LOCALS #3

Round 3 of the LOCALS series! And for this one, we’ll venture outside of San Francisco to explore the East Bay.

Meet Mitch from GO! Overseas, who has offered to share his insider tips for Berkeley and the East Bay.  He grew up in upstate NY and lived in Taipei, Taiwan (of which he is still very fond!) for four years before moving to the Bay Area.  Mitch is an entrepreneur, founding a number of companies in the field of education.  His most recent company, GO! Overseas, has quickly become the most trusted resource on the internet for researching study, teach and volunteer programs around the world. The GO! Overseas website contains listings for nearly every program in the world, along with independent ratings, reviews, community forums and more.

His first company, Reach To Teach, places teachers in countries around the world, primarily China, Taiwan and South Korea.  Mitch is currently an MBA student at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.  When he’s not working you can find Mitch playing sports, hiking, traveling or reading (often in combinations).  And now, let’s get to the Q & A…

1. What is the best thing about living in Berkeley?

Do I have to pick just one thing? After living abroad for years, I couldn’t have picked a better soft landing spot for my return to the United States. People often say the Bay Area is the most “European” environment in the US. I couldn’t agree more. Bay Area residents tend to be well traveled, open minded, and certainly very liberal. Berkeley is the extreme embodiment of all the above characteristics- a very good thing, in my opinion. The Bay Area feels like home to me and I don’t plan on leaving anytime soon.

2. What should visitors to the Bay Area should not miss in the East Bay?

Telegraph Avenue is, of course, the center of “hippy” America and most visitors won’t want to miss it. I’m a history buff and it’s inspiring to walk around that area and think about all the protests centered there in the 60s and 70s. That tradition continues today, there were protests on campus all year, mostly in response to all the budget cuts to the UC system.  I also won’t let anyone leave the area without taking a run/ bike ride/ hike in the surrounding Berkeley Hills. It’s beautiful and only minutes away. I feel lucky to live so close to so many great hiking trails.  Speaking of living so close to the great outdoors, did you hear about the mountain lion that made its way into Berkeley this week?

3. It’s a lovely Sunday afternoon – where can we find you?

Undoubtedly in one two environments:

1) Working, reading and relaxing in one of our great local coffee shops. A few of my favorites (in order of preference): Philz, Peoples and Sacks. Café Leila on San Pablo is another favorite spot- they have a great outdoor seating area.

2) Exploring the great outdoors in the Berkeley area. There are great hikes literally minutes away: Tilden National Park, Wildcat Canyon and a lot more. I purchased a “Bay Area Hikes” book recently and have been working my way through the list.

4. Where is the best place to get lunch?

The Cheeseboard. The lines out the door and around the block never cease to amaze me. People are lined up from literally the moment they open until they close. For those that haven’t been: They serve one type of pizza every day – one and only one type. There are no choices to be made. On a philosophical note: I think my soul enjoys this about The Cheeseboard. We have so many choices nowadays – too many, in my opinion. I enjoy walking in and just saying, “one slice” (admittedly, I’m less excited if the pizza of the day has some type of corn topping and more excited if it’s tomato or eggplant).  The Cheeseboard is also a collective, which clearly embodies Berkeley in any number of ways.  By the way, here’s a recent thought provoking article from the NY Times about why less may, in fact, be more.

5. What is your favorite art museum, local artist or public art piece in the East Bay?

I’ll admit this is not my area of expertise. I recognize you may hold this against me given the focus of your website!  I’ve been to the de Young Museum, Asian Art Museum and Contemporary Jewish Museum and enjoyed all of them.  I know there is a great art scene in Berkeley. You can literally feel the creative passion and independent thought all around you. I do need to get more involved, so thanks for the push!

6. Beers. Cocktails. Shots. Who has the best drinks?

I’ll go with Henry’s on Durant for a spot close to campus and The Albatross Pub on San Pablo for a different type of environment. Both are great places to have a drink and root on the Golden Bears!

