About Flavor Boulevard
– About FLAVOR BOULEVARD –
A food blog with focus on Asian food.
Food reviews. Cheap eats, a few fancy restaurants, a few recipes. Sometimes books and movies too. As long as it reminds us of food, we write about it.
– About MAI –
Q: Why do you blog? – I started Flavor Boulevard after I read the entire noodlepie blog from beginning to end, a few years after my family moved from Vietnam to America. That blog makes me miss Vietnamese food terribly, and it reminds me of what food writing is: not so much about food as about memories. With Flavor Boulevard, I can save in one place, however unorganized, memories of the meals, feelings I get from a dish, new things I learn from and about food. When I read what I wrote months and years ago, I can relive the experience. It’s kind of like talking to myself, the past Mai, the present Mai and the future Mai all in one place. 🙂
Q: What is your focus on this blog? – Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese food.
Q: Why Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese? – Vietnamese because I’m Vietnamese. Korean because there were some years when I watched way too many Korean dramas, and when the protagonist gobbled up a skillet of kimchi fried rice, I just gotta try it too. Japanese? It all started with an okonomiyaki in San Francisco, and it got serious after a good izakaya night. But at the end of the day, it’s simply because these three cuisines make me feel at home.
Q: Where can we reach you? – Email me: mai@flavorboulevard.com
——————————
Mai Truong is a Vietnamese-born Texan currently attending UC Berkeley. Eighteen years living in Vietnam give her a strong palate for tropical flavors and an even stronger opinion on Asian food culture. Beside studying and Flavor Boulevard, she enjoys working as an editor at the Daily Californian (mainly in the Eating Berkeley blog).
She has an incurable infatuation for languages, pig trotters and tea (UPDATE: check out her TEA BLOG: Tea & Mai). She also tends to compare every dish with her Mother’s cooking.
——————————————————————————————————————————–
– About KRISTEN –Â
My name is Kristen and I am currently a PhD student at UC Berkeley. My passions all involve food: writing, reading, eating, and occasionally cooking!
I was born in Minnesota and grew up in various parts of Connecticut. Most of my early food adventures took place in Flushing, Queens (a borough of NYC), which has a large Taiwanese American population (where my family is from). I went to college in Illinois and now I am currently located in Berkeley, California.
While my comfort foods are usually Taiwanese and Chinese dishes (xiao long bao, scallion pancakes, Taiwanese pork chop and pickled mustard greens, dumplings, beef noodle soup, mapo tofu, etc.), I have eclectic tastes. I think it comes from having a diasporic family: between them, my parents have lived in Taiwan, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, East Timor, etc. and all over the US as well from Texas to Minnesota to Pennsylvania. Even though I have only lived in the US, where I have personally lacked in travel, I more than make up for in willingness to try new foods! My intention is to bring a diasporic Asian American perspective to the food blogosphere.
My all-time favorite food is my grandfather’s and mom’s Taiwanese beef noodle soup. In fact, I am a huge fan of most any variety of beef soup/stew because it reminds me of home (for me, home is a feeling usually conveyed through food rather than a physical locale). My current palate tends towards sweet savory so those are the dishes that I am most drawn to as a diner and is probably what makes me more partial to most Asian cuisines (that and my heritage). However, I love all types of food and will always try something once!
As for foods I dislike, I am finding that as I get more into the “foodie” culture and try new foods, my tastes are actually changing! (or is that me getting older?) For example, I used to hate avocados and mushrooms with a passion, but now I love them! Right now, the one food that I dislike is octopus, but I’m still hoping for a dish to prove me wrong on this one.
My PhD field is in Comparative Ethnic Studies and while my research is unrelated to my food interests, I also am interested in the ways in which food (and foodie) cultures intersect with issues of race, representation, and media. For me, food and politics are intricately related and many of my posts, even if not explicitly, may carry this sentiment!
I can be reached at kristen@flavorboulevard.com. I previously blogged at Put it on Kristen’s Plate. You may remember me from my guest post of Revival Bar and Kitchen. Find me on Yelp and Twitter!
——————————————————————————————————————————–
– More about FLAVOR BOULEVARD –
Q: Do you get free meals at restaurants when you review them?
