The Big Bully

‘No bolster,’ he said.

‘Why don’t we increase temperature of air-con, then we could use the blankets as bolster of sorts?’ I suggested.

‘No, you give me your pillow for me to use as bolster. Tomorrow I give you my pillow. How about that?’ he replied.

‘???!!!’

My husband offered me such a good offer I almost couldn’t resist the other day when we were in Seoul, in the midst of complaining loads about the mattress and pillow.  Yea, the husband who proclaims he loves me, also loves to bully me.

113/250

A Japanese Restaurant for… Desserts?

Kazu Sumi-Yaki is not my regular go-to place for my fix of Kushiyaki.  That honour is reserved for Nanbantei, which, over the years, has not been able to upkeep the high quality of their food.  In spite of that, we return to it, time and again, complaining each time about how the food prepared and presented to us are no longer like what they were a decade ago.  I guess we really thrive on familiarity.

And so, the topic of Kushiyaki came up during the last dinner gathering with the gals.  Someone in the group commented that she could not turn up for the dinner at Nanbantei eons ago, and she had heard only good things about the food.  She suggested going back to Nanbantei, but we thought we should just try another place that serves the same fare.  After some discussion on FB, we decided on Kazu.

It wasn’t a very pleasant experience trying to reach someone at the restaurant for a reservation.  I must have tried at least 5 times, all at different times of the day, weekdays and weekends before someone finally picked up my call.  We cannot walk in with a party of 7, that’s for sure.  I was so elated when I eventually got to talk with someone I was willing to forgive and forget.  Till the actual day…

Kazu Sumi-Yaki is clearly a restaurant that favours regulars they recognise.  I was largely ignored when I attempted to gain a staff’s attention at the door but they were happily admitting regulars who obviously did not make any reservations, giving me the ‘Wait’ sign with their hands.  Rude, by any standard, but once again I am willing to forgive and forget if they serve good food.  I am that food-driven.

We had to wait for almost 20 minutes past our reservation time slot before we were shown to our table.  And then it took more time to ask for their menus.  Chaotic, chaotic.  I get it that they are a small and establishment restaurant with a regular pool of patrons but shouldn’t you treat every patron that enters the door as a potential regular?

I did most of the ordering because I guess I’m most familiar with Kushiyaki.

{clockwise from top left: whelk, enoki maki, wagyu sticks, asparagus maki}

{clockwise from top left: tebasaki, corn, tomato maki, tsukune}

And order I did.  It wasn’t a difficult task because like I’ve mentioned, I thrive on familiarity – I just ordered what I would normally order at Nanbantei.  It was not intentional, but by ordering the same stuff, I could do a direct comparison of the food from these 2 restaurants.  Some hits and misses from Kazu Sumi-Yaki: most of the maki barely made it mostly because the chef was too ‘light’ with the salt it was barely discernible.  Wagyu sticks were very nice, but tebasaki too charred.  All in all, nothing mind-blowing, and totally forgettable.  The foie gras we had was delectable, but unfortunately I forgot to do a shot before I popped it into my mouth.

Now, the very expensive sweet potato was also very impressionable, in part for the very wrong reason that it costs S$22.  Each.  We decided on just ordering one, to be shared amongst the 6 of us who were present.  And we had to wait 20 minutes for it.  To be fair, the sweet potato was really worth waiting for.

{tiramisu, tempura awayuki, yaki crepe, yaki awayuki}

The saving grace for the day came unexpectedly in the form of desserts.  I told my dinner company that I remember the desserts being good.  And since we couldn’t decide, we ordered 4 of the 5 desserts on their menu to share.  I can only say that the desserts were mind-blowingly great!  And not too cloyingly sweet.  If there is any reason for me to return, it’s for the desserts.

I’m sorry Kazu Sumi-Yaki, but this is about the last time I will ever visit you.  And I’m putting this down on record in case I forget in the future.  Despite the great dessert, the food just doesn’t hold its own appeal.  Didn’t help that throughout the night, we struggled to gain the attention of the waitresses for the simplest of tasks – more green tea, the menu etc.  And then they became too enthusiastic when we were the last 3 tables left occupied late in the night, hovering in the background.  Yes, I’m still upset with them for clearing the bamboo container with all the sticks we discarded way too soon.  I wanted to take a picture of that!

