Tân Lạc Viên opens in Squirrel Hill.

The much-anticipated Tân Lạc Viên Vietnamese Bistro opened Wednesday on 2114 Murray Ave. in Squirrel Hill (map). Here's a look at the menu, which at over 90 entrees spread across Southeast and East Asian cuisines looks a little overextended:


Click to enlarge. The two on the left are front and back of the dinner menu, and the one on the right is a smaller menu available lunch and evenings. (It took several years of scanning and cropping to realize it's the menus that are slightly crooked, not my scanner, but I wasn't in the mood to fight with them anymore.)

Construction started about seven weeks ago, and the awning went up on November 11th in what used to be an Italian restaurant.


On November 11.

Winter holidays at the Cathedral of Learning.

From November 10th through January 19th the Nationality Rooms at the Cathedral of Learning will show off traditional winter holiday decorations. There are impressive Christmas displays in many of the European rooms, while the Chinese and Japanese ones reflect New Years celebrations.


Kodamatsu, in the Japanese Room, classroom 317.


Chinese Room, classroom 136. A decent camera would do this room better justice.

Lots of stuff from Andy Warhol Museum on display in Hong Kong.

Via the Hong Kong Museum of Art.

The South China Morning Post has a preview of "Andy Warhol: 15 Minutes Eternal", an exhibition at the Hong Kong Museum of Art from December 16 through March 31. With over 370 pieces from the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, it is "said to feature the largest-ever collection in Asia" of Warhol's art.

In the Hong Kong stop, more than 370 items - from Warhol's paintings, drawings, photographs, screen prints, movies and sculptures to archival objects documenting his life - will be displayed. While iconic works such as Campbell's Soup, Jackie, The Last Supper, Marilyn Monroe, Mao, Self-Portrait and Silver Liz should not be missed, some Hong Kong-specific work are what make this stop special.

"Andy Warhol archived in cardboard boxes items from his daily life into 612 'Time Capsules' from the 1970s until his death in 1987. We asked the [Warhol] museum to open Time Capsule 23 especially for us, which houses over 20 items related to the city when he visited Hong Kong and Beijing in 1982," says Ng Ka-lun, modern art curator of the Hong Kong Museum of Art.

"The items include a calendar of 1983 he bought from a local book store. Another record of his visit is a photo Warhol captured from the hotel he stayed at, presumably the Mandarin Oriental, overlooking Victoria Harbour and Kowloon."

The Pittsburgh museum has information about this and the other exhibitions on the Asian tour.

Seoul Olympics in Pittsburgh.

Sign pointing to the Foxcatcher set, Forbes Ave. and Bigelow Blvd. The working title used to be The Fair Hill Project.

The movie Foxcatcher has been filming in Western Pennsylvania for a little while, and today it was in Oakland, at the Petersen Events Center on the University of Pittsburgh campus. They were looking for extras today for scenes, if Facebook was to be believed, depicting the 1988 Summer Olympics held in Seoul.

We are looking for people to work as film extras on Thursday, DECEMBER 13. At the Petersen event center to recreate an olympic wrestling event at the Seoul Olympics. We are looking for people of multiple ethnicities who are able to work a full day (12 hours or more). Would probably start around 10am or 11am and go to 10pm or 11pm that evening.

The movie tells the story of former Olympic wrestler Dave Schultz and the man who killed him. Schultz was a 1984 Olympian and coached in Seoul. I went to the Petersen Events Center today to have a look inside the new Sangmu Gymnasium, but of course it was closed off. One visitor took a few grainy pics, though, and posted them to her Twitter here and here.


Via @NikiMarieR.

Youtube has some wrestling clips from 1988 if you'd like to see the real thing.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi at Carnegie Library Oakland, December 20.

As part of its free monthly "Real to Reel" series, the Oakland branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh will show the Japanese film Jiro Dreams of Sushi on December 20, from 7:00 to 9:00 pm in Classroom A. The film is a story, says the official website,

of 85 year-old Jiro Ono, considered by many to be the world’s greatest sushi chef. He is the proprietor of Sukiyabashi Jiro, a 10-seat, sushi-only restaurant inauspiciously located in a Tokyo subway station. Despite its humble appearances, it is the first restaurant of its kind to be awarded a prestigious 3 star Michelin review, and sushi lovers from around the globe make repeated pilgrimage, calling months in advance and shelling out top dollar for a coveted seat at Jiro’s sushi bar.

