Pink Chopsticks

I’m no Japanese but I can’t get enough of ramen. If I ever get to travel to Japan I would definitely be learning more about the Japanese ramen culture and of course stuffing myself full of ramen. But for now I would like to content myself to watching this video from cookingwithdog on How to Make Yakibuta Ramen (Japanese Noodle Dish with Roasted Pork Ribs).

Hmm, at the rate I’m ogling these youtube videos of how to make these Asian food specialties, don’t be surprised if next time I’m after restaurant supplies already. Lol!. This personal ramen mania was just brought about by an article in Babble.com that I read a few days ago. It about 10 Ways to Eat Ramen for Dinner and it features some really easy but drool worthy recipes for ramen! Check it out.

A few weeks back, I blogged about my obsession with Thai food, particularly Tom Yum Goong. I actually managed to cook a decent tom yum already so I’m moving on and want to learn another Thai recipe. I picked another Thai classic: Pad Thai…

Pad Thai

Pad Thai is a yummy dish of stir fried noodles with eggs, tamarind sauce, soy sauce, chili, bean sprouts, tofu,  with peanut, lime juice, and coriander etc. This is one of the dishes I always try out in every Thai resto I visit.

How to make it? Check out this video from Pailin’s Kitchen.

ThaiTable also lists down the recipe. {Head over there for instructions with full photos}

Image: savit keawtavee / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I’m constantly browsing news about Japan now particularly since the earthquake and tsunami disaster. I can’t help but feel for the Japanese people. I dearly hope they could surpass this challenge and recovery would be swift for everyone. Let’s all continue to pray for Japan and their wonderful people.

Anyway, I wanted to feature something light about Japan. Something to take our minds off a bit from the tragedy and showcase something awesome about this country. Here’s one reason why I want to really really visit Japan one day. Their wide selection of weird, unique, youd-only-taste-in-Japan flavors!! From Coke to Pepsi to weird teas, here’s a new one – Kitkat Japan Flavors!!!

I came across these at a very cool blog called UFunk.Net who took it upon themselves to hunt for the weird and cool KitKat Flavors.

First they found the Kit Kat with Caramelized Sweet Potato flavor

Then they found the Macha (japanese green tea) flavored Kit-Kat

Then there’s wasabi, soy sauce, yellow sweet patato,purple sweet potato, cheese cake, and annin dofu (Japanese dessert with almonds)

And I just love the packaging!! They really come up with funky stuff.

All images via UFunk.Net

If there is one thing I can do well, then its cooking! Not typing at a lightning speed, not writing, not some sales jobs, but cooking. I learned to cook from a very young age. I think that’s a pretty common thing here in Asia. Young girls are thought home making skills from young age. But for me, instead of it becoming a ‘chore’, I discovered a passion for cuisine. And I’m quite handy with Italian, Filipino, some Chinese and Cambodian-Vietnamese kitchen fares.

Right now though I’m really obsessing about Thai food. I love it!!!! I have it at least twice a week. I like discovering Thai restaurants and being surprised by the spices they use as well as the colorful presentation of each meal. But among famous Thai food, my runaway favorite would be – Tom Yum Goong or the Spicy Shrimp Soup. I guess I just have to learn it that way, I could have it anytime I’m craving it.

A little background on this dish that is one of the most famous of Asian cuisines…Tom Yum Goong is a hot and sour soup usually made with prawns (my favorite!), fish, chicken or mixed seafoods. It makes generous use of fragrant herbs and spices like lemon grass, lime, chili and cilantro. Another version adds a little twist – coconut milk for a creamy texture.

I found several videos on Youtube featuring how to make this recipe..

Video from ThaiFoodCooking:

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I first discovered the yummy allure of black tea jelly on a trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia years ago. Since then, every time I step on a Chinatown or anywhere with a Chinese community, I look for black tea jelly shops.

Eating this is almost an artform for me much like tea drinking ceremonies for the Japanese, Chinese and the Koreans. The chilled black jelly itself is a bit bitter but a syrup is served separately so you can flavor up your jelly depending on your tastes.