Kazu Sumi-Yaki Restaurant
5 Koek Road
#04-05 Cuppage Plaza
Singapore 228796
Tel: +65-6734-2492
Opening Hours:
1800-2200hrs

112/250

Red Velvet

There was an incident that marred the memory of a great dinner get-together.  Shortly after we were seated, the patrons from another table asked for their birthday cake stored in the chiller.  There were 3 cakes in the chiller (yea, 3 birthday celebrations), including the small one I bought for E.  The staff was so confused she took the wrong cake (ours!) and walked right to the other table while all the time, I was trying to tell her that was our cake.  The lady who bought the cake realised the mistake, and walked to the chiller herself to pick up the cake.  As she walked past our table to her table, she declared very loudly to her friends that ‘My cake is from The Patissier’.

Woah… that stung.  Because obviously my cake box was small and the shop I bought from not as reputable as the big gun The Patissier in Singapore.  But that comment was… tasteless and uncalled for.  Well yes, The Patissier has some nice cakes, but they most certainly don’t sell Red Velvet cakes.  And I do know where to get the best Strawberry Shortcake, the best few Chocolate Cakes, the best Durian Cake etc. in Singapore.  Oh, as a baker myself, I do know my cakes… and that ignorant woman?  No.  She is just one of those fartsy pretentious office worker who mistakes brand name as an assurance of taste.

Yes.  I was very annoyed with her for insulting my choice of cake which by the way, happens to be really delectable.

The topic of Red Velvet Cakes came up during one of our previous dinner gatherings and apart from E and I, it seemed that the rest of them have not heard of it, much less taste it.  So I tasked myself to bring a Red Velvet Cake to the next gathering.  Although this old traditional cake is widely popular in the United States, the fever never really caught on in Singapore.  I researched a bit, and it seemed like only Room for Dessert sold Red Velvets.  Fortunately, I have heard only good things about this bakery.

I love Room for Dessert’s rendition of the Red Velvet Cake because the owner cum baker obviously used the most traditional way to get the red colour synonymous with the Red Velvet – beet root – instead of relying on red food colouring.  The result was a very dense but moist cake offering many layers of taste undertones.  Absolutely delicious.

Apparently Room for Dessert is famous for their Carrot Cake.  I have yet to try because honestly, I’m not a real fan of carrot cakes.  But judging by how good the Red Velvet Cake is, I might drop by one of these days and try the Carrot Cake.

108/250

The Rustic Life

Once in a while, we meet up with the parents for dinner over the weekend, with no prior planning.  We have a few default favourite eateries to return to, but that weekend we ran out of options.  Turned out my dad was in the mood to return to the rustic countryside lifestyle.  Kind of.  We headed over to Marina Country Club for dinner.

We had been there several times prior, having traditional chinese seafood cuisine, Singaporean-style.  And this one other time, I returned with the hubby to try out the barbeque buffet.  Let’s just say it wasn’t very memorable and we subsequently did not recommend that restaurant to our parents.

That night, we headed straight for the few restaurants by the dockside.  And settled for the first restaurant that we always walked by without taking a second look.  This restaurant called Channel Sam serves seafood, western style.  We didn’t find the menu very interesting, and therefore went straight to the counter and started pointing off the fresh seafood.  We figured it was a faster and more effective way to order.  Secretly I was disappointed because they didn’t have all the chinese-styled seafood dishes I was more used to.  I think my parents were disappointed too, but since we have already sat down at a table, we were too embarrassed to leave.

Granted, it was a nice place with a view.  We were also blessed with good weather and a balmy breeze.  Because we were there early, we didn’t have to wait very long for our food to arrive although I have to admit, I was expecting very much.

The food was basically nothing much to shout about, especially the presentation, but they didn’t taste too bad either.  It helped that the seafood was very fresh.  Alright, the food was quite good.  I was just… crabby because I didn’t get to eat my crabs, pun unintended.

We enjoyed ourselves that evening, especially my dad, who could leave the table several times to take a smoke.  I even wondered if he chose this place because of the open-air concept (meant that he could easily take a smoke nearby).  I chided him but he was clearly not afraid of me.  That night at home, I texted the little sis (who had something on and did not join us for dinner earlier) about how heavily he was smoking.  Figured she could do something about it since dad is apparently very afraid of her.  I didn’t hear from her after I texted her, and I forgot all about it.

