Hyderabad

My company has offices in India - the tech-centric Hyderabad (also called Cyberabad) and in the coastal college town of Bhimavaram. I had the pleasure to visit our team, experience the local culture and taste amazing South Indian cuisine.

Note: video password is my first name, lower case

Hyderabad is a fascinating mix of the modern Cyberabad offices, developing city under massive construction, and deeply historical South Indian and Muslim influenced culture and architecture.

Upper Haight Food/Drink Crawl

Haight Ashbury is in most San Francisco tourist books as the center of the '60s hippie movement, though today it's another commercial street with boutiques, albeit some more colorful than the norm. I rarely make it over, but there are a few visit worthy spots. Loosely based on a local foodie walking tour of the neighborhood, I put together a food/drink crawl for some friends on a Saturday afternoon.

The total distance is just about a mile, though is a little aggressive on the consumption side. If you had something at each stop, it could be a chocolate bacon-beer-juice-piroshki-ice cream-soda-cocktail-alcoholic fountain soda kind of day ;)

Here’s the itinerary…

2:30 PM 

Bacon Bacon - 205 A Frederick Street at Ashbury - Porky food truck turned little storefront. Known for porky fries, pork belly, and breakfast sandwiches. I think I’m getting a bacon grilled cheese and/or dark chocolate covered bacon. They close at 3PM, so first stop. 

3:00 PM

Magnolia Pub & Brewery - 1398 Haight at Masonic - beer. I actually don’t know what is good there, but I know beer lovers think it’s great. Gastropub menu.

4:00 PM

Second Act Marketplace and Events - 1727 Haight Street at Shrader - a neighborhood public space with several kinds of food and drink places (open til 6PM)

• Raw - fancy fresh juice place. $6.50 for 16oz, and usually for cleanses, but might be a nice drink mid day
• Anda Piroshki - Russian food. I’m between beef+cheese or mushroom+kale piroshki (~$4)
• Eatwell Farm’s Icebox - organic soft serve and handmade butter cones

The Fizzary - 1782 Haight at Shrader - really cool soda pop and candy store. All sodas $2 for all sorts of crazy stuff (open til 7PM)

5:00 PM

Alembic - 1725 Haight at Cole - phenomenal cocktails and delicious bar food. I love the pickled quail eggs. If we only went here, I’d be perfectly happy :)

6:00 PM

The Ice Cream Bar - 815 Cole St at Frederick - old school diner with food, ice cream, and alcoholic fountain sodas. I’m between the Dublin Honey (guinness, caramelized honey ice cream, chocolate and port) or the Port Egg Nog. Good beer list too.

*Link to map

SF Eats and Drinks

I have multiple food and drink lists for SF, and some Aussie friends pointed out to me that I don't have a "go-to" SF list to share, so here goes...

San Francisco is a foodie town. A little obnoxious at times, but we have amazing quality and diversity of food and love to critique, recommend and post every delicious, unique, food porn-worthy dish that we come across. There's Michelin-stars to hole-in-the-walls with phenomenal food, so will try to give some context for each.

I write this list for visitors who have a limited number of SF meals and drinks to experience. Includes both corporate/work-appropriate restaurants as well as casual places.

SF has more micro-neighborhoods than a 7x7 mile city should merit. Here's one view of SF neighborhood stereotypes (funny and pretty accurate). I will try to stick to the names in the map here.

Pro-tip: Download the Yelp app (also a website). Reviews are user generated so take or leave those, but it's the best resource for restaurant information in the Bay Area.

Check out SFEater's 38 Essential SF Restaurants, which gets updated every few months with the latest foodie recs.

My Favorites
This list crosses many genres but here's my top list...

