Note: the opinions and views expressed in this article are completely my own and do not reflect that of my employer or past employers. In the last couple years, data science has grown tremendously at UC Berkeley. More than 500 students have now graduated with a data science major within…

Shrek the Musical plays in the courtyard of Los Originales Tacos Arabes Bagdad, off 2nd avenue in the historic downtown of Puebla. In between customers and delivery orders, the cashier who wears his mask just under his nose concentratedly watches the musical projected at the back of the courtyard. For…

Looking back at my time spent in Hawai’i, it felt magical. There is a song by local artist Israel Kamakawiwo’ole (or as the locals call him, Braddah Iz) that never fails to invoke nostalgia for me: Somewhere over the rainbow/What a wonderful world. The song combines the two classics and…

I haven’t been back home in Shanghai since January, and I wonder how much it’s changed since. By extension, I haven’t seen my parents in almost a year as well. If you had told me this a year ago, I’d probably be scared and surprised that I could’ve lasted this…

TL;DR: cut a small slit on one side and sip it at a high degree angle. Every time I order a crema in the Bay Area, I’m handed a straw to drink it from. Why?? Why would I need to use an apparatus that only retrieves liquid from 1 height…

A Little Rant on Current Food Rating Apps One problem I encounter frequently — more often than I’d like to admit — is on deciding where to eat. Although food review apps like Yelp store vast amounts of information about each restaurant, they ultimately reduce a restaurant into a single number out of 5, as if it’s the…

“It’s hard to be a tourist in China. For one, you are primed to expect one of the world’s greatest cuisines, but the language barrier means that most of it is probably inaccessible. There is no great guide to eating in this country, or even in this city, and it’s…

One (literally) sweet memory from my childhood are the egg tarts from Lillian’s Bakery. Every weekend after my violin lesson in Puxi, I would not fail to stop by and buy a couple before taking the metro home. This was back in 2004–Shanghai was a radically different place to what…