farewell, fung wah

More commonly known as the Chinatown bus Fung Wah was one of the pioneers in dirt-cheap bus transport in the east coast (apparently mostly in the New York area and connecting to other major cities in the area. Said to have inspired the competition that lead to the rise of other low-cost buses (some chinatown and some not - such as bolt and megabus), Fung Wah was an icon in the northeast.

This morning, the U.S. Department of Transportation put a hold on all Fung Wah buses pending safety inspections. This is coming off the heels of Fung Wah already pulling it's popular NY-Boston buses for that same reason. While not completely undue, it's always sad to see an icon go.

I still remember the one and only time I took the chinatown bus to New York for a day trip. I had the seat in the back next to the bathroom...it was quite a 4 hour bus-ride...but it got us there in record time. While efficient, the drivers will take many risks, often at the peril of others. While I never took that particular busline again...it was nice to know that there was a chinatown bus there to keep other bus companies competitive. I guess this is the end for Fung Wah...farewell...

50 beans | Coffee Crawl – Prague

Ok I’m just going to preface this post by saying that this will be LONG. A lot of times getting a cup of coffee was a good excuse to get out of the cold and warm up a bit. Also, coffee is good. Prague has a lot of coffee places, and, well…you know…

A Café
I kid you not, this place is called a café. This was my first cup of coffee in Prague, at 4:55am before a 5:10am train from Prague to Linz en route to Salzburg. I got a cappuccino with whatever Czech koruna I had on me (I had like $2 worth left over from the initial $20 I exchanged). It was a decent cup of coffee, nothing too special, but enough to get me up and running for the day. It was going to be a five hour trainride and I wanted to get some last-minute planning done on the train.

Costa Café
Yes, I am aware that Costa is a huge chain, but since I don’t have much experience with it, and they had good free wifi (which is more than I could say for our hotel at times), this was a good place to park for a bit and enjoy a macchiato. It was also next to an exchange place that gave decent rates. The macchiato was pretty good, they did the right milk to espresso ratio (equal parts milk to coffee).

Kavárna Slavia
The famous Grand Café Slavia is situated right on the river across the street from the National Theatre opened in 1881 (the same year as the theatre) and became a popular meeting place for both artists and intellectuals, including former president Václav Havel who was a frequent customer during his dissident years. If you find space, get a table by the riverside windows to enjoy beautiful views of the Prague Castle. Café Slavia is a very pleasant place to have coffee and or hot chocolate (I ended up having both since we came here twice). The coffee was pretty good…ended up getting an amaretto coffee. The hot chocolate came with a bit of ice cream, but the cocoa had an odd consistency. It was like drinking chocolate syrup. Stick to the coffee.

Café Trinity
Not all cafés were good. Well, I suppose the coffee here was decent, but this was definitely a tourist trap disguised as a friendly café. First of all, they advertised wifi, which didn’t work, and the menu was outrageous. We’re talking 110Kc for an espresso. This is normally 28-35Kc. Aside from the fact that it was a tourist trap, the coffee was decent. I got a cappuccino, which came out promptly and tasted decent. The foam was decent and it held for quite a bit.

Kavárna Obecní dům
This café is one of the best looking cafés I’ve seen so far – still has that classic old-style European café look. I had the Viennese Iced Coffee here…it was decent – can’t really mess up coffee and ice cream I suppose. The thing about this café is mostly the atmosphere – live band, grand crystal chandeliers, high ceilings and well-worn plush velvet seats. This is a café you can spend an entire afternoon in reading the paper or studying. Definitely a good rainy-day place to hang out.

Café Rozmani
This place was a small café on the side of the road that we decided to check out purely for the sake of getting out of the cold. I had an egg liqueur coffee (didn’t know such a thing existed). It was an interesting consistency – the egg liqueur kind of sat at the bottom unless you stir it up. Probably not something I would order again.

Ok maybe that wasn’t that long…thanks for reading. I’m starting to look into the next trip…not sure where though. Maybe coffee crawl Mumbai =)

mississippi finally abolished slavery...a few days ago.

