Taiwan. Home to the first Hello Kitty-themed café, Hello Kitty-themed airplanes and now — taking cute perhaps one step too far — the world’s first Barbie-themed restaurant. Licensed by U.S. toymaker Mattel, Taiwan restaurant company Sinlaku on Wednesday opened the Barbie Café on Zhongxiao road, one of the busiest shopping districts in the capital, Taipei. [Read more...]
Rising Popularity of Japan’s Cat Cafes
In a country where many citizens do not have the time or space to care for creatures, “cat cafés” provide the experience of having a pet without the responsibility or hassle of ownership.
Though the first cat café, named Cat Flower Garden, opened in Taipei, Taiwan in 1998, the concept blossomed in Japan, where nearly 150 such spots have opened in the past decade, mostly in the country’s capital of Tokyo. Visiting with kitties does not come cheap, however. At Calico, one of Tokyo’s most popular cat cafes, one hour of cuddling costs 900 yen, with 200 yen for each additional 15 minutes. Drinks cost an extra 200 yen each, but are slightly cheaper than the 400 yen grande lattes available at the feline-free Starbucks.
Cat Café Nekorobi, also in Tokyo, charges by the hour as well (up to 1,200 yen on weekends or holidays), but throws in free vending machine drinks and snacks, as well as cat-free forms of entertainment like a Wii and board games. Cat Magic, in Nagoya in south central Japan, offers an extensive set menu (complete with beer and sake) priced to include some built-in playtime. Since Japan treats cat cafés as exhibition facilities like zoos and aquariums, there are fewer regulations regarding the serving of food and drink as there might be at traditional restaurants.
The establishments, which house anywhere from 12 to 24 mixed breed or purebred cats, do have strict rules regarding how the animals are handled. Guests are not allowed to wake any sleeping cats, hold any clearly unhappy cat or take photos of the cats with a flash camera (many who visit spend their time taking pictures or drawing the cats).
The cats manage to drag in their fair share of felinophiles the rest of the day, keeping business purring along.
Source: BBC Travel
Image: Info Barrel
Best Asian Cities for Street Food Trip
The food is one of the most enjoyable things about the Asian continent. But do you know where to find its best street dishes?
Taipei. It has streets that teem with vendors serving savory noodle soups, dumplings and steamed buns. In the evening, night markets open all over the city selling a plethora of clothes and household goods, but their real draw is the food. The street foods of Taipei might not be strictly native to Taiwan, but they just seem to taste better there.
Fukuoka , on the northern shore of Kyushu, Japan, has more than 150 open air food stands, called yatai. Yatai resemble miniature restaurants, except that most fold up shop every night and disappear until the next day. Yatai open around dusk and offer diners the opportunity to drink sake and shochu with locals and sample Fukuoka’s specialties.
Singapore. Regulated out of existence years ago, street food vendors moved into government-sanctioned “hawker centers” where they still sell the same street dishes. While this may undermine the cuisine’s credibility as street food, it offers those with delicate stomachs the opportunity to partake — strict safety and hygiene regulations make Singapore’s hawker food some of the safest “street food” around. Hawker centers offer a blend of inexpensive Malaysian, Indian and Chinese cuisines, which combine to offer a uniquely Singaporean eating experience.
Manila. Most vendors here are mobile and can be found walking up and down Manila’s busy streets, crying out their specialties. It all makes for a delicious, if fattening, affair. Whenever possible, foods are deep-fried, which makes them that much more mouth-watering and, as a bonus, kills germs. Cold drinks and sweet desserts are also popular snacks in Manila’s tropical heat.
Phnom Penh. Depending on what time it is, you’ll find scores of different types of street cuisine being sold by roving vendors or at stationary street stalls that cook on small charcoal grills. The local markets are also a good source of Khmer snacks, particularly Central, Kandal and Orussei, as well as the streets around the city’s many schools and universities. Breakfast time and early evenings are particularly busy, as hungry students flood the streets, looking for fried noodles, Cambodian sandwiches and sweet treats.
Source: CNN
Image: Design Verb
