Experiences

Afternoon Tea at Fortnum & Mason in London

January 10, 2020 By Kat

I got to spend my birthday in London on our honeymoon, and the ONE thing I wanted to do was have Afternoon High Tea at the famed Fortnum & Mason.

If you aren’t familiar, Fortnum & Mason is the Queen’s favorite grocer – it’s an upscale grocery / department store with fancy teas, cookies, and many other beautiful things. You walk in and want it all!

They are a couple of locations in London, but their 300-year-old flagship store in Picadilly is where the magic is.

On the top floor is The Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon, where they serve their afternoon tea complete with cakes, sandwiches, scones, and of course, tea!

Make a Reservation

First of all, to get in, you need to make a reservation. As soon as you know you’ll be in London and want to go, you should book a table. It was all full when we checked, and I was so sad! But luckily a couple spots opened up that morning when they opened for business. We immediately snagged one of those tables using OpenTable. Score!

The Store

When you arrive at the store, wow, it is a sight to see! It looks majestic even from the outside. Since it was near Christmastime when we went, it was also beautifully decorated for the holiday season.

Since the tea salon is on the top floor, you go up these red carpeted staircases from one amazing floor to another until you get to the top.

The Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon

Once you arrive to the salon, you walk into this big open space with comfortable seating in the waiting area and a counter to check in. You feel like a VIP walking in here!

We waited for our table to be ready and then got graciously seated with menus. The service is impeccable and all the staff is so polite.

So excited!

From the menu, you can choose different sets: Afternoon Tea, Savory Afternoon Tea, Vegetarian, or High Tea. I chose the classic Afternoon Tea, which comes with the all the below items.

If you come with someone, I recommend one person getting Afternoon Tea and the other person getting Savory so that you can try each other’s. The food and tea are unlimited!

Next you choose a tea flavor from their extensive menu. I’ve never seen so many tea options in my life!

They have all different types of teas (black or green) and special blends that are named after royal occasions like the Queen’s Jubilee or Prince William and Kate Middleton’s Royal Wedding!

My tea arrives! They pour it into this silver tea strainer that looks like it has fish fins, and it catches all the loose tea leaves. Then you put it into the container on the left and enjoy your tea.

It looks like ordinary tea but boy, it tastes so delicate and rich.

Then our food came. It’s hard to see the other person with the 3-tier cake stands on the table, ha!

This is the top layer of tiny cakes. They were so delicately made and very rich, but not too sweet. Each was better than the next!

Middle tier. The scones. One is plain and one has fruit in it. Very dense and filling. There are different spreads and jam you can eat with them. The clotted cream was amazing!

Sandwiches – my favorite part! They were so good. We asked for refills on these!

Vince’s savory tea set came with this egg thing called “Oeuf Drumkilbo” with lobster in it. It was impeccable. Got seconds of this too.

Pretty soon, I was feeling incredibly full. From tiny sandwiches, how is that possible??

With Vince’s savory tea option, you can also choose a slice of cake from the cart afterwards. We couldn’t even imagine eating anymore, so we packed it home.

They pack it for you in this beautiful to-go box. It’s like a gift!

Okay also the bathroom is really nice! They have this pomegranate rose hand soap that smells magnificent. You can conveniently buy it downstairs from their store, but sadly it was closed by the time we were done eating.

So that was our high tea experience in London! It did not disappoint! Lots of people were celebrating their birthdays there too and the waiters would go around singing for them.

His first time having afternoon tea. I think he liked it!

Later in our trip, we visited the Fortnum & Mason store at St. Pancras and bought some gifts to take home like shortbread and tea bags. We ended up getting this assorted set of 120 tea bags, so we could take a little bit of London home with us! 😉

If you enjoyed this foodie blogpost, here are related ones:
A Truly French Bakery in the Bay Area
Revolving Sushi Bar
Driftwood Deli for Sandwiches
Thursdays at Buffalo Wild Wings
Rebbl Drinks to Fight Human Trafficking

My First Facial

August 1, 2019 By Kat

The best way to make your makeup look good (if you wear makeup), is to make sure your skin underneath is healthy and glowing and moisturized.