Turns out she gave him hell that night for chain smoking.  I learnt about it from my mum a couple of weeks later.  Some of you might think that we are coming down too hard on an old man for his decades-long smoking habit, but you don’t know he had a health scare a couple of years back.  He was so shaken he promised us to quit smoking.  Never happened.  For a hypochondriac like he is, I don’t understand why he just won’t quit.  Especially when all of us around him show our displeasure so openly.

Much that I loved patronising the restaurants at Marina Country Club, I don’t think I will be returning with the parents any time soon.  While many parts of Singapore have clear demarcated areas where smoking is allowed or diallowed, they didn’t have such restrictions at the country club.  The last thing I want to do is to encourage dad to smoke.  So from now own, we shall only dine at eateries that do not allow smoking.  He smokes a lot lesser like that because it’s too troublesome to walk out of the building in the midst of a meal just to smoke.  That’s the least I could do to ensure that he lives longer.  I actually worry about who will rein him in; the little sis will be getting married next year, which means that no one at home can control him and his smoking habit.  I truly worry.

106/250

The Annual Date

I have a friend of almost 30 years that I have been seeing once a year, for the last few years.  This friend and I go way back when we were the top students in our primary school comprising mainly students from English-speaking families.  A small group of us stuck out like sore thumb because we were equally good in both English and our Mother Tongue Language (in this case, Mandarin Chinese).  The rest of them, back then, couldn’t speak a complete sentence in Mandarin even if their lives depended on it.  In fact, some of them almost never made it to the local universities because they could barely pass their Mother Tongue exams.  The last I checked, their linguistics skills in this area didn’t improve over the years.  Perhaps the level of proficiency might even have ‘deproved’ due to lack of use.

In the late 80s/early 90s, a certain unique genre of music called Xinyao (the extended form being ‘Singapore Songs’ in Chinese) was emerging in Singapore.  The movement began in the early 80s when some junior college students started forming small groups to compose and sing their own compositions, in Mandarin.  By and by, this genre of music grew popular (because the songs were usually about everyday lives of average Singaporean students) as the listeners could identify with the issues sung in the songs.  At the peak of the movement, YF and I caught the bug in spite of our tender age.  We attended one concert in the last year of our primary school, and another concert again in the first year of our secondary school.  The following couple of years Xinyao became more commercialised, resulting in the annual concerts cum award ceremonies being televised.  We stopped attending the concerts because the tickets were no longer available for sale.  Being in different top secondary schools (and were naturally bogged down by our studies), YF and I lost contact.

Somehow, we never really felt the need to contact each other again but I always hear of her from friends who attended the same junior college as her.  Truth is, the ‘elite circle’ those days was very small; you can always find someone who knows someone else in your life.  Then we both moved houses and lost contact once again (back then, emails were not prevalent, there were no cell phones and definitely Facebook has not been invented).  It was much harder to keep in contact, and we were just too busy with our own lives.

For the next few years while in university, I tried searching for her.  Everyone I knew from her junior college heard of her, but didn’t know how to contact her.  Somehow years passed by and once again, I got caught up with life’s little busy-ness.

Until one day shortly after I got married, I saw an article of her and her newly-wedded husband on a bridal magazine.  That was about the time when Friendster came into existence.  I searched for her name on Friendster and voila!  I found her, together with many other primary school friends I lost contact with.  We caught up on the lost years.  By then, the once dead Xinyao movement was also revived in the form of annual concerts.  We started attending the concerts together again.

Yesterday, we attended a concert celebrating 30 years of Xinyao.  And boy, did we feel young amongst the crowd.  Told mum and little sis I was attending the concert, and they immediately assumed that I would be going with YF.  It is that predictable.

Together with the other concert attendees, we had hell of a time during the 4-hour long (without intermission) concert.  I’m eternally grateful to have found a friend like YF who shares a common interest because honestly, I don’t think I can find a second person in my life who shares the same passion.  Well, perhaps the hubby… but he is not that into Xinyao.

It may seem strange that we meet up once a year, considering that we are now hooked up.  I guess the years apart somehow have an impact – we now move around in different circles and lead very different lives.  I’m contented to keep in touch with her via attending the annual concert and the occasional conversation on Facebook.  Same goes for her.