• Spruce (Presidio Heights) - food is phenomenal (Michelin one star), bartenders fantastic and one of the few white linen, men-in-jacket fancy restaurants in SF. I love sitting at the bar (burger off of bar menu). Definitely get the beignet for dessert.
• State Bird Provisions (Western Addition/Fillmore) - it's the hot spot in town now. Reservations go 60 days in advance, but you can walk in day-of if you show up right when it opens (literally, people taskrabbit to wait in line). But it's worth it, hard to describe but California/Asian fusion dim sum. Get their eponymous signature dish and definitely get as many small dishes as you can eat off of their carts. Four people is optimal for this, hard for big group. Their new outpost next door, The Progress, is also wonderful if you can get a res.
• Lolinda (Mission) - Argentinean steakhouse and Latin tapas in a trendy former club with great, rich food and fantastic cocktails. Rooftop bar El Techo is nice before or after.
• Kokkari (FiDi) - standard on the SF lists, Kokkari has fantastic Mediterranean, huge brick oven with whole animal specials, extensive wine list. It's in my top two Mediterranean/Greek (other is Evvia in Palo Alto, very similar). Right in FiDi so it's filled with work dinners during the week.
• Burma Love (Mission) - outpost of the better known Burma Superstar, but I love this casual Burmese restaurant and bar on Valencia and Duboce. Signature tea leaf salad and samosa soup are phenomenal, as are most of their extensive menu. No reservations, so prime hours might be tough for a group.
• Beretta (Mission) - wonderful Italian on Valencia at 23rd with fantastic cocktails and wonderful food. Their menu is always changing but always a great experience. Love their small dishes like eggplant caponatina and walnut bread with buratta and truffle oil, and great pizzas. You can call an hour before to be put on the list, or otherwise be prepared to wait 
• NOPA (Western Addition) - New American over on Divisadero, phenomenal food and cocktails, get reservations in advance

Asian
There is fantastic Asian food, particularly as you go away from the center of SF in Sunset and Richmond, because, well, that's where all of the Asians live (same with the South Bay... I actually think the Asian food in San Jose is better than SF). These tend to be more casual so they may be less work meal appropriate.

• Basil Canteen (SoMa) - this is my favorite Thai place though it's a dark horse in the SF Thai polls. I love the space, an old warehouse with exposed brick, looks super Brooklyn trendy, but they have legit Thai food and I think it's one of the best here. There's not much else in this immediate neighborhood, but I highly recommend going down the block to Bar Agricole for amazing cocktails before or after a meal at Basil Canteen. 
• Kin Khao (Union Square) - close #2 for amazing Thai.
• Dosa (2 locations - Mission, Western Addition/Japantown) - fantastic South Indian place, and quite nice. This could be ok for corporate.
• Lers Roi Thai (3 locations, but the Tenderloin one has best food. Mission is great as it's in the middle of a lot of bars, and Hayes Valley meh) - great authentic Thai but in a nice but casual environment.
• Burma Superstar (Richmond) - really popular Burmese place. Also try B Star, which is nearby with not nearly the wait, and Burma Love on Duboce/Valencia.
• PPQ Dungeness Island (Richmond) - CRABS! They give you bibs but wear clothes that you can get dirty. Also fantastic non-crab Vietnamese dishes.
• Cafe Bunn Mi (Inner Richmond) - casual Vietnamese and delicious banh mi sandwiches, recommend the crispy duck!

Japanese
This is my list of real Japanese places (aka run by Japanese people). There are very good Japanese places in SF, but if you come from somewhere with good Japanese food and you only had a few meals here, I'd go with other cuisine. If you don't

• Sakana (Tenderloin) and Kiji (Noe Valley) have good sushi
• Eiji (Castro), Izakaya Roku (Upper Market) and Kappou Gomi (Richmond) are good izakayas (small dishes)
• Ramen Yamadaya (Pac Heights/Japantown) or Ken Ken (Mission) for ramen
• Maruya (Mission) for high end Japanese

Mediterranean/Middle Eastern

• Kokkari (FiDi)
• Zare at Fly Trap (SoMa)
• Aziza (Richmond)
• Saha (Tenderloin)

Italian

• Beretta (Mission)
• A16 (Marina) and SPQR (Pac Heights)
• Flour + Water (Mission)
• Zero Zero (SoMa)

Mexican
Like the Asian food, there are a handful of fancy Mexican places and then the really really good $7 meal holes in the Mission. El Castillito is my go-to burrito place on Church (Upper Market, Mission). Ones below are sit down spots.

