Mapplr

Hotel recommendations in Kathmandu and Pokhara, Nepal

Esme Vos — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:34:04 +0000

If you are going to hike in Nepal, here are two hotel recommendations, one is in Kathmandu and the other in Pokhara.

(1) Kathmandu: The Ambassador Garden Home is a boutique hotel right in the center of Thamel next to the wonderful Pilgrim’s bookstore, which has a lot of books on mountain climbing, Buddhism, and spirituality. The bookstore also has a vegetarian restaurant and a juice bar.

Pros: nice decor, very friendly staff and free WiFi.
Ask for a room not facing the main road as it is more quiet.
Where to eat in the neighborhood: Fire and Ice for the best pizza in Kathmandu.

Ambassador Garden Home
(Heart of Thamel Near by Pub Maya)
Thamel, Kathmandu Nepal.
GPO Box No : 9681
+977 01 4700724
www.aghhotel.com
Email the hotel to inquire about a booking.

(2) Pokhara: Lake View Resort Hotel is right on Pewa lake. The hotel is within walking distance to the main attractions. It has a pretty garden with lake views for breakfast or a snack and some of the rooms even have views of Machapuchare and other Himalaya peaks.

Lake View Resort Hotel
126 Main Road
Lake Side
Baidam, Ward # 6
Pokhara, Nepal
+977-61-461477, 463854
+977-61-465980
www.pokharahotels.com
Email the hotel to inquire about a booking.

Cheap Eats San Francisco, summer 2010 edition

Esme Vos — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 01:31:35 +0000

Eating out in San Francisco is very expensive. Many restaurants charge $15 for an appetizer, $28 for a main dish, and $10 for dessert, but what do you get for that? Most of the time, nothing special. Multiply that by two and you’re spending $106 only for food. Now, add wine and you’re up to $150 – $175. Wine prices are ridiculously high compared to Paris, Amsterdam and Rome, cities that aren’t exactly known for discount dining. In Rome, you can get a bottle of excellent house red wine for 8.50 EUR in a good restaurant like Al Pompiere. For this price in San Francisco, you’ll get a glass of mediocre wine and if it’s from California, it will be sweet and have a high alcohol content (because that’s what they like down here).

Then, there’s the tip. Unlike in Europe and Asia, American servers expect a tip no matter how bad the service. Your server will expect the standard 15 percent. If you give less or nothing at all, you’ll get the dirtiest looks this side of the Pacific. It is rare to experience outstanding service in San Francisco. (Note: in Amsterdam the service is usually abysmal, but at least you don’t tip!) This leads me to conclude that the presence or absence of tipping has nothing whatsoever to do with the quality of service (see Japan, where you don’t tip and the service is outstanding).

Fortunately, there are places to get very good (often ethnic) food in the city for not that much money. Here’s my current list of favorites (subject to change later if I find new ones or need to delete those whose standards have slipped). It’s not an exhaustive list of everything that’s cheap and good in the city. I list few places in the Sunset or Richmond because I rarely go out there. Neither are the places listed below particularly notable for the quality of their service. On the other hand, it’s not much worse than in the “fancy” places in town.

Important: Not all the dishes in the restaurants listed below are great. I have identified the ones that stand out for me, so if you order them, you’ll be fine.

San Francisco Restaurants

(1) Ruchi: homestyle South Indian food in the south of Market (SOMA) district. For dinner, order the idli ($4), greens pullakoora ($8), eggplant curry ($8), and Nellore fish curry ($12); for lunch, try the fish thali ($11.95) or vegetable thali ($8.95), which are large platters filled with the curry, rice, naan bread, dal, pickled vegetables. The neighborhood isn’t pretty (elevated motorway a few meters away), but not too creepy either. Decor is simple and clean.

(2) Burma Superstar: Burmese food in the Richmond district. Try the tea leaf salad and samusa soup. Difficult to find parking on Clement Street, but try a few streets up (California St.). Packed at lunch, long queues.

(3) Miss Saigon: Vietnamese restaurant in downtown SF. The green papaya salad is divine. Pho soups are also very good. But the best things on the menu are the smoothies. Try the avocado or lychee smoothie with tapioca balls. Neighborhood is very dodgy, lots of homeless and mentally unstable people walking around. But the restaurant is clean and the service is good. Only one block from Bloomingdales.

