Pink Chopsticks

How’s everyone? It’s the second day of the year of the dragon and I’m still buzzed. We had a fun fun time since the Chinese New Year is one of the biggest celebrations in the family. It’s the time for us to all be together, cook food, make offerings to our ancestors.

And yesterday, it was a day for merriment, more food and fun. It was not a day for mellow, mood music like what an acoustic guitar brings in but noisy, blaring drum rolls to usher in the year of the Dragon. Everywhere here in the city, there were dragon/lion dance performances. The Chinese do believe this wards off evil spirits and ushers in good vibes and luck.

New year for me means new beginnings. And always I feel more drive to work more, succeed more. And I’m wishing everyone to have great tidings this year. Xin Nian Kuai Lei, dear readers!

Image: nuttakit / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Ancient art meets modern technology. I love these kinds of things. This time its a ceramic shelled mobile phone that was unveiled by the designer from designer in Jingdezhen. This province has been known as China’s porcelain capital and the phone design is inspired by the traditional Chinese art of ink painting. I love Chinese traditional art work and if it can be on my mobile phone,I would be in heaven.

I do wish they would make this available in the market or team up with a phone maker to make something like a limited edition series..

Via Sina

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

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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When visiting a foreign country it is foremost that one do some research and find out about the culture of the place. What are the things that are considered acceptable and proper and what actions are considered rude or vulgar. Oftentimes, before I visit a place, I make sure I do a bit of research in terms of culture, and I even buy myself culture and travel books just so I could get acquainted with each culture.

Getting at least some knowledge beforehand would greatly enhance you travel experience and would save you from potentially embarrassing situations.

I’ve doing some reading and research and have decided to share. This would be a series of posts on how to have proper etiquette in Asian countries. We start of with Japan:

There might be an exception to these rules and its also worth observing what others are doing and to follow the example of your hosts.

• When you enter a Japanese home, be sure to take off your shoes at the door. It would be considered rude to do otherwise. Most hosts would provided a slipper but if they don’t remember to wear clean socks. Some restaurants may also have this practice particularly those restaurants where you sit down on the floor.

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!

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.

I simply can’t contain my excitement. And its spilling even up to this blog. I was born in the Philippines where Christmas is the most festive season of the year. And though a major part of Asia are non-Christian, there has also been a recent turn around coz I can see a lot of countries around now celebrating Christmas.

Just like when I first moved to Phnom Penh, I couldn’t even buy any Christmas trees but now they are aplenty. I miss hearing Christmas carols, but I’ve done a lot of downloading music last week to make up for that lack. I’m also thinking up Christmas decoration to make the season more festive and for us to feel the spirit more.

And I want this..inexpensive xmas stockings for your mantle! I realize we don’t have a mantle but I want one hanging by the Christmas tree. I don’t want my daughter to miss out on these things so I’ll most probably be ordering one..

Still have lots of Christmas planning and shopping to do, and I’m just all quivering with excitemet =).. Happy Christmas everyone!