Articles
Kuala Lumpur Blues
I land in Kuala Lumpur, and man, it’s a wild switch from Singapore. I take a cab from the airport and head downtown, cruising through these lush green expanses dotted with banana trees. There’s something about KL that takes me back to my roots in Caracas. Malaysia and Singapore split paths in 1965. While Singapore […]
Pot Luck on a wall in Berlin
The plan was to get to Berlin by 11 PM so we could be on stage and start our show at 11:30 AM. But the airline canceled my flight. I had to sleep for just 3 hours in a cheap hotel on Schillerstrasse in Munich, surrounded by brothels, in order to catch a train to […]
Monday Lunch at Ibai
It was a regular Monday morning at the office, back in 2018 when Diego Prado came up to my desk and asked, “Do you have cash, like, a lot of cash?” Diego Prado is the most generous person I know when it comes to spending large amounts of money at a restaurant. He’s a risky […]
An Amazonian Private Chef’s Chronicle: Pt. 2 – Dancing with Death
Growing up in Caracas makes you tough, street-smart, and quick. Even more so now than when I was coming up. They say that the need for resources is the mother of invention. Training in Venezuelan restaurant kitchens is like getting a master’s degree in these qualities. My first job was at a French restaurant, and […]
“Bantxu: A Korean Reality Show in San Sebastian”
Word had already spread in the streets, and it carried the funky smell of kimchi. “What’s that? A new Korean place opened? It’s part of a Korean reality show. With a famous chef? But it’s already closed? No, it reopened, but in a different spot. It’s cheap, and it collapsed after just 3 days. It […]