brownie with cookie dough baked into it at one of the museums cafe, Paris cola, Argentine steak (wasn't too bad), eggs and bacon, sushi, Italian food (beef carpaccio, fettuccini with clams, and some of my cousin's gnocci), guacamole on toast, chicken with mash potatoes (meh), this cake with ice cream and chocolate syrup on top, some very sweet Oreo shake from a street vendor (not bad, but it was so filling), fish & chips, and then some bakery items at the airport.

Best things I ate: butter on bread (no joke), croissant, escargot.  Seriously, if I can have their croissant, I would eat it everyday.  There are French bakeries where I live but it's not the same.  Not even close.

Worst thing I ate: We went to the Louvre (the day that some of the city employees went on strike), and because we had started later than planned, my cousin and I grabbed a sandwich at their cafe.  Awful.  Worst sandwich ever.  Don't eat at the Louvre.  

Overall, I really like the food in France.  The French probably don't eat steaks and escargot every day, but I'm pretty sure they eat bread and butter every day!  And maybe it is true, I can actually eat their bread without feeling sick.  Maybe it's the way they make it or that we walked a lot (boosting our metabolism).  Maybe in an off-shoot blog, I will dive a little bit into French food history and why French food is so good.  

The next topic maybe the museums and culture or architecture... I'll have to think about how to write Part 2.  Stay tuned!

Welcome to Jo on the Go!

Hello family and friends!  Welcome to my new travel blog Jo on the Go!  One of the many things I like to do (or at least I think I like to do) is travel around.  I may not travel as much as other frequent travelers, so I hope to travel a bit more in the coming years.

About My Blog.  One thing I hope to do in this blog is to share my thoughts on what it's like traveling abroad or even domestically, particularly the culture.  I know that some of my travels will involve me being the "typical tourist" and as a tourist, sometimes you don't get the cultural experience as if you were to work and live in a country.  But there will be some obvious differences any place you go.  Another thing I hope to gain in my travels is to learn what I really like to do for vacation.  I have talked to many folks who travel a bit.  There are those who like big cities and see and do as many things as possible.  There are those who like to go to a cabin in the mountains, a beach house at the beach, or camping in the woods, and just relax.  There are the adventurers who like to climb mountains, run marathons in another country, paragliding in the Swiss Alps, or do some other kind of extreme sports.  There are those I've seen travel just to east food.  So for me, I am still figuring that out.  Lastly, I'm writing so I remember what I did.  As someone in my 40's, I'm starting to forget things, so writing provides a way to exercise my creative side and remember things.  And maybe a small part of my blog is some tips that helps me travel (such as what travel items and accessories work for me, what works in one country doesn't work in another country, etc.).  

The Places I've Been. Gosh, a lot of places.  But not nearly enough.  I was born in Hong Kong, and raised in the U.S, and been to a lot of places in between.  I have been (back) to Hong Kong and China, Toronto, Israel, London, Seoul, and most recently France.  I have been to 23 states in the U.S., mostly up and down the East Coast, but I have been to the West Coast as well.  

Places I would like to Go.  I really would like to go back to the UK and explore other parts of the country.  It seems like a small island, but it's rather large and rich with culture. Spain, Italy, Greece, Japan, Thailand, India, and New Zealand are also on my list of places to visit.  And also at some point, I'd like to rent an RV and drive around the U.S. to places I have not been.  😁

My Home Base.  I live in the Southeast U.S.  Growing up in the South as a Chinese American pose a unique experience in understanding culture.  This is probably why I'm fascinated with other cultures and different people around the world.  I wasn't aware that I was different until I went to elementary school.  And when I started going to school, for a time, I thought I was supposed to be white.  I think by middle school, I realize I had an identity crisis.  I didn't go to church like the others, or we didn't have the typical American Thanksgiving meals, so these types of things started to click.  I think it was well after I graduated from college that I started to embrace my unique blend of cultures.  

Conclusion.  So, I hope my travel blog will educate and inspire you guys, or just that you learn a little bit more about me and how I see the world.

Also, you might have seen two other blogs that I have written before, one in 2023 and one in 2024.  I actually moved these from another blog to here as I thought these two fits better into what I'm trying to achieve with this blog.