I admit that I haven’t taken the best care of my skin. Mostly it’s out of laziness. I don’t use those 10X mirrors up close every day. I usually just look into a big mirror over the sink, and think, “Psh, my skin is fine. I’m young!” Lol

But anyways, during a girls trip to Vegas last year, my friend Jean started talking about her elaborate Korean skincare process including facials and going to the Korean spas. Then I starting thinking, wow, I should really start taking better care of my skin and face. So immediately after I got back from my trip, I booked my first facial! Haha!

I did some Yelp searches and found Face-N-Body in downtown Mountain View. They offer services like facials, acne treatments, eyelash extensions, and more. I saw that they had great reviews, so I messaged them via Yelp for an appointment. The owner Sherin is very fast to respond and I immediately got an appointment!

Here is my “before” picture, before I got a facial.

Honestly, I was a little scared of getting a facial because I heard they can be quite painful when they’re popping your pimples. So that’s partially why I was never clamoring to go get a facial. But the reviews made it sound like a positive experience, so I decided to go for it!

Here’s Face-N-Body on Villa Street, a cross street of Castro Street in downtown Mountain View.

face-n-body mountain view — Walking up to Face-N-Body

When you walk in, you’re greeted with a friendly face and then I got introduced to Yang, an esthetician who was going to do my facial. She’s very sweet and also has great skin (of course!).

She led me down a hall of rooms and showed me to my room. The room has a relaxing vibe to it. There was a robe thing that I could change into and some cozy slippers to wear too.

Once you’re changed, you can lay down on this bed facing up.

Then Yang comes back in and starts the facial! She turns on this humidifier-thing to open up your pores (that makes the extraction less painful). I don’t really know how to describe the whole facial process, but she does a bunch of things to make your skin nice and clean and moisturized.

She does extractions to clean your clogged pores – if you have pimples or anything like that. It can hurt if you have a bunch of acne. Well sometimes it hurts, and sometimes it doesn’t. I think the way they do it is less painful compared to other facial places though.

Near the end, she’ll apply a mask as well depending on what your face needs. Then clean it off, apply moisturizer and sunscreen. Here’s the sunscreen she used.

She’s very knowledgeable as well, and answered all of my skincare questions! I felt like I learned a lot from her. Where else are you supposed to learn about how to take care of your skin?

She also made these observations on my skin:
– She does see sun spots
– My skin is on the dry side
– But overall she says it’s pretty good for my age. (Score! Haha!)

Anyhow, the whole thing was nice! It wasn’t as painful as I thought and I realized I need to moisturize a lot more and protect my skin from the sun! Here’s my “after” photo.

Right after my facial, inside
Outside

I saw my fiance after my facial and he thought my skin was looking really good. So then he decides to setup an appointment with Yang to get his first facial too. Haha, random!

Since my first facial last year, I have been back to Face-N-Body a bunch more times. I got the deal where if you pre-pay for a bulk of 4 or 5 sessions, you get a discounted price. So I’m still working through that package!

If my face looks red, it’s because of the extractions. But then the redness goes away and for the next few days afterwards, your skin feels amazing!!

Anyways, if you’ve never tried a facial before, I recommend trying it out sometime!

If you’re in the Mountain View area, you could try Face-N-Body because they’re great. Their clients have a wide age range from teens to adults to older folks. They’re not just for women, men go too. People go there for their acne, or to maintain their skin, or to prepare for a special occasion like their wedding so they have glowing skin for the big day!

If you enjoyed this article, you can check out my other posts on things to do in the Bay Area.

Magical Bridge Playground: A Place for Everyone to Play

May 26, 2019 By Kat

It’s rare to find a place where everyone, regardless of age or ability, can come together and play. And that is why Magical Bridge Playground is such a special place. It’s designed to be inclusive of the 1-in-4 people amongst us who have physical / cognitive disabilities, autism, visual / hearing impairments, medically fragile, or are part of the aging population.

The Story

The founder Olenka Villarreal wanted a playground where her disabled and non-disabled daughters could play with their friends. They had very different needs and she found that the existing playgrounds didn’t cater to these needs well. She gathered a team of volunteers together, created the vision together, fundraised, and made this a reality over the course of 7 years. The playground opened up in 2015 in Palo Alto, CA as a socially inclusive playground, where all are welcome. Now it has over 25k visitors a month!! Wow!