• La Urbana (Western Addition) - a new trendy Mexican fusion place with interesting cocktails
• Tacolicious (3 locations - Mission, Marina, North Beach)
• Mamacita (Marina)

Other Cuisines

• Limon Rotissarie (Mission) - I'm partial to the Limon on Valencia/16th, though there's Van Ness too. Great Latin but definitely get their chicken
• Beso (Castro) - Spanish/tapas
• Locanda (Mission) - Californian, great cockails

Someone else's expense account

• Benu (SoMa) - really innovative New American. If you want to be aggressive, the 18-course tasting menu is worth the arm and leg.
• Maruya (Mission) - Japanese
• Saison (SoMa) - New American
• Gary Danko (North Beach) - New American
• Hakkasan (SoMa) - Chinese
• Campton Place (Civic Center/Union Sq) - really fancy Indian fusion in the Taj Hotel, the food is beautiful and the service is out of this world (or at least this country, is it truly exceptional).

Near Union Square
Most of the big hotels are in and around Union Square. Here are some options within walking distance.

• Lunch - Kin Khao (Thai) in Parc 55 hotel
• Small dinners - Aveline (Modern/New American) is my new favorite, in the Warwick Hotel, great cocktails (though Top Chef Casey Thompsen just left...), Millenium (veg), Lers Roi Thai (Thai), Sakana (Japanese)
• Work/group dinners - Bluestem Brasserie (New American), Amber India (Indian), Morton's (steak), Tropisueno (Mexican)
• Expense account - Campton Place (fusion Indian), Farallon (seafood), Hakkasan (Cantonese)
• Bars - Hopwater Distribution (beer), Burritt Room (cocktails), Press Club (wine bar), Bourbon & Branch (cocktails, but for smaller group/reservation), Mikkeller Bar (gastropub), Golden Gate Tap Room (sports bar), Rickhouse (cocktail/whiskey)

Near Moscone
Here are a few lunch spots near Moscone if you want something besides conference food...

• Tin Vietnamese Cuisine is on Howard between 5th and 6th, good pho and other Vietnamese dishes, pretty fast for lunch
• Samovar Tea Lounge is in Yerba Buena, great healthy tea sets and a la carte dishes
• Spice Kit is a little further down Howard at 1st. I call it the Asian Chipotle - fast food, made to order bowls and wraps but with pork belly and fried lotus root chips. My favorite is the ssam wrap with Korean short rib and kimchi rice in a rice paper wrap (like a massive spring roll).

For Views

• La Mar (FiDi) - Peruvian and seafood, on Embarcadero
• Cliff House (Seacliff) - seafood/American place on the western cliffs over the Pacific by Sutro Baths and Lands End
• Greens (Marina) - vegetarian dining with beautiful views of the Marina and Golden Gate Bridge

Veggie Friendly

• Greens (Marina) 
• Samovar Tea Lounge (3 locations - Yerba Buena, Hayes Valley, Castro) - one of my favorites when I just want to feel good after a meal. Great teas and tea sets, veggie friendly though their smoked salmon is amazing.
• Gracias Madre (Mission) - vegan Mexican
• Saha (Civic Center) - Arabic fusion food and it's not purely vegetarian but they have a great veggie dishes and a three course veggie prix fixe for $35 that is delicious and filling
• Millenium - sadly the Civic Center location closed and moved to Oakland, would is worth the trip to a every innovative and delicious vegan restaurant for business travelers who are sick of heavy American food
• See this great GitHub list of SF vegetarian restaurants

Brunch

• Mission Beach Cafe (Mission) - best ever. Go at 8:45AM to put your name down so you are in the first seating when it opens at 9AM. Otherwise it can be anywhere from 30-90 minute wait. Four Barrel Coffee is two blocks away for coffee drinkers
• Foreign Cinema (Mission) - like Mission Beach Cafe, go early to sit or make a reservation, lovely brunch or other meals
• Plow (Potrero Hill) - another place with a line, but delicious brunch. I'm obsessed with their potatoes.