(4) Katana-ya: a pearl in the Union Square shopping district (where really awful tourist food is served). Specialty is ramen. Three types of broth available for your ramen, with a variety of toppings (average price of bowl of soup is $10). The soups are filling and delicious. Always packed, a queue out the door most of the time. This is only one block from Union Square so if you are shopping downtown, stop by for lunch or an early dinner. Open till 3am so also very good if you are ravenous after dancing the night away.

(5) Old Jerusalem: best hummus ($6.50), musabacha (hummus with chick peas, cilantro-parsley-olive oil sauce, paprika) and baba ghannoush in the city. Shish kebab with rice ($11.95) is very good value and delicious. Turkish coffee is excellent. Location: Mission Street at 26th, not the best neighborhood. Interior is plain, dark and uninspiring. Another good reason to go: Mitchell’s Ice Cream is just a few blocks away (make sure you get the avocado or ube [purple yam] ice cream).

[(6) Moya: newly opened Ethiopian restaurant that has received rave reviews. I am eager to try this place. Lunch special: 3 veggie combo ($8); vegetarian dinner entrees ($10). I will update this post.]

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San Francisco Food Carts

The San Francisco food cart and taco truck phenomenon continues to gather force as locals cut down on their dining budgets and restaurants continue to increase their prices. The food carts don’t show up in the same place so you’ll have to subscribe to their Twitter feeds to find out where they will be on any given day. Here are my favorites.

(1) Adobo Hobo: amazing Filipino chicken adobo; sometimes he will have vegetarian adobo. Served with rice ($5).

(2) Pizza Hacker: excellent pizza ($12) with toppings such as gorgonzola cheese, figs, and more.

(3) Gumbo Cart: delicious, very piquant gumbo ($5).

(4) Los Compadres taco truck: lunch only, this truck is parked at the corner of Folsom and Spear. My favorites are the vegetarian burrito ($5) and the 3 tacos with beef ($4.50). Order them spicy.

(5) Spencer on the Go: menu changes regularly; dishes between $4 and $12. Example: Truffle emulsion vol au vent. This is the “taco truck” of Chez Spencer and it is parked at Folsom and 7th Street.

(6) Tanguito: Argentine empanadas ($3.50) served out of a taco truck around Fisherman’s Wharf.

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Check out the Google map below of Mapplr’s favorites in SF.

View Mapplr San Francisco Restaurants, Cafes, Taco Trucks in a larger map

Apres La Sieste: charming B&B and guesthouse between Provence and Cevennes

Esme Vos — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 19:45:53 +0000

Après La Sieste is a lovely maison d’hôtes (bed and breakfast / guesthouse) situated in the little village of St. Laurent des Arbres, between the Provence and Cevennes (officially it lies in the Languedoc-Roussillon). St. Laurent des Arbres is a ancient village of atmospheric side streets, stone houses and a chateau perched on the high elevations. It’s a perfect place to get away from the busyness of daily life and enjoy hikes or bike rides around the area. If you do decide to engage in a bit of sightseeing, Avignon (20 km to the north), Pont du Gard (30 km), and Uzès (30 km) are not far away. And if you fancy wine tasting and good food, Châteauneuf-du-Pape is just 15 kilometres away!

View of the village of Saint Laurent des Arbres

Après La Sieste has two suites and three rooms, all equipped with their own bath or shower. The swimming pool, heated and salinated, will tempt you to lounge around and forget going on any driving tours.

Room prices for 2 persons per night, breakfast included, range from 100 EUR to 140 EUR. There’s a 2-night minimum stay (except in July and August, when there is a 4-night minimum stay). They also serve dinners (see the website for more details) if you don’t feel like going out to a restaurant.

Après La Sieste
358 rue Alexis Martin
30126 St Laurent des Arbres
France
+33 (0)4 66 50 33 94
+33 (0)6 61 84 58 40
www.apreslasieste.com
Email the hotel to inquire about a booking.

Route:

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Don’t forget to check out Mapplr’s Provence articles and the Google map of our favorite hotels, restaurants and boutiques in the Provence.