Olenka and her friend Jill Asher went on to create the Magical Bridge foundation, and Santa Clara County has allocated $10M in funds for more playgrounds like this!

My Visit to the Playground

Here are some snapshots from my first visit to Magical Bridge Playground. Hint: If you go early in the morning, no one else is there and it’s having a whole playground to yourself!!

I love how colorful everything is and how many different play structures there are!

I had never seen these before!!

They have little descriptions on what the different play zones are, who it’s for, and the science behind them. Neat!

They have a bunch of different slides too. Slides are my favorite – so much fun to go down!

Omg the baby slide in the tot zone is too cute!!

Alright, that wraps up the photos that I took at the Magical Bridge Playground. All I can say is how impressed I am with this place. They put a lot of thought into making this a place for everyone. They collaborated with play experts, educators, therapists, families living with different disabilities, and landscape architects. They’re very conscious of the health and wellness benefits of play as well. It’s a magical place!

They also have other local authors and concerts this summer in the playground. Check out their Facebook page for the event line-up.

The success of this playground has led to even more of these Magical Bridge playgrounds being planned for around the Bay Area – with locations planned for Mountain View, Morgan Hill, Redwood City, and Sunnyvale.

But there is still a $1M funding shortfall to kick off construction of the Mountain View playground. So please consider donating to this nonprofit if you want to see this playground come to your city. I already made my contribution! You can donate here: http://magicalbridge.org/mtnview/

Storytime Event

Also, I’ll be doing a storytime for my book Use Your Voice at Magical Bridge Playground in Palo Alto on Sunday, June 2, 2019 from 3-5pm. Check out the Facebook events page for more details and to RSVP!

Thank you for reading! Hope you have a chance to check out this place and get to experience it for yourself! The pictures do it no justice.

Meatball Mondays at Bucca di Beppo

March 17, 2019 By Kat

I love a good deal, so when I was driving in downtown Palo Alto one night, I saw a sign outside Bucca di Beppo (the Italian restaurant), which caught my eye.

It said Meatball Mondays – 50% off spaghetti and meatballs!! I made a mental note. A couple weeks later, when Vince and I were hungry on a Monday night with no dinner prepped, I said, “HEY! It’s Monday! Let’s go to Bucca di Beppo for Meatball Monday!” He loves Italian food, so he was down.

We drove there, parked in the downtown Palo Alto Ramona Street garage, and saw this tasty meatball truck parked there too. Made us even more excited to head to dinner.

Apparently they have a Sunday night special too!

Unique decor inside.. how to describe it…cozy?
I never understand the photos on the walls..

If you’ve never been to Bucca di Beppo, the restaurant is family-style Italian food. You can order the typical salad, pizza, pasta, appetizers, etc.. from the menu, but all portions come in family sizes – small (feeding 3 people) or large (feeding 5 people). No portions are individual sized.

Ok so we ordered the spaghetti and meatballs! You would think we would’ve ordered the small size, per the recommended portion sizing. However, Vince adamantly wanted the large family size – which is for 5 people!! and we are 2 people!!! Sigh. Why?! But we did so anyways.

Free bread and butter!! Yes please! I’ll happily fill up on that.

Hungrily waiting for our food.
Eyeing the empty table next to us where they left meatballs! So tempting.

Finally our LARGE family size of spaghetti and meatballs came! And boy, was it large.

Here’s his hand next to it for comparison.

After I had about 2 servings onto my small plate, I was already full. By the way, I couldn’t even eat a whole meatball. They’re ENORMOUS!!! Maybe it was because I was still chomping on the free bread through dinner. I can’t help myself.

P.S. to Bucca di Beppo if you’re reading this, Vince’s chef commentary is that the dish should come with 5 meatballs if the dish is meant to serve 5 people. Otherwise people would have to split meatballs…

Okay he finally gave up. This is how much was left. He did an admirable job.

