Asian Food

I’m partnering with Blendtec to giveaway a Blendtec Designer Series WildSide Color blender. There will be one (1) winner whom will receive one (1) Blendtec Designer Series WildSide Color blender in a color of their choice: Black Base, Cream Base, Red Base. The retail price of the Blendtec Designer Series WildSide Color blender is US$454.95. Blendtec® is pleased to introduce the all-new Designer Series™ blender. It has been engineered to bring a whole new level of beauty and functionality to the high-end blender category, without compromising the famous power and efficiency of our Total Blender Classic. Features include all of these unique Blendtec advantages: Complete speed control Vivid icons New sleek design Easy, fast cleanup Versatile functionality Technical Details: Amps: 13 Watts: 1560 Actual weight: 8 lbs Shipping weight: 13 lbs Actual dimensions: 7″ wide x 15″...

On Monday, my husband had dental surgery and for his post-operation, recovery dinner, I made a comforting (read: easy to chew) tofu, shrimp, and peas stir-fry. The Trader Joe-san medium tofu came in a 1 1/4-pound (565 g) block and I only needed about a pound. I had a little block left. What can you do with a chunk of leftover tofu? You can save it in the fridge, or in my case last Monday, I added it to a simple Vietnamese soup with mustard greens and a bit of chicken thigh sitting in the fridge. Asian mustard greens come in many varieties. At an East Asian or Southeast Asian market, you see “big gai choi” or “little gai choi.” Vietnamese markets also have a...

I have a story to tell you about my first encounter with egg foo young, the quintessential Chinese-American dish. A long time ago, when I first set my foot on the US soil for higher education, I went straight to the middle America. After 36 hours of tiresome journey from my hometown of Penang, Malaysia, I arrived in the state of Iowa. Starved to death and completely disoriented, Mr. Rasa Malaysia (then my boyfriend) chauffeured me to the best Chinese restaurant for a welcome lunch. Among the dishes I ordered, there was egg foo young, or ???, an egg dish that I love and enjoy very much. When my food came, I was shocked to find out that my egg foo young didn’t look much like what I had back home in Malaysia (where great and authentic Chinese food is plentiful and popular). The egg foo young was puffy, almost shaped like an UFO, and doused and drowned in a gloppy brown sauce. There...

I’ve been making very simple foods for the past week, mostly because my days of recipe testing and writing have been very full, often extending till 11 p.m. when I collapse into bed. That kind of work schedule doesn’t permit elaborate cooking. By late afternoon, the kitchen can look like something exploded. After tidying up, my husband and I usually take a daily walk to buy groceries for dinner. Some days, that’s the only time I leave my house so I relish the chance to stretch my legs and breathe extra fresh air. It’s also an opportunity to ponder dinner. Local farmers grow some spectacularly tasty broccoli and broccolini, which are sold at weekly farmer’s markets as well as independent grocery stores. My default preparations...

My apologies to all my readers who keep on coming and visiting my blogs and finding no new postings - sorry!!!!! no excuses. Year 2013 has been busy, spring is over and summer is upon us, yard work is not done. So much eating but did not share anything interesting. I hope you all will find this Deco Roll interesting as it is so appealing and so fun to bake.............To continue reading and for recipe click HERE

One of the most popular recipes on Rasa Malaysia is Chow Mein, or Chinese fried noodles. The current chow mein recipe on my site is made with pork (and shrimp), and many readers have asked me to share a chicken chow mein recipe. I have many readers from all over the world; some of them don’t eat pork and some don’t like shrimp or can’t get fresh shrimp easily. Hence, I made this chicken chow mein, which most people can enjoy. And if you are a vegetarian, you can still enjoy this recipe and just leave the chicken out. Everyone could always use a good bowl of fried noodles, or chow mein (??)—glistening yellow-hued egg noodles with cabbage, bean sprouts, and the protein of your choice. Even when they are plain, such as this supreme soy sauce chow mein, noodles are always  satisfying. I, for one, can’t live without noodles. I can eat noodles every day, be it...

We recently said farewell to one of the finest, kindest and most elegant ladies we have ever known.

so i brought home a baby. malo cat: “….” (she’s not impressed) Little miss Lan was born on May 4th. A little earlier than expected, and we’ve had a grueling and panicky week so far, what with her hospitalized for jaundice and weight loss. But now she’s safe and home, and that’s all that really matters. Malo Cat is completely uninterested in her, and Shiro Dog has appointed himself Royal Guardian of Baby (whenever she cries he’s the first to run to her bassinet and make sure that she’s okay, and then he will give Hiroki and I a disapproving DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS!!! stare).  Mitsu wants to kill her because Mitsu hates all small creatures that is not Mitsu herself, and the old little birds can care less. Our house sounds like a zoo right now, but until things settle down a bit it’ll be quiet on the blog. But I promise to be back soon! xoxo ila

Happy Mother's Day to all marketmanila.com readers who are moms, and to all mother's everywhere. :)

It was not so much nostalgia as a yearning for something deliciously Vietnamese that led me to whip up these scrambled eggs today. My mom taught me how to make scrambled eggs – after she let me prepare rice for the family. We’d have the eggs for lunch with bread. At the time, I didn’t realize how genius it was. There were just a handful of ingredients involved: shallot or yellow onion, tomato, eggs, fish sauce, and black pepper. If things got fancy, green onion was added for color. Making the Viet scrambled eggs got me thinking about the brilliance of simple cooking. For example, gently sauteing shallot turns it fragrantly sweet. Rush it and it can be harsh and hard. Go too far and...