Thanks to Lincoln (the movie), Mississippi has finally abolished slavery for sure (in a manner of speaking). Apparently this southern state voted to finally ratify the 13th amendment (after initially rejecting it on December 5, 1865) back in 1995 (only 130 years late...not bad), but it was never actually reported to the United States Archivist, which means Mississippi's ratification wasn't officially on record.

Apparently a middled-aged recent immigrant from India named Dr. Ranjan Batra saw Lincoln in theaters, went home and did a little bit of Internet research, and discovered that his adopted state of Mississippi never technically ratified the amendment. The issue was brought to someone's attention, escalated, and two weeks ago it was finally made official.

Congrats Mississippi, you're finally a free state.

50 beans | Coffee Crawl – Vienna

The second city in this series is Vienna. After the Turkish army was defeated during the second siege of Vienna in the 17th century, sacks of coffee beans were discovered in the abandoned Turkish camps. Legend has it that Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki, a Polish officer, was given the bags of coffee as a gift. Having spent some time in Turkish captivity, he must have learned what these beans were used for, and used the beans to open the first coffee shop in Vienna. Kulczycki opened a coffee house in Vienna at Schlossergassl named the Hof zur Blauen Flasche ('House under the Blue Bottle'). This  helped popularize coffee in Vienna, and was instrumental in establishing the coffee culture there. While the blue bottle coffee house is no longer there, other cafés have sprung up to take it's place.

Since 2011, Viennese coffeehouse culture has been listed in the Austrian list of Intangible Cultural Heritage (put together by UNESCO). The Viennese coffee house is described in this inventory as a place "where time and space are consumed, but only the coffee is found on the bill."

Café Tirolerhof
Located directly across from the Albertina, Café Tirolerhof is a nice quiet place to sit, pour over a local paper (english available), and enjoy a cup of coffee. Upon walking in, you're invited to seat yourself at any table in this nicely decorated viennese café. As you sit you'll notice the velvet fabric that is on each seat, well worn by the butts of many viennese from years past =) I was able to enjoy an einspänner and homemade apfelstrudel here.

Café Sacher
This café is situated down the street from the Vienna Opera House inside the Hotel Sacher, and sits on the site where Antonio Vivaldi once lived. This café is famous for it's sachertorte, a chocolate cake with apricot jam filling, which was first created here. They offer the full sachertorte slice or a mini-sacher, depending on your mood/appetite. Since I already had breakfast at Café Tirolerhof, I opted for the mini-sacher, which is a 1x1 inch cube. I also opted to try the Viennese iced coffee, which is pretty much Vienna's version of the affogato, and consists of coffee, vanilla ice cream, and some whipped cream. The Viennese iced coffee was alright, the sachertorte was kind of dry (not a big fan but I figured I had to try the original here).

Café Landtmann
Founded in 1873 on the Ringstrasse next to the Burgtheater and across from the parliament building, this coffee house is known as a local meeting place for many of Austria's leading industrialists and politicians, and historically as being the preferred coffee house of notable Viennese such as Sigmund Freud and Gustav Mahler. The Viennese melange is great here.

Demel
Hofzuckerbäckerei Demel, or simply Der Demel, is a famous pastry shop and chocolatier in Vienna. Demel is located a block away from the Hofburg Palace and was once a purveyor to the Imperial and Royal court of Austria-Hungary. While I did not try the coffee here, I did come to buy some sweets for some relatives, and got a chance to look around inside. This place is a bit on the pricy side for candy – three small boxes of chocolates for €42 =/ but their sweets are pretty and creatively made. The flower in the picture above is a handmade piece of candy.

That's all for Vienna, the last and final post is coming soon and will feature the location where I spent the bulk of my trip: Prague. Until then, auf wiedersehen!

50 beans | Coffee Crawl – Salzburg

Two weeks ago I had a conversation with my boss which led to a conclusion that with a new project coming up, if I don’t take any time off now, I wouldn’t be able to until june/july. So, sort of on a whim, I got my vacation approved, checked for flights to Europe, and booked myself a flight/hotel for Prague (Reykjavik wasn’t feasible and Zurich would’ve been too much $$). 7 days later I was on a flight to Prague. Of course, the first two days I was in Europe solo, as Mike wasn’t able to make it till Friday, so I decided to book some rail tickets and check out Austria as well. This is a three part coffee crawl series – highlighting the cafés visited during my stay in Salzburg, Vienna, and Prague.