Ruchi: delicious homestyle South Indian cuisine in San Francisco’s SOMA neighborhood

Esme Vos — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 01:31:44 +0000

Last night I had a chance to visit Ruchi, a restaurant serving homestyle south Indian food, in the south of Market (SOMA) neighborhood of San Francisco. I have dined at other restaurants serving south Indian food (see my review of Dosa) and I love the dosas and piquant vegetable dishes from a region whose cuisine is not well represented outside India.

The food at Ruchi hails from Andhra Pradesh and Tamilnadu in southern India. They use a lot of tamarind, cardamom, and fenugreek. They also have dry vegetable dishes that include bitter melon stir fried with molasses and other vegetables sauteed with mustard and cumin.

The highlights of the menu are the vegetable dishes and the dosas, which resemble large crepes, and must be eaten at once before they lose their crispiness. I tried the madras masala dosa stuffed with potatoes, onions and tomatoes, coated with spicy chutney. The dosas come with chutneys and sambar, a soup made with vegetables and spices, in which you can dip pieces of the dosa. I had my eye on the pesarattu, a crepe made with moong lentiles, topped with onions, ginger and green chilis.

Because I was yearning for something very spicy, the restaurant recommended the hot mirchi bajji which are stuffed hot chili peppers in chickpea batter. They were very spicy indeed, and I was glad I ordered a Kingfisher beer to wash it down. Very delicious. I also ordered one of their signature dishes, the chicken chettinadu which consists of pieces of chicken in a light creamy sauce spiced with cardamom.

The vegetable dishes are excellent. I recommend the greens pullakoora (spinach, lentils in a savoury sauce) and eggplant curry. Among the starters, the idli (steamed rice patties) and dahi vada stand out. And one must try the coconut rice!

Next time I go back to Ruchi, I will try the fish talimpu made with onions and tomatoes, or the Nellore fish curry made with tamarind sauce, coriander, turmeric and fenugreek. This dish comes from Nellore, a town on the east coast of Andhra Pradesh.

Prices at Ruchi are friendly to the budget: the appetizers are priced between $4 and $6 (my stuffed hot peppers came in at $5). The dosas are $8 and they are a huge meal in themselves. I got 3 large dosas on a plate and I ate one and a third. Next time I will bring a hungry dining companion. The curries are between $7 and $13; rice and biryani dishes between $7 and $12; vegetable dishes are between $6 and $8.. They do have tandoor of chicken and lamb ($5 to $12), including the ubiquitous chicken tikka kebab (note: if it were up to the owner, she’d leave out the chicken tikka kebab and chicken tikka masala, but because many customers expect to see these dishes in Indian restaurants, she has placed them on the menu).

Service at Ruchi is excellent. The owner herself helps diners select dishes and explains their origins. The restaurant is welcoming and simply decorated.

LUNCH UPDATE: I went to Ruchi today (23 July 2010) for lunch. My lunch companion and I ordered the “thalis”. A “thali” is a platter with a main dish, rasam, basmati rice, salad, naan, yogurt, chutney and a dessert. I had the fish curry thali ($11.95) and my companion had the vegetarian curry thali ($8.95). Both were very delicious and filling. The fish curry is less heavy than the vegetarian curry, the latter being made with a creamy, savoury sauce. The fish curry is not creamy at all, and its sauce is simply divine.

Ruchi
474 3rd Street
San Francisco, CA 94107
+1 415 392 8353
www.ruchisf.com

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Hotel du Parc: affordable boutique hotel in Paris

Esme Vos — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 01:45:03 +0000

Hotel Du Parc is a boutique hotel with 23 art-deco style double standard rooms located in the 14th arrondissement of Paris on the Left Bank. It is only 10 minutes from the Jardins Luxembourg and 2 minutes from the Gare Montparnasse. The neighborhood around Hotel du Parc is filled with lively cafes, brasseries and trendy boutiques. As many travelers are on a tight budget, Hotel du Parc is a real find in Paris. Room rates usually start at 120 EUR for a double, but this summer, they are running a promotion: 68 EUR for a double room!

Hôtel du Parc
6 rue Jolivet
75014 Paris
France
+ 33 1 43 20 95 54
www.hotelduparcparis.com
Email the hotel to inquire about a booking.

