by jessica yoon
Early this fall I took a week long vacation in Southern California. Among the many many restaurants and cafes I was able to go to, Bon Appetit’s 2013 best new restaurant Alma was one of them. Before the year officially ends, and this title is so-last-year, I wanted to share with you my two cents and what I’m thinking about for the new year!
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It’s been a particularly hard week on all fronts. Work, life, and the start of winter have all bombarded me at the same time. I guess it’s just that time of year right before the holidays when everything comes together like a perfect storm. It’s never easy, but this year seems particular harder. I do admit, I tend to dwell on the negative when I’m feeling down. I’m no pessimistic, but I also don’t think I’m a beacon of optimism. I spent a good portion of the last few days in a gloomy cloud, until I finally gave in and let myself have a little meltdown. It wasn’t the prettiest of pictures, but I felt a lot better afterwards. None of my problems have washed away, but my attachment to them have…a little bit. Sometimes I forget that I’m still (fairly) young, and need to grow up more. When I reached my mid-twenties, I put a lot of pressure on myself to know and be everything I wanted to be. I’m still learning, which means I also have many more mistakes to make…I guess I’m just going through some growing pains.
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A few weeks ago, my family took a short trip to Tokyo. We didn’t make a long list of things to do or see, but we did make sure to have a reservation at a good sushi restaurant. There are many exceptional places in Tokyo, but not all are foreigner friendly. Even some of the Michelin starred restaurants don’t accept non-Japanese diners (!?), but luckily Sushi Kanesaka isn’t one of them and we were able to get a reservation for dinner.
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Before my mind completely moves away from Europe, I thought I’d do some catch up posts on place I never got to write about. I have tons of forgotten trips, restaurants, and patisseries that are just itching to be posted. I probably won’t get around to all of them this summer (seriously, there are so many!), but maybe some of those are supposed to be saved for nostalgic days.
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Out of the three mini trips I did during the past few weeks, I was probably most enamored by Lille. The Flemish brick lined architecture and cute narrow streets made me feel like I was truly transported into my imagination of what small European towns are supposed to look like. Quant and so adorable, half the time I felt like I was walking on a prop set.
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