7. Say you have guests in town who are visiting for the first time – where do you take them first?

I’ll usually take friends and family to the Berkeley campus first. It’s a beautiful campus and there are a lot of things to see and explore. I especially enjoy taking people on a run through campus. If we can handle the hills, we’ll go up to Strawberry Canyon as well.  Also, and this may sound silly, I feel like The Berkeley Bowl is worthy of a visit. I eat a pretty healthy diet, and so does much of my family. The produce section there is so unbelievable that it’s worth taking people for a visit…even if it technically is only a grocery store.

8. Food Trucks – which one do you frequent the most?

I can’t say I frequent any food trucks in the East Bay. I don’t see many around the Berkeley area. Am I missing something delicious? If so, I’d love to see a little editor’s not inserted here!

*Editor’s note, as requested:  I think you’re totally missing out…haha.  While the majority of food trucks I check out are in San Francisco, I knooow there are some roaming those East Bay streets – when you get a chance, you can definitely find Jon’s Street Eats or Cupkates hanging around.

9. What is your favorite local festival or tradition?

Berkeley is definitely the place to be for local festivals. There are always things going on from little concerts in coffee shops, to full street fairs. Personally, I go to the farmer’s market on Shattuck and Rose nearly every Thursday. It’s a good environment and I’d always rather support local farmers as opposed to Safeway. Plus, everything is generally at least as cheap and the freshness is no comparison. Definition of win-win in my book.

As for general SF festivals: Can anything really beat Bay To Breakers? It has to be seen to be believed. I went to my first one this past May and I’m still not sure I believe my eyes were telling the truth. I’ve tried explaining the event to friends and family- it can’t quite be described. If you haven’t been yet, make it a priority to go next year!

10. If you could live anywhere in the world, besides the Bay Area, where would it be?

I know this for sure: There is nowhere else in the United States I’d rather live.
With that in mind, I’m going to answer this in two ways: One place I’ve lived previously and would be happy to live in again and another place I haven’t been to but am looking forward to visiting:

1) Taipei, Taiwan. I lived there for four years before moving to the Bay Area. Taiwan is a fantastic country. The people are unbelievably friendly and welcoming. The economy is well developed and it’s a comfortable place to live, yet things are still quite cheap. I certainly wouldn’t complain if I ended up there again.

2) Bueno Aires, Argentina. I’ve wanted to learn Spanish for years. I figure between speaking Mandarin and Spanish I should be able to speak to most of the world, no? I’ve had many friends who spent time in Buenos Aires and have said great things. The combination of a lot of excellent, grass-fed steak and red wine is enticing and quite appealing.

Lots of thanks to Mitch for taking part and being my first East Bay interviewee!

If you’d like to experience the East Bay like, check out these links:

Would you like to be featured on LOCALS?  I’m always on the search, so if you’re a travel blogger located in the California, I’d love to interview you!  Just send me an email: ashley “at” No-Onions-Extra-Pickles “dot” com.

No Comments

Ashley @ No Onions Extra Pickles, September 3rd 2010 | Posted in LOCALS

Travel Memories Monday – Seville, Spain

Located in the south of the country, Seville is the fourth largest city in Spain – and is my favorite Spanish city! I’m completely enamored with the mix of Moorish and Catholic aesthetics that pervades the city. The Moors ruled this region of Spain from the 8th to 13th centuries, and where defeated during the Spanish Reconquista in 1248 by the forces of King Fernando III. While Seville doesn’t have an Alhambra like Granada or a Great Mosque like Córdoba, the Moorish legacy is still very present and nicely complements the Seville of today. Similiar to my post a couple of weeks ago about Venice, I’ve chosen my 10 favorite pictures of Seville to show why I adore this city.