Ice Cream

SFers also are religious about their ice cream. I am less so, and there are better lists but here are some places to try

• Bi-Rite (Mission) - kitty corner from the NE corner of Dolores Park. Salted caramel, yum! There's a line for the cones that wraps around the block, but cut to the front to get soft serve or go for a pint, you'll eat it!
• Mitchell's (Bernal Heights)
• Humphrey Slocombe (Mission)
• Smitten (Hayes Valley) - made to order liquid-nitrogen formed ice cream that is actually delicious (and founded by my classmate :) 

Beer
Craft microbrews are hipster cool and the state must consume like 80% of the beer industry's hops. We like our beers hoppy and you'll see India Pale Ales and Double IPAs dominate taps in the city.

• Toronado (Lower Haight)
• Monk's Kettle (Mission)
• Hopwater Distribution (Civic Center)
• Southern Pacific Brew (Mission)
• Mikkeller Bar (Civic Center)
• 21st Amendment (SoMa)

Here is also a handy SF beer map and pub crawl recommendation.

Cocktails
Great "mixology" programs across the city, here are some of my favorites.

• Bourbon & Branch (Civic Center) - this is THE cocktail bar in SF. It's a "speakeasy" so you need a password to get in the door. Recommend getting a reservation online, or if you want to just check it out, say "books" to get in the library, though it can get packed
• Burritt Room (Civic Center)
• Rickhouse (Civic Center)
• Alembic (Upper Haight)
• Trick Dog (Mission)
• Armory Bar (Mission) - a little risque for work engagements, as it's related to the Armory across the street, home to Kink.com. But the bar is a great lounge with fantastic mixed drinks and subtle reference to its namesake in the artwork on the wall.

Here's my Yelp cocktail list.

You may notice "Wine" is missing as a category. I haven't found wine bars that I love, and any decent restaurant or bar in SF has good wine. If you can get out of the city for half a day, go to the source - here's the Napa and Sonoma post.

Etc.
Off the Grid is a fun way to experience the SF food scene - the food truck festival happens weekly and you can usually locate the individual trucks on Twitter

#fatkidsaturday - if you have a Saturday afternoon to eat and drink your way through a neighborhood, try this out. We've only done it for Haight-Ashbury so far, but hope to add more!

All of my Yelp reviews - http://aki-eats.yelp.com

Favorite global restaurant list on Pinterest - http://www.pinterest.com/akiwee/favorite-restaurants/

More on visit recommendations for San Francisco and the Bay Area

Brazil

Here are some notes from a lovely week in Brazil in August 2013. I spent four days in Angra Dos Reis, a beach town about two hours drive from Rio, and then five days in Rio, enjoying "being a local" while I stayed at friends' apartment in Leblon and hung out with friends for their wedding celebration.

This is a short addendum to the Rio de Janeiro blog post from a family vacation in September 2008, which has much more touristy details.

Here are highlights
* Angra Dos Reis - lovely small beach town with windy ocean side roads that connect little villages
* Pousada Jamanta - wonderful hotel away near Angra Dos Reis, and they run their own dive shop!
* Great restaurants

Angra Dos Reis
Pousada Jamanta - Diana speaks English and Spanish, and we corresponded with her via email to arrange all of the details of our stay, including the scuba diving and the driver (atendimento@pousadajamanta.com.br).
+55 24 33651374
www.pousadajamanta.com.br

Awesome driver - Rodrigo Rezende
+55 21 67403804
+55 21 77030061
rodrigotransfer@hotmail.com

Singapore

*I've been to Singapore for work several times, but my buddy Jarod's just sent his thoughts from spending three months living there in response to a coworker whose brother is heading there. His recs are at the top, mine below