Leftovers for many days to come…

Alright, that’s a wrap on our experience at Bucca di Beppo for Meatball Mondays! Next time, we need to bring a larger group. Plus I would probably like to order some other dishes next time. Eating plain spaghetti and meatballs can get a tad boring. Definitely add a generous sprinkling of red pepper flakes to add flavor. I think I actually prefer spaghetti with bolognese sauce instead of spaghetti and meatballs – spreads out the meat to pasta ratio better. 🙂

Okay if you try this out, let me know how it goes! Happy eating!

No more meatballs for us for awhile.

New Favorite Sandwich Place in Palo Alto – Driftwood Deli

February 18, 2019 By Kat

Apparently this place has been around for a long time, but this was our first time trying it! Their sandwiches are really good! It’s a bit hard to notice, but it’s next to the Creekside Inn on El Camino Real in Palo Alto, CA. Read on for a peek inside and to see what we ordered.

This is what you see when you walk in.

The staff is very friendly! And very patient while you try to choose among the many, many sandwich options lol. How to choose?!?

They said their most popular sandwiches are: #16 California Club, #29 Heaven on Earth, #23 Kevin’s, and #18 Turkey Pesto. They also do half sandwiches if you want to try different kinds.

Your meal’s not complete without a satisfying bag of chips! And boy, do they have chip options. Again, a very difficult decision lol.

Or if you have multiple people, you can opt for the bigger bags of chips and split it, which is what we decided to do.

If you need a drink or candy bar, they’ve got you covered.

After you’ve got all your food, you can sit at their cute little tables inside or outside. This guy had to get 2 sandwiches…

Ok here are the close up Instagram shots of the sandwiches you’ve been waiting for:

All of them were really good!!! My favorite was “The Customer’s Favorite!” That’s literally the name of it. They used to have it as the daily special, for a really long time (several months), and then they took it away, and customers kept asking for it, so they brought it back! It’s so good!!! *drool*

Other people in the community also agree that these sandwiches are the bomb.

We were SO stuffed from 3 sandwiches. I recommend going with 1 sandwich for each person, haha. Before I forget, they also have a cute coffee bar if you want that type of drink!

By the way, that’s Roberto in the picture. He’s a nice guy. Say hi to him if you see him there. He’s worked at the deli for 19 years! The owner of the shop is Steve, and he’s also around and friendly to talk to as well. Steve is in the video on the Yelp business page, which I watched before we walked in, so I recognized him, haha.

Anyways, back to the coffee bar. Here’s the menu of drinks available. And yes, they have ice cream too! From Dreyer’s.

Not done yet! They have breakfast sandwiches and salads too. I believe they have gluten-free options for bread as well. So there you go, they have everything!

This place has got a homey small-town feel to it, where they recognize the frequent customers by name. I like those types of places in the community. Sadly, they’re becoming rarer and rarer. So if you’re in the Palo Alto area near El Camino, stop by this place to support a small business!

Before we even finished our food, Vince said, “Let’s come back 38 more times!” Because we have 38 more specials on their board to try. LOL wow.

Interactive Sushi Experience at Kura Revolving Sushi Bar

January 20, 2019 By Kat

I had the chance to eat dinner at Kura Revolving Sushi Bar in Pleasanton with some friends, and it was so fun, I had to blog about it!

By the way, this is located near the Livermore Outlets by the way, if you’re in the area for some shopping, and still have money leftover. 😛

Eating at Kura Revolving Sushi Bar was an interactive experience, almost a game, and I loved it. Here are the basic instructions of how it works. Once you sit at the table, you can order items from a menu on a tablet at the end of table.

Then things start magically coming down the conveyer belt! You pick them up and enjoy your tasty food. They have so many menu items from sushi and hand rolls, to ramen!

The food comes in these little containers that pop open and you grab your plate.

Here are some snapshots of the food! I got a California roll of course. I know I’m so American.

So many choices on the menu!

I think the most thrilling part was ordering things from the tablet and eagerly anticipating them to come down the conveyer belt. Sometimes it’s a little too easy to order and you get carried away with too many orders in the queue!

Also because they’re geniuses, the restaurant also gamified the ordering/eating process. I believe the game part was called Bikkura-Pon. Every time you finish a plate, you discard it into a plate drop at the end of the table. The tablet keeps a count of how many plates you’ve put in there (so it can tally up the price of your meal – a set price multiplied by # of plates). BUT you also get rewarded the more plates you put in there.