A: Not for reviews. But interviews, yes. Unless disclosed otherwise, we don’t profit monetarily from any of our reviews.
Q: Do you accept guest posts?
A: We love them. If you feel like talking about food, be it your latest improvisation in the kitchen or an awesome street grub, take pictures and shoot us a write-up at mai@flavorboulevard.com. ALL posts that satisfy these guidelines are welcome!
I discovered your blog site on google and examine a couple of of your early posts. Continue to maintain up the excellent operate. I simply additional up your RSS feed to my MSN Information Reader. Searching for forward to reading more from you in a while!…
1of course like your web-site but you need to check the spelling on quite a few of your posts. A number of them are rife with spelling problems and I find it very troublesome to tell the truth nevertheless I will certainly come back again.
2I’ve been exploring for a little bit for any high quality articles or weblog posts on this kind of area . Exploring in Yahoo I at last stumbled upon this web site. Studying this information So i’m satisfied to convey that I have a very just right uncanny feeling I found out just what I needed. I so much without a doubt will make certain to do not omit this website and give it a look regularly.
3Very interesting details you have noted, appreciate it for posting. “It’s the soul’s duty to be loyal to its own desires. It must abandon itself to its master passion.” by Rebecca West.
4I loved as much as you’ll receive carried out right here. The sketch is attractive, your authored material stylish. nonetheless, you command get bought an shakiness over that you wish be delivering the following. unwell unquestionably come further formerly again since exactly the same nearly a lot often inside case you shield this increase.
5You actually make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find this topic to be actually something which I think I would never understand. It seems too complex and very broad for me. I’m looking forward for your next post, I will try to get the hang of it!
6Sweet site, super style and design, very clean and utilise friendly.
7Hi my family member! I wish to say that this post is amazing, great written and include almost all important infos. I’d like to look more posts like this .
8I truly treasure your piece of work, Great post.
9I couldn’t resist commenting
10It’s actually a cool and useful piece of info. I am happy that you shared this helpful info with us. Please keep us informed like this. Thanks for sharing.
11It is truly a nice and helpful piece of info. I am satisfied that you just shared this helpful information with us. Please keep us informed like this. Thanks for sharing.
12This web site is really a walk-through for all of the info you wanted about this and didn’t know who to ask. Glimpse here, and you’ll definitely discover it.
13After examine a number of of the weblog posts on your web site now, and I actually like your way of blogging. I bookmarked it to my bookmark website list and can be checking again soon. Pls check out my website as properly and let me know what you think.
14Very interesting information!Perfect just what I was searching for!
15I was looking through some of your content on this internet site and I think this site is very informative! Keep on putting up.
16It’s really a cool and useful piece of info. I am glad that you shared this useful information with us. Please stay us informed like this. Thank you for sharing.
17Some really prime content on this internet site, saved to fav.
18Superb post but I was wondering if you could write a litte more on this topic? I’d be very grateful if you could elaborate a little bit further. Bless you!
19I really enjoy reading through on this internet site, it contains fantastic blog posts.
20I’ve been absent for some time, but now I remember why I used to love this website. Thank you, I’ll try and check back more often. How frequently you update your web site?
21Glad to be one of many visitants on this awe inspiring site : D.
22I don’t commonly comment but I gotta say thankyou for the post on this special one :D.
23Some genuinely interesting points you have written.Aided me a lot, just what I was looking for :D.
24I have been reading out many of your articles and i must say nice stuff. I will definitely bookmark your blog.
25Nice read, I just passed this onto a friend who was doing a little research on that. And he just bought me lunch as I found it for him smile Therefore let me rephrase that: Thank you for lunch! “Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.” by Aristotle.
26Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video to make your point. You obviously know what youre talking about, why throw away your intelligence on just posting videos to your weblog when you could be giving us something informative to read?
27Very interesting subject, thanks for posting.
28I like the valuable information you provide in your articles. I’ll bookmark your weblog and check again here regularly. I’m quite sure I will learn many new stuff right here! Good luck for the next!
29Perfect work you have done, this web site is really cool with wonderful information.
30It’s really a nice and useful piece of info. I’m satisfied that you simply shared this useful info with us. Please stay us up to date like this. Thanks for sharing.
31