Welcome to TigerSalad

On February 12, 2025 0 Comments - Uncategorized
a photo of website creator and chef writer of articles on travel, music, cooking

I built this website for sharing pictures, sounds and writing about travel, cooking, music or anything else I think is worth documenting. I wanted to have somewhere to do this without the distraction and noise of popular social media. Please take your time here: read, look at the pictures and listen to the sounds.

I have been a professional chef for most of my life and for the last decade I have been studying Korean food, language and culture. I have traveled to Korea many times to eat, explore and practice language. Cooking posts will mostly focus here.

There are a lot of pictures in these articles. Good photos are important to me so I have sacrificed some loading speed in order to post the highest quality photos my host site will allow. Please be patient while things load up. This site will work on your phone but, I recommend looking at it on a bigger screen. This is especially true for travel and photography posts. The site will look better and operate faster on a laptop or desktop.

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Wroclaw Art and Architecture Tour

On August 26, 2026 0 Comments - Photography, Travel

***please try to look at these photos on a bigger screen. Your phone will crush all the details***

The last full night and day in Wroclaw revealed some historical gems in the heart of the city…

Neon Side Gallery

A dark alley between old concrete buildings opens up to a narrow courtyard awash with the glow of vintage neon light. Wroclaw’s Neon Side Gallery is a collection of neon signs from the communist era: rescued, restored and put on display in this otherwise nondescript alley.

Even though colour is the main attraction, I thought these might look good in black and white…like they might appear in an old movie.
In full colour…former department store, restaurant, business and cinema signs showing the bright colours and characteristic lettering of neon advertising in Polish cities from the 60s to the 80s.
Good reflections in the glass here…
Communist era neon next to communist era grey cement building. These signs must have been some of the only splashes of bright colour in an otherwise washed out grey cityscape. This alley is worth a visit, especially at night. There are a couple of bars in the courtyard so you can stretch out in a beach chair, sip cocktails and smoke a cigarette in the neon glow. Pretty glamorous!

On the walk home…

Lonely streetlamp on a downtown street late at night.
Zabka! (Polish for frog). This is pretty much the only convenience store in the country and they are on every corner. They have everything in these tiny shops, like a Polish version of the Japanese 7-Eleven. “Zabka” stores were recently purchased by “Couche-Tard”, a Canadian convenience store company.
A Polish gas station glowing green. This is a BP station, a brand we haven’t had in Canada since I was a kid.
The following day we ended up having dinner at this Polish Milk Bar called “Miś”. A “milk bar” is a cafeteria-style restaurant with fresh homemade dishes cooked with local high quality ingredients. You order from a menu board on the wall (no English), pay and stand in line for your food then carry it to your table to eat. When you are done, you bring your own dishes to the dish-pit and move on. There is no service, no washroom, no tipping and you are likely to stand in line for awhile during busy times. Worth it? 100 percent. The food is incredibly cheap but fresh and healthy and home-made. As if your mom cooked it just for you!
Kind of a creepy looking statue of Pope John Paul with a big moon over his shoulder.
A 19th century monastery, restored beautifully into the Arche Klasztor Wrocław hotel. This was our home base in the city.

Centennial Hall

Designed by Max Berg and built between 1911 and 1913, this is an amazing building made entirely of reinforced concrete. It’s original purpose was to host exhibitions, concerts, theatrical and opera performances and sporting events. It has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2006. I thought black and white photos would bring out the geometry and texture of the unique concrete architecture.

From the courtyard. This is a massive building.
Domed and windowed ceiling of reinforced concrete. There are no posts inside supporting anything. It is a massive wide open space.
Detail of ribs and side windows…

Park Hotel at WUWA Wroclaw

In the late 20’s, several local architects designed and built examples of their vision of “standard” buildings to meet the need for housing in the city. Simple, efficient form and function were key to the designs and this particular building was intended as a “hotel house for childless couples and single people”.

Park Hotel which I thought might look more of it’s era in black and white. I just noticed the Polish woman smoking near the entrance…a perfect detail!
These two shots of the lobby lounge are very similar but different enough that I couldn’t decide between them. I love the colour and the placement of furniture and plants and the shadows in both.

The End

I am sitting at a desk in a crappy airport hotel late at night as I write this. My alarm is set to 4am so that I can safely make the first leg of my return trip home. This has been a short trip but it was packed full of great company, good conversations, tons of fresh air and delicious food. Poland is quickly becoming one of my favourite European countries. The people are friendly and polite, the food is top quality everywhere, transportation is easy and Poland’s cities are as pretty as anywhere in Eastern Europe (except Prague of course!) I hope to spend a lot more time here in the future. Thanks to my good friend for keeping me company and making this trip possible : )

A pretty outdoor restaurant in a central courtyard hidden away down a narrow alley. A typical scene in Polish cities.

