Checking in — revamp still in the works
Hi everyone. It’s been a really long time since I’ve been active here.
I thought I would share some recent photos with you guys. S and I took off for a super fast 3 day trip to Tokyo last week in order to celebrate her birthday. While we would have loved to have stayed longer, we had to get back in time for my son’s first birthday, which is only 3 days after S’s birthday. Yup, little T is now one year old and he’s the cutest kid on the planet (but hey, I’m biased!).
We managed to pack in some amazing eating in our short trip, as follows. Day 1: An oily, soupless ramen with pork belly and soft-boiled egg from Abura Soba Sohonten for brekkie; deliciously fatty katsu at Butagumi for lunch; and the best sushi of my life at Sushi Sho in Yotsuya (seriously, this place has no Michelin stars–but has appeared in The Miele Guide year after year–and for my money was far better than any other sushi meal I have ever had in my entire life, including more famous places like Sushi Saito, Kyubey, or Mizutani) for dinner. Day 2: Lots of yummy pastries from Isetan Shinjuku’s food hall for brekkie; manju from Higashiya Omotesando as a midday snack; burgers at Blacows mid-afternoon; and a beautiful Modern Japanese multi-course extravaganza at Aronia de Takazawa to celebrate S’s birthday. Day 3: breakfast pastries at Laduree Ginza; good but overpriced sushi at Sushi Mizutani for lunch; wagashi at Higashiya Ginza after lunch; and super fun Yakiniku with lots of premium sake at Sutamina-en to end the day (followed by a mad dash to Haneda).
Anyway, here are some snaps from the trip. (I’ve also been playing with a fun CCTV 25mm f1.4 lens for my GF1, hence the Lomo-ish style pix with lots of bokeh.)
I also just wanted everyone to know that the blog revamp is now underway. I do apologize for taking so long to get to this. Parenting, work, and a lot of other things all made life pretty busy. But I have time now and I’m dedicated to this relaunch. I’ve also been working with a wizard digital strategist here in Singapore who is giving me some great advice (anyone who needs a digital strategy consultant for their own personal business or company, lemme know — this guy is awesome). I am also looking for contributors who want to write for this site — yup, instead of just posting my own work, I want to build a volunteer Chubby Hubby editorial team to write on a few specific topics. If you’re interested, please email me at aun@chubbyhubby.net. For those of you who responded to my Twitter post on this already, I promise I will reply soon.
Lastly, I need your help. For the revamp, I’ve been evaluating blog template styles and have narrowed down a few styles I like best. I’ve listed them below. As you’ll see, all represent a pretty big departure from the current design.
Can I please ask you to tell me which you think looks the best?
Miniml Press
Cult
Shaken Grid
Sight
The Style
Please leave a comment telling me which template you think looks best and which you think I should adopt as I rebuild Chubby Hubby from scratch. Thank you so very much!
About Aun Koh
Aun has always loved food and travel, passions passed down to him from his parents. This foundation, plus a background in media, pushed him to start Chubby Hubby in 2005. He loves that this site allows him to write about the things he adores--food, style, travel, his wife and his three kids!
Either the Shaken Grid or The Style looks best. I am leading toward the former. Ann, I will be in NYC this weekend until next Monday. Any recommendations for good restaurants/ eateries/ F&B concepts ? Not the Per Se or Le Bernadin kind since they are all booked out but looking for more rustic, back to basic, or wholesome favorites. Thanks!
Shiow Yi
great…. ….missed your fab blog so much…..differtly the best
Welcome back! Glad to read from you.
I use Elegant Themes myself, it all depends what you want to do with your blog, but I like the Shaken Girl style very much.
Look forward to what theme you will pick! And have fun revamping or reinventing it!
That’s some birthday ! When you next get to Kyoto drop me a line x
I love your pictures so I would recommend “Minimi” for simplicity or Cult for all your beautiful photos…. Welcome back!
I vote for TheStyle.
Being able to resize based on browser size is a big plus.
It really depends on your contents I would say. If you continue to blog in the same way you do today, i.e. journal style, then I’d vote for Sight for the elegant and more conservative look. I also like Miniml Press if you’re looking for something more different.
Sight. Definitely Sight. Much more beautiful and elegant to the eye than the others which tend to the, “look! over here! No, over here!” If I have to nominate 2nd choice it would be The Style. Bit busier but there’s order that’s easy to understand.
I vote either Sight or Shaken Grid.
I would pick The Style
Shaken Grid looks nice.
But it’s not so mobile phone friendly as mobile phone’s screen is small.
Also, it will be good if the site can be a little lightweight so that it loads faster on mobile phone. 🙂
I normally favour simplicity, but I prefer TheStyle or Cult. They look so sleek–definitely suits your style, I think!
I think Miniml is nice….
The Style’s my choice… BTW, love the photos you take…
the Style.. think that would do justice to all the wonderful pics!
Looks is one thing, but it’s also highly dependent on your content. If you don’t intend to change your style / scope, Sight and The Style will feature your content rather nicely. The rest, whilst looks nice, might not be too reader-friendly. Shaken Grid, for example, is very tumblr-esque, which focuses on single short impact content like an image or a quote. Just my two cents worth…
Glad to see you blogging again, and about one of my favourite cities, Tokyo! Katsu looks great.
Miniml Press for readability of text and clean presentation of pics. I like Cult too but text could be too busy.
cult/the style!
i would choose the “sight”, (and adding Facebook page can be good too).
love your blog, good luck
Omri from Israel
missed your photos! i took a lot longer to get back on track than you 😉
is your plan to go a little more magazine style? big photos up front with teasers and lots of categories? my favourite is sight if you are.
otherwise cult or then the style but i’d lighten up on the harsh dark greys and soften it a little overall.
simplest is always best.
either Sight or The Style
I like ‘The Style’
In order of pref:
Sight
The style
Minimi
Sight seems to be the most reader friendly…
1st – SHAKEN GRID!
2nd – Minimi
3rd – Sight
I like the minimalist The Style.
SIGHT FOR SURE.
it’s very streamlined & easy on the eyes
Cult or Sight has the best visual organization
I love the last pic, it looks like a cute bee with lovely feelers! another happy thing is i can read the two chinese cakes:黑糖馒头干酒馒头。Jaja.
Shaken Grid – it looks a bit like Pinterest and yet different
I like Sight the most. It is a simple template where your words and photos take centre stage.
I love both the first and last styles equally (The Style and Miniml Press). Both are different but still very clean. The grids are nicely lined up and do not cause for too much noise. I can see the third one working really well for each blog post you have published and it’ll be easy for the reader to hop onto the post they’d like to know more about.
My first choice is Sight, second is The Style. I like seeing posts in chronological order and the other 3 have structures that are beautiful but don’t really support this.
I prefer TheStyle.
Happy birthdays to your wife and son and welcome back to blogging !
I vote for Shaken Grid or Cult.
Sight gets my vote.
Sight!