Manresa @ Los Gatos, San Jose

The 1st night here in San Francisco, I decided to go to a 2-Star Michelin Restaurant, Manresa, in Los Gatos, San Jose.   It takes more than 45-60 mins drive from the downtown San Francisco.
This restaurant suprises me, and it's the only Michelin Star Restaurant that I would actually recommend friends to go recently after trying out 5-6 in the past few weeks.
Make your booking at opentable.com; www.manresarestaurant.com
Environment - generic fine dining place where you see candles everywhere in the restaurant and people dress up for it
Service - good service, to be honest, regular services in a Michelin Restaurant but relatively good comparing to normal restaurants
Price - 5-course for US$115, so not too expensive for a restaurant like this
Food - I ordered this 5-courses one and paired with a glass of white wine US$14 ( I went with friends so basicaly all the photos are 2x5-courses, everything you can get there)
I am not going to say much here as the whole experience is very good, so I only mention the highlights and you guys can look at the photos yourself. 
- Into the vegetable garden, it's a salad without any meat.  the presentation is very creative and all the vegetables are excessively fresh!!! A friend of mine even said that he would be a vegetarian if he gets to eat this all the time.
- Hailbut and lobster muchrooms, lemon confit with lobster pudding, leeks, is another highlight.  The texture of all the ingridents are pretty interesting.  The lobster muchroom is crunchy that I don't feel like eating a mushroom.
- Desserts!! Stone frust, roasted and raw, mascarpone cream with caramelized corn, thyme ice cream is soooooo goood that I haven't eaten in any other restaurants.
**As I am traveling, I can only use the blogger app on my electronic device which I can't put the photos in the order I want and put caption under it.  Just leave me a message if you want to know more details. 
Last, we got some macarones when before we got the bill.  After eating so much great food, the macarones aren't very good - too sweet.
All the ladies got a bag of banana and pistachio cookies to bring it home.
GREAT DINNER, hope that I will have a chance to be there again!!!!!!!!
HIGHLIGHT of this round the world trip so far ~~

Hooters in Vegas, casino hotel

We randomly stayed in Vegas for US labour day - a long weekend here, so the price of the hotels are very expensive. Therefore, we picked Hooters as it is relatively cheap and convenient.
Location - on the strip, right opposite to MGM. Still takes about 5-10 mins walk to MGM without any shaded area. Acceptable.
Cost - US$77+7.5 (resort fee) +tax, so under $100 a day.
Cleanness - pretty clean, I would rate 4/5
Service -3/5, the staff there is generally not too bad but not really helpful. They didn't make up our bed onçe after we left the room at 4p and no voice message is being left about this. Oh well, what do you expect from Hooters.
Envirnoment - as a random racial observation, lots of white people there and don't see Asians basically. However, it doesn't really matter, it's a safe hotel.
Overall, it costs less than US$100 a day, I think the overall experiences are good and I will probably stay at Hooters again.
Oh, the worst thing is that Hooters doesn't provide wifi, even if you pay. However, you can find free wifi all around Vegas (eg) MGM, Aria, Cosmopolitan. You can still survive.

Lemongrass at Aria on the Vegas main strip

Modern style Thai food. Here at 11pm after watching Lion King (which is a good show, except the ridiculous air conditioning there) to scam some Asian restaurant week food for $30.11. Not bad value.
- Chicken satay as a start. Half decent, not great. Nice fresh veges on the side. But finally something not overcooked and super salty.
- Tom yum soup next. Flavour is a bit strange, perhaps just too much basics tastes (sweet and sour) and not enough real taste from the spices.
- Pad Thai as one of the mains (or entrees as they like calling it here). I vote above average. Slightly oily but I like generous eggs. Fresh ingredients a plus.
- Chicken curry - weird. Excessively full of coconut juice and tastes suspiciously like lots of curry powder from Walmart. At least it isn't overcooked.
- The dessert is this coconut with random shit. I don't know, there's a strange smell and after taste to this. I get it, it's Thai and you add coconut and some mochi type things in it, but what's with the goat cheese after taste?
Overall, it's OK, but none of the real natural nuances of flavour really built out from the cookery.
All the commentary is globally relative, that is, it could be the best Thai food in US but I don't really care as food is just generally crap here.

Sirens of TI - Free show at Treasure Island, Vegas

The show isn't as great as other paid ones but it is still pretty good with some fire and water effects and a little bit firework. Girls in bikini dancing around with a bit of song and dance.

Worth a look and 15min of your time.

Jean Philippe in Las Vegas

Very strong reviews everywhere on what they do. The Aria branch has a gelato section and a patisserie.  I haven't got past the gelato section because the chocolate cappucino sundae is so awesome.  At $8.50 plus taxes etc, this isn't cheap, but the mix of coffee and chocolate ice cream muddled in a congregation of brownie, chocolate chips, fresh whipped cream, chocolate fudge and other random ingredients makes me not give a crap and eat two of them in two days.
Must eat!

Yakitori Taik @ Tokyo

I have just kicked off my round the world trip today. My first station is Tokyo and then head to Hawaii on Thursday night.

I have been to Tokyo a few times and visited most of the tourist destinations. Therefore, I want to try some local places this time. A friend of mine brought me to this place at a residential area.

It's only 25-30 mins away from the city center and can be reached easily by taking train.

As I have eaten too many varieties of food, it takes me some time to upload some photos. I will keep editing this post, so stay tuned.... (I will try to update it everyday!!)

Round the world !!

Hi Dear,

I know that I haven't upload a new post this week as I am busy with my round the world trip.

I am planning to go to US first, then Europe, India and Russia.

It will take me up to 3 months so I am planning for it and doing some research!!!

However, I will try to post a new review on a restaurant today!!