Hotel Milano Scala: new boutique hotel in Milan promises zero emissions hospitality

Esme Vos — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 23:42:00 +0000

Hotel marketing executives are getting even more clever in finding ways to distinguish themselves from the mass of chain hotels in the world, and the Hotel Milano Scala is no exception. The combination of the latest energy saving technology AND opera-themed guest quarters make Hotel Milano Scala a rarity in this city. The new opera-themed boutique hotel, a restored 19th century mansion within walking distance from Milan’s famous “La Scala” theatre, has 62 rooms on seven floors. Some of the rooms face the street, others face the inner courtyard.

They have 4 suites and 7 junior suites that are decorated like stage props for your favorite operas. All rooms are equipped with free Wi-Fi. Double rooms start at 200 EUR per night and the suites can cost as much as 500 EUR per night. In addition, there’s a lounge bar and a restaurant, a multimedia library and a lovely terrace where you can gaze over the city.

For the fashion crowd, Hotel Milano Scala lies dangerously close to the Bermuda Triangle of Shopping (bounded by the Via Montenapoleone, Via Manzoni and Via della Spiga), a black hole that devours cash and credit cards, but spits them out again in the form of the most gorgeous clothes in the world.

The hotel opens on the 19th of July.

Hotel Milano Scala
Via dell Orso 7
20121 Milan
Italy
+39 02 77 48
www.hotelmilanoscala.it
Email the hotel to inquire about a booking

Google Map of Mapplr’s favorite hotels in Milan

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Varsano Luxury Suites: new boutique hotel opens in Tel Aviv

Esme Vos — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 00:49:24 +0000

A new boutique hotel called Varsano Suites has just opened in Neve Tzedek my favorite neighborhood in Tel Aviv. Until now, I’ve been sending people to Nina Suites, which is a terrific place to stay and until recently the only boutique hotel in the area, but unfortunately is often fully booked. Now I can point people to Varsano Luxury Suites, just down the street. There are four types of suites (total of 6 apartments) arranged around an inner courtyard: Studio ($280), Deluxe ($350), Loft ($400) and Family ($550).

All suites have a kitchen, WiFi, washer-dryer, air conditioning (necessary in the steamy Tel Aviv summers), and flat screen TVs. Varsano is just a stone’s throw from the Susan Dallal Center where you can see many theatre and dance performances. You can also walk to the beach, just minutes away, shop in one of the many trendy boutiques in Neve Tzedek, hang out in the cafes and patisseries, or if you feel you need to get your running legs in shape, run all the way to Jaffa, which isn’t so far away. In fact, you can walk there.

Whether or not you stay in the area, read and print out Mapplr’s favorite cafes, restaurants and bars in Neve Tzedek.

Make sure you check out all of my articles on Tel Aviv, including restaurant reviews. But if you must venture outside Tel Aviv, I have other restaurant recommendations in Jerusalem and beyond, as well as boutique hotel recommendations in Haifa, Zafed and Jerusalem. Of course, residents of Tel Aviv will inquire why on earth you would even consider venturing outside the Pearl of the Mediterranean, but as soon as you try to think of a diplomatic response, you’ll realize that their attention has already wandered off to figuring out where the best parties are later in the evening. Tel Aviv is a fabulous party town.

Varsano Luxury Suites
11 Shabazi St.
65148 Neve Tzedek
Tel Aviv, Israel
+972 77 5545 500
www.varsano.co.il
Email the hotel to inquire about a booking.

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Go to: Mapplr’s Favorite Places in Tel Aviv on a Google Map

The Club: new boutique hotel in Singapore blends contemporary style with old colonial charm

Esme Vos — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 23:26:18 +0000

If you are headed to Singapore, you’ll be glad to know that there are alternatives to the large chain hotels that dominate the city. Not that they’re terrible, on the contrary, I had a lovely time at the Conrad.

But, I prefer my hotels small and intimate. So I am very pleased to see that there’s a new addition to the boutique hotel scene: The Club, a 22-room luxury boutique hotel housed in an early 1900s building that blends colonial chic with contemporary style. The rooms are spacious and beautifully decorated, and they have free Wi-Fi.

There’s also a tapas bar, an outdoor terrace restaurant and a sky bar where you can relax at the end of the day and gaze at the twinkling lights of Singapore.

The hotel is located on Ann Siang Road, close to Chinatown, which has a number of shops that sell gorgeous silk fabrics and pearl jewelry.

