Talk Now! Learn Indonesian - Beginners Level

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Chinese take-out has become a popular staple in American dining. Now you can find out how to make your favorite take-out in your own kitchen. Unlike the regular cooking video which rush through each dish demonstration, this video has no time limits, you can see the end result and detail of each dish. There is no rush-rush, chop-chop, no lengthly instruction, no time-lapse, no talk-show host, just simple straight forward step-by-step cooking instruction - real time cooking demonstration. You can learn at your own pace. If you have trouble following, just pause and rewind, it's that simple!

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Enhanced Asian Dumplings eBook and New Book Info!

Since late last year, I’ve been working with my publisher, Ten Speed Press, on an electronic version of Asian Dumplings. Today, I’m happy to say that it’s now available at a virtual bookstore near you!

Initially we thought of presenting a straight-ahead digital conversion of the print book but I suggested that we also incorporate audio and video for what’s called an “enhanced” ebook. No, we did not inflate the stuffed buns to be ginormous.

What we did was add new digital content to further help cooks master key techniques, namely rolling out dumpling wrappers and making the various shapes. A video on wiping the dough for spring roll skins is included too.

When Asian Dumplings was released in 2009, I began posting homemade YouTube videos of some techniques and also filmed a few with CHOW.com. They’re posted at the book's companion site, Asiandumplingtips.com, but are not handily accessible as a collective group. They are also not as polished as they ought to be.

Additionally, whenever I taught a dumpling class or did a demonstration, what people were super interested in was learning the hand movements. As much as I wordsmith phrases for visual and tactile cues, sometimes people need to observe too. All of those factors made me realize that a digital version of the book should include video.

Enhanced Asian Dumplings features a dozen film clips, one introduction and eleven (11) key techniques. They are placed and linked in the book for you to instantly get dumpling making guidance – maybe even some entertainment too.  “Mr. Hands” and I are at your beck and call whenever and wherever you need us. At parties, smackdowns, or in the kitchen with the kids, we’re there.

The enhanced version of Asian Dumplings is like an on-demand mini dumpling class. I unfortunately don’t have enough time to teach classes so the ebook is a nifty workaround. It's the perfect bridge for folks who want a hands-on cooking class experience. And the extra cool thing is that you can replay!

What was involved in making the videos?
Lots of planning by "Team Dumplings", which was made up of people at Ten Speed Press, including my fabulous editor Melissa Moore, who has worked on many acclaimed cookbooks, including Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day, Mark Bitterman's Salted, and Fanny Gerson's My Sweet Mexico. (Salted and My Sweet Mexico are up for IACP and Beard awards this year! Go Melissa!)

To complete the team, Creative Director Nancy Austin brought on video director Eric Slatkin, with whom I’d worked with on CHOW.com pieces and my soon-to-be released iPhone app! (More on the app soon.) I brought on stylist Fanny Pan to help with the shoot as I know my limits with getting things on set and looking neat.

Melissa and Eric worked with me to refine the script and storyboard that I had proposed. We did a read-through to warm up a few days before the shoot. Nancy and I scouted kitchen spaces belonging to generous friends and colleagues and settled on the loft space that you see in the videos. We shot in one long day, and to get twelve videos done required a tremendous amount of coordination.

Print vs. Digital Books
I love books for their physicality – the paper, sewn binding that make the pages fall open just so, compelling photography that matches the honed text. I love all the bookcases we have in the house filled with new and old publications. When I need to research something, it’s great to pull out a volume and flip the pages.

But digital offers portability and the opportunity to provide new content -- audio, video, and slide shows to further enliven the text and empower cooks to dive into the recipes. It’s not a zero sum game as ebooks can supplement and complement their printed kin. For those who are on the go or have limited space to store printed works, ebooks are a great alternative.

For more details on the video shoot, a sneak peek at the ebook, and the low down on how this project came together with Ten Speed Press, check the Q&A I did with The Recipe Club.

Options for eDumplings
When you go to look for the ebook, you'll see that there’s the regular e-version of Asian Dumplings and the enhanced edition (see the image at the top) with the audio and video. The enhanced version is available for use on the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and Kindle app that goes with those devices.

Both versions of the ebooks at the iTunes bookstore and Amazon. Barnes & Noble’s Nook store, Google eBookstore, and other ebook retailers are carrying the regular ebook. Check it out and if digital Asian Dumplings becomes part of your kitchen, let me know your thoughts!

Note that you can also pre-order the e-version of Into the Vietnamese Kitchen that is due out in May.

New Book Announcement
Now I have to go back to work on the new book, Asian Tofu, which will be published by Ten Speed Press in spring 2012. The manuscript is due in May and Melissa is cracking her editorial whip!

