Asian food

What Will Fracking Do to Your Food Supply? The controversial gas-drilling practice is tainting water. Your food might be next. by Barry Estabrook May 14, 2011 There’s a stunning moment in the Academy Award-nominated documentary Gasland, where a man

This summer, if you’re a neat freak, this $13 Corn Kerneler would be for you. Zips the corn right off! Fun looking contraption, I guess with that little spout you don’t even need a fork or spoon, just tip into your mouth! ©Steamy Kitchen Recip

Yesterday morning, after forcing myself to get up and sending the boys off to school, I collapsed back to sleep on the couch. There was absolutely no reason why I was so tired, I had gotten a full night’s sleep, hung around all weekend long without

  But don’t be fooled by the name “baby artichoke” as they’re not “baby” or “immature” artichoke at all. An artichoke plant will sprout several regular sized artichokes near the top of the plant and muc

When it comes to fish, simple is best. This Fish with Citrus Caper Sauce Recipe only takes 10 minutes to cook, start to finish. I've used a combination of orange and lemon, capers, white wine and then finished it with a bit of butter.

Had to do put in a few stitches to Coco’s favorite toy, the sock monkey. ©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2011. | Permalink | 16 comments

What I have in my hand is Vietnam. This Vietnam is visually spectacular, still a landscape of layers and colours but perhaps slightly easier to deconstruct, examine and truly know. Those who have not visited may recognise its features. This...

I have a tendency to laziness. It's a character flaw that impedes the process here in these pages. Here is what happens. On a jaunt through the streets, I see a woman attired in heavy-duty blue-collar worker-wear dealing something edible...

The Vietnamese feel pity for the lone diner. I suspect that this sympathy extends to the solo coffee drinker. The Vietnamese cafe is generally a lively environment where, upon entry, orders are shouted rather than quietly taken. It's an experience...

When I first came to Vietnam in 2002, the streets were frenetic with colour. The people were all go and no stop, possessed with an industry that made me tired. The mangoes were going by bicycle, the chickens and ducks...

In frame is the teenage pushcart vendor selling corn. From a western perspective, the scene is rather quaint, the food something that we'd brand as streetfood and think twice about before consuming. Looking at the photo with friends upon our...

I opened a bottle of ouzo the other night and was immediately transported back to Greece. To the large seaside town of Volos, a place I keep coming back to in my mind and in the pages here. Like all...

Nothing says summer is on the way like baskets of fresh strawberries at the supermarket! In Strawberry Chicken Stir-fry, tender strips of chicken are combined with strawberries in a tangy orange-flavored sauce. This simple recipe is a great way to take a

Looking for a quick and easy dessert idea for the weekend? Coconut milk lends a sweet flavor to bananas in this simple recipe. It makes a light dessert for two, or can easily be doubled to serve four people. A reader recently gave this recipe for Hot Bana

This chicken and asparagus stir-fry makes creative use of Chinese and Thai seasonings to produce a delicious stir-fry recipe that goes nicely with potstickers and steamed rice. It has been reader-rated at 5 out of 5 stars.

In this salmon burger recipe the salmon burgers are made with a ginger-lime aioli and brushed with a flavorful soy glaze during grilling. No wonder that in 2001 it was the grand prize winner in the "Build a Better Burger" contest held by Sutter Home Wine

The indescribable sweet and tart flavor of mango is perfect for smoothie recipes. Fresh mango and banana are flavored with lime juice and honey in this refreshing Mango Smoothie. Mango Smoothie photo copyright by Rhonda Parkinson, licensed to About.com,

The popularity of grilling just keeps growing! From aromatic Five-Spice Chicken to grilled Ginger Chicken with a flavorful rice vinegar and fresh ginger marinade, these grilled chicken recipes will help make your next picnic or backyard barbecue a success

Chicken & Pork Noodle Soup, is a cheap food sold from street stalls in major Thai cities. Thai people don't cook this at home, not just because its so widely available on the street, but also because it takes...

This dish is seasoned minced pork. When you want to add meat to a soup or noodle dish, you can take spoonfuls of the pork and drop them into the noodle mix to cook. It is not suitable for...

Pork balls, are small savory spongy balls of pork, flavorings, flour and ice that can be used to bulk up a noodle dish. The ice is used to make the mixture spongy, it melts during cooking, leaving tiny holes...