The Cathedral


Welcome to the Alcázar


Details


Admiring Columbus


Spying on a Private Garden


Stained Glass


Looking Up


On the Street


Tiles


Doorway

2 Comments

Ashley @ No Onions Extra Pickles, August 30th 2010 | Posted in Spain, Travel Memories Monday

San Francisco’s Sister Cities

Image from WikiCommons

I was first introduced to the concept of sister cities in high school. A classmate of mine was chosen to participate in a sister city exchange, and spent her summer in Japan. True, it’s the jealously of not spending my summer in Japan that engrained the city sister idea in my mind, but at least that got me thinking.

The sister city relationship doesn’t come about by chance. President Dwight D. Eisenhower laid the ground work for the sister city movement here in the States with his People-to-People citizen diplomacy initiative. The official control of sister cities first fell under the jurisdiction of the National League of Cities, and in 1967, as the movement became more popular with the American public, Sister Cities International became its own non-profit entity. The role of Sister Cities International is to help cities find each other and formalize the sister city relationship – which is all about promoting cultural and business opportunities between the two cities.  Sister Cities International even has a Cities Seeking Cities section on their website!

San Francisco has 18 official sister cities: Amman, Jordon – Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire – Assisi, Italy – Bangalore, India – Barcelona, Spain – Caracas, Venzuela – Cork, Ireland – Haifa, Isreal – Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam – Krakow, Poland – Manila, Philippines – Osaka, Japan – Seoul, South Korea – Shanghai, China – Sydney, Australia – Taipei, Taiwan – Thessaloniki, Greece – Zürich, Switzerland.

Quite a well rounded group!  Personally, I’ve only been to two of them so far – Barcelona and Shanghai – but am hoping to visit them all eventually.

Because of my interest in this movement, I will be starting an on going series here on No Onions Extra Pickles exploring the relationships between San Francisco and its sister cities – and I need your help! If you are from, or currently reside, in any of these cities and want to contribute to a future post on your city, let me know – you can comment below or email me at ashley “at” No-Onions-Extra-Pickles “dot” com.

Look forward to hearing from you!

5 Comments

Ashley @ No Onions Extra Pickles, August 27th 2010 | Posted in San Francisco

Travel Memories Monday – Tortuguero, Costa Rica

Turtles. That is the one and only reason I went to Tortuguero and I was not disappointed.

Tortuguero is not the easiest place to reach, considering no roads go there. Your only options are to arrive by airplane or boat. Despite that, Tortuguero National Park is the third most visited national park in Costa Rica. The place I was staying at – Laguna Lodge – took care of all of my transportation, which included a long bus ride, followed by a boat ride. This is common among the hotels in Tortuguero. The rates also include all of your meals while you’re there, and usually a couple tours as well. The one tour that was extra, and well worth it, was the evening beach walk to find nesting sea turtles.

Tortuguero is considered one of the most important sea turtle nesting grounds in the Western Hemisphere and to protect the turtles, no one is allowed on the beach alone after 6pm – you must be with a guide.  This is because the majority of the nesting activities take place at night.  The peak of the turtle season is from late July into August.  Various types of sea turtles – including Hawkbill, Green, Leatherback and Loggerhead – all nest in Tortuguero, and if you’re lucky, you’ll arrive during the overlap of two nesting seasons.  This would give you the chance to see baby sea turtles hatching, while spotting female sea turtles are coming on land to lay eggs.

As we walked onto the beach, all I could hear was the thunder erupting in the distance. An occasional flash of lightning would light our path, but then it would be dark once more.  To protect the turtles, only guides were allowed to have flashlights.  The beach had transformed since the morning, when it was deserted.  Now we quietly walked by other tour groups, with only the guides talking to each other, discussing where turtles had been seen lately.  The rest of us waited, silent and anxious.  They make no promises that you will see a turtle, and each group is only allowed on the beach for a limited amount of time, so there is definitely some luck involved.  Thankfully, we were lucky.

Once the word was given that a female turtle had been spotted laying eggs, we were quickly on the move.  Several groups will view the same turtle, each spending just a few minutes with her – this way, everyone will get a chance to see her, while disturbing her as little as possible.  The people of Tortuguero realize that the sea turtles are their lifeline and are the reason so many tourists visit their town.  Many steps are taken to ensure that the turtles are protected and will continue to return.

