Former Steelers QB Bradshaw to travel Asia for Korean reality show remake.

Terry Bradshaw, the Hall of Fame quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1970 to 1983, will be one of the stars of "Better Late Than Never", an upcoming reality show based off South Korea's "Grandpa Over Flowers" (꽃보다 할배). From The Wrap:

“Better Late Than Never” will follow five famous men as they backpack throughout Asia without any luxuries. Actors Henry Winkler and William Shatner, former athletes Terry Bradshaw and George Foreman and comedian Jeff Dye have signed up for the reality series that begins production in August.

The one-hour series, an adaptation of the South Korean variety show “Grandpa Over Flowers,” will follow participants to Tokyo, Kyoto, Seoul, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Chang Mai.

“The five will navigate their way through each city — communicating with the local population, immersing themselves in local traditions and enjoying exotic food — all the while dealing with the unexpected twists and turns that any trip presents,” the network said in a statement. “As they check off items on their own personal ‘bucket list,’ the five will rely on each other for support and encouragement and, in the process, demonstrate that friendship is the ultimate gift.”

Thai Loy Krathong Festival at Pitt, November 24.

The Office of International Services at the University of Pittsburgh and the Thai Student Association will present a Thai Loy Krathong Festival on November 24. "Loi Krathong takes place on the evening of the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai lunar calendar", says Wikipedia.

The name could be translated as "to float a basket", and comes from the tradition of making krathong or buoyant, decorated baskets, which are then floated on a river.

The free festival runs from 11:00 to 1:00 pm in room 310 of the William Pitt Union (campus map).

"Hawker Stand" temporary restaurant coming to Oakland, bringing Southeast Asian street food.

Spice Island Tea House will be taking a brief hiatus, says its Facebook page, and will be replaced by "Hawker Stand,"

a temporary restaurant featuring classic street foods of South East Asia.

We will serve tasty snacks and curries popularized by Asian food stalls, some of which you may recognize from the original Spice Island Tea House menu. We will post a working menu up as soon as possible. The menu will be posted on www.facebook.com/hawkerstand.

Spice Island Tea House will return in late 2014 or early 2015.

After nearly 20 years, 6 days a week, we think that Spice Island Tea House deserves an extended vacation. But we are excited about exploring this new territory, and hope that you will be too.

The spot is located at 253 Atwood Street in Oakland (map).

Sukhothai Bistro opens in Squirrel Hill.

Sukhothai Bistro opened in Squirrel Hill on the 24th, in the spot formerly occupied by Cool Ice Taipei. It becomes the fifth Thai place in the neighborhood, joining Bangkok Balcony, Silk Elephant, Sun Penang, and Curry on Murray.

Nakama voted best Japanese restaurant again by Pittsburgh Magazine readers.

Pittsburgh Magazine announced the winners of Best Restaurants 2014 readers' poll today, and Nakama was voted the best in the Japanese / Sushi category. The Southside's Little Tokyo Bistro and Shadyside's Umi finished second and third, respectively. Umi was also included on the list of best restaurants, as decided by the magazine's editors. Nakama was also voted the best Japanese restaurant by readers of the Pittsburgh City-Paper in 2013 (and in 2008, 2009, and 2011).

These three are in highly visible locations, and Nakama routinely places first in these sorts of polls (most recently in 2012 and 2013). Restaurants most liked by local Japanese and by fans of authentic Japanese cuisine---restaurants like Chaya, Kiku, and Kyoto Teppanyaki---rarely earn spots on readers' "best of" polls.

Sesame Inn was voted first in the Best Chinese category and Everyday Noodles, which opened in February 2013 in Squirrel Hill, was also named to the magazine's Best Restaurants 2014 list. Nicky's Thai Kitchen was voted Best Thai place, and made the editors' list as well.

Squirrel Hill's Cool Ice Taipei closes, to be replaced by Thai restaurant.

Old news from last week, but Squirrel Hill's Cool Ice Taipei has recently closed at 5813 Forbes Ave., and will be replaced by Sukhothai Bistro, a Thai restaurant. It may be a familiar name to Pittsburghers: there used to be one in Oakland on Semple St., and ages ago there was a Sukhothai downtown.

Sukhothai Bistro will join Bangkok Balcony, Silk Elephant, Sun Penang, and Curry on Murray as the neighborhood's fifth Thai restaurant.

