The Best Bagel in New Haven

New York has its famous Ess-a-Bagel. New Haven has our very own Olmo bagels, voted by customers as the best in Connecticut.

I heard about the bagel shop for a while, which especially got its good reputation among Yale SOM students given its location very close to Yale School of Management — right around the corner of Trumbull and Whitney Ave.

Today I went to try on my own. Wow! I was immediately impressed by its diverse menu. I picked the Osaka-style Okonomiyaki bagel and it also allowed me to add an extra slice of ham — yes, I was hungry. It just tasted so good!

Olmo first opened for more formal and relatively high-end restaurant business in 2018 but the small dining room was not conducive to a global pandemic. The owners quickly pivoted the restaurant into a bagel shop knowing that New Haven, the Elm City, was a bagel desert. And the rest is just history, as people say.

Today the small bagel shop is often ranked by the press as the best bagel place in the Constitution State. And btw, in case unknown, Olmo means Elm Tree and New Haven is known as the Elm City of course.

Olmo Bagels
93 Whitney Ave, New Haven, CT 06510

A Museum Restaurant in New Haven

Have you thought about having a good meal inside a centuries-old museum full of art masterpieces? There’s one restaurant like that in New Haven, the college town for Yale.

Harvest Wine Bar of New Haven is a part of the British Art Centre and its architecture is in fact the last building designed by the internationally acclaimed American Architect Louis I. Kahn, of the 20th century design. The restaurant also has the large space that boasts a large open-air, stone outdoor dining room, surrounded by one of the museum’s greatest treasures.

Do you know the British Art Centre is also the first museum in America that agreed to have a restaurant as part of its facilities?

Food is delicious. I like New England-style mussels for starter or you can get the fresh-cooked broccoli sprouts in an artistic setting for plate. The bonus? Enjoy New Haven’s blue sky and don’t forget to pay a visit to another good museum, the Yale University Art Gallery after your good meal, and that is just right across the street.

Harvest Wine Bar & Restaurant
1104 Chapel St, New Haven, CT 06510

Tai Chi for Bubble Tea

Miss Taiwan bubble tea? New Haven has bubble too.

Taichi is an Asian fusion food restaurant est since 2015. Here you can choose Japanese ramen (beef, chicken, or shrimp) or go for healthy food, like Hawaii-style rice bowl — yes, it looks very colourful and every bowl is unique, pending on your own choices of ingredients, from seaweed, to pineapple, and to the most popular avocado of course.

The restaurant is also full of big and small panda. Want to bring one home? Ask the boss.

I first got to know Taichi when I went to Yale University Theatre for a Chinese drama based on Shanghai-Hong Kong author Eileen Chang’s famous novel, Red Rose and White Rose. Taichi was a sponsor for the students-led performance. Kudos to its efforts to support Yale Asian and Chinese students!

Tai Chi Bubble Tea
200 College St, New Haven, CT 06510

The Place To Be for Brunch in New Haven

“The Place 2 Be” is probably the most popular brunch place in New Haven, the college town of Yale. It is a so-called “millennial food concept” founded in 2015. Everything you order at the restaurant is sort of Instagram-friendly, especially it’s milkshake — with a little yellow duck on top as a highlight, and you can take it home

Here you eat brunch like joining a color celebration. It feels like graduation party everyday. Students like the southern fried chicken here and I ordered the spicy wagyu melt. Today is not your birthday? No problem! You can still get the famous birthday shake especially if you are big fan of vanilla. Yes I am!

The Place 2 Be
338 Elm St, New Haven, CT 06511

Research on Central Asia and Mongolia

Since I began to cover Mongolia and Central Asian countries some years ago, I got myself a new habit: Looking for Mongolia and Central Asia related books (in English) at any bookstore I visit.

I personally already got a good collection of books about those countries but whoever study Mongolia and Central Asia will tell you the existing literature and research materials in English language about those five or six (or seven) countries (depending on how you define the region) are still very very limited.

The only exception may be Afghanistan due to the long-time conflicts and wars. You can find many books about Afghanistan although those books in English are mostly from US perspective and about counter-terrorism. There are a few good books about Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire, the world’s second largest empire ever in history.

Today at Harvard Book Store (btw, this is an independent bookstore on Harvard Square, which has nothing to do with the university), in the Asia Pacific (APAC) section, I cannot find any book about Central Asian countries. I searched in Eastern Europe section too. Neither. Most of the books in the APAC section are about China (of course!), Korea, Japan, and etc.

Just feel a bit sad about those “underrated” countries. They are worth world attentions, not to mention China has made more efforts to form allies in Central Asia, a long-term strategically important region for China’s ambitious Belt and Road blueprint to counter the influence of the United States alongside the ancient “Silk Road”, which can be traced back to Italy and some countries in Middle East.

I remain a humble student of Mongolia and Central Asia. Welcome recommendations on good books. The more I read, the more I feel why and how big and different the world is. It’s all about perspective.