The Club
28 Ann Siang Road
Singapore 069709
+65 6808 2188
www.theclub.com.sg
Email the hotel to inquire about a booking.

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Check out Mapplr’s favorite hotels in Singapore.

Hotel Viura: stunning boutique hotel in Spain’s Rioja region

Esme Vos — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 00:36:13 +0000

Hotel Viura is a luxury boutique hotel in Villabuena de Alava, a town in the Rioja wine region of Spain. Unlike many hotels in the area, Hotel Viura is strikingly modern, with rooms stacked up like cubes, contemporary furniture, an elegant gourmet restaurant and a rooftop terrace that affords a panoramic view of the surrounding countryside and the mountains. Hotel Viura has 33 rooms: the standard Viura (125 EUR), Delux (145 EUR) and Suite (240 EUR). There’s free Wi-Fi, plasma screen TVs and a gym.

Villabuena de Alava is in the Basque region of Rioja Alavesa. It is situated between Pamplona and Burgos, lies 20 minutes away from Logroño and Haro; more importantly, it is only 10 minutes from the wine cellars of Ysios and Marqués de Riscal. It is also on the pilgrimage route of Santiago de Compostela (Camino de Santiago de Compostela). The region is popular among hikers, cyclists, stressed out urbanites who want to get away from the noise and busyness of the city and of course, lovers of Rioja wine who want to make a tour of the region’s wineries.

Hotel Viura
Calle Mayor s/n
Villabuena de Alava
01307 Alava
Spain
+34 945 60 90 00
Email the hotel to inquire about a booking.

Bouchon: a French bistro in the heart of Napa Valley

Esme Vos — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 23:35:06 +0000

Photo by Gabriel Amaya

If you are visiting Napa Valley, make sure you stop by the town of Yountville, the culinary capital of the region and home to several famous restaurants like The French Laundry, Bistro Jeanty and Bouchon. This week, I went to Bouchon Bistro for lunch after an exhausting hike up to Bald Mountain in the Sugar Loaf Ridge state park in Sonoma.

Bouchon Bistro is a restaurant started by chef Thomas Keller who is behind The French Laundry. They serve classic French bistro dishes such as croque madame (pictured above), mussels, steak tartare, and more. On the day I visited Bouchon, I was absolutely famished so I had the moules à la basquaise (mussels in a rich creamy white wine broth with thin slices of Spanish chorizo), accompanied by very delicious frites (French fries). I usually never eat French fries, except when they are made in this way: thinly sliced and slightly crispy. My lunch companion had a watercress and endive salad with Roquefort, toasted walnuts and walnut vinaigrette, and the steak tartare. The salad was divine. The vinaigrette never overwhelmed the delicious vegetables and the Roquefort added just the right punch.

For dessert, my lunch partner and I indulged in an île flottante (floating island), a delicate meringue floating on a layer of vanilla crème anglaise with almond and caramel sauce. It’s not easy to find île flottante, even in French restaurants in San Francisco. So when I see it on the menu, I order it. Bouchon has other classic French desserts such as profiteroles, crème caramel, pot de crème and tarte au citron.

They have an excellent selection of reasonably priced French wines, some of which are available by the glass. Everything is exactly as you would expect it to be in a good bistro in France, down to the delicious bread and butter. However, the prices are quite high compared to what you would pay in France for the same quality of food.

Bouchon Bistro
6534 Washington Street
Yountville, CA 94599-1397
+1 707 944 8037
www.bouchonbistro.com

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Mapplr

Hotel recommendations in Kathmandu and Pokhara, Nepal

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Cheap Eats San Francisco, summer 2010 edition

San Francisco Restaurants

San Francisco Food Carts

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Apres La Sieste: charming B&B and guesthouse between Provence and Cevennes

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Ruchi: delicious homestyle South Indian cuisine in San Francisco’s SOMA neighborhood

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Hotel du Parc: affordable boutique hotel in Paris

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Hotel Milano Scala: new boutique hotel in Milan promises zero emissions hospitality

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Varsano Luxury Suites: new boutique hotel opens in Tel Aviv

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The Club: new boutique hotel in Singapore blends contemporary style with old colonial charm

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Hotel Viura: stunning boutique hotel in Spain’s Rioja region

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Bouchon: a French bistro in the heart of Napa Valley

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