After like 10 plates or so, there’s a fun little cartoon animation that plays on the tablet screen. And after 15 plates or so, there’s a little prize thing that drops from above. That was exciting! It was like automated, so it seemed like magic! And of course, it made us want to EAT MORE – in increments of 15 plates to be exact!

I captured a little video of it here: Bikkura-Pon Game Kura Sushi Bar

The prize that came out!

The anticipation…

A food keychain of a creamy tart..meh it’s alright. I don’t know who ended up keeping it. But the process was more fun than the end result. Ha!

Anyhow, we had a great time eating here! I would love to come back. Note that the line is really long, but I think they have an app where you can “get in line.”

And after you’re so bursting full, you can head several doors down to 85C Bakery for some dessert!!

A Truly French Bakery Comes to the Bay Area – Maison Alyzeée

October 30, 2018 By Kat

My friend Pam recently came back from a month in France, and was raving about how this new bakery in downtown Mountain View was legit. She goes there for the baguettes and loves it. Apparently it’s the real deal! I was of course intrigued, so I had to visit this place for myself.

On a Tuesday morning, I stopped by Maison Alyzée and immediately fell in love with the charm of this bakery. I had the chance to speak with the owner, Laurent Pellet. He was so welcoming and open, and I got a peek behind-the scenes at the kitchen and got to meet the chefs as well. So cool!! The more I heard about their story and how they work and think, I was captivated by the amount of care and love that is put into this bakery.

Laurent opened this bakery because there wasn’t a truly French bakery that existed in the Bay Area. There were other really good bakeries, but not one that was *truly* French. The team believed that they could create something truly different. That is the mark of a team on a mission!!

The values that are important to Laurent are humility, respect, sharing, and quality. Sharing is important to him because back in France, a community of bakers is all about sharing. He also emphasizes humility because they are always striving to do better – to tweak and improve the product to be at its best for customers. They challenge themselves daily. Each day, they look at the product and think, “Do we need to improve this?” It’s possible that a pastry may change 1 week later.

When you visit this place, the ambience begins from the street when you walk up to the bakery (there is outdoor seating) to stepping into the cozy bakery and seeing all the beautiful pastries. There is a Parisian flair to the whole experience.

They even have their own signature loaf of bread – the one with the M on it, which is made up of different flours. Gotta try that one day! After I try their baguette. 🙂

Laurent wants this place to be like a second home for customers. Some customers already come every day! And he wants it to be a place for kids as well.

Speaking of feeling like a home, he introduced me to his wife who works there as well. Aren’t they adorable?

THE BEST INGREDIENTS

Their team is also very meticulous with their ingredients and test the products to make sure they’re up to their quality standard. They source their ingredients from local vendors and they use the best ingredients – French butter, the best chocolate, etc..

He showed me the selection of teas they have from France, and he even took out a humongous bag of tea which was so aromatic that I could smell it from an arms distance away, when the bag was still closed!

AN AMAZING TEAM

Laurent brought over 3 chefs from France – including a Michelin star pastry chef! There is Head Pastry Chef Jean-Victor Bellaye, Pastry Sous-Chef Xan Billiotte, and Pastry Sous-Chef Gerald Chahine. More details about them here.

Here’s a picture of Laurent (left) and Chef Jean-Victor (right).

Chef Jean-Victor also took the time to explain some of the pastries to me. And while we were talking, he pulled these pastries from out of the oven! They look delicious.

Overall, I had a fantastic first time at Maison Alyzée. I’m excited that they have come to downtown Mountain View. This place is only a couple of months old and already has strong reviews on Yelp.

By the way, here’s a picture of the croissant I had. It was so flaky and delicious. It was gone in no time.

Before

After

If you’re in downtown Mountain View, stop by this gem of a bakery!!

Maison Alyzeée
212 Castro Street
Mountain View, CA 94041

Thank you to Laurent and the whole team for being so welcoming. Wishing you the best!

The Drybar Experience – A Hair Blowout for Special Occasions

October 26, 2018 By Kat

Drybar is a salon where you can get a blowout. A blowout is where you can get your hair styled (no haircut – just shampoo and styled). Hence this is great for when you want to get your hair done for a special occasion like a night out.

