I’m going back to Shanghai!

Confirmed for the summer and excited. I will be spending eight glorious (and swelteringly hot) weeks in Shanghai on a hotel pre-opening! No idea what to expect, except that it will be refreshingly different from all my previous experiences … and *hopefully* as fabulous as I’m imagining. And in honor of my excitement, a post about the arguably, most famous / must try dish of the city ...

'Shanghai Soup Dumplings'

上海小笼包

These dumplings are coveted for their extremely thin skin and savory soup inside. The best ones have a paper-thin skin that you bite so delicately to make a small hole so that you can suck the steaming broth inside. The filling is usually pork but there are various seafood, meat, and vegetable combinations. (And for those of you who are wondering how you make soup inside the dumpling, the process involves wrapping “meat gelatin” (e.g. lard) within the wrapper; the steaming causes it to melt into the rich soup that we love.)

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Thank you to Justin Fung (great friend, brilliant colleague, world traveler, and Master Photographer) for all the gorgeous photos.

Procrastinating … my favorite food websites

I don’t understand how it is almost 3 am and how I have done nothing but skim through one case for the past five hours since I’ve come home? What am I doing … listening to Pandora, reading restaurant reviews for an event I’m planning, procrastinating reading my favorite food websites, and of course now - writing in my blog.

*Sigh* How is it that I have such an appetite for all things food? I can flip through different restaurant menus and not get bored … read through cookbooks in my bed and tag the ones I want to make … and (probably my favorite) read through people’s food stories and adventures on their blogs until the sun comes up!

So a tribute to all my favorite sites that keep me up and prevent me from doing what I ‘should’ be doing (e.g. work – or better yet – sleep!)

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Hias Gourmet
http://www.hiasgourmet.com/

I love this site because it is an entrepreneurial venture (and success) of a good friend of mine, Adlyn Teoh. Know Gourmet on Tour? Same concept – just focused on exposing the world to gourmet Chinese cuisine. She’s started a fabulous business with customized culinary vacations, food tours, dining etiquette classes, and more. For anyone who loves food and planning a trip to Beijing, it’s a must do.

Chubby Hubby
http://www.chubbyhubby.net/blog/
One of the first food blogs that I got hooked on. He’s a famous Singaporean food blogger named Aun Koh, but probably what I love most about his site is the name and concept. ‘Chubby Hubby: Whining, Dining, and Marriage.’ He always references his wife ‘S’ and talks about making a homemade chirashi one day in an entry called ‘Scattered rice for a tattered wife.’ How can a girl not love that? Food, love, life. (Plus, he has a post about making a hazelnut mousse chocolate torte with pop rock candies!)

Nordljus
http://www.nordljus.co.uk/
By Keiko Oikawa and available in both Japanese and English. I can’t help but flip through every entry in her blog because her pictures are absolutely stunning. I have downloaded several of them as screensavers for my own desktop, so I can be inspired. Her website is the epitome of why I love food and am obsessed with Japanese food culture. The attention to detail and celebration food as an art. Exquisite.

RasaMalaysia
http://rasamalaysia.com/
I love this site because it’s so useful and it’s such a great shout out to the diversity and delicious-ness of Asian cuisine. It has a good repertoire of recipes spanning Chinese, Malaysian, Thai, Japanese, Indian, Vietnamese, Filipino, Indonesian, and Baking (Because really, how can you not include baking as a key building block in your cooking skill set?)

Friends’ blogs
http://bloomingiris.blogspot.com/
http://frutchman.wordpress.com/
http://www.eating-sf.com/
And of course, potentially my favorite by far – friends who also casually blog on the side … I love reading your blogs because they provide a little bit of insight into your creative endeavors and culinary adventures. I feel like I get a little personal glimpse into your lives!

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Awesome Friend ... and the best winning bet ever

(Clockwise from top left: Pulao, Aloo Gobi Palya, Mutter Paneer, Kosumbri)

I don’t normally make bets but for fun, but I recently got pulled into one with an old high school friend whom I refer most of the time to as ‘Awesome Friend’. The bet I won (yay!) and my winning prize was probably one of the most fantastic displays of culinary warmth and effort I have ever seen!

The details of the bet I will not go into, but his ‘losing task’ was to prepare a multi-coursed dinner party with the guests and time of his choosing. The end result was spectacular! The occasion – the birthday of Awesome Friend himself. The setting – his family’s beautiful home in Saratoga hills. The people – over 25 of his friends. The food – six courses of his favorite Indian home-cooked foods.

I have prepared dinner parties for 8 but six different courses for a party of 25 is a whole different story. But in addition to the food being delicious, I think I was just in awe of the effort and warmth of the entire setting. There I was, dressed up for my first time in a traditional Indian outfit (we played the part) eating home-cooked Indian food made by my awesome friend whose private equity schedule rarely lets him leave the office, let alone cook! It was really such a treat. Happy belated birthday Awesome Friend; a huge thank you from all your friends for a wonderful birthday treat.

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Awesome Friend's birthday dinner party menu

Bhel puri
bhel mix, garbanzo beans, tamarind chutney, potato, onion, coriander, salt, chili powder

Pulao
basmati rice, swiss chard, bell peppers, cashews, almonds, raisins, spices

Eggplant curry
eggplant, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, spices

Aloo Gobi Palya
potato, cauliflower, bell peppers, onions, coriander, tomato, spices

Kosumbri
carrot, cucumber, dhal (lentils), coriander, coconut, mustard seeds

Mutter Paneer
paneer (cheese), peas, onions, tomatoes, tomato paste, spices

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Tea with the Bedouins

My Bedouin Tea Afternoon
(Clockwise) Traditional teapot; Bedouin tent made of goats hair (to keep cool in the desert);
Fresh cup of Bedouin tea (green West Africa tea with sugar and cardamon); Our Bedouin host

I just got back from a class trip to the Middle East, which was more fabulous than I could ever have expected … in large part due to a day where we camped out in Wadi Rum – a sandstone / granite rock valley in southwest Jordan – and home of the Bedouins, an Arab nomadic tribe that lives out in the desert.

I’m a creature of comforts. Those who know me can attest to the fact that I am unfortunately not the nature-loving, outdoors, camping type. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever really truly 'camped’ before (at least as my friends describe how 'real' camping should be experienced). But this was one of those life experiences that I’ll never forget …

Sitting in the back of an old, rickety pickup truck, driving up and down the sand dunes in the Jordanian desert, stopping by a traditional Bedouin tent made out of goat hair, taking off my sandy and dirty shoes to have an oh-so-delicious cup of Bedouin tea (Green tea from West Africa spiced with cardamom and sweetened with sugar). Not blissful (that denotes some level of comfort which was completely lacking in the situation) – but truly magical.