103/250

THE Korean Restaurant in Singapore

I have, on several occasions, lamented about the plight of Korean Cuisine lovers in Singapore – one just doesn’t seem to find decent Korean fare.  But fret not, fellow countrymen, for I think I have found the restaurant that I am willing to return to time after time.  And the restaurant that has won me over permanently?  Hyang-To-Gol Korean Restaurant located on the 2nd Level at Amara Hotel.

I cannot not talk about a bunch of folks I just got to know 3 months back when I talk about this restaurant, because they were the reason why I was even there in the first place.  The 4 other ladies and 1 gentleman I dined with that evening were the very same folks I sat with at the same table for 10 weeks during my Korean Language Class.  We made a pact to dine together during our semestral break of 2 weeks but couldn’t decide on the location (although we were set on Korean Cuisine).  Finally, N recommended Hyang-To-Gol in our WhatsApp conversation.  Since the restaurant allowed reservations (while the other restaurant the other classmates suggested do not), we concurred to give it a try.

You might be shocked at the plethora of dishes on our table if this is the first time you are exposed to Korean Cuisine.  It looks scary, but if you look closely, a lot of the dishes are what the Koreans call 반찬 (‘Banchan’), which are essentially small portions of side dishes.  And each of us had 3 dishes of sauces.  That resulted in the crazily filled table, so filled that the waitresses even had problems looking for space to lay down the dishes we ordered.  In spite of what you might believe, we didn’t order very much food.  In fact, the 5 ladies in the company finished up all the food because the only gentleman with us is currently suffering from an ailment that affects his appetite adversely.  Poor W, get well soon!

Clearly, the ladies eat like I do – little bits of everything.  I was happy to dine with them because if the hubby were dining with me, the table would be filled with meat dishes and ddukbokki (떡볶이), my favourite Korean snack food.  That crazy evening I got to eat some meat, seafood pancake (해물파전), Kimchi stew (김치찌개), mixed rice served in hot stone bowl (돌솥 비빔밥) and of course my ddukbokki (떡볶이).  The meats, in my opinion, were not very tasty but I’m not about to make a sweeping statement based solely on the 3 meat dishes we ordered.  I don’t usually deal with the ordering when with the hubby, so I will only make another conclusion about the meats after another visit with him.  But everything else tasted great, so tasty that they were comparable to what I have had in Korea itself.  Well I have eaten better-tasting ddukbokki and seafood pancake in Seoul, but the Kimchi stew and Bibimbap were really, really tasty.  You have to try these 2 dishes if you ever drop by, especially the Kimchi stew.

I always maintain that, to really learn if the restaurant is serving authentic cuisine, look around at the other patrons.  At Hyang-To-Gol, majority of the patrons are native Koreans.  Hey, if the native Koreans think that the restaurant serves up pretty good authentic Korean Cuisine, I am apt to believe them.

Although the 6 of us are rather close-knitted in class, we found out more about one another over dinner that evening.  It’s always easier to bond when a group has a common interest – in this case, our love for the Korean Language.  To be exact, we all love different aspects of the Korean culture – W, T and I are into K-Pop; W, T, M, N and I are into K-Dramas, and all of us are into Korean Cuisine!  With the exception of C, we are all picking up the language for self-interest.  C has business dealings with Koreans, so she’s strictly speaking picking up the language for work but we are trying to convert her.

This meal cost slightly over S$250.  Because W just took a biteful of the ddukbokki and half a spoonful of rice, we decided that it is not fair to make him pay.  Among the 5 of us, we split the bill.  You could definitely do the sums.  This restuarant is really reasonably priced.

Consuming too much barbecued food is purported to cause cancer so I do consume with this fact in mind.  The problem lies with the hubby and I being totally spoilt by the good food in Japan and Korea.  It’s very frustrating that we frequently cannot find food of the same quality in Singapore.  I cannot begin to even describe how elated I am to be headed for Seoul in 2 weeks’.

Did I mention I really love this bunch of new friends I made?  Hopefully we will all attain proficiency in the language together.  여러분,  열심히  공부세요!

Hyang-To-Gol Korean Restaurant
165 Tanjong Pagar Road
2F The Amara
Singapore 088539
Tel: +65-6220-7160
Opening Hours:
1130-1500hrs; 1800-2230hrs

99/250

Yan Ting, Revisited

Two weekends back, I revisited Yan Ting at St. Regis with a good friend, who was having their dim sum for the first time.  This is probably my 4th or 5th visit, but the very first time I took their Weekend Brunch Buffet.  It doesn’t come cheap, at S$98++ per pax, which is the reason why my family always opt to order from the ala carte menu whenever we visited.  But with The Astor Card, I had one complimentary brunch, and the other paying guest gets a reduction of 25% off the price.  Quite a steal, in my opinion.