Korea's Got Seoul: Things I've Learned

 

(First written and published on November 1, 2024 on my other blog.)

About a month ago, I came back from vacation to Hong Kong and South Korea.  Since I've been to Hong Kong many times, it's not a culture shock to me anymore.  However, I've never been to South Korea, and surprisingly, it was a bit underwhelming.  But nonetheless, here are some things I learned about Seoul, South Korea:

1. There were so many coffee shops and a lot of bagel shops as well.  They even have a chain (at least in Seoul) called the London Bagel Museum.  I thought it was meh.  And there were the occasional Western/French bakeries, which I think Korea might have out-did France on this one.  There was a bakery I went to at the Incheon-Seoul International Airport that was pretty good.  It's sort of like Tour les Jour which is another Korean/French bakery that has an international presence.  There two Tour Les Jours in Charlotte.

2.  Restaurants serve cold water.  Maybe not ice water, but it was definitely cold.  (This is comparing to China and Hong Kong, where restaurants serve hot tea or hot water.)  Or maybe it was just Seoul, where there are a lot more tourists.

3. 7-11 sells cups of ice.  I don't think I saw cups of ice being sold at the 7-11's in Hong Kong.  Koreans really like cold drinks.  I had to buy a cup of ice one evening because I had left my drink out on the table, so it became room temperature.  It was nice to have iced soda.  

4. In Seoul, Uber partnered with the local taxi drivers.  You can still try to flag a taxi driver, but your best bet is to use Uber.  It's the same, or similar, price.  You can also use the subway system, but it was a little confusing and most everything was in the Korean language.  If you study the map, I think it may not be that hard to navigate Seoul via subway.

5. In observing the Korean people, they dress very proper.  I feel like they dress up more, even when they go out to the shopping malls, or to a local restaurant.  They are not slobs.  And their color schemes are more neutral, pale pastels, and blues.  No extreme colors that you may see in the U.S.

6. Korean food is a billion times better than what I had in the U.S.  My cousins, brother, and I had a lot of Korean barbecue, and a few times we had soup bowls or tofu bowls.  One time we had Korean bar food, which was interesting.  The first night, we had Korean fried chicken.  I think I was taking a shower, so when I came out, my brother and one of my cousins came back with some chicken.  My cousins and brother already ate most of it, so I guess it wasn't as crunchy as I had hope.  

7. We received a few text messages (in Korean) from the local Korean government.  It was strange, actually.  I had to take a screenshot and translate what was going on.  If my old phone hadn't died, I would share at least one of them in this blog.  But generally, the text was communicating that the few days we were there, they were exercising demonstrations leading up to their Armed Forces Day on October 1st, and not to be alarmed if you hear military airplanes.  But then, we were so close to North Korea, you never know...I guess this is normal for South Koreans.  At least we didn't get poop dropped on us.

8. The Sunday we were there, we walked to one of the royal palaces.  A church had set up service outdoors in the main street and blaring (in a nice way) "What a Friend We have in Jesus" (in Korean).  All of my cousins grew up going to church, and my brother and I have been to church as well, so we knew the song in the language we have learned it, and we felt that we were going to church on our way.  But to point out, South Korea is the one of the few democratic nations in Asia, and they have freedom of religion.  There are a lot of Christians in South Korea.  And it's the most Christian thing I've experienced outside of the United States.

9. Not-so-automatic doors!  But it is electronically operated.  Some stores in Korea, especially those facing the street, will have doors with a button on the door.  Instead of automatic doors, where there is a sensor at the top of the frame that sense people coming in or out, you have to push the button to open the door.  And then do not let the door shut on you!  It won't sense that someone is inside the frame of the doorway.  

10. It was so surprisingly... Western.  I was a little bit shocked to experience what I call "reverse culture shock" when you expect one thing but find out it to be very similar to the culture in which you came from.  And I don't know what the culture was like before the Korean War, but South Korea felt weirdly Western.  I may have to work and live amongst them long term to get the full effect, as I heard their work culture is extremely stressful, especially those who work in an office setting.  

I think that's all I can think of right now.  I think I may go back to South Korea some day and travel to other regions of the country.  I think I will get a lot more out of going to different places and experiencing other local cultures.