When we approached our sea turtle, I was breathless.  She was beautiful – and enormous!  I had not been expecting such a large creature, but just her shell was 4 feet across.  As we gathered in, our guide explained that sea turtles enter a sort of mental zone once they start laying eggs, and as long as we were quite and moved slowly, she wouldn’t notice us.  It is an experience to be that close to nature.  I wanted to reach out and touch her, but that would of likely resulted in a hand slapping.  Looking toward the water, I could see the trail in the sand as she created using her fins to scoot herself on shore.  Sea turtles can lay up to 200 eggs at a time, and can be on the beach for more than two hours.

As other groups began to surround us in the distance, I knew our time on the beach was about to end.  To ensure fairness, once a group spots a sea turtle, they are taken back to their hotel.  We quietly said our goodbyes, and began the treck back to our rooms, as another group approached our turtle.  As the evening ended, I realized that I really hoped that what the guide said about her not noticing us is true, as I couldn’t imagine that giving birth in front of an audience would be a comfortable or enjoyable thing to do.

11 Comments

Ashley @ No Onions Extra Pickles, August 23rd 2010 | Posted in Costa Rica, Travel Memories Monday

LOCALS #2

It’s time for the second edition of LOCALS! In case you missed the first interview, once or twice a month I will spotlight a different travel blogger, and quiz them on their hometowns. After 10 questions, hopefully you’ll feel like a local too!

Meet Mark Mendiola Guerra – a travel writer who’s focused on Mexico, and shares his passion at Mexico Unmasked. Originally from Texas, Mark has been residing in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1997. When he isn’t focused on travel writing or exploring San Francisco, you can find him doing some acting as well. Now, on to Mark’s answers!

1. First and most important question of all – which restaurant in SanFrancisco has the most authentic Mexican food?

Wow, this is a very difficult question to answer because there are so many regional dishes in Mexico and San Francisco offers a wide range of eateries offering foods from all parts. For me, being a HUGE fan of Yucatecan food, I’ve found this place called Poc Chuc on 16th Street near South Van Ness to be really good. The owners are from the Yucatan and prepare some tasty and very “authentic” dishes in my opinion. My personal favorite is the dish the restaurant is named after: Poc Chuc. It’s this really flavorful pork that’s marinated in sour oranges then grilled…dang, some yummy stuff there!!

2. What is your favorite weekend getaway from the city?

One of my favorite getaways from San Francisco is Bodega Bay along the Sonoma Coast about 70 miles north of here. It was made famous by Alfred Hitchcock when he filmed part of his film, “The Birds” there in the 60’s. I love it because I’m such a water person and I’m always looking for secluded spots with the sound of the ocean nearby. Plus, it’s a beautiful country drive that helps me decompress and escape the city for a while. It helps too, that there’s a place at the pier that sells some really good fried fish and calamari. It’s this little hole-in-the-wall, but it totally makes the trip complete for me…haven’t been there in a while, so I hope it’s still there! Sure would be sad if it’s not!

3. Which San Franciscan neighborhood do you like the best?

This has to be the district I live in now and have for several years, the Outer Richmond! I live near Clement Street and just really enjoy being able to walk to restaurants and catch public transportation into the City whenever I have to. It has this great vibe to it that is so different from other parts of San Francisco. Because I sometimes hear the foghorn at night, it totally smacks me and lets me know that I live in the best US city…I just love it!

4. It’s a sunny Saturday afternoon in the city – where can we find you?

At the nearest bar of course…Ha! Ha! Just kidding! Because the district I live in is in the “fog belt”, we don’t see a whole lot of sun, so if I need my fix of vitamin D, I sometimes head over to Dolores Park and take a good book with me. Afterwards, I’ll head to El Farolito, a taqueria in the Mission District for some “vitamin T”…tacos, tortillas, tortas…etc. LOL

View from Dolores Park

5. What is your favorite local festival or tradition?

Fleet Week…hands down! It’s just an incredible sight to the see the Navy’s Blue Angels skirt the bay waters with such grace and precision. How they maneuver those beautiful machines through tight spaces is beyond me, but it totally makes for a great way for me to spend an early October weekend!