Note: I think the experience can be highly dependent on who you get for your hairstylist and which location you go to. We went to the location in Vegas in the Cosmopolitan hotel. For us, the price is a flat rate of about $49 (not including tip), and if you want a special updo or braid, then that costs extra. The price may differ depending on location as well.

Visiting Drybar is a whole experience.

First off, the decor is so bright and happy with pops of yellow that it lifts your spirits.

They have their own line of hair products which they use, and the pastel colored bottles add a cool look to the place as well.

Also they had the movie Eat Pray Love playing in the background with subtitles. They know their target demographic! 😉

HOW THE PROCESS WORKS

1. First off, I recommend booking an appointment ahead of time. Especially if you’re going in a group, I went with 2 girlfriends, you want to make sure they have time available for all of you at the same time.

2. There’s a menu of different styles you can choose from – straight, loose curls, beachy waves, etc.. You can look through the menu / lookbook and each hairstyle has a fun cocktail themed name like Cosmo, or Mai Tai, etc..

3. First you get your hair washed. WOW this was an experience! It was so amazing and relaxing. They shampoo you twice (with some charcoal shampoo and something else) and add conditioner (it was to promote volume in my case because my hair is so straight and flat).

4. Then they blowdry your hair while styling it at the same time, depending on which look you chose. My hairstylist was super nice and would explain what she was doing as she moved through each step. I can’t recall what she did, but she knew what she was doing! LoL She did all these complex steps to prep my hair so that it would have volume and hold the curls for a long time. There was lots of spraying different products and using rollers and a curling iron and more.

Don’t I look like an oompa loompa? Haha!

By the way, they give you a complimentary drink (mimosa or wine), so this is my drink, with a glass of water too. Even the water looks chic here!

THE FINAL LOOK

Here’s how it turned out! The hairstylist helped me decide on a Cosmo Tai – a mix of the 2 looks in the lookbook, and also parted my hair down the middle. She also told me not to touch my hair for at least half an hour afterwards to maximize how long the curl would last. She said the curls should last 3-4 days. I ended up washing it out after the second day because I was traveling, but yeah, those curls stayed because of the enormous amount of hairspray used lol.

For me, I think I like my curls a little bigger and more relaxed so it feels like there’s more movement when I run my hand through my hair. But regardless, it was a fun experience to do with girlfriends!

To look for a location near you, check out the Drybar website.

Creative Process of Kevin Kwan, Author of Crazy Rich Asians

October 23, 2018 By Kat

Last month, Kevin Kwan, the author of the book-turned-movie Crazy Rich Asians, came to Palo Alto and of course I had to go! Here’s my recap of the event and what Kevin shared about his creative process.

First off, the anticipation for the event was high! The event was sold out. Seating was first-come first-serve so there was already a line outside the door when we arrived early. I didn’t mind the wait though – I was eating my poke bowl dinner that I got from across the street the Town & Country Village.

I was excited! Vince… well, he was not-so-excited to be doing this on a Friday night, haha.

A SURPRISE

Finally the event began! And to our surprise, Tan Kheng Hua (who plays Kerry Chu, the mother of Rachel Chu in the movie) also came! She would be interviewing Kevin Kwan on stage. She was so bomb in the movie, so it was exciting to see her!

WRITING THE BOOK

So apparently the Crazy Rich Asians book was written sporadically over 3 years. Kevin was inspired to write the book in 2009 when his dad was dying. It was actually intended to be a serious book to reflect the sad time of his life that he was going through, but instead it turned out to be an over-the-top comedy about crazy rich asian people.

At the time, Kevin was a creative consultant full-time, so he wrote the book in his free time. He said he would write it in airports when he was waiting for his flights and when a lot of his flights were getting delayed. He would just take out his laptop and start writing. When he was traveling for work, he would write in his hotel room and order room service late at night. Writing became a way for him to unwind at the end of the night.

