Chinese born Don Hong-Oai spent most of his life in Saigon, where he apprenticed with a photography studio. He stayed in Vietnam through the war, before fleeing by boat to California in the late 1970s. While living in San Francisco, he went back to China every few years to create new negatives. He remained largely unknown until the final years of his life when he was finally discovered by the wider public. He died in 2004.

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Any tried and true foodie in Buenos Aires is an assiduous follower of Chef Diego Felix’s’ closed door restaurant, Casa Felix. Typically, however, his inspired pescatarian eats are only available a few months out of the year in Buenos Aires while the rest of the time, the Felix clan travels through Argentina, San Francisco, New York, Puerto Rico, and Latin America, generally, hosting closed door diners around the world. Luckily for all of us here in Buenos Aires, his contemporary yet distinctively regional fare can now be found in private events around the city as well thanks to the super exclusive Oasis Clubhouse.

Every other Wednesday in Oasis’ Palermo Soho location, Chef Felix is in-house serving-up a tapas menu perfect for accompanying cocktails. Rather than a sit down meal, these smaller events allow his strong Latin American influences to transform into an inspired selection of seafood tapas and finger foods, giving his loyal followers a new and exciting sampling of his culinary skills.

As with any Felix menu, ceviche is a must. His Peruvian causas with white fish ceviche and fresh apricots, in particular, does not disappoint. Succulent corn and grouper fish cakes awaken your appetite and the anticipation of more treats to come. On a recent visit, the surprise of the night was Colombian inspired steamed areppas with fresh fish, Portobello mushrooms, and cilantro. The savory selection finished with a white bean spread on homemade toasted bread with curated sardines, diced beetroot, and dill. For a touch of sweetness, the evening drew to a close with fragrant shortbread cookies and lavender ice cream. Throughout the evening Chef Felix helped serve his guests and make the rounds giving details of his food and inspiration, making it a one of a kind event in Buenos Aires and the perfect opening to an exciting summer season of eating.

This is my new 8′ x 20′ hand painted mural in Miami, Florida, for Art Basel week. The mural is of Tracy and Raymond. Both are friends of mine from San Francisco. Raymond stopped by my studio to chat the other day as I was finishing up his portrait, on the right. He had cut his hair and shaved most of his beard, but was really excited to see his likeness so large. I told him it was to be part of a large mural installed in Miami. He said: ‘That’s great. Years ago I was in the slammer there’.

This year was my first year ever to go to Dias De Los Muertos San Francisco, but I’m so glad I did. It was incredible and inspiring. I recently came across Laurie Lipton’s work and it reminded me of that holiday. Her work is dark, eerie and all to do with death. I’m in love with her intricate, shadowy pencil drawings.

A few months ago, I went on a road trip down the west side of the USA. With cameras hanging off every limb, I photographed the glory of places like Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, San Francisco and everything in between. If they make you want to throw down your day job and catch the next plane, my work here is done.

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I saw Youth Lagoon (Trevor Powers) play a sold out, sweaty show in San Francisco and I suspect he’ll require a larger, less intimate venue next time he rolls through town. This talented young lad sings in a kind of granny falsetto that yanks at my heartstrings.

Looking at a Mars-1 piece has to be a bit like getting sucked into a black hole, right? The master of wild pattern, geometry and color opens his first solo show in San Francisco since 2005, at the FFDG temporary space on 11.11.11.

My friend introduced me to Paul Madonna’s work. He does these amazing, mostly monochromatic, ink-washed drawings of cities (mostly San Francisco, where he is based) that often have poetic, almost non-sequitur, captions. The result is often an almost haiku-esue narrative. His drawings are printed as comics called All Over Coffee for the SF Chronicle.

My sister runs an after-school college prep program in the Bayview neighborhood of San Francisco. She loves fashion, but is also very frugal. She keeps a very funny blog about the most exorbitant, ridiculous fashion items around. I don’t care about fashion myself, but I find her blog to be good for a laugh (and sometimes, a cry.)

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Once the weekend comes calling, so do brunch goers. In some cities, it’s all about the ladies that brunch while their kids wail in strollers, in others its crowds of hung-over hipsters waiting on their hair-of-the-dog Bloody Mary. In San Francisco, it comes on a truck, of course.

Yup, this summer the food-truck-loving capital of the world launched its very first mobile brunch ‘inspired by the city of San Francisco’. And what a city to be inspired by, especially when it comes to food. Forget about simple pancakes. At the Brunch Box, the daily changing menu is all about ricotta pancake soufflé, beer-braised pork belly hash, and E.A.T – a fried egg topped with avocado, heirloom tomato, shallots, and garlic aioli on a pain de mie bun. That deliciousness is what you get from experienced, Le Cordon Bleu-trained chefs in a city like this. So, we just have one more question: Is it the weekend yet?

