The September Edition

Welcome to the September edition of Golden Hour ✨

Quick note: With some travel on the horizon, I’ll be sending future editions in the third week of each month. Thanks for hanging in there with me!

I started writing this one in Bath, UK earlier this month. The soft patter of rain and celebratory energy around Jane Austen’s 250th birthday put me in a pensive writing mood (leaving Bath made it so much harder to write!). Being in Bath — and the UK in general — always takes me back to my childhood in Hong Kong. As a kid, I’d scurry around from Marks & Spencer with my mom to HMV with my dad, never realizing how much of my Hong Kong childhood actually carried a very British imprint (which, for anyone who knows the history, isn’t groundbreaking news). It still never ceases to amaze me how layered the idea of a “home” can be and how I can feel homesick in places I’ve never visited before. Anyone else feel this way?

For anyone who’s new here (welcome!), I kick off every edition with a kitchen-sink roundup of things I’ve loved, learned, or stumbled upon since the last edition. Here are my latest favorites:

• About two weeks ago, the team at Bon Appétit dropped their “20 Best New Restaurants of 2025” list for the U.S., and it’s a scroll-worthy list with more than a few Asian-owned restaurants. These are the three that I’m most excited to try soon: Sun Moon Studio in Oakland (by chef-couple Sarah Cooper and Alan Hsu), Baan Mae in Washington DC (by veteran chef Seng Luangrath), and Giovedì in Honolulu (by another chef-couple team, Bao Tran and Jennifer Akiyoshi).

• Whenever I’m missing Japan, I turn to Miki’s Japan Wellness Lab on Substack. Miki is a medical doctor and wellness travel consultant who shares some of the most thoughtful and well-curated travel tips for health-conscious travelers. Her “Hidden Gem Series” takes you beyond Tokyo and Kyoto into places like Kagawa Prefecture and Akita for some great daydream fuel and trip-planning intel.

• My Berlin gem of the month: Kuréme, a relatively new Asian gelato spot in Kreuzberg. They have the usual suspects (matcha and ube), but their rotating specials are what spice things up. Last month, they scooped dòuhuā (tofu pudding), Thai tea, and makgeolli. This month, they have tahin pekmez, hojichatella (hojicha and stracciatella), and what I hope is a permanent addition, mango sticky rice.

P.S. The wonderful Kayla Doris interviewed me for her Culture Club newsletter section recently, and you can read the full interview here. We chat about why Asia so often gets painted as a self-discovery backdrop for foreign travelers and how we can all shift towards a more sincere and respectful way of traveling. I’m also thrilled to be sharing my interview with Kayla in the coming weeks, mix up the Golden Hour format a little, and bring more diverse voices to it!

I was about ten years old the first time I visited Athens, Greece. It was a big group trip with my parents and our family friends, and I vaguely remember being shepherded from the Acropolis (for photos) to the Ancient Agora (for more photos), all while sporting damp armpits. So, finally getting to come back and really explore last month — still sweaty, but without paparazzi parents this time — felt long overdue.

From what I’ve seen, Athens doesn’t have a huge number of Asian-owned food and drink spots just yet. And understandably so — Greek food is sublime (I could happily eat at Manári forever). But perhaps it’s that very rarity that makes the Asian-owned places here feel especially distinctive. Let’s take a closer look:

BREAKFAST: Start your day in the Metaxourgeio neighborhood at 阿锡早点 (translates to “Axi Breakfast”) with a bouncy bowl of sweet or salty “dòuhuā” (tofu pudding), though here it goes by “dòufunǎo” (soybean pudding). This one’s a little surreal for me to recommend because it goes by its Chinese name on Google Maps, as if we’ve been transported out of Athens altogether. Besides the pudding, you’ll find fried dough, wonton soup (with thin wrappers too), and steamed buns stuffed with all types of goodness.

LUNCH: Head over to Syntagma and grab lunch at Dachafan Asia Food Tea Restaurant. Athens Voice calls Dachafan “the smallest Chinese restaurant in Athens,” but between the Bruce Lee portrait and Hong Kong street signs beckoning you in, the energy is big. The menu nods to Hong Kong cha chaan teng’s, and you can order anything from a full dim sum spread to vermicelli with intestines and duck blood.

