I’ve been working with to showcase their sauces and marinades, from exhibiting at food trade shows, cooking up big batches of curried soup to serve at a Yelp event, to making dishes for my apartment building’s potluck party. But only those who happen to live in my building or attend these events have gotten a chance to taste. Well, here’s your chance to give World Foods sauces a try, even if you aren’t lucky enough to be my neighbor.
A Holiday Giveaway: Sugar, Spice and Everything Nice
Christmas is around the corner, flurries are aflutter and spiced apple cider is back on heavy rotation. Yes, the holidays have arrived and here’s a gift giveaway to keep the mood fine and festive. As long as you live in the US, you are eligible to win these holidays treats. Here’s to a little sugar and a little spice to make your holidays nice.
First, something sweet. This trifecta of gourmet sugars from pairs well with coffee and tea, and is as easy on your eyes as they are on your tongue. Whether you’re having high tea or just sipping a cuppa joe on Sunday morning, you can spruce it up with a spoonful of this sugar. I hand-picked three of my favorites, but there are plenty more shapes, colors and varieties to choose from — go ahead, take a . To win these sweet treats, leave a comment with what hot beverage you’d pair your sugar with.
Got Ramen Fever? Win 2 Tickets this Thursday
Hey there, Ramen-loving New Yorkers. Here’s your lucky chance to win 2 FREE tickets to this Thursday, December 16th from 6:30 – 9:30 pm.
The program will include a discussion with Shigeto Kamada, owner of Minca Ramen Factory and Kambi Ramen House, Jenny Miller, Assistant Food Editor at Grub Street/NYMag.com, Adina Steiman, Food Editor at Men’s Health magazine, and Rickmond Wong, owner of Ramen blog Rameniac, highlighting this exciting new trend. The talk will be followed by a Ramen demonstration and tasting given by Shigeto Kamada.
Reconsider the Cauliflower: Curried Cauliflower and Carrot Soup
It’s about time to give cauliflower another chance, some well deserved respect. Think of cauliflower and the adjectives bland and mushy first come to mind. When I look back to the days when I used to regularly eat frozen meals, my first impression of cauliflower was not a fond one. I associated it with the “mixed vegetables” compartment of the multi-compartmental tray — the compartment that I’d leave to eat last, if at all.
A Glimpse at Korean Temple Cuisine
Two weeks ago, I was involved in producing an event to showcase , a specialized cuisine originating from the culinary practices of Buddhist monks in Korea. There were no barbecued meats to be found. Instead, the tables were lined with plates of steamed lotus roots stuffed with multicolored rice, sprouts wrapped with paper thin sheets of pickled white radish and tied together with strands of chives, and rosy pink pickled vegetables sliced into precise uniform squares, just to name a few of the items in the spread of over 40 dishes.
Sri Lankan Ambassador Dinner at Bownie Restaurant
A stack of idiappams with mutton curry, coconut chutney and Sri Lankan-style sambhar.
Just one short bus ride away from the bustling satellite Chinatown of Flushing, Queens is Bownie restaurant, a modest Sri Lankan eatery that has been owned and operated by Nanthini and Sri Kandharajah and their family for 11 years now.
While there are plenty of appetizing traditional Indian dishes on the menu, you’ll find that the Sri Lankan specialties really stand out. That night, dinner at Bownie was one in a continuing series of organized by Jeff Orlick, and Joseph Aranha of the Asian Arts and Cultural Alliance was our ambassador for the evening. So, how exactly does an ambassador dinner work? According to Jeff, this is what goes down: a guide (ambassador) “will order for the table and discuss what we are eating and why we are eating it. Not a classroom experience, but more of a familial gathering centered around the food.”
Queens by Bike: Asian Feastival’s Tour du Jour
It’s almost been two years since I first moved to Queens, but I find that there is still so much to see and explore. Since most of my friends either live in Brooklyn or Manhattan, I’m usually biking across the Pulaski Bridge into Brooklyn or hopping on the subway to Manhattan; I really haven’t had much of a chance to explore my own borough. But this all changed when I began to prepare and plan for Asian Feastival. In the past few months, I’ve spent more time in Queens than ever before. As a result, I’ve gotten a chance to know more Queens people and Queens places, and I really love it.
When the idea of doing an Asian Feastival bike tour came up, the first person that came to mind was Youngsun Lee. A Korean chef born in Seoul and raised in Queens, he first began biking to get in shape for the snowboarding season but now he is an equally expert biker. Together with , Asian Feastival graphic designer and correspondent, we discussed our shared passion for biking between bites of teok (Korean rice cakes) at the Asian Feastival press conference. By the time the conference was over it was settled, we were going to take it to the streets and do the bike tour. The fourth biker in our bike brigade was . Having lived in Jackson Heights for the past two years, he’s been spreading a good dose of Queens love through food. Organizing Queens-centric food gatherings and events, he’s been exploring the culinary landscape of Queens and bringing people together through a shared love for exploratory eating.
Emily, Jeff and Youngsun
Gamelan Kusuma Laras: A Musical Foray into Indonesian Cuisine
Gamelan rehearsal in action
The Javanese Gamelan group holds rehearsals at the Indonesian Consulate twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays. Beginning at 5:30, members trickle into the basement of the Consulate, each taking their respective place in front of the majestic bronze instruments, sitting shoe-less and cross-legged while rhythmically beating to the numbered musical notations. An hour and a half later, a cooker of rice and tupperwares filled with aromatic Indonesian home cooking are placed on the table buffet-style, indicating that dinner has commenced.
Soup Dumpling Secrets from Nan Xiang Dumpling House
Shanghainese soup dumplings are a culinary phenomenon: a bite of pork and a spoonful of soup all within a neatly pleated wheat wrapper. You’re probably curious: how does the soup get in there? Over the years, I’ve come up with a fair share of outlandish theories – at one point I was convinced the dumplings were injected with a soup-filled syringe. But all my conspiracy theories were finally laid to rest two weeks ago when the high priestess of Nan Xiang Dumpling House, Chef Huang Jian Ping (黃建萍), came over to make soup dumplings from scratch. In anticipation for Asian Feastival, an epic culinary event in Queens on September 6th Labor Day Monday (check out for the complete rundown), we decided to put her off-site dumpling-making capabilities to the test and invited some friends over to witness her pork and dough sorcery.
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