6. Say you have guests in town who have never been to San Francisco -
where do you take them first?

I don’t take them anywhere! I lie and tell them I’ll be out-of-town so they won’t bug me!! OK, ok, I’ll get serious! Well, I make it a point to skip all the usual tourist spots and take them to my neighborhood in the outer Richmond. But, on the way there, from the airport usually, I like to take the back way home and drive by the Great Highway, passing up the Cliff House and then going by the Legion of Honor Museum and snaking my way through Sea Cliff, Robin Williams’ old neighborhood (not sure if he still lives there after the big divorce). These are some of the best views of the coast and you also get to see the GG Bridge from a different angle. Yes, THIS is why I live in San Francisco!!

7. What is your favorite museum, local artist or public art piece in the
city?

This relates to #6 above. I just love the Legion of Honor museum in the Outer Richmond near my home. The views are stunning and it’s really cool to be greeted by a sculpture of Rodin’s “The Thinker” on your way in to the facility. Unfortunately I don’t visit as often as I should, but one of the best exhibits I recall seeing was “Picasso: During the War Years” in the late 90’s.

8. Beer. Cocktails. Shots. Who serves the best drinks in the city?

BEER! I’m a beer drinker and living in the Bay Area is such a treat because there are so many great places. When I first moved here, I used to go by this place in SOMA (south of Market) called “Twenty Tank”…it’s no longer there and I was really sad to see it go. I remember this one brew they had which was real hoppy (the more, the better for me!) and they touted it as having “a steak in a glass” because it was so thick. Well, being a transplanted Texan with a major carnivorous bent you have to know that this was just the “protein fix” I was looking for..ha! ha! Can you say HEAVEN? Nowadays, I really like Dalva, this divey, dark bar on 16th Street near Valencia. They don’t do home brews, but they have a pretty wide selection of tap and bottle…can’t really go wrong there!

9. What is your absolute favorite restaurant in San Francisco?

I have a couple of favorites! For Chinese, I love going to Henry’s Hunan off New Montgomery near The Academy of Art. I’ve been going there ever since I moved to San Francisco in 1997. Their food is some of the best AND spiciest around. Give me some of their Kung Pao, chow mein and a cold Tsingtao beer and I’m happy! Another favorite of mine is El Farolito Taqueria in the Mission. They also have a location in South San Francisco which I frequent often. My favorite dish is their “cabeza” (head) tacos. These goodies are made of roasted beef cheek meat. It’s THE best and something I grew up eating back in Texas. It’s known as “barbacoa” in Texas, and the traditional way of making it (as inherited from the Spanish) was over coals in a pit in the ground for several hours. Ohhh, I miss Texas!

10. And for the finale – when you eventually move down to Mexico, and
leave San Francisco for good, what would you miss the most?

I’ll miss so many things when I do leave San Francisco, but the biggies will be the super creative vibe, the compactness of the city, the diversity of food and hearing that fog horn at night reminding me of “where” I’m at as I lay my head down for the night! I will visit her often tho!

A big thanks to Mark for taking part and sharing his inside knowledge of San Francisco!

If you’d like to experience San Francisco like Mark, check out these links:

Would you like to be featured on LOCALS?  I’m always on the search, so if you’re a travel blogger located in the California, I’d love to interview you!  Just send me an email: ashley “at” No-Onions-Extra-Pickles “dot” com.

6 Comments

Ashley @ No Onions Extra Pickles, August 19th 2010 | Posted in LOCALS, San Francisco
« Older Posts



Asynchronous Google Analytics for WordPress plugin powered by WordPress Expert at minilibra.com.