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Wanton Egg Noodle Soup 2.7 Oz

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Instant Feel Good Foods: Deviled Eggs and Kewpie Mayonnaise

Instant Feel Good Foods: Deviled Eggs and Kewpie Mayonnaise - Viet World Kitchenwindow.fbAsyncInit = function() { FB.init( { apiKey: 'a279adbe87e2b3c505e777af99a5260d' } ); YAHOO.util.Event.onDOMReady( function() { FB.XFBML.parse(); } );};( function() { var e = document.createElement( 'script' ); e.async = true; e.src = document.location.protocol + '//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js'; document.getElementById( 'fb-root' ).appendChild( e );} )();Viet World KitchenHomeArchivesRecipe IndexVWK StoreClasses + EventsFavorite SitesAbout MePermission and CreditWelcome to Viet World Kitchen where I explore the culinary traditions of Vietnam and the rest of Asia. Join me to learn, create, and contribute!

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One of Cooking Light's 2010
Favorite Cookbooks!

Asian Dumplings
(Ten Speed Press, 2009)
Reviews & Press Release
Enhanced e-book with how-to videos now available!

Into the Vietnamese Kitchen
(Ten Speed Press, 2006)
Reviews & Press Release
E-book release: 5/11/2011

Recent PostsJapanese Sweet Rice Dumplings with Brown Sugar Syrup Recipe (Shiratama Dango)Homemade Kinako Toasted Soy FlourInstant Feel Good Foods: Deviled Eggs and Kewpie MayonnaiseEnhanced Asian Dumplings eBook and New Book Info!Dashi Carnitas Tacos Recipe2011 Japan Disaster: Elizabeth Andoh’s Experience & RequestsMail Call: Western Ways with Asian Food? Refrigerator Gold: Leftovers Panfried NoodlesReader Contribution: A Vietnamese Waif’s First Mardi Gras Pho Secret Ingredients: Dried Earthworms (Sa Sung)Awards + Praise
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2007 Best Asian Cookbook

IACP Awards Finalist
2010 Best Single Subject Cookbook
2007 Best First Book
2007 Best Int'l Cookbook

National Public Radio
Best 10 Cookbooks of 2009

Cooking Light Magazine
Oct. 2009 "Editors' Dozen" Top Picks
2010 Editors' Favorite Cookbooks

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Winter 2009 Gift Guide

Handy InfoAsian IngredientsAsian MarketsBasic Vietnamese KitchenBook Reviews + moreCooking Tips and ToolsEssentials: Fish SauceEssentials: NoodlesEssentials: Pho Noodle SoupEssentials: RiceEssentials: Rice PaperGardeningHow to Find Asian Markets & IngredientsMama SaysTet New Year CelebrationTravel« Enhanced Asian Dumplings eBook and New Book Info! |Main| Homemade Kinako Toasted Soy Flour »

March 25, 2011Instant Feel Good Foods: Deviled Eggs and Kewpie Mayonnaise

The past seven days have been filled with terrific things and uncomfortable inconveniences. Last Saturday, we had a freak storm in Santa Cruz that brought hail and nonstop rain, resulting in a 44-hour power outage in our neighborhood. Our home is on a crazy power grid and we annually lose power but we’d had never been without for more than a day. Things went dark at 10pm on Saturday.

We were not about to complain, especially given what people are enduring in places like Japan and Libya. We went to bed early and the next day, we donned our power outage outfits – multiple sweaters, polar tech, after-ski pants, and wool socks. I made warming foods on the stove (a gas stove proves its merits during an outage) that included soups, a pot roast, and boiled eggs.

My laptop was fully charged so I was able to draft Tuesday's announcement about the new Asian Dumplings enhanced ebook. To ensure that we could do email, we recharged the cell phone whenever we drove the car. Power was finally restored on Monday night around 6pm.

Then on Tuesday night, the wind and rain started up again. Our lights flickered and there were showers of sparks coming off the power lines across the street. I immediately backed up my book manuscript and plugged in all of our mobile devices.

Then I tried to do as much kitchen prep requiring electric appliances as I could. (I am writing the last recipe chapter for the Asian Tofu cookbook.) Rory called the power company and they came out to inspect at around 10pm, clipping a few tree branches that were part of the problem.

Our power was okay until yesterday, when not only did it go out twice but it only came back on at half-speed.  Nearby businesses closed for the afternoon.  Only half of our home had electricity and what electricity there was came and went in a phantom-like manner. In the midst of all that, the garbage disposal stopped working. I only realized that after dumping a bunch of tofu down the drain. It was not pretty.

I was on the brink of breaking down when I decided to take a time out. It was around 3pm and I stopped trying to be productive. Instead, I made one of my favorite childhood snacks: Deviled eggs.