DINNER: Greek-Japanese chef and TV personality Sotiris Kontizas is behind two phenomenal dinner spots: Hafu and Tanpopo. Sotiris co-founded Nolan back in 2016, a Greek restaurant with Asian twists that earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand the following year. Tanpopo opened in 2023, and in 2024, Sotiris and Nolan officially parted ways, paving the path for a new chapter with Hafu.

My husband and I tried Hafu, which is still getting its sea legs but fantastic nonetheless. Some locals may grumble over the fact that the menu mostly reprises Nolan’s greatest hits, but for us newcomers to both Hafu and Nolan, that approach was perfect. The meal was light, balanced, with just the right hits of acidity — I especially loved the mackerel and the mung bean noodles.

POST-DINNER SNACK & DRINKS: Swing by Kitschen, where Greek-Indonesian chef Dimitris Liem and Greek-Korean chef, Spyros Minetos serve up pan-Asian dishes with mild Greek influence. The music is funky, the interior is stylish, and you’re open to hang out here until midnight. If you’re in the mood for a drink or two, they’ve got 11 fun signature cocktails to choose from.

Excuse my language, but there’s a quiet and elegant “f*ck you” energy to Joyce Wang Studio, her namesake interior design practice based out of Hong Kong and London. According to the International Interior Design Association (IIDA), while 69% of interior design practitioners are women, only 1 in 4 design firms are female-led. And in the U.S., only 1 out of 5 interior designers identify as people of color. Yet with that statistic, Hawaii-born and Hong Kong-raised Joyce Wang has carved out her own lane, shaping some of the world’s hottest spots: Equinox Hudson Yards in New York City, Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park in London, and the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in L.A.

In a past interview, Joyce described Mott 32 — a Chinese restaurant in Hong Kong and one of my all-time favorites — as her big break. Mott 32 now has nine locations around the world, with four designed by Joyce’s team. The Hong Kong branch, which is tucked beneath a historic bank building in the Central district, has an escapist and time-traveling aura to it. From a wall full of Chinese calligraphy brushes to chandeliers echoing the Victorian era, Joyce’s designs seamlessly marry British and Chinese cultural, social, and political references. Check out some of the studio’s other projects here.

This section doesn’t usually focus on travel, but it’s another chance to spotlight amazing Asian creators, so I hope you’ll read just a little bit more!

• FILM: Ne Zha 2. I first saw this animated film in its original Chinese version, and now, A24 has tapped Michelle Yeoh to voice the English dubbed version (once again, A24 knows what’s up). The story of Ne Zha — the rebellious, hot-headed child-god from Chinese mythology — is one I grew up with. Yet I’ve never seen a Ne Zha narrative depicted in this totally fresh way: heartrending, action-packed, hilarious, and visually stunning.

• BOOK: Homeseeking by Karissa Chen. I’m only halfway through this and I’ve already told a dozen people how obsessed I am. The novel follows a man and a woman — once young lovers — over 60 years as history drags them apart and bumps them back together, from Shanghai to Hong Kong, Taiwan, and eventually L.A. It’s heartbreaking, but also meticulously written. Karissa flows between Sinitic languages, so the spelling of her characters’ names change with local dialects and their identities shift subtly with geography (Incredible, right?). If you’re into bittersweet love stories that stretch across time and oceans, this one’s for you.

• ARTIST: Ini Ceramique. After arriving back home and already missing Athens, I stumbled upon Inhee Ma’s work. Originally from Seoul and now based in Bourgogne, France, Inhee describes her work as “evoking emotions, sparking inquiries, and nurturing a renewed appreciation for the beauty intrinsic to our everyday lives.” Her ceramic vases, which are playful takes on Greek columns and deities, trick the eye, looking like paper but carrying real weight. A seriously fun addition to any dining table or living room.

Thank you so much for reading my newsletter, and hope you enjoyed it! If there’s anything you loved or didn’t quite connect with, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Your feedback is truly appreciated and will help me make this a more enjoyable read for you!

Until next time, Laura x