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Showing posts from November, 2009

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all! Though Thanksgiving is traditionally viewed as an American holiday, various countries around the world celebrate their own form of Thanksgiving. Japan - Labor Thanksgiving Day aka 勤労感謝の日 aka Kinrō kansha no hi. Originally a rice harvest holiday, since 1948 it has been dedicated to human rights. Korea - Chuseok aka 추석. Another harvest celebration with the dates varying every year. This year it was celebrated on Oct 3. Pakistan - Eid ul Fitr. A three day celebration marking the end of the Muslim holiday of Ramadan. Philippines - Pahiyas Festival. A harvest festival (anyone else see a trend?) celebrated in Quezon since the 16th century. So no matter where you find yourself, chances are someone is celebrating their own form of Thanksgiving. For us here, we are thankful for our family and friends. Our new son and of course all of our customers who make a lot of this possible. Here's wishing all of you a Happy Thanksgiving.

Recipe: Coconut-Galangal Soup in Squash Shell

Talk about falling down on the job. Sorry this post is running late but we just got done with a restock so drop by and check out what we got. Back to the regularly scheduled post. For today's recipe I opted for an Asian fusion dish. Thursday is Thanksgiving Day here in America, but this holiday has little to no meaning outside of the US. As such, there aren't really any specifically Asian dishes for this holiday. There are, however, Asian tastes that can be applied to your meal to spice it up a little, and offer a bit of a twist on the traditional meal. Click below to see today's recipe. Read More Choose between two presentations for this recipe of intense Thai flavors. The first, more dramatic, is served in a whole pumpkin that is steamed with the soup inside. When serving, you may scoop out bits of cooked pumpkin meat although the flavor of the squash is in the soup. The second is cooked with diced kabocha squash and is served in a tureen or individual soup bowls. This is

Chopsticks

To start off the culture section I decided to tackle a fun one. From fancy to simple chopsticks have become the unofficial symbol of Asian food. Found in almost all sushi bars and Chinese restaurants, they are a challenge at first but quickly but extensions of the hand. Though many Americans got their introduction to chopsticks from Mr. Miyagi, chopsticks have been around since at least the Shang Dynasty of China. That's a little over 3000 years. From China their use spread across much of Asia, to Japan, Korea and even Vietnam. The name chopstick is derived from Chinese slang "chop chop" for quick. For some fun next time you are eating out, try asking for chopsticks as they are known in Asia. Japan- hashi Korean- jeokkarak Mandarin- kuaizi Vietnamese- đũa As with many things, there are some etiquette rules that should be followed when using chopsticks. Most are common sense such as don't use as drumsticks or as toys, but others, such as don't stand chopsticks up i

Recipe: Chanko nabe (Sumo Stew)

As the weather grows colder, stews become very appealing for their ability to ward off the chill. Keeping this in mind today's recipe is just that, a stew. Not just any stew though, this is chanko nabe. This is the meal that helps sumo wrestlers beef up. Hearty and filling, the stew alone won't pack on the pounds but it will help cut the edge off of a cold evening. For more information on the history of chanko nabe head over to Banzuke . Ingredients: (ingredients in orange available at the store) 3 lbs. chicken bones 1 2.8-oz. package abura-age (deep-fried tofu), cut into large pieces 1 clove garlic, peeled 1/4 cup soy sauce 2 tbsp. mirin (sweet rice wine) Salt 1 medium potato, peeled, quartered lengthwise, sliced crosswise, and blanched 2" piece daikon , peeled, quartered lengthwise, sliced crosswise, and blanched 1 small carrot, trimmed, peeled, sliced on the bias, and blanched 1 leek, white part only, trimmed, washed, and sliced on the bias 1/4 head

Blog Update

I've been kicking around the idea of streamlining our posts here to better serve our customers. So taking a page out of Chris Guillebeau's playbook, we are going to shift to a guaranteed 3 posts a week with miscellaneous updates, such as restocking, scattered throughout. Here is the breakdown: Monday- New recipe. We'll continue to bounce around Asia with these, but if there is a specific recipe anyone wants to share or wants to see let us know and we can put it up. Wednesday- Asian culture. This day's post will be dedicated to highlighting some aspect of the various cultures across Asia. Friday- Sari Sari aka variety. Friday's post topics will range from culture, to local events to stupid video's we found on Youtube . There is a real good chance it will be food related. Those are the guaranteed posts. If something comes up we feel is worth posting, we will post it. This is just an effort to make the blog better for those of you out there reading. As always reme

Recipe: Goi Cuon (Vietnamese Spring Roll)

A recent article in Poultry Magazine stated that Southeast Asian cuisine has become increasingly popular. This is due in part not only to the various exotic flavors, but also because of how healthy many of these foods are. So to shamelessly take advantage of this today's recipe is Goi Cuon aka Vietnamese Cold Spring Rolls . No doubt most who have had Vietnamese food have had these spring rolls. Boasting low fat, carb, and sodium these morsels are healthy and very refreshing. I especially enjoy these on hot days due to their cool temperature and chilling herbs such as cilantro and mint. I'm sure y'all will enjoy these. Check out the recipe below. Read More Ingredients * 1 package clear edible rice paper sheet * 1/2 lb cooked chicken * 1/2 lb cooked small shrimp (, peeled, deveined, halved) * 1 bunch fresh cilantro leaves * 1 bunch fresh mint leaves * 1 head leafy lettuce, washed and separated into leaves * 1 cucumber, peeled and cut into very,very thin s

Update and random video.

As many of you know we were anxiously anticipating the arrival of our first child into this world. Well Jakob Daniel has finally graced this world with his presence at a whopping 8lbs 3oz and 20" on November 4 at 5:11pm. This has caused some sporadic hours at the store this week but things should return to normal early next week. Girlyne is recovering well and should be making appearances at the store again some time in December. We appreciate your understanding and well wishes during all this. Now for the random video part: I stumbled across this compilation of one man's journey from Denver to Singapore. He constantly took photos during his trip and compiled them all into this 5 minute video. It is an interesting watch especially for those who have traveled internationally before and long to do so again. For those of you who have traveled to Asia see if you can recognize some places in the video. I know I was able to. To watch the video Click Read More below and check it out.