Chinese Food Culture

Some cool food images:

pOOr…. buT hAppY…


Image by poonomo
i saw her while i visited neyyar dam during my last kerala trip… portraits aint really my cuppa tea, but this grandma trying to sell a few fruits and some packets of peanuts, sittin under the scorching april sun, moved me a lot… n for a few seconds, my mind wandered over to those days ven my grandma was alive, about the life she led during her old age and the comforts she was given… and i was thinking about how miserable this granny’s situation mite be at home, that at this age, she has to try and sell a few packets of peanuts to satisfy her hunger and maybe of all those back home waiting for her to come back with some food or money…

n while she was busy handing over a packet of peanuts to my dad, i clikd my first shot, and maybe hearing the shutter sound, she turned around n looked at me… am not sure if she understood what i was doing, but ven she heard my dad tell her what am up to, she smiled at me… n for a moment, i felt glad… we gave her another 20-rupee note and told her to keep it, but this poor soul thot we were asking for more peanuts… ) … finally, somehow my dad convinced her to keep that extra money n we left the place…

there are many who are still living amidst poverty, but we hardly ever notice them… rather we dont want to (me included) … n while i was browsing the net on various topics related to poverty, i came across this very powerful quote – The poverty of our century is unlike that of any other. It is not, as poverty was before, the result of natural scarcity, but of a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich. Consequently, the modern poor are not pitied…but written off as trash. The twentieth-century consumer economy has produced the first culture for which a beggar is a reminder of nothing. ~John Berger …

maybe its the money we gave her that brot about this smile on her face… maybe its the thot of food, what this money can get her, that brot about this smile on her face… maybe its the thot of what she can take home for her grandchildren that brot about this smile on her face… or maybe its the fact that she was fotografed that brot about this smile on her face… whatever may the reason be, all i know is i left that place with a smile on my face…

Cans of Mexican Ingredients


Image by thelesleyshow
Cans of beans and mexican food ingredients for recipes

A few nice food images I found:

“Summer is the season when a man thinks he can cook better on an outdoor grill than his wife can on an indoor stove” ~ Happy MUNCHIE Monday ~


Image by turtlemom4bacon
My son-in-law makes fantastic grilled shish kabobs in a grand Texas-styled barbeque!
Included bratwurst, steak, purple onions, mushrooms, red, green and yellow peppers ~

Happy MUNCHIE Monday ~

Kabob

Wekipedia ~

Kabob is a wide variety of meat dishes originating in Persia , and now found worldwide. In English, kabob with no qualification generally refers more specifically to shish kabob served on the skewer or döner kabob served wrapped in bread with a salad and a dressing. In Persia, however, kabob includes grilled, roasted, and stewed dishes of large or small cuts of meat, or even ground meat; it may be served on plates, in sandwiches, or in bowls. The traditional meat for kabob is lamb, but depending on local tastes and taboos, it may now be beef, goat, chicken, pork; fish and seafood or even vegetarian foods like falafel or tofu. Like other ethnic foods brought by travellers, the kabob has become part of everyday cuisine in multicultural countries around the globe.

The origin of kebab may lie in the short supply of cooking fuel in the Near East, which made the cooking of large foods difficult, while urban economies made it easy to obtain small cuts of meat at a butcher’s shop. The phrase is essentially Persian in origin and Arabic tradition has it that the dish was invented by medieval Iranic soldiers who used their swords to grill meat over open-field fires. However, others have claimed the dish has been native to the Near East and East Mediterranean since ancient times. Αn early variant of kebab ("obeliskos") is mentioned in Ancient Greece as early as 8th century BCE (archaic period) in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and in classical Greece, amongst others in the works of Aristophanes, Xenophon and Aristotle and there are also claims citing pictures of Byzantine Greeks preparing shish kebabs. Ibn Battuta records that kebab was served in the royal houses of India since at least the Sultanate period, and even commoners would enjoy it for breakfast with naan.