This is a very simple noodle dish of pork and shrimp, 'Woon Sen' is glass noodle, 'gung' means shrimp, but the important word here is 'op'. We call it 'op', because you layer the ingredients in the frying pan,...

This is a typical handmade sweet (Kanom), with a texture similar to turkish delight and a rose scent. If you cannot obtain rose water, it is possible to use vanilla essence in water, or lemon or orange juice, making...

I've shown you Mangda before (listed in the Meat Fish Eggs category of Appon's Thai Food - I didn't quite know how to classify it!), the large insects pounded into a chilli-paste and used for flavorings. This is the...

Yesterday afternoon, I had the great pleasure of attending the local (Singapore) launch of the Singapore International Culinary Exchange (SPICE for short) and the unveiling of the Singapore Takeout. The Singapore Takeout is a custom-fabricated shipping co

So, there’s a small reason I haven’t had time to post for a while. 3.075 kilos small to be exact. On 10 March, my darling wife S and I became parents (for the first time). Our little boy–we’ll call him T on this site–is a rea

It’s no secret that I love burgers. Love going out for them and also love making them. And I think I do a pretty good job. Haven’t had too many complaints at least. That said, I’ve always been slightly bothered by one thing. I prefer my

Hola! I have just returned from a jam-packed week in Madrid, Spain. My colleagues and I were there to organize a super-cool culinary event that was also used as the launch pad for a whole series of even cooler food initiatives. The event was titled A Nigh

Last month, I had the pleasure of announcing and hosting a little contest sponsored very kindly by Staub. I had asked readers to send me their best photo of a gorgeously scrumptuous one-pot meal. The winner–chosen by my wife S and I–would rece

Over the past few months, the way that I have been cooking has changed irrevocably. You see, late last year, I picked up a device from Singapore’s newest, coolest and easily largest kitchen store, ToTT, that has not only changed the way that I cook

On our walk yesterday Shuma and I saw tonnes of birds, including two snowy egrets, lots of ducks, and exactly...

Last month Hideaki and I went on our first date, just the two of us, in seven months. That's a...

Here we have leg warmers with little cars spewing out cute little clouds of exhaust, a striped onesie and a...

Through the sands of time... Come dinosaurs! This is an on-location Fashion Show episode, and I admit it's more about...

On Mother's Day Hideaki's family had a lunch in honour of Ah-chan, his maternal grandmother. In attendance were his mother,...

To all appearances this seems to be just another cute picture of a very happy baby. Well, it wouldn't be...

A happy 2011 to all you foodies out there! 2010 was probably the best year of my life, therefore there were very few KF articles this year, sorry!! KF does still get lots of access, encouraging comments, links and mentions. Thank you! To ring in the new y

Gion Kinana’s fresh-made kinako ice cream, more cream than ice, is the best Japanese ice cream that I have had. Their parfaits are completely amazing too. Kinana is located in Gion, just off of Hanamikoji Street, one of Kyoto’s most scenic and historic ne

Wunderkid Chef Dylan Brawn and I guest cheffed at Mamezen last night (Oct 30, 2010). Mamezen does a gentle and sublime ramen made with Kyoto-style dashi and soy milk which is called Mamezen Soba. We wanted to turn Mamezen Soba on its head and took inspira

Mamezen is another Kyoto culinary treasure and if you are into noodles and, or soymilk dishes, you should definitely put Mamezen on your list of places to ‘foodie’ when you visit Kyoto. Mamezen serves ramen in a unique soymilk broth: Mamezen S

Recently I had dinner at Sou, a kappo teppanyaki restaurant in Gion. Dinner was excellent, the wagyu beef was amazing and it was not crazy expensive, so I made an appointment to interview the owner-chef, Mr Tsukada. Since I started KyotoFoodie I have rece

Michael Baxter, that’s me, had the very good fortune to be profiled in the September 2010 issue of Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia! Journalist Amy Ma, who I showed around Nishiki Market and ate some Kyoto-style sushi with back earlier in the summer,

I got these certificates in the mail yesterday. Superfun.

Sent to me by David Lefer.

