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Cambridge x MA: On the wonderful day when my mother met my host family in Cambridge, we celebrated over delicious Japanese Cheesecake under the warm light of their beautiful house 

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Boston x MA: Salmon bagel with berry chia seed pudding and Cafe au Lait at Thinking Cup [More Boston]

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Cambridge x MA: A Persian Spice Donut and a Date Almond Ma’amoul at Sofra Bakery [More Cambridge]

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Cambridge x MA: The colorful Mezze Platter with beet tzatziki, whipped feta with sweet and hot peppers, hot pepper labne, kale and carrot with almonds at Sofra Bakery [More Cambridge]

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Brookline x MA: A Japanese Kaiseki lunch with Udon and Tempura, Amaebi shrimp, uni and ebi shrimp with rice, nattō, grilled mackerel, salmon and tuna sashimi and fruit at Shiki in Brookline, MA [More Massachusetts]

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Bangkok x Thailand: The trendy new thing in Bangkok, also conveniently located in the Old City, is Mont Nom Sod, a restaurant that specializes in toasts and milk. With toasted, buttered bread and thick condensed milk of different flavors - deep, dark chocolate, lightly sweet coconut custard, fragrant pandan - and an order of fluffy white dipping bread, it is a combination of textures and flavors that remind me of childhood. It was served with cold butterfly pea juice (with a squeeze of lemon, of course!) and warm fresh lavender milk. We were in sugary, dairy heaven. [More Bangkok]

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Bangkok x Thailand: So for the two days I was back in Bangkok during the summer, I went to the most quintessentially Thai place as possible - Krua Apsorn. Located in the Old City close to the The Giant Swing (เสาชิงช้า) and the Grand Palace, this restaurant is authentic in a way Nahm and Baan Kanitha are not, frequented by tourists and locals alike. They are most famous for their Crab Omelette, and even without tasting it you can see why - a thick, fluffy, crab-filled thing, eaten with (Thai) sriracha sauce it is definitely worth flying to Thailand for.  [More Bangkok]

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Boston x MA: Dinner at Sorellina, Mistral’s Italian sister restaurant [More Dine Out Boston] [More Boston]

Salmon tartare with creme fraiche and grissini, faroe island salmon with beluga lentils and a prosciutto-lardo baste, springy handmade fettucine with truffle butter and exotic mushrooms, chocolate ganache sformato with whipped creme fraiche, INCREDIBLE fallen lemon souffle and vanilla bean panna cotta with almond meringues

After having enjoyed Mistral so much, we decided to try Sorellina. Did it disappoint? A little. Perhaps Mistral had set our standards so high that it was difficult for us to recalibrate our expectations, but the food at Sorellina - whilst brilliant - was not out of this world. I did appreciate the difference in decor - it was cool and dark where Mistral was not, an otherworldly space ship where people only dressed in cool black crop tops and black suits. As we walked through the first snow of the season, it felt like entering another world where people still drank ice-cold water with the thick, chewy pasta. 

What was life changing was the fallen lemon souffle. It’s so difficult to describe why I liked it so much, because I’m not normally a fan of lemon anything, but it struck my heart and I haven’t been able to forget it since.

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Boston x MA: An incredible dinner at Mistral, Boston [More Dine Out Boston] [More Boston]

Beef Sirloin carpaccio with black truffle aioli, parmesan, arugula and toasted ciabatta

White mushroom bisque with parmesan crema and white truffle oil 

Grilled faroe island salmon with cider mustard glaze, beluga lentils and house-made bacon

I am in love with Mistral. The high ceilings, the warm lighting and the unashamed decadence of the food. The sky was getting gray-blue, that steely shade that lights up the sky as well as darkens it, and we found ourselves in a restaurant with arching ceilings that go up to the sky. It was the first fine dining restaurant I went to in Boston, after having spent a semester saving up as much as I possibly could, so perhaps my expectations were skewed - but even if I approached it with low standards (or at least, the lowest standards I’d had in a while), I believe even if I had gone with high standards it would have been similarly spectacular. The mushroom bisque was eye-poppingly good, the sirloin carpaccio was truffled to perfection, but the world stopped with the salmon.

That salmon. That fatty, thick, light, creamy delicious piece of salmon. It was life-changing. It was tear-inducing. You cut through the crispy skin, and the oil from the salmon seeped through, into a sauce that was so delicious you could swim in it. It was perfection of texture and perfection of umami taste, and I would go back just for that one dish. 

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Boston x MA: The courtyard at the Boston Public Library [More Boston]

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NYC x USA: Brunch at Isola, with greek yogurt, granola and fruits, a smoked salmon egg sandwich and fluffy lemon ricotta pancakes [More Brunch]

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NYC x USA: It’s strange that for someone who considers herself such a foodie, I’ve never actually gone fine dining in New York. I finally had the time to make it down to New York for lunch at Del Posto, and it was fine. Fine in all senses of the word - beautiful, classic decor, wonderful service but also relatively bland food. I appreciated the experience much more than any of the food itself, but it was fun to dine with friends and the weather was still lovely. [More NYC}

Just a fraction of the dishes we ate, but the lovely aperatifs followed by Vitello Tonnato topped with caviar, wild striped bass with brussel sprouts, beautiful livorno style cacciucco, a dark, dense flourless chocolate cake, apple arrosto with pickled apple and sage gelato and finally chocolate petit fours. 

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Boston x MA: I have always said that Sportello Boston has the best pasta in Boston, and I am always reminded why that is so true every time I go back. Potato Gnocchi with lobster, mushroom ragu, peas, Tagliatelle with Sportello’s signature (and the BEST!) sauce bolognese, parmigiano, Taleggio Agnolotti with roasted squash, sage, apple, and Strozzapreti with braised rabbit, picholine olives, rosemary. [More Boston]

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Bedford x MA: It was cold and snowy and dark, and we drove for an hour to get homemade ice cream at Bedford Farms - the best in Massachusetts. And with one pint of ice cream each, complete with toppings, we were lost in ice cream heaven - he had rum raisin, chocolate chip and mud pie  and I had coconut ice cream with peanut butter sauce. It sounds weird, but it was pure happiness. [More Ice Cream]

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Cambridge x MA: At the end of fall semester, my roommates and I hosted a small thank-a-thon in our room, where we invited our friends to write supportive letters to strangers during finals period. As inducement to come and join the letter writing, we provided sea salt chocolate brownies, lemon pie, pumpkin bread, root vegetable chips, warm tea and ginger carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Life in McKinlock C301 is a dream come true, and sometimes we share this beauty with others too. [More Cambridge]

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Boston x MA: In the hallowed halls of the main reading room in the Boston Public Library [More Boston]

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Walden x MA: The beautiful quiet of Walden Pond, where heaven is above our heads and beneath our feet, and to discover how to live.