The first city is Salzburg, which is known as the birthplace of Mozart, and also the setting for The Sound of Music. It's a smallish town with many churches and old buildings, and the local people are very friendly. Coffee has had a long tradition in Austria. After the Turkish army was defeated during the second siege of Vienna in the 17th century, sacks of coffee beans were discovered in the abandoned Turkish camps. Legend has it that Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki, a Polish officer, was given the bags of coffee as a gift. Having spent some time in Turkish captivity, he must have learned what these beans were used for, and used the beans to open the first coffee shop in Vienna. Back then, Salzburg was still an independent principality, but they didn’t have any coffeeshops yet, so if Vienna had coffee, why shouldn’t Salzburg? In 1703, Café Tomaselli opened its doors, and the Salzburg coffee scene started.

As the coffee scene in Austria flourish, they began to develop their own coffee habits. Here, coffee is traditionally served with a small glass of cold water and some sugar, and there isn't really much of a to-go concept. A visit to a café is an experience, and you should expect to spend at least an hour or so per visit, but the atmosphere will be warm and pleasant. Anyways...enough background stuff...the following is a run-down of cafés visited in Salzburg (sadly I couldn’t visit them all):

Café Mozart
Located on the famed Getreidegasse, this place was definitely geared toward tourists, but had decent coffee. They offered English menu’s and free wifi, and had the full range of Austrian coffees. I ended up going with an Einspänner, which is a strong black coffee with whipped cream. It was pretty good, but it seems that they kinda overdo it on the whipped cream a bit. I guess it is a good substitute for the creamer and sugar, as it can easily be mixed in to make a lighter cup.

Café Tomaselli
Founded in 1703, Café Tomaselli on Alter Markt Square is the oldest and most well-known of the Salzburg cafés. Salzburg’s famed son, Mozart, had coffee there and so did generations of local and international artists such as Max Reinhardt, Michael Haydn or Hugo von Hoffmannsthal. The old-fashioned interiors, worn velvet seats, and Austrian café culture make this place worthy of a visit and so is the coffee. The coffee I got here was the viennese melange, which is a cup of strong coffee with milk and a bit of whipped cream and almond shavings...it was pretty good.

Café Fürst
Came here too late in the day to actually enjoy a cup of coffee (didn’t want to be overly wired at night), but dropped by for a visit and to sample the original mozartkugeln (mozartball). Just around the corner from the Café Tomaselli in the Brodgasse, Café Fürst is the site where mozartballs were immortalised in chocolate for the first time in 1890. Notable for being the first handmade chocolate candies to have a perfectly round shape with no flat sides, mozartballs, of course, were named after the famed Salzburg composer, Mozart.

Ok...that's pretty much it for Salzburg...next up in this series we'll be visiting Vienna, where we'll get to explore the viennese cafés to experience what has been described as a place "where time and space are consumed, but only the coffee is found on the bill."

the undercover niners fan

courtesy of sfgate (shh...they don't know)

the other day I was walking through downtown sac on my way to grab lunch when I noticed a lot of people wearing 49ers gear...t-shirts, jerseys, jackets, hats, etc. I know, in northern california there are only two football teams (well i guess that's debatable...) so when one of them is playing in the superbowl, it makes sense that people will be showing their support. The weird thing is, where were all these jerseys and jackets in 2005? Or for that matter 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010? I dunno, not trying to call anyone out, just a superbowl week observation here in Sac. Of course, being an eagles fan, I feel I'd be a bit more objective in making such a statement (as we haven't had a good year in a while). Well, I suppose regardless of who you're rooting for, what matters is that you have fun.

tossed salad and scrambled eggs

today's a decently slow saturday, so i figured i'd share a jingle i find amusing...if i ever find out what this song means i'll let you know...i'm assuming it's something to do with psychiatric help. who knows...

Hey baby I hear the blues a-callin

Tossed Salads and Scrambled Eggs

But maybe I seem a bit confused

Maybe, but I got you pegged

But I don't know what to do with those

Tossed Salads and Scrambled Eggs

They're calling again