Prawn and asparagus pasta


Image by nettsu
Cooking Time

10 minutes
Ingredients (serves 2)

this wasn’t bad to be honest (i added more asparagus and a few more prawns than recommended) It was nice but maybe a little on the bland side – there’s a much better prawn pasta recipe in Delicious thats probably about as easy to make as this

* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 1 small red onion, halved, thinly sliced
* 1 garlic clove, crushed
* 1 long red chilli, deseeded, finely chopped (i left the seeds)
* 8 large green prawns, peeled, deveined, tails intact (again I added more)
* 1 bunch asparagus, trimmed, cut into 2cm lengths (i doubled this to 2 bunches)
* 1/3 cup dry white wine (this was 1/2 cup as increased the prawns & asparagus)
* 160g dried angel hair pasta (probably was about 250g)
* shaved parmesan, to serve

Method

1. Cook pasta in a large saucepan of boiling, salted water, following packet directions, until tender. Drain, reserving 2 tablespoons of cooking liquid.
2. Meanwhile, heat oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add onion. Cook, stirring, for 3 minutes or until softened. Add garlic, chilli and prawns. Cook, stirring, for 2 to 3 minutes or until prawns just turn pink.
3. Add asparagus and wine. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute or until asparagus is tender.
4. Add pasta and reserved liquid to prawn mixture. Season with salt and pepper. Toss to combine. Serve with parmesan.

Source

Super Food Ideas – October 2007 , Page 19
Recipe by Kerrie Sun

Check out these food images:

“Plug a pizza in the socket and get a pizza delight” ~ Happy MUNCHIE Monday ~


Image by turtlemom4bacon
Pepperoni and green pepper pizza… yummy

My Bread & Butter


Image by williamcho
Some of my past works through the years on projects with the Food & Beverage industry which is part of my specialty.

�åº�辣子鸡 Chongqing Spicy Chicken – Dainty Sichuan


Image by avlxyz
重庆辣子鸡 Chongqing Spicy Chicken – Dainty Sichuan AUD24.90

3-chillies hot!

—
It’s nice to see that they took the care to spruce up the decor with lots of dark wooden panels. "Spruce" get it?

Even better is the fact that the familiar spicy Sichuan aromas smack you in the face as soon as you walk in. Faced with a dozen diners waiting patiently in line, I rock up to the counter to pick up the all important numbered ticket to ensure that I’m not lost in the queue!

The food here couldn’t be better. The flavours here are more spicy than 巴国布衣 Tooraking, but also more subtle. The 重庆辣子鸡 Chongqing Spicy Chicken is not just chillies studded with fried chicken, there’s also subtle hints of ginger, coriander and sesame seeds that work very well. Never mind that it is 3-chillies hot!

On the other hand, the ��酱熏鱼 Spicy Smoked Fish was packed with Sichuan Peppers which numbs and gives you tingles in your mouth. 麻辣 "Ma La" (numbing spicyness) it most certainly is. Julia thought that the fish was a bit too fishy., even though it is evenly scored to allow the flavours to infuse through.

The 麻辣凉粉 Spicy Bean Jelly had the most wonderful sauce. It was a great balance of warmth from the chillies, tingly from the Sichuan peppers, savoury from probably a good bean paste, and loads of garlic. I ended up mopping it up with rice.

天府川菜馆 Dainty Sichuan Food
26 Corrs La Melbourne 3000
(03) 9663 8861

Reviews:
- Dainty Sichuan, by Matt Preston, The Age, September 3, 2007
- Dainty Sichuan – Mietta’s

Photos:
- 麻辣凉粉 Spicy Bean Jelly – AUD5
- 重庆辣子�¡ Chongqing Spicy Chicken – AUD24.90
- 辣酱熏鱼 Spicy Smoked Fish – AUD8
- Warning: Very Very Spicy!!!
- Asian and Caucasian diners
- Asian Students
- Queueing for tables
- Chockers

Update 2009.01.23: This photo featured in Essential Cookbooks for the Culinary Traveler – matadorgoods.com

Some cool food images:

Hoppin’ John for Happy New Year!


Image by AlyssssylA
There are lots of "good luck" foods for New Years but Hoppin’ John is one of the most commonly sited ones. I think it’s the funny name Hoppin’ John is a dish of black eyed peas or field peas and rice cooked with various pork products that is indigenous to the African American cuisine of the south. Variations are eaten all over the Carribean, Central America and Northern South America; everywhere Africans were brought as slaves to the New World.

Beans are a traditional New Year’s food in Europe as well as America. The Italians eat lentils and both cultures claim that the little round beans look like money. Eat a bowl of beans on New Years Day and your coffers will be full all year. In the American South greens like collards accentuate the magic – a big pile of green is welcome all year round

Last night I made an easy stovetop version of Hoppin’ John and a big pile of curly kale. It was easy, delicious and pleasantly warming on a cold, rainy night.

May we all have our bowls overflowing and our greens piled up in 2009!