THE ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE

He kept this project a secret and didn’t tell anyone that he was writing the book until the last third of the book. In fact, the book was going to be called “Empire Days.” Jaw drop. We were all shocked at that name! After telling people about the book, he would casually refer to it as the book about crazy rich asians, and then he thought, hmm why don’t I just call it “Crazy Rich Asians”? And so the name stuck!

GETTING DISCOVERED

When he sent the book to literary agents to try to get published, he got rejected a lot. At one place, the agent told the junior agent to reject Kevin’s manuscript and didn’t even read it. (They don’t have time to read all the proposals they get.) By chance, the title “Crazy Rich Asians” caught the eye of the junior agent, and she started reading it. By the end of the first chapter, she knew she wanted to sign up Kevin, and so that’s how he got published.

THREE BOOKS

Kevin says that he knew the whole story he wanted to tell. It was all in his head – all 3 books worth. He knew that consumers wouldn’t really want to read such a thick novel, so he broke it up into 3 separate books: Crazy Rich Asians, China Rich Girlfriend, and Rich People Problems. Wow, I can’t believe he had all that in his mind! But he said the story had been percolating in his mind for the last 20 years.

He grew up in Singapore until age 11, moved to Texas, and eventually moved to NYC as an adult. He said that all these memories (including of his childhood in Singapore) were “crystallized in amber” in his mind. And when he started writing these books, all of it came tumbling out like a waterfall.

He says that it still mystifies him how he wrote 3 books. It just happened one page at a time. When he goes back to read them, he just gets lost in them. He feels a sense of comfort and amazement at what he wrote. He thinks, “who wrote this? Did I really write this?” That’s pretty funny. I guess it’s like an out-of-body experience.

Once he had the book publisher, there were aggressive book deadlines, so he had to finish writing the second and third books within 1 year each. But since he had the whole story in his head, it was just a matter of taking the time to write them down.

TURNING THE BOOK INTO A MOVIE

He says writing is a lonely process and he really enjoys the collaboration process and filming process. He had great respect and trust for Jon Chu, the director of the Crazy Rich Asians movie, and didn’t want to mess with Jon’s creative process.

For example, when Jon cast Awkwafina as Peik Lin (the college friend of the lead Rachel Chu), Kevin was surprised. As the creator of the character, Kevin had a different idea in mind for Peik Lin, but once he saw Awkwafina in action, he loved the casting choice.

Tan also praised Jon Chu as a director, from the perspective of being an actress in the movie. She says Jon would give very clear and concise directions for scenes. For example, if you saw the pivotal Mahjong scene in the movie, it’s not just about a mother protecting her daughter. She said it’s about 2 mothers experiencing the same powerful love for their children but express it in very different ways. It’s not just “you vs. me” in terms of the 2 mothers. It’s that you and I are actually the same.

Wow that is so deep. Those things didn’t occur to me when I was watching the movie, but I felt the depth and complexity of emotion – which is probably why I teared up when watching it.

ADVICE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

When asked about giving advice for young people, Kevin made a remark that a lot of young people are in such a hurry to be a superstar, but there are no shortcuts. His advice is, “Do what you love and keep doing that.”

When asked what character in the book/movie Kevin most identifies with, he responds with Alistair (the guy who works in the film industry in the movie). Kevin explains that Alistair was the cousin that no one really understood. And that’s how he felt in his own life. No one in his family really knew what he was doing. The story would change depending on which relative you talked to. They didn’t understand what a creative consultant was. Kevin was the creative guy in the family that no one respected.

But he didn’t let that stop him. Even before the books, Kevin had a very successful career working for magazines and even starting his own creative studio with high-profile clients like TED.com and The New York Times. It’s pretty inspiring what he’s done in his life and how creative he is in other ways besides writing.

Kevin’s advice is go to the stories that inspire you. He never wants to be pigeonholed as the guy who writes about Asians, so I’m sure he will keep entertaining and delighting the world with what he produces.

He also is grateful for his move to America, and for the experience growing up in different cultures, though it was hard to adjust at first. Because he says, “A wider world is always a better thing.”

WHAT’S NEXT?

Kevin’s working on a TV series now, a one-hr Amazon drama series, about the most powerful ruthless family in Hong Kong. Sounds like it will be juicy!

And he shared that they’re hoping the movie sequel to Crazy Rich Asians will come out in 2020! Wheeeee!!!