I like eating it slow and savoring each spoonful. I just love the texture and the sweet-bitter taste. Tea is known to have good health benefits and its good to know that there is something that I can enjoy eating while getting a lot of nutrients from. Some also reckon that tea has good slimming properties so hahaha I would prefer this to safe diet pills.

When we moved to Cambodia, I also found black tea jelly being sold in markets here. Though its not bitter as the ones I found in Chinese shops, it still tastes really good. Just chill it, add vanilla and a little sugar the enjoy!

Being Asian, I could say that I’m familiar with Asian cuisine yet I could still never say that I’ve tasted all kinds of Asian cuisine. It has similarities but each country has its own very distinct cuisine that tasting different Asian food becomes an adventure itself.

I lived in Asia most of my life, but I’m still endlessly fascinated with the Asian cuisine. It’s very unique and truly a gastronomically orgasmic journey! From the ingredients, to the cooking utensils used, to table settings, how its eaten and ultimately the flavors, it is very very distinct. Like one of my American friends said, he could never get enough of Asian food, its diversity just guarantees that he’d be trying it out for a long long time.

Beginners could find Asian cuisine daunting because of its diversity, even me could get quite confused. I’ve taken to watching cooking channels dedicated to Asian food and here’s one YouTube channel I found – AsianFoodChannel.

Lots of short videos about different Asian food, just enough to get you started and salivating! Here’s one I picked to feature – Sizzling Wok! highlighting Singaporean food. It’s a short teaser ad for their show Sizzling Wok.

Uh, I wish we have this channel on our cable!!

Seriously, its mouth watering just thinking about it. I have this really weird craving now for kimchi. No, I’m not Korean but I like love it! I like mixing it with steamed rice and adding leftovers with it. Just yummy! And I could ate more than a plateful of rice when we have kimchi! Ongoing diet and diet pills be damned. And besides Kimchi, I think has evolved into one dish that is recognized all over the world as distinctly Asian cuisine.

Image Credit: IloveKimchi

Since, I like it so much, I figured I should try to learn how to make it. But first things first, what is Kimchi? Its a Korean dish made out of fermented vegetables. It’s quite healthy but when I pair with rice I end up eating a lot of carbo lol!

Anyways, I’ve beens searching online on recipes and how to’s on making Kimchi and I find this article from WikiHow really helpful. With lots of photos to make each step a tad easier, even a kitchen klutz like me would get this..

And a video from Koreancuisine.

There are a handful of distinctly Asian cuisine that comes up to  my mind whenever talking about Asian food. But one particular Asian food always present on my list is Spring Roll!!! I just love it whether fresh or deep fried, I just can’t get enough of it.

The spring rolls can be found in most Asian countries and each one with a distinct twist to this traditional Chinese food. Spring rolls are said to have originated from the annual Chinese New Year celebration, called the Spring Festival. And the original spring rolls consisted of fresh vegetables but now has evolved into different variations.

I love the Vietnamese version of spring rolls which usually uses boiled or fried pork, shrimp, chicken, beef, fresh herbs, lettuce, sometimes fresh garlic chives, rice vermicelli wrapped in moistened rice wrapper. And served with the dipping sauce of choice.

Here’s the Cambodian version of spring rolls.. And its a lot similar to the Vietnamese variety and its also now one of my firm favorites.

Since, I grew up in the Philippines, I won’t be leaving the out the Pinoy version of the spring rolls. We have two kinds: one fresh (lumpiang sariwa) and usually served with a yummy peanut sauce and the fried version (called lumpia shanghai). Filipinos, however prefer the rolls that are deep fried and made of ground pork and some vegetables, wrapped in spring roll wrappers and deep fried.

Image credit: Art’s Cooking

Yummy goodness,and for sure after having your fill of that, you’d be in serious need of diet pills that really work.

Hmm, lots of variations but all really worth trying out..Here’s a detailed recipe of Vietnamese spring rolls, and of the Filipino Lumpia Shanghai.