TRIP + PLATE + 365 days
Mong Kok doesn’t ease you in. From the moment you come up from the MTR and hit the street level, the neighborhood announces itself — the density of people, the noise of competing music from adjacent shops, the smell of street food mixing with the exhaust of buses on Nathan Road, the vertical stacking of … Read more
If Tsim Sha Tsui is where you go to look at Hong Kong, Central is where you go to be inside it. I moved from my Kowloon hotel to the AKVO Hotel in Central on the third day of my January trip, crossing on the Star Ferry, and the difference was immediate — the energy … Read more
If you’re visiting Hong Kong for the first time and wondering where to base yourself, the answer for most people is Tsim Sha Tsui. I stayed here for the first two nights of my January trip — at the YMCA Salisbury Hotel, steps from the harbor — and the neighborhood delivered everything a first-time visitor … Read more
Hong Kong has one of the most distinctive food cultures in Asia — a city where a bowl of wonton noodles served in a ten-seat shophouse can be as carefully considered as anything in a Michelin-starred restaurant, and where the morning ritual of yum cha (dim sum with tea) is taken as seriously as any … Read more
Seoul is one of those cities that arrives faster than you expect. You land at Incheon, take the Airport Express into the city, and within an hour you’re standing in a neighborhood where a 600-year-old palace sits three blocks from a convenience store selling the best fried chicken you’ve ever had, with a K-pop song … Read more
Bangkok is a city that operates on its own logic. The traffic moves in ways that shouldn’t work but somehow do. Street food served from a cart on a corner beats restaurants that took months to book. A massage that costs less than a coffee in most cities leaves you feeling better than anything a … Read more
Madrid doesn’t have a river worth mentioning, no sea view, no ancient ruins on the scale of Rome. What it has instead is something harder to define and ultimately more addictive: an energy that runs later, eats better, and talks louder than almost any other European capital. I’ve been in every season — the city … Read more
Rome doesn’t ease you in gently. From the moment you step out of the airport transfer and into the city, it hits you all at once — ancient ruins sitting casually between modern apartment buildings, scooters weaving past 2,000-year-old walls, the smell of espresso from a bar that’s been in the same spot for decades. … Read more
There’s a version of Tokyo that exists in everyone’s imagination before they arrive — neon lights, bullet trains, vending machines on every corner, cherry blossoms over ancient temples. The surprising thing is that Tokyo actually delivers on all of it, and then keeps going. I’ve been multiple times, across different seasons, and the city has … Read more
If you’re planning a trip to Hong Kong in winter and wondering whether the timing is right, here’s the short answer: it’s one of the best times to go. I visited in January and came back with a clear view — not just of the city, but literally. The winter sky in Hong Kong is … Read more