London: My Impression

  

Side view of Westminster Abbey

(First written and published on July 10, 2023 on my other blog)

Now that it's been over a week and I have decompressed and somewhat rested from my trip to London, I want to take a moment on what I really think about London.

As my dad said before my trip, "Once you've been to a big city, you have seen them all."  To a degree, that's true but this is London.  How similar (or different) can it be?  And to my (un)surprise, he was somewhat correct.  I have been to many cities, Hong Kong being one of the largest.  London by far has more people than Hong Kong but London is spread out, where as Hong Kong folks are packed in like sardines.  And there are a lot of similarities between London and Hong Kong which I will note later in the blog.

One of the things I liked about London are the buildings.  Being in engineering, I often marvel at the old buildings in some of the older cities, not just in London but also cities in the United States.  I often think about what it really took to design the buildings, build the buildings, the cost, the time, the labor.  It took a very long time considering the technology they had back then.  And to this day, a lot of these older buildings still stand in London.  There are a lot of new buildings, which are just as impressive, like The Gherkin and The Shard.  

Another thing that I like is that there is a pub on almost every corner of London.  At least there were a few in each district/neighborhood.  They all pretty much have the same items on their menu: fish & chips, sausage/bangers & mash, some type of burger, maybe the Ploughman's lunch.  What I like most at the pub is the house beer.  It may be from a local brewery but it is usually a lager or light beer and oh my, it's oh so good.  There was one pub that didn't have a light beer, so I opt for a very light IPA, which was still pretty strong to my taste.  Almost every beer comes in a pint, so it's actually a bit much for me, but it is rather good.

Most folks say English food is not so good.  And although I don't know if I had any actual English food, the food that I ate were alright.  I think my favorite is the fish & chips.  The first evening, my friend and I went to a local chippy shop and I was like, wow, the fish was so fresh.  The chips (fried potatoes) were alright and I usually love potato anything.  I learned that that is how the English serve them with the fish.  This particular chippy also had other side items, which I could have ordered instead of the chips, but I thought I want the authentic dish.  And I also learned that fish & chips were not originally from England but were introduced by Portuguese Jewish from a long time ago.  

Another thing that I ate was sausage rolls.  This was actually bought from the supermarket (grocery store).  It was on sale at Waitrose, so my friend and I bought a pack to try.  Those were good, although I don't know if they were the real thing or if this was considered good to the English people.  (Not pictured.)  I also tried Anglo-Indian food, which I thought might taste better than the U.S. version, but I was thoroughly disappointed that it was rather sweet than spicy.  I thought maybe I ordered the wrong things.  

I did also bought some take-away from a local Chinese restaurant that served roast duck and pork belly, and I was like, eh, this is alright.  It taste just like the U.S. versions.  It was good, though, to have a taste of something familiar.  

The Ploughman's lunch I had at a pub near Trafalgar Square was amazing.  I didn't know that something so simple can be so good.  It had homemade bread, cheese, meats, a beef roll and Scotch eggs.  I was really wanting to try the Scotch eggs and those were great.  And of course the beer was good.

Another thing I tried is a Full English Breakfast (not pictured).  I think it might have been better if I went to a restaurant but it was good as a take-away.  The baked beans were a little strange to have for breakfast (taste was fine), and having tomatoes and mushroom was a bit strange too.  But the rashers, sausage, and eggs were good.     

Since I'm on the topic of food (and other cultural differences), I would say that even though I felt the price was reasonable, the portion was a bit smaller compared to the United States.  I think there's been a few meals where I could get two meals out of it, but most of the time, I was able to finish the meal.  Even when you buy a bottle of soda/soft drink, it is usually about 375 ml or 12 oz, where as in the U.S. it's usually a 16 oz bottle.  And I believe Europeans don't believe in ice, so don't expect ice to be serve with that water or soda.  You can ask for it but the servers will give you a little bit.  Most fridges with bottled water or soft drink are not as cold like the U.S., so don't expect icy cold bottled drinks.  But I'm actually not too bothered by it because I knew before going Europeans do not have the same love affair for ice as Americans do.  It makes sense to me; Europe is a colder place, further up the northern hemisphere, and they do not expect really hot humid temperatures like the U.S.  Also, based on my assumptions, using refrigerators at cold temperature could be a contributor to global warming.  I'll have to look into that.  (Which doesn't explain why Southern Chinese do not use ice; that might be another story for another day.)  They use paper straws (although, that is also a trend in the U.S. but not as popular).  The fridge in the apartment (or they call it flats instead of apartments) was rather large for a British home, but usually refrigerators in Great Britain are much smaller as they frequent the supermarket more often during the week.  I have had to go to a few coffee shops to order iced coffee or iced mocha.  Now I don't know if that is cultural accepted in the UK to have cold coffee, but it taste rather similar to the ones I've had in the U.S.