I got a lovely note from an Asian American studies professor at UCLA. It’s exciting to think of the book as a “staple.” I am writing to say how much my students and I enjoy your wonderful book.  It has become a staple reading in a semina

More update. To sign up for announcements of future food tours, sign up below Enter your email address: A TinyLetter Email Newsletter Update! I’m adding an additional tour on April 3, at 2 p.m. Meet at 215 Centre Street inside the lobby of the

My friend, Barbara Martinez, alerted me to the fact that my appearance on Martha Stewart inspired her to create the baby booties. (click on the booties, annoying that they don’t have an individual link to each finalist.) Here is what she writes (she

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History is presenting a Chinese American display, Sweet & Sour, opening March 17, 2011 (two days after my birthday!) in the lobby. I helped a bit with linking them together with the items, including the

  Many consider Seoul, the capital of Korea for more than 600 years, to be the culinary hub of Korea. However, South Korea’s sixth-largest city, Gwangju, also has ample cuisine cred. Located in the middle of Jeolla-nam province near the southwe

Something new popped up in the menus we usually get taped to our door. A naengmyeon delivery joint specialized in YukHui, the Korean raw beef dish I like so much. So I ordered their YukHui Naengmyeon. This is done bibim style, so there’s no broth. J

I came across an article on a small outbreak of e. coli bacteria in Japan. It mentioned in the summary that it came from a barbecue chain. That hit the bells in my head, and I looked more closely. The e. coli’s source was YukHui (pronounced Yook-hwa

Here is a great way to spend your Saturday afternoon in Seoul. Homebrew Korea is having another homebrew competition, and it’s all-you-can-drink for W35,000 (at the door). Homebrewing has been getting some respect in Korea lately. And it has been ge

New Opening Promo Catch Jennifer of Fatman Seoul in the clip. Hugh Jackman Promo A special preview episode of the upcoming Kimchi Chronicles series premiered on New York public television. We obviously didn’t see it here in Korea. Yet it’s bee

Many Koreans call yangnyeom gejang a ’meal thief’ (???; bap do duk), a dish so delicious that the accompanying bowl of rice is gone in no time.  Admittedly, it is quite messy to eat – I wouldn’t recommend this for a first date &#82

The northern Thai city of Sukhothai has its own signature noodle dish, kuaytiaw Sukhothai. There’s nothing particularly northern about the dish, other than the copious use of pork, and it appears to be a slight a variation on Chinese-influenced cent

Some pics from the evening market in Phitsanulok, one of the more vibrant and photogenic in the region. Click the button in the corner for full-screen mode. Phitsanulok’s Evening Market Th Akatossaroth 4-10pm View Thai Eats in a larger map

The northern Thai city of Mae Sot seems like an unlikely place to find a particular style of phat Thai - a dish I usually associate with central Thailand. But while in the city recently, I spotted three or so shops serving a somewhat unusual version of th

Back in 2008, Andy Ricker, chef/owner of Portland, Oregon restaurant Pok Pok, was kind enough to share with me his favourite khao soi restaurants in Chiang Mai, which later became the basis of a magazine article I did. During our ‘research’, w

Initially, I wasn’t too impressed by the restaurant spread in the northern city of Chiang Rai. But after several visits and an equal amount of days spent there, I eventually dug up a handful of good places to eat. So in addition to previously-mentio

Kengtung has one of the more interesting markets in the region. Unfortunately I didn’t spend as much time here as I’d have liked because I was here during New Years and was terrified of getting my camera wet. But it only took a brief visit to

If you could see me now, you’d notice my cheeks are red ***blush*** and the very embarrassed look on my face … Yes, I have been delinquent with my blog postings but I have a very good excuse, promise! A little project named Isaac has been keep

Whew … the last 6 months have whizzed by! Little Isaac (who is not so little anymore) is a joy but I haven’t been able to do very much else except well, maybe to design an iPhone app. I know it’s crazy but yes, I’ve launched an app

Isaac Aragorn Wheatley, born February 20th Hello. My name is Isaac! My mommy is busy taking care of me day and night so she won’t be blogging for awhile. In the meantime, please enjoy these articles: The  Way of Tea in Asian Cultures Grabbing the Ti

New year cake and mandarin oranges are two standards eaten during Chinese New Year’s My family doesn’t celebrate Chinese New Year in a big way. In fact, my dad has always insisted we are NOT Chinese. My siblings and I always took that statement with

Golden-hued Madras curry powder Contrary to popular belief, there is no such thing as a generic curry powder. In fact, the term curry powder didn’t exist until the 18th century when local cooks in Madras (now called Chennai in India’s southern Tamil

You caught me. I used leftover holiday ham instead of Spam to make this dish. People either recoil in terror or express intrigue when I tell them about one of my favorite comfort foods—Spam mac and cheese. Yes, you read right: Spam–aka luncheon meat