It was the first time I was at Yan Ting during the first seating (at 11.30am), and I was surprised to find the restaurant rather empty, save for just a couple of occupied tables.  But we got one of the cozy tables for two by the side of the restaurant.  Loved the privacy of the table and the quiet ambience, but hated the fact that I forgot my camera.  Again.  So I have to rely on my iPhone’s camera.  My memory’s not as good as it used to be, that’s a reality I have to face up to.

I must have mentioned it before that Yan Ting’s collection of steamed Dim Sum items is not comprehensive, but sufficient to satisfy my appetite.  We ordered the usual fare that everyone must have at a Dim Sum restaurant, and some.  There were some hits and misses, but it was fun dining with E.  She introduced me to Liu Sha Bao, which is a bun filled with liquid salted egg yolk.  Lovely!  And for the first time, I didn’t over-order.  Realised that this is my family’s unique trait because my dad likes variety at his meals.

I had the most wonderful time chatting with E.  Found out a little bit more about Scandinavia from her since she visited Denmark once on a business trip (I have started my intial planning for our visit to Scandinavia in 2014 to see the Aurora Borealis), and realised that I really know very little about Northern Europe.  Even simple things like their staple diet, and how friendly they are towards tourists… I had to find out from scratch.  At least I found out that they really like fish and seafood.  In view of the hubby’s distaste for fish, I reckon we would have to bring our portable cooker and instant noodles for our trip.  More about my plans in a future post.

Today is the birthday of E.  Happy Birthday, E!  I hope all your dreams come true!

98/250

Weekly Photo Challenge: Together

Forever is a long time, since we are now living in an increasingly cynical world where the Holy Matrimony is deemed to be just a piece of paper contract between two individuals (and they don’t even need to be an Adam and an Eve nowadays, if you get what I mean).  Some people use this to get themselves married and dismarried several times, while other use this to remain unmarried.  To each his own.  But within my limited ability, I would like to honour my marriage vows as long as I could.  In this respect, the photograph that I chose today to depict Together is one that illustrates togetherness in maintaining a marriage.  Kind of.

We fell in love with Italy when we first toured the 4 representative cities any first-timers to the charming country (i.e. Rome, Florence, Milan and Venice) should step foot on as part of our honeymoon tour.  A vow to return only materialised 4 years later, where we decided to do an extensive 18-day trip of the northern part of the country.  Included this time in the itinerary is the gorgeous UNESCO Heritage Site of Cinque Terre where  it has since been declared a protected marine area and national park.  Naturally, we must hike the trail that links the five villages.  With our physical abilities (or lack of) in mind, we decided to challenge the Sentiero Azzuro (otherwise known as the ‘Blue Trail).  Don’t read too much into the colours; the trail is denoted in blue colour in maps therefore the name.

The easiest part of the trail is between the first 2 villages of Riomaggiore and Manarola.  It’s mostly flattish, and very manageable to walk.  This stretch of the trail is known as the Via dell’Amore (or ‘Pathway of Love’).  Apparently there is a bit of history behind the name, so if you are interested, click here to read more about it.

So, towards the end of this particular stretch of path, we sighted a fence decorated with some padlocks.  We figured the authorities must have recently removed the old padlocks put on by lovers.  Either that, or the fence is new. We didn’t have any padlock to spare, but the hubby was quick-witted enough to use a strip of the velcro I cut to tidy the straps on our backpacks.  And between the two of us, one of us is bound to have a pen in the bag.

After some effort in writing on the velcro, we stuck what must have been the strangest padlock-substitute onto the fence.  There is a Chinese saying that goes ‘A family that eats together, stays together’.  And mine?  I would say ‘A couple that travels together, stays together’.

95/250

Black Day

As we all know, 14 Feb is known as Valentine’s Day.  Specifically in Japan and South Korea, girls and women present chocolate gifts (commercial or handmade) to boys or men as an expression of love.  Sometimes they also do it out of social obligation.  This favour is reciprocated by the boys or men on 14 Mar, also known as White Day.  White Day is not practised where I come from, so I’m not exactly sure how it goes… but I’ve heard that on White Day, the boys or men will only gift the ones they love with chocolates or candy.  There are many versions I’ve heard, but ya, in general there is such a practice.