• If he's there on the last Thursday of the month, have him to go New Asia club. It's at the top of a hotel (72nd floor), but on this day they open up the helipad (2 floors higher) and turn it into a bar. Best experience in Singapore, hands down, and also best 360 degree, unimpeded views!
• Gardens by the Bay – free to walk around and open til 2am, or can pay and get in the cloud forest and a couple other spots (close at 9pm)… supposed to be very much worth it, but just did the outside gardens and those were awesomely lit up and Avatar-ish
• Little India – Great place to get out and walk around and smell the aromas. There's a great hawker center just right off the MRT exit that's cheap and good
• Arab Quarter – a couple streets, by the Bugis MRT, with lots of row shops and restaurants. Arab Street is closed off for cars and you can walk and get great Turkish food along here. Blu Jazz is a highly recommended bar… best pita bread I've ever had, and thus best shwarma I've ever had too.
• Brewerkz – great brewery with an incredible happy hour (12-3pm). Right on the water in Clarke Quay and can sit outside and enjoy a pint of good beer (in Singapore this is an incredible find)
• Clarke Quay
• Good Beer Company – this is a hawker stall in Chinatown just off Eu Tong Sen St and Smith St (take the MRT to Chinatown stop, or Outram Park and walk a couple more blocks). Actually have Californian beers along with Belgians, Germans, ciders, and all at a good price in Singapore standards ($8-$10 US)
• Night Safari – I didn't do this, but it's the #1 attraction in Singapore, and I wanted to. Supposed to be very cool.
• Din Tai Fung – dim sum chain that's Michelin rated and absolutely epic. Bring me back some!
• If he runs, go do the Promenade or ECP
• Merlion Park – kind of cool… a merlion is the national figure, and they've got a big statue with a nice view of downtown behind it. Cool at night or sunset.
• Stay away from Orchard Rd – just shopping malls, which Singapore has way too many of in the first place

Per Aki...

• Hawker malls – the food in Singapore is phenomenal. In a brilliant move to get street vendors off the street, they put them all in these highly regulated food malls that have amazing cheap food all around the city. Very specialized vendors, so you can get one dish from like four or five different places. Famous Singaporean dishes are chicken rice, chili crab, and fish head curry.
• Marina Bay – new casino that opened a few years ago. The bar at the top is free to get to (drinks are like $20) but has awesome views of the city. The Garden by the Bay next to it is this awesome public garden with these funky clusters of Super Trees
• Orchard Road is the famous shopping road. Not a stop for me but if you like that kind of thing...
• Transportation - Very easy to get around on MRT (subway) though taxis aren’t bad either
• My favorite restaurant in Singapore is Samy’s Curry House, but it is kind of far from central Singapore in Dempsey (15 min cab?). They’ve really developed this area the last few years so there are a lot of great high and mid end restaurants (and some bars) there now.

Taipei 台北

 *Notes from my friend Amy, a Taipei-native, for my visit to the city

通化街夜市 (tong-hua-jie-yie-shi), it's within walking distance to the hotel. You need to try the 米粉湯, 大腸麵線, 炸雞排, and 烤香腸

Taipei 101 is close by as well but not that exciting. I've heard good things about the restaurant at the top floors but I have never been.

You can take the cab or MRT to 鼎泰豐 (Dintaifung), they have one close to your hotel, here's the address: 台北市忠孝東路四段218號. After you're done, you should go to 東區粉圓. It's like 2-3 minutes walk from 鼎泰豐, but I don't know the exact address. If you ask people at the restaurant, they will show you the directions. It basically dessert with boba but it is really really good

鼎王 (Dinwang), it's the best hotpot place ever. Remember I invited you over for hotpot last year when I first got back from Taiwan, I carried their soup base all the way back from Taiwan. So there's tofu and duck blood in the soup and that's all you can eat, you order everything else. They have great shrimp balls, and the fish tofu is great!

Here's the address: 台北市松山區光復北路89號

You might need to make reservation coz they get really crowded on weekends.