Lecture " Thailand as Transgender ‘Mecca’: Transnational Imaginaries of Gender Reassignment" at Pitt, January 23.

The University of Pittsburgh's Women's Studies Program and Asian Studies Center will host Aren Aizura of Arizona State University and his lecture "Thailand as Transgender 'Mecca': Transnational Imaginaries of Gender Reassignment" on January 23. To quote from the above flyer:

Thailand is often described as the global "Mecca" of gender reassignment surgery, which cater almost exclusively to trans women-transitioning from male to female, although one or two surgeons cater to trans men.

This talk looks at Thailand's gender reassignment surgery clinics as part of a transnational imaginary of gender reassignment. This transnational imaginary consists in communities and connections that form across national boundaries, and that circulate practices, ideas, fantasies, anecdotes and information about gender reassignment across the uneven spaces of global/local modernity. Drawing on ethnographic research in gender clinics in Thailand and with trans women and men who obtained gender reassignment surgery there, the talk considers how understandings of Orientalized Thai femininity structured non-Thai patients' experiences of care, community, and transition in the space of the clinic and in tourist encounters with Thailand. By questioning the economic, colonial, and racial relations of "transgender travel", this research contributes a critical voice to the emerging field of transnational transgender studies.

The lecture is at 4:00 pm in room 602 of the Cathedral of Learning.

Thailand's Cathedral of Learning.

Via Assumption University's Facebook page.

An errant Google search brought me to the Cathedral of Learning (อาสนวิหารแห่งการเรียนรู้) in Bangkok, a 159-meter landmark at Assumption University modeled after the original Cathedral of Learning in Pittsburgh. Wikipedia says the 2002 version is the fifth-tallest educational building in the world, one behind the first one, and the university website writes of it:

The centerpiece of the campus is the Cathedral of Learning, a 39-story tower which houses student support services, the library, reception halls, seminar rooms and offices.

"Thai Hana" restaurant coming to Oakland.

This sign for "Thai Hana" recently went up at 3608 Fifth Ave. in Oakland, in what most recently was AJ's Inca Peruvian restaurant.



Thai Hana will join an Indian place, a Lebanese place, a pizza place, and a Popeye's on this Fifth Ave. block. Over the past year Miss Saigon 88, Rose Tea Cafe, and Sushi Fuku opened in Oakland and joined a half-dozen other Asian places, so in spite of this blog's focus I am a little sorry to see the Peruvian place go.

Update, 04/24/13: Signage went up.

One Japanese, one Thai film at 2012 Three Rivers Film Festival in November.

The lineup for Pittsburgh's 2012 Three Rivers Film Festival, released today, features two movies from Asia: Japan's The Makioka Sisters and Thailand's Mekong Hotel. At first glance I thought those pickings pretty slim, but last year's festival had just two Asian films, too.

The Makioka Sisters (細雪 Sasame Yuki) is a series of movies based on a well-known book, and the one playing here is the third and final installment. From the film festival website:

Presented in a new, restored 35mm print, this rich, lyrical film centers on the lives of four sisters who have taken on their family’s kimono manufacturing business. Shot in rich, vivid colors, and set in the years leading up to the Pacific War, it's a graceful study of a family at a turning point in history – a poignant evocation of changing times and fading customs. The two oldest sisters are married and according to tradition, the rebellious youngest sister cannot wed until the third, who's terribly shy, finds a husband. Don't miss this gorgeous film on the big screen.

The English-subtitled trailer from the 1983 film:



It will play at the Regent Square Theater on Sunday, November 4th at 7:30 pm, with tickets available both online and at the door.

On November 8th and 10th is a 59-minute film out of Thailand, Mekong Hotel:

Recently featured in Toronto Film Festival's “wavelength” sidebar of experimental art films, it is the gifted director's follow-up to Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. This unique film explores the theme of reincarnation as it shifts between fact and fiction in a calming rhythm of ebb and flow. In a hotel situated along the Mekong River, on the border of Thailand and Laos, a filmmaker rehearses a movie expressing the bonds between a vampire-like mother and daughter.

Both screenings are at the Harris Theater, downtown, with tickets available both online and in person.

The Three Rivers Film Festival runs from November 2 through November 17, with the 62 domestic and international movies showing at three theaters: the Harris Theater downtown (map), the Melwood Screening Room in Oakland (map), and the Regent Square Theater in that East End neighborhood (map).