Asian Food

the skill will become super handy when you least expect it to be.

Many people adore snap peas but I’m lukewarm about them. I associate them with commercially packaged crudite packages filled with raw broccoli and cauliflower florets, and unreal capsule-shape carrots, all surrounding a tub of dressing/dip. Then there were 1990s, when I ‘discovered’ snap peas and cooked them whole on high heat, thinking I’d replicate the glamorous dishes found at restaurants and in magazine photos. I was consistently disappointed by the slippery green pods that were cute but hard to chase around the plate, especially with chopsticks. A couple of weeks ago, I had a snap pea turnaround at La Posta, a nice Cal-Italian restaurant in Santa Cruz. We ordered a side (contorni) of snap peas and squash with lovage (an herb) and ricotta salata (dryish,...

Summer officially starts in 3 days, on June 21. I am sure everyone is ready for some summertime fun: endless BBQ’s, pool parties, beach, sun, warmth, and family. Summer is my favorite time of the year as I can just wear light, carefree summery clothes and don’t need layers of clothing. I also love the warmth of the sun on my skin and humidity (yes, I do!). Somehow, my complexion is better in summer; the nice tint of color on my skin and the humidity adds some glows to the face. I have a ton of summer recipes on my site (please click the link to check out all recipes). Some of my favorites are chicken kebab, Vietnamese lemongrass pork banh mi, peel and eat shrimp, various summer BBQ recipes, five-spice meat sliders, beef skewers, and so much more. Today, I am adding Thai Chili Beef Burger to my recipes. Burgers are everyone’s favorites for summer, and the fun of...

I am partnering with my friends at MOLECULE-R to give away a Cuisine R-EVOLUTION kit. There will be one (1) winner whom will receive one (1) Cuisine R-EVOLUTION kit. The value of the Cuisine R-EVOLUTION kit is $58.95. At least once, while growing up you heard the proverbial – don’t play with your food. MOLECULE-R is breaking the rules and allowing you to experiment with food in the comfort of your own home. With MOLECULE-R’s Cuisine, Cocktail, and Siphon R-EVOLUTION kits, any dish or cocktail can be deconstructed into a 5 star restaurant recipe with these all-encompassing D-I-Y kits. Each R-EVOLUTION kit contains pre-measured sachets of natural food additives, the essential molecular gastronomy tools, and a DVD with step-by-step recipes. Experimenting with the most popular molecular gastronomy techniques (gelification, spherification, and emulsification) foodies are now able to...

Sorry, I have been just swamped with work since my return from holidays. So you get these little outrageous blog bites instead.

The first house that my parents bought had a sizeable backyard planted with six to eight pine trees. The trees were mature and covered the sloped yard with about a foot of crunchy long brown pine needles. One summer, I decided to ‘clean up’ the needles to see what was underneath. I filled up bags and bags of pine needles and didn’t seem to make much of a dent. It was a 1950s home that we bought in the late 1970s. There may have been a good decade’s worth of pine needles to gather. It was tedious but I discovered that I like goofing off in the yard. It’s kind of mindless but also meditative and rewarding. There’s patience and surprise in gardening. You can...

It’s the Father’s Day weekend and I am sure many of you will be celebrating the special day. I always think that Father’s Day is way underrated compared to Mother’s Day. I personally think that fathers give as much as mothers, if not more. They are out working, making a living to support the family, and when they come home, they have to play with the kids and help out with the chores. I have the world’s best father at home (Mr. Rasa Malaysia), and my son is very lucky that he has a wonderful father. I am blessed that I have someone whom I can “unload” my son to in the evening and on the weekends. It’s really precious. Anyway, I digress. When I saw this Sicilian Orange Cake on my friend CP’s Facebook, I knew that I had to tell her to share this Sicilian Orange Cake recipe with me. Sicilian Orange Cake tastes like butter cake, with an...

A huge and somewhat delayed thank you to P from Saudi Arabia who very kindly dropped off a bounty of pine nuts for Marketman at one of the Zubuchon restaurants. Thank you very much. I seem to have misplaced your email address and can't find it in my address book so I thought at the very least I could do this quick post. I will go pesto crazy and add the toasted pine nuts to salads as well. Totally unexpected, totally unnecessary, but greatly appreciated. Salamat!

A few days ago, my good friend Alice at Eat A Duck I Must texted me that I ought to try out their lobster somen recipe, citing that it takes only 15 minutes to prepare and it’s their ultimate go-to summer lunch dish. She even sent me a picture of the dish. At the sight of their gorgeous photo, I knew that I had to make it. It’s also a great coincidence that lobsters are on sale at $6.95 per pound in my Asian store. The timing couldn’t be better. Somen, a type of Japanese noodles, is popular especially during summertime in Japan. Somen is usually served cold in a dashi-flavored sauce. The sweetest thing about this lobster and mushroom somen is that it took me practically 15 minutes to make, and the final dish was refined, thanks to the grilled mushrooms and lobster claw as the toppings. It was delicious, and utterly satisfying slurping down cold noodles with the...

I just spotted this notice on a wall while driving by it in Cebu a few minutes ago. You just gotta laugh.