Tokyo Layover

*This was an email I sent a friend who had a 9 hour layover at Narita. Here's some advice on what to do if you only have a few hours to get out to Tokyo and back!

**If you have the opportunity to fly through Haneda (HND) rather than Narita (NRT), you'll be much closer to central Tokyo (20 min train ride)

So 9 hours is a lot of time to spend in Narita. Unfortunately it is 60-90 min from Tokyo, but if you don't mind packing in the visit, I would definitely try to get into the city for a few hours and for a meal or two, especially if you haven't been. This also depends on what time your layover is since transportation is an issue in the odd hours of the night. Here's my blog with general info on Japan and Tokyo.

You can get to Tokyo on the limousine bus or Narita Express train -- roughly same price (about 3000 yen) but timing is different (buses run every 30-60 min depending on the hotel, Narita Express every 15 min) and the train is more reliable during rush hour. The buses go to major hotels in many parts of the city, Narita Express goes to a few major train stations (go to Tokyo or Shinjuku).

The bus will be right outside of where you come out of customs, look for the orange sign. The bus schedules will be on the board and you'll have to look for the specific neighborhood/hotel. I would recommend these two bus lines

• Ginza-Shiodome - get off at Imperial Hotel (Frank Lloyd Wright building!) and you can wander around Ginza on Omotesando Road, equivalent to 5th Ave in NY or Rodeo Drive (or Jarod's favorite Gangnam) Also short walk to the Imperial Palace, and there are great little strips of restaurants and bars near Shimbashi train station. 
• Shibuya - get off at Shibuya Excel Hotel Tokyu and Shibuya is a fun area with younger shopping, bars and restaurants. It also has the crazy huge intersection (8 ways) that you always see in movies (it's the one in Lost in Translation with the pink dinosaur). One stop from Harajuku which is a fun strip and that is right at Meiji Jingu Shrine and Yoyogi Park. Actually if you're there on Sunday, the "Harajuku girls" who get all dressed up hang out at the Harajuku station bridge by Yoyogi Park on Sundays, you should definitely check it out! 

The Narita Express will get you to Tokyo or Shinjuku station. The train platform will be down the escalators from the arrivals area. You want the JR Narita Express, not the Keio Skyliner (also to Tokyo but to different parts of the city). Shinjuku is closer to Shibuya and Tokyo is closer to Ginza and Tsukiji. Both of those stations are enormous, but the signs are in English to get out. Would be easiest to find (or ask for) the metro - the subway is color coded and numbered and in English.

 

If you have evening time and are leaving from Shinjuku station, stop at the Park Hyatt Hotel which is a short walk from the station. The New York bar at the top is where Bill Murray spends most of his time in Lost in Translation. Expensive drinks, but beautiful night city views.  

 

***Note: The famous Tsukiji fish markets were shuttered and moved to Toyosu in preparation for the Tokyo Olympics and to modernize this important market's infrastructure. Toyosu website. Sushi-bun is also at Toyosu now.

On Tsukiji. As Jarod knows, it is my favorite place in the world to eat and if you have a chance to go, it is totally worth it! It is the largest fish market in the world, and though they don't love tourists in the tuna auctions these days, you can walk around miles of the market and also get the best sushi in the outskirts of the market. Open from wee hours of the morning to about 2pm. Sushi-bun is my favorite favorite and I've sent a few folks there so hopefully it's findable. I just realized if you're there on Sun Mar 3, Tsukiji market will be closed on Sundays but not sure when your actual layover is. Check out the Tsukiji market calendar - red dots are closed days.

Note, most people will not speak English, but if you show them the names of places spelled out they can probably point you in the right way. So it's worth having a print out or your phone handy.

It looks like you can do baggage storage at Narita if you have luggage btw. I've never used storage services, though my family always used ABC for delivery. But depends on what terminal really, I'm sure they're all fine.

Enjoy!

PS: Adding a 36 Hours in Tokyo article from the New York Times (May 2013)