I went into this taxidermy store today in the Mission, San Francisco. There’s something appealing about dead stuffed animals trying to look cute.

I’m part of an all-Australian group exhibition at 941 Geary, San Francisco which opened on September 10 called Young and Free. The exhibition features artwork by Ha-Ha, Kid Zoom, Anthony Lister, Vexta, Reka, Dmote, Rone, Meggs, New2 and Sofles. We’ll all be in town, and unlike our convict heritage, we won’t be taking prisoners.

Who could resist a snowball in the middle of summer? And no, we’re not talking about the kind you used to hurl at your little brother. These are snowballs of a very different, foodie-pleasing variety: naturally sweetened scoops of flavored ice that can cool you down on the stickiest summer day. These are Skylite Snowballs, and you’ll have to go to San Francisco to find them.

Skylite founder Katie Baum teamed up with Stacie Pierce, the pastry chef at the famed California eatery Chez Panisse, to develop a range of organic syrups to flavor her beloved orbs of ice shavings. Highlights of their creations include jasmine tea, four-barrel coffee, strawberry, and tongue-tingling lime.

To try a snowball of your own, you’ll have to track down Baum’s retro baby blue truck (thanks Twitter!) as it trolls the streets of the Bay Area. If you’re lucky enough to find her, then eat up and relish the chill.

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Caren Alpert is a food photographer based in San Francisco. For the last 18 months, she has been shooting food with an electron microscope. The foods featured here are Cake Sprinkles (above); then (below) Brussel Sprout; Shrimp Tail; Passion Fruit; Sun Dried Tomato; Star Anise; and Blueberry.

In true San Francisco style, your typically banal soda has been transformed into a flavorful, handmade gem thanks to SodaCraft. Using local and sustainable produce, of course, this new boutique company brews inspired sodas, lightly sweetened with cane sugar and naturally carbonated by yeast. Each handmade batch of pop comes in wildly creative flavors like smoked strawberry vanilla, plum soda with a touch of star anise, or their take on classic ginger ale, made with a pound per gallon of fresh juiced ginger and eureka lemons. (This is San Francisco, after all)

If you’re looking to take it up another notch, check out SodaCraft’s equally imaginative ‘pairings’. This past April, for instance, they teamed up with Wise Sons Deli to create the perfect sodas to drink with classic Jewish deli favorites, like Toasted Celery Soda paired with house cured and smoked pastrami. But if you’re more of a sweet tooth, then you’ll love their dreamy Humphry Slocombe ice cream floats.

Though SodaCraft can be found roaming around the San Francisco area, the project’s founder, Jesse Friedman, frequently jerks soda (yup, that’s the technical term) from fresh kegs every Tuesday and Thursday at the Hapa Ramen stand in The San Francisco Ferry Building farmer’s market. Bottoms up! [Photo via EyesWideOpen on Flickr]

Being an Urban Quilter, I love all things alternacraft, especially when they mix in street art. So I was stoked to see some of Banksy’s images re-imagined as cross-stitch patterns. Princess Animal is San Francisco’s answer to urban knitters and crafters, and sells the Banksy kits.

I saw Wire a few weeks back in San Francisco, and arrived early enough to catch the Lumerians, Oakland’s answer to fuzzy, transcendental garage rock. I love their retro yet-somehow-modern style that is trippy and psychedelic, yet pleasantly droning and spacey. And who doesn’t like full-length Druid hoodies and rainbow-laced graphics?

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Paul Wackers most recent solo show is one of the best painting shows I’ve seen in San Francisco in awhile. Not to mention, one of Wackers’ strongest bodies of work yet.

In this grouping, he presents us with the interiors of rooms and still lives placed in vitrines and in the outdoors, thus drawing our attention to the collections we harbor in our homes and the objects we may encounter outdoors. His work is full of contradiction, using painterly and unconventional mark-making techniques which I have always been drawn to. Wackers’ show is up until May 15 at Eleanor Harwood Gallery in San Francisco.

Miranda Caroligne creates deconstructed and reconstructed fashion that I’ve long loved for its sculptural innovation. In her Offcut line, Caroligne uses bits and pieces of fabric to make unique and futuristic clothing that is somehow both high-drama and very wearable.

She’s shown this line at San Francisco’s DeYoung museum and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. She also makes sculptural weavings and has an ArtPad event coming up on May 19 in San Francisco.

Bringing the excess and sexiness of the Big Band-era to the present is the hot MegaFlame Big Band and Cabaret’s mission. Jazz music combines with burlesque and torch singers to recreate a Prohibition-era San Francisco. Tonight, they’re playing at San Francisco’s Cafe Du Nord. Luck Be A Lady will feature The Bond Girl and Delilah vamping and camping it up with the Big Band dames and daddies.