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Frankfurt and Wroclaw

On August 25, 2026 0 Comments - Photography, Travel

***please try to look at these photos on a bigger screen. Your phone will crush all the details***

Afternoon stopover in Frankfurt

During a long stopover in Frankfurt, Germany we rode the bus to the small medieval town of Hörscht.

Survivors of the war: medieval houses of Hörscht.
Typical street in Horscht.

Later on we headed back to Frankfurt for dinner…

Main square in Frankfurt.
Traditional restaurant outdoors in a courtyard under a big tree.
This was a premium A+ Euro-feast. Pork knuckle, liver sausage, blood sausage, potatoes of all kinds, sauerkraut, Frankfurt green sauce, pork belly, pickled herring, veggie salads, Handkäse (a local cheese dish) and home made apple wine (a regional specialty).

Onwards to Wroclaw…

Wroclaw is the historical capital of Silesia, located in southwestern Poland. It is a beautiful old city with rivers, bridges and historic buildings in all shades of pastel colours. In little corners, the unmistakable grimy grey stucco buildings of communist era Eastern Europe still remain.

Tour guide in his monastery office.
This old concrete apartment complex has been decorated with paintings and sculptures all along the ground floor. The colour here really stands out against the stark grey of the old concrete walls.
Same place…handmade sculptures create a miniature village in the centre courtyard.
Historic buildings of Ostrów Tumski (cathedral island) Wroclaw.
Architectural details.
Technical Crisis manager…
Details Details
Nature creeps in.
Symmetry.
Street art owl on a block wall near the Oder River.
Medusa in stone.
Historic churches of Wroclaw on Ostrów Tumski.

Around the Centre…

This is the colour of communist era Eastern Europe. It is a very particular and very gloomy shade of grey.
Communist era classic…just subtract the air conditioners and new vinyl windows.
Wroclaw Market Square (Rynek). Reminds me of Krakow but maybe a little less busy. Large ornate buildings in all different colours line the square.

More to come…

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions please leave them below. I always look forward to hearing from you.

If you enjoy the content and would like to contribute towards website maintenance and development, you can make a donation here.

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Amsterdam at Night / Delft

On August 23, 2026 0 Comments - Photography, Travel

***please try to look at these photos on a bigger screen. Your phone will crush all the details***

Prinsengracht Concert in Amsterdam

Once a summer, the largest free classical music concert in the Netherlands happens on a canal on the Prinsengracht. A big orchestra is set up on a floating barge in the canal where the public can gather around for a night time serenade. There were so many people that we couldn’t get close enough to see anything at all but at least we could hear it. Here are just a few pictures:

Crowds of people fill the narrow streets and bridges surrounding the orchestra barge.
People come out in boats to listen too. I messed up my camera settings so many of my pictures were blurry but I thought this one looked like a painting so I included it here.
Night along the canals.
Amsterdam cat way up in a window watching all the people below.
Almost all of the boaters had a table of wine, cheese and other snacks on board to enjoy with the music. I like the way the people on the bench are all watching this floating picnic pass by.
Outdoor restaurant patio.
Patio glow.
Canals at night.

Anne Frank House

The slightly taller, lit up building with the all black windows is the Anne Frank house. She and her family hid in a secret annex behind the top 2 floors for two years without ever going outside. Their hiding place is still there, just as it was when they were discovered by the Gestapo and eventually deported to Auschwitz. The furniture was removed by the Nazis after their arrest but the rooms, kitchen fixtures, the hinged bookcase hiding the annex entrance, the staircases, the attic, the toilet and Anne’s pictures which she pasted to her bedroom walls are still there. The house is now a museum open to the public where you can see all of this plus Anne’s original hand written diaries and notebooks as well as any personal effects that were left behind. I visited the museum early one morning to see all of this. It was one of the most moving experiences I have ever had. It is not really possible to describe it here so I won’t say any more. Read the book and visit in person and you will know.
A glow of blue light above the orchestra in the distance. The tall tower belongs to Westerkerk church. This is the church Anne Frank writes about in her famous diary. She could see the clock face from the attic of their hiding place and hear the church bell ring every 15 minutes which she wrote was a source of great comfort. The church sounds gave her some small connection to the outside world during her two years in hiding.

Delft

Delft is the traditional centre of production for the famous Dutch blue on white Royal Delft Pottery. It is beautiful small town. Canals, bridges and bicycles…just like Amsterdam but on a much smaller scale. It has a slower feel to it too. Only 1 hour from Amsterdam by train, it is a nice place to spend a relaxing afternoon.

Delft City Hall. It is a massive building. See all the little bikes at the bottom for scale.
A little detail on the street.
Delft has it’s own system of bridges and canals similar to Amsterdam but smaller and less busy.
Handsome buildings.

Goodbye Netherlands… I will be back!

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions please leave them below. I always look forward to hearing from you.

If you enjoy the content and would like to contribute towards website maintenance and development, you can make a donation here.

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