One thing that surprised me is that although I knew most of Europe do not expect a tip, restaurants in the UK are starting to charge a service fee on the bill (we would call it a check in the U.S. instead of the bill).  In the UK, they pay a decent wage to their employees, so to see this service charge was surprising but also reflects the changing culture on tipping and service fees, or just making sure they account for any unexpected rise in food and material cost.  Not all restaurants charge this fee. 

There was one day I went to two museums by myself.  Getting there and coming back was rather easy, as I will explain at the end of this blog.  I went to the Science Museum first and I thought, meh, I have seen and read about all these technology, so it was nothing new to me.  The Natural History Museum was kind of a disappoinment.  Again, I felt I knew the history but because many buildings in London did not have air-conditioning (and London was experiencing a heat wave that week), I was burning up.  And the further in you go into the building, the hotter it gets.  They had fans blowing in many areas of the museums but it only circulating the heat and humidity.  So I didn't spend too much time in that museum.  Had I known more about the British Museum, I would have gone there instead.

One of the main reasons I went to London was because the MLB has a game playing there for the MLB London Series.  My friend is a die-hard Chicago Cubs fan, and she really wanted to go, so I thought I would join her and tour London around the events of the game.  The game we went to on Sunday was alright, but not as exciting as I would hope.  I think because it was played at 3:10 in the afternoon and it was already a hot, humid day, so many folks there were just hot.  

I think overall, I thought it was a good trip, it being my first time in London and in Europe.  

But... in many many ways, it was all that I expected.    And in many ways, it wasn't as spectacular as I would hope.  Here are a few reasons why:

1. Hong Kong is almost a copy of London when it comes to transportation.  London may have been one of the first cities with a subway/underground train system, but it's system has influenced other cities around the world, including Hong Kong and I felt Hong Kong had made their system better.  So, it's no wonder when I first step into the subway in London, it was all too familiar with "minding the gap", the way the Tube system is laid out on the map, and even the type of trains that were used.  
2. The use of the Oyster card is very similar to Hong Kong's Octopus card.  
3. Speaking of transportation, both London and Hong Kong uses double-decker buses. I can't say which is better; it's a bus to me.
4. Also, both countries drive on the left side of the road.  And taxi/cab drivers drive the same way, kind of within sanity and kind of crazy at the same time.  You don't know how many times my friend and I have said, "He's just driving around to charge us more money."  
5. Hong Kong uses British English in writing, but "Chinglish" is its own language in Hong Kong.  However, many Hong Kongers do speak English in a somewhat British accent.
6. I've been privileged to work with many Brits in my career, some from as far north as Manchester and as far south and west as Gloucestershire.  So, for me to interact with the Brits in England was not as crazy as I would thought.  I actually understood them, even the boy with a cockney accent who owned the souvenir stand on Westminster bridge.  Many were nice and friendly, as they could tell I'm not from around there.
7. There are a lot of different types of people in London, so it's fair to say that London is a melting pot of many different people from around the world, much like Hong Kong.  I kind of expected that since England has invaded and took over many countries around the world for many hundreds of years.  One thing that sort of surprised me is that I didn't really experience real English/British culture.  Maybe I have but it wasn't apparent to me.  

Because of all the items above, I felt very very comfortable navigating my way around London.  I wasn't culture shocked at all and in some ways, I was expecting a culture shock.  But I knew too much about British and European culture that nothing was a complete surprise to me.  Don't get me wrong, I greatly respect the English culture, but I wasn't as impressed as I would hoped.  However, I think I will need to go back again in the future just to explore and may venture outside of London to experience Great Britain in a different way.