For such a small city like Ames, Iowa, the number of Chinese restaurants is actually quite large. Even better, these restaurants are probably some of the most authentic Chinese places I've been to.
iowa: szechuan house & 888 restaurant (ames)

For such a small city like Ames, Iowa, the number of Chinese restaurants is actually quite large. Even better, these restaurants are probably some of the most authentic Chinese places I've been to.
After our last post sharing the wonderful places you can visit in Seattle, we wanted to do a special edition focusing on the incredible food in Seattle. Read more on the blog.
"The Tipsy Bean -- Wine and Coffee Bar" serves a variety of coffee, red wine, white wine, rose, cheese boards, craft beers and pastries.
Cafe Beaudelaire has been around in Ames, Iowa since 1990, and as they call it, is "the Soul of Brasil in the Heart of Iowa."
Kerbey Lane is Austin’s staple 24-hour restaurant, known for its breakfast items (specifically, incredible pancakes) & queso. Back in college, my friends would always go to Kerbey for breakfast whenever it was one of our birthdays (and free pancakes, of course). It was also the place we'd go to after physic exams, which ended at 9 pm...
The List is a small, unassuming boutique, coffeeshop, and barbershop all in one. If you aren’t looking for it, you might miss out on this gym 🤭. And trust us, this is one fantastic gym. Not only can you get some new clothes and a fresh cut, but you can also get some greatly creative and intriguing beverages. We’ve listed out some of our favorites below and hope you can enjoy them too 🤝:
Just off the coast of Xiamen is Gulangyu, a pedestrian-only island that is also a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site. At only 2 km2 area and home to about 20,000 people, Gulangyu is a major domestic tourist destination and is one of China's most visited tourist attractions.
Bouldin Creek Cafe is probably my new favorite restaurant in Austin. I briefly mentioned it in one of my other Explore Austin posts, but I feel like I should do a separate post just on this cafe to do it justice.
The kind of coffee we indulge in is second-wave coffee -- chocolatey, milky, eclectic sophistication. So it makes sense that we fancy coffee in the PNW, since Seattle is kind of the capital of second-wave coffee.
After spending almost four days in Guangzhou, we took a high speed train to Xiamen. Xiamen, located in Fujian Province, means "door to the house", referring to the city's centuries-old role as a gateway to China.