Dine. Travel. Design.

Plymouth, MA, USA

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Last night my chef-cousin, took me out for a belated birthday at a new restaurant called Achilles-Project/Persephone. The concept is quite interesting, trendy food and atmosphere that’s eco-conscious combined with a retail environment. Who would have thought? Plus video games. What more does one need? Food. Fun. Shopping.

Above image: sliding concept- tables push together or separate to accommodate small and large parties. This sliding concept carries through other aspects: clothes racks slide on ceiling tracks to make room for video game playing and sliding chalk board covers the window between the kitchen and dining room. Subtle and well thought out.

Now, onto the food. Great, simple presentation. Elegant. On the other hand, I was not blown away by the food itself. Lumiere in Newton (run by the same chef) was much better.
Weird food: I love trying. Below is the “beef bone-marrow”. I’ve only ever had it before in Chinese soup. This time around was not expected- too much salt and butter with the consistency of bone-marrow (which is like mushy-fat…yum) was not too yum, as it felt like we were actually eating fat.

Perhaps I’m being a bit harsh. We did have a good experience and I would certainly go back for the interesting cocktails and atmosphere rather than for the pure food experience.

It’s good to see that ethnographic research is not just something learned in school. Some companies/people do practice and believe in its benefits for the design process!

Design Research
Nokia in NY Times

On the flip side, read what world acclaimed designer Philip Stark has to say about design being a waste of time.

Ho Chi Minh City aka Motorbike City (at least that’s what it seems!)
You just can’t hesitate when crossing the street and trust that the drivers will maneuver around you.

And so colorful!

I’m sitting at the airport waiting for my flight to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City).
Seems that there could be improvements on the way that travelers use their movile devices:

Here are a few photos I’ve taken in the past 5 days…

The circa 1920 Mah Jong set below was on display at the National Heritage Museum during my visit to the Raymond Lowey exhibit. This item seems to be a good transition into my trip to Hong Kong.

I’ve just arrived in this vibrant city filled with as much old as there is new. An ancient form of Chinese poker as a past time has turned into souvenirs for foreigners to bring home and a way for contemporary lifestyle stores like GOD to continue to create novel products by transforming and reinventing an old tradition to seamlessly fit in today’s contemporary lifestyle.