For most of his life, Jiro has been mastering the art of making sushi, but even at his age he sees himself still striving for perfection, working from sunrise to well beyond sunset to taste every piece of fish; meticulously train his employees; and carefully mold and finesse the impeccable presentation of each sushi creation. At the heart of this story is Jiro’s relationship with his eldest son Yoshikazu, the worthy heir to Jiro’s legacy, who is unable to live up to his full potential in his father’s shadow.

Japanese films Madoka Magica (parts 1 and 2) at Dormont's Hollywood Theater, December 16.

Poster for the second film, 永遠の物語, of the trilogy.

Just a reminder that two Japanese-language films, based on the anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica (魔法少女まどか☆マギカ) and debuting worldwide between October and December, and will play at Dormont's Hollywood Theater (map) on Sunday, December 16 at 12:00 pm. Hey, it's not every day year that Pittsburgh screens a relatively new Asian movie.

As Wikipedia says, there are two films out in 2012 that span the TV series, with a third coming out next year. The Hollywood Theater is showing parts 1 and 2 beginning at 12:00 pm, with tickets costing $20 for both Beginnings and Eternal. No separate tickets, the website says, and 30 free posters available while supplies last.

Origami classes at Carnegie Library Squirrel Hill, December 15.

The Origami Club of Pittsburgh holds origami classes on the third Saturday of each month at the Carnegie Library in Squirrel Hill. The beginners class is from 12:00 to 1:30 pm in the Children's Room, and the Advanced Class is from 1:30 to 3:00 pm. The classes are free, though the group requests $1 donations from adults in order to cover the cost of supplies. More information on their "class guidelines" page.

The OCoP will also have origami demonstrations at Phipps Conservatory in Oakland (map) on December 16 and December 30, from 12:30 to 2:00 pm.

KHRC answers frequently-asked questions about Korean Heritage Room at Pitt.

If you can understand Korean you can get answers to frequently-asked questions about the Korean Heritage Room planned for the University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning, via the Korean Heritage Room Committee's website:



The video was uploaded in July, but put on the KHRC's site about a week ago. If you can't understand Korean, it covers much of the same territory covered online already and in this July PennsylvAsia post about the designs for, and progress of, room 304. At 0:33 a student asks when construction began and when it will be finished, to which KHRC Vice Chair Kim Hong-gu answers fundraising will go through 2012, construction will begin in 2013, and it should be completed in the middle of 2014.


One design by Arumjigi. A few different renderings exist, and they all look a little different, likely owing to the number of architects and consultants involved and the length of the project's development.

The Cathedral of Learning has dozens of Nationality and Heritage Rooms on its first and third floors which

represent the culture of various ethnic groups that settled in Allegheny County and are supported by these cultural groups and governments.

Also in the news section is a post about an August fundraiser, which teaches us that for some reason Franco Harris is the Honorary Consul General of the Republic of Korea in Pittsburgh.

Filipino American Association of Pittsburgh Christmas party, December 8.

As the flyer says, the Filipino American Association of Pittsburgh will host its annual Christmas party tomorrow evening, December 8, at the Bethel Park Community Center (map).

Pittsburgh's "Ramen Bar" soft-opens in Squirrel Hill.

The state of things two weeks ago.

Under construction for over two months, Pittsburgh's first ramen place opened in Squirrel Hill a couple hours ago. "ウー Ramen Bar", the katakana pronounced "uu", is on 5860 Forbes Ave (map), and soft-opened from 5 pm to 10 pm Friday night, practice ahead of its real opening next week. Other places in Pittsburgh have experimented with ramen, and there's a Japanese-run place in Morgantown, WV, but the Chinese-owned "ウー Ramen Bar" is the first place in Pittsburgh to get real ramen.

The menu, scanned crudely below, shows a good variety of authentic and unusual ramen dishes as well as the usual appetizers. With a lot of options starting at $9, the price is right, too, at least for stateside places.



I stopped in Friday night and the place was absolutely packed and with a line for groups larger than two, kind of surprising considering there was little advertising outside of the local Chinese community. The owners and staff were extremely friendly, and the noodles and broth were the closest thing I've had to Japanese ramen since . . . well, since I last had Japanese ramen. It should do very well (and if they opened one in Oakland it'd make a killing).