Stovetop Hoppin’ John
Serves 3 or 4

1/3 cup diced ham
1 slice of bacon, diced
1/2 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, pressed
1 1/2 cups long grained rice
3 cups liquid – water and/or chicken stock
1 can of black eyed peas
salt, pepper, dried thyme

Satuee the ham, bacon and onions together in a 2 or 3 quart pan with a lid until the bacon has rendered it’s fat and the onion is soft and starting to brown. Add the garlic and thyme and sautee a minute more. Add the rice to the pot and sautee until the edges of the rice turn transluscent, or just a minute or two.
If the bottom of your pan is quite dark with carmelizing pork add just a little of the liquid at a time and scrape the browned bits off the pot. Otherwise, add the liquid, stir to combine and bring the whole thing to a boil. Add a little salt (be careful, both the ham and the bacon are salty) and black pepper then cover and turn heat to low.
When the rice is mostly cooked, in about 10 or 15 minutes, gently stir the peas into the rice mixture. Canned black eyed peas are quite soft so I had to literally fold them in. Taste and adjust salt then put the lid back on and let the rice heat up the beans. Make your greens while this is happening. Enjoy with some hot sauce or more black pepper.
Happy New Year!

Steam-Sauteed Hearty Greens

1 bunch of curly kale or collards or mustard greens
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 tbs bacon grease plus a little olive oil
a shake of red pepper flakes
a pinch of salt
a dash of red wine vinegar

Clean the kale and remove the leaves from the stem. Chop or tear the leaves into fork sized pieces.
Heat a couple inches of water in a pan big enough to hold all of the kale. When it is boiling add the greens, stir a bit with a wooden spoon or tongs and cover. Let the kale steam a minute up to five then drain in a colander.
While the kale is draining and drying a bit heat the fat in a sautee pan or wok. Add the garlic and red pepper and cook until the garlic is starting to brown a bit. Add the kale and toss and turn with tongs. Cook until the kale is fully incorporated with the flavored oil. Sprinkle with salt and then finish with vinegar.
Eat your greens and feel the nutrition!

Our New Canteen A


Image by teddy-rised
serves the best food on campus. Yep, this is the canteen I’ve been talking about previously. It has McDonalds, Subway, Old Chang Kee, Canadian Pizza, Sakae Sushi and a freaking HUGE food court. And another plus point is that the food is cheaper than those found outside – even for McDonalds! Theyâ€�re catering to the needs of the students so they lowered the price considerably – imagine a cup of Pepsi costing you a mere 50 cents!

January 2nd, 2011 | Random | 3 Comments

This picture of mother-and-baby love was shot by Jason Tong Photography (check out his website for some awesome nature and portrait photography!) when Baby G was only 5 weeks old. Time flies, it’s a new year and he is 15 weeks today. His cute little face has changed so much compared to this picture here, but my love for him has grown more and more each day.

I hope you have had a great holiday season and ready to rock on in 2011. I know I will.

Happy New Year to you all!

December 22nd, 2010 | Announcements | 4 Comments

(This Kanzashi Christmas Tree is from CraftPassion.com, a blog about handmade craft and tuitorials.)

It’s that time of year again and I wanted to wish you all Happy Holidays!!

It’s been 4.5 years since I started Rasa Malaysia and I wanted to thank you ever so much for your continued support and readership. You’re the reason that Rasa Malaysia continues to grow and I am still doing what I do. I have to say that this past year, Rasa Malaysia has been somewhat neglected due to my pregnancy and also my upcoming cookbook. I invested most of my time and creative juice cooking, styling, and photographing for the cookbook. As a result, I was pretty much tired and uninspired the remaining time.

That being said, in the new year, I hope to give more tender loving care to Rasa Malaysia. I will try to reply to each and every one of your comment if I can. I plan to share more original Asian recipes. I will write about my upcoming trip back to Malaysia and chronicle my experiences with you. I am also going to have a new Photography sub-domain to host all my pictures—the outtakes of my upcoming cookbook (I shot over 5,000 photos for my cookbook!), random shots, and other worthy photographs that I have captured in the past few years that eat up all the storage spaces on my laptop and external hard drive…

The most exciting of all is the launch of my cookbook in September 2011. As a reader, you will learn first hand the updates of my cookbook on Rasa Malaysia, as well as on my Twitter here, and Fanbook fan page here and here. (If you havenâ€�t followed me on Twitter or joined my Fanbook fan pages, please do so!). I can’t wait to see what’s in store for me in the new year…but I know that 2011 is going to be a fun and exciting year for me.

Again, I wish everyone a warm and joyous holiday season. May the new year bring you health, happiness, success, and lots of good eats.

Happy holidays!

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