Thanks to Books Inc, Kevin Kwan, Tan Kheng Hua, and everyone who made this event possible. It was awesome!

P.S. We also made it into Kevin Kwan’s Instagram post of the event! He took a picture of the whole audience when he got on stage, and we are the tiny dots of people in the corner. 😀

Apple Hill Farms: Fresh Apples, Donuts, Cider, Pies, Caramel Apples, and More

September 18, 2018 By Kat

APPLE HILL

Visiting apple farms is a fun fall activity with friends or family!

Over Labor Day weekend, I visited Apple Hill for the first time and I highly recommend the experience. Apple Hill represents over 50 local farms – many of them are apple farms, but they also grow other fruits and veggies, Christmas trees, and flowers. Some are wineries as well. It’s also really crowded before Halloween because people are picking up pumpkins.

Visiting Apple Hill is a half-day to full-day activity. While you don’t pick your own apples, the main attraction is to see the farms and try all the delicious apple-themed food!

Apple Hill is located in Placerville, CA – about an hour away from Sacramento.

MAP OF FARMS

It’s nearly impossible to visit all the farms, so pick the top ones that you want to go to. Here’s the map. Some farms may not be on the map though. Depending on the crowds, there may be a lot of traffic or it may be hard to find parking. When we went on Monday morning (Labor Day), there wasn’t many crowds at all, so we luckily got to visit a bunch of farms.

FARMS WE VISITED

Here are the places we stopped at. I went with family who were familiar with the farms and the specialties at each farm.

High Hill Ranch – has a lake thing, lots of seating areas, food, and lot of independent vendors
Abel’s Apple Acres – Caramel apples and pastries and pies
Boa Vista Orchards – Ciders, pastries, pies, and a bomb apple fritter!
Larsen Apple Barn – Bought fresh apples here. They have a bake shop with food too.
Mill View Ranch – Cider donuts and hot apple cider
Delfino Farms – Apple pie is amazing

High Hill Ranch

Mill View Ranch

Sample ciders at Boa Vista

APPLE TREATS

I had no idea there were so many types of baked goods and things you could make with apples. There was apple cider and apple sauce of course. But there was also: apple butter, apple brownies, apple chips, carmellows, empanadas, fritters, cider donuts, apple donut ice cream sandwich, caramel apples, apple wine, cream cheese apple pie, and many other types of apple pies.

Caramel Apples at Abel’s Apple Acres

Bakery at High Hill Ranch

Apple Butter at High Hill Ranch (Available at other farms too)

Carmellows at High Hill Ranch (caramel wrapped around marshmallow)

Some farms also had a frozen food section where they had frozen pies or frozen apple turnovers or pastries that you could take home and bake. Ahh I wish I could have bought those, but I didn’t have a cooler to store them in. 🙁

Frozen treats at Abel’s Apple Acres

WHAT WE TRIED

The good thing about going in a group is that you can split some of these pastries. I definitely had too much sugar by the end of the morning. LoL

Cider donut at High Hill Ranch

Apple empanada at Abel’s Apple Acres

Apple fritter at Boa Vista

Apple Dream Salad at Larsen’s Bake Shop

Cider donuts and hot apple cider at Mill View Ranch

Apple pie at Delfino Farms – it’s a monster!

FRESH APPLES

You can also get fresh apples at these farms of course. Apples are great to bring home and share with people, whereas the pastries are hard to take home. We got the apples from the Larsen Apple Barn, where they have a cool conveyer belt and someone checking the apples. On the side of the barn, they also have bags of different types of apples you can buy. Crispy, crunchy, fresh apples at Larsen Apple Barn – YUM!

WHEN TO GO

You’ll have to check out the website to figure out when the farms are open, but it’s not open year-round. I think it’s mostly open from Labor Day weekend to Christmas Eve each year. Depending on the month you go in, different apple varieties will be in harvest as well. You can check the Harvest Calendar for your favorite type of apple.

Have fun exploring the apple farms!!

You may also want to check out:
Magical Bridge Playground
Interactive Sushi Experience
Meatball Mondays at Bucca di Beppo
What a Toddler Taught Me About Business