Now, South Korean has kind of gone a step further by creating another day called the Black Day on 14 Apr.  And you might have guessed who are the celebrants of this day – the singles.  Apparently, the singles celebrate Black Day by coming together to eat Noodles with Black Bean Sauce (짜장면, or Jajangmyeon).

Ironically, on Black Day last weekend, I had Jajangmyeon for lunch, with the hubby seated on the opposite side of me.  It wasn’t intentional on my part to celebrate Black Day, but well, I read so many tweets about Black Day and Jajangmyeon I developed a sudden craving.  Convenient that the hubby also wanted to go Korean for our late lunch.

After tossing ideas as to where we should get our fix of Korean cuisine, we decided on Hansik Korean Restaurant (again!) since it is located a mere stone’s throw away from home.  This Korean restaurant is fast becoming our ‘default’ place to go to whenever we crave Korean.  Like I’ve mentioned before, there is a serious lack of good Korean restaurants in Singapore.  The bad ones… nobody wants to visit, and the good ones… you can expect a long queue (since as a general rule, all of them coincidentally do not take reservations).

86/250

Wanderlust: Realignment 2

I cannot recall when was the last time my family travelled together.

Dad is an entrepreneur who runs his own business in pharmaceutical wholesale.  Like many other small-medium enterprises owned by Chinese bosses, Dad’s company only takes a break for about 15 days every Lunar New Year.  Apart from that, they work every single day with the exception of Sundays and Public Holidays.  And because my parents don’t believe in allowing us to skip school just so that we could travel during their long break, our last vacation taken together dates back as far as almost 20 years ago when I happened to have a 6-month break prior to entering university.

After I graduated and found a job, I was at the age where travelling with friends was way more cool than travelling with parents.  I was not allowed to travel alone with my then boyfriend-turn-husband because well… my parents are conservative.

My wanderlust must have rubbed off Dad, because during Lunar New Year this year, he suggested that we travel as a family next Lunar New Year.  In fact, he said we could travel to see Shirakawago in winter since I had been gushing about that place for the longest time.  But after discussion with the hubby, we thought it was probably not a good idea.  Dad worries a lot, and he fretted about the clothes to bring for a short Taiwan trip when it was merely 15 degree Celsius.  From the way I turned out, you could say that the apple has not fallen very far from the tree.

Shirakawago experiences the heaviest snowfall in winter in comparison to the rest of Japan, and ambient temperature could easily dip way below freezing point.  None of this is a concern to me, but my priorities have become somewhat different since the parents are coming along.  Although it would be easier if we settle for an easier destination like China or Taiwan (my parents were Chinese-educated and speak very little English), I wish to bring them slightly further or to places where they would never dare venture to without me around.  For example, Japan or countries in Europe.  The problem is, my mum hates taking flights – she cannot accept flights more than 6 hours.  And she’s not the quiet, self-suffering type; during my last trip with her and little sis to central Japan, she fidgeted in her seat the whole night flight it really got on my nerves.  I could break up a flight to Europe into two by doing a transit in Middle East but I would also have the problem of pleasing Dad, who only wants to travel on SIA.  He ever disallowed us from travelling together as a family because he was afraid the aircraft might crash and take away all our lives at the same time.  He was so paranoid he even wanted us to take different flights at different times to get to the same destination.  I argued with him on this – if one of us were going to be killed in an aircraft crash, I would prefer the whole family be together.

But one just doesn’t trivialise the parent’s fear of death, so the argument was left at that, without a resolution.

At the end of the day, the parents wanted to travel with us not so much for visiting new places, but more so for the company.  Although I really wanted to see Shirakawago the coming winter, it doesn’t seem like a good idea to bring the parents along.  Furthermore, the parents belong to the other type of travellers – maximise the travelling by visiting as many places as possible.  They are going to be bored to death if we spend a couple of days at Shirakawago, and another couple of days at Gokayama because the hubby and I like to take it slow while soaking in the local culture and way of life.  I need to find another destination.

I wonder if they could be persuaded to visit Europe.  Rome and Paris are examples of cities where we could visit many, many places in just a couple of days.

84/250