It was a cinch as I had those boiled eggs in the fridge from the first outage. To make sure that there was plenty of crazy MSG flavor, I used Japanese Kewpie mayonnaise. Sweet pickle relish gave the yolks a nice tangy flavor. A sprinkling of ground chile pepper (ichimi togarashi) added color and zip.

The rain stopped for a while and the sky lightened up. I found a warmish spot in the house to sit at and eat my deviled eggs. I felt so much better.

Do you have an instant feel good food?

Related posts:

How to Cook and Eat Well During a Power Outage2011 Japan Disaster: Elizabeth Andoh’s Experience & RequestsMail Call: Western Ways with Asian Food Posted in Recipes: All, Recipes: Appetizer and Snack, Recipes: Vegetarian | Permalink

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I don't think I have any instant feel good food. Chocolate makes me feel good but I don't think that counts as food.

Next time just come over to my place. We get electricity even during hurricanes.

Posted by:Thuy |March 25, 2011 at 07:33 PM

i love this post...crazy how certain foods/flavors can transport us to a particular moment, emotion or place. my "instant feel good food" is pastina with butter. growing up with a full-blood italian mother, we'd always have any array of pasta on hand and whenever we (me or my sister) were under the weather she'd make a pot of those tiny buttered noodles lightly salted and everything would be better as i'd slide my spoon into my bowl filled with love. even now, at 40 years old, you can always find pastina in my cupboard!

thank you for sharing your deviled egg story...and i hope mother nature gives you a break soon.

Posted by:kristina nicholas |March 25, 2011 at 07:46 PM

Hail? That is pretty nuts. Love the combination of flavors here - hard boiled eggs are a comfort.

Posted by:Belinda @zomppa |March 25, 2011 at 08:15 PM

The heck with hail, I hereby hale your sense of patience and expertise to tell me how to boil water --- at least with respect to boiling eggs to make Deviled Eggs.

Yeah---believe it or not, I love D.E. but never learned how to make 'em (gave up after wasting a lot of eggs when I was young).

Will you please gimme a How To for Dummy Me? I'll be truly grateful, Andrea. Thanks!

Posted by:wayne (wotten1) wong |March 25, 2011 at 10:03 PM

I love your comment about crazy MSG flavor in Kewpie mayonnaise!!! I guess MSG is synonym to comfort! I know that using my "KUB OR de MAGGI" bouillon cubes, or Maggi seasoning sauce, it all about the MSG bliss. I will try Kewpie mayonnaise as soon as possible:)
Thank you!

Posted by:kunline |March 25, 2011 at 11:05 PM

How does Kewpie mayo taste? Is it like Best Food salad dressing? Looking for sub. for recipe.

Posted by:Judy |March 26, 2011 at 11:30 AM

Yesterday, we had torrential rain that made my husband say, "Let's start building the Ark!" Today, it's beautiful. Thank goodness.

Kewpie mayonnaise is a Japanese product that's basically whole egg mayo -- so like Best Foods/Hellman's but there's MSG in it. It's very good and when I was in Japan last year, it was the Kewpie in the sandwiches that made you want to keep eating them. There wasn't much else in there.

Posted by:Andrea Nguyen |March 27, 2011 at 02:12 PM

I never knew that's why Kewpie just plain tasted BETTER than regular mayo. Luckily I'm not afraid of a little msg.

Posted by:Lisa |March 28, 2011 at 02:04 PM

I have never tasted Kewpie Mayonaise but will look for it since I like develed eggs. You mentioned the loss of power and Japan's problem. Recently I took a trip to Thailand and was in the Narita airport during the earthquake. The airport terminal was built for just such earthquakes and stood up very well. Some problems with a few lights dangling and they shut off the air conditioning as they searched for gas leaks. We spent 30 hours waiting for the flights to resume but it was nothing compared to what the people in the suname area went through. Had a great time but am glad to be back.

Posted by:groundhog.judy |March 29, 2011 at 12:20 PM

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Butter Chicken

March 6th, 2011 | Indian Recipes | 10 Comments

Butter Chicken pictures (1 of 4)

I am sure you all remember Sukaina from Lick My Spoon who recently shared her naan recipe with us. Today, she is sharing yet another popular Indian recipe that we all love–butter chicken. Butter chicken is often served at Indian buffet restaurants and it’s easily my favorite Indian dish. I always ask for an extra serving of naan to sop up the creamy and rich sauce of butter chicken. Thanks to Lick My Spoon for her butter chicken recipe. Enjoy!

After my naan post recently, I thought it would only be fair to share a butter chicken recipe with you. After all, you can’t have one without the other. I can’t tell you the number of times I have gone to an Indian restaurant where my other half ordered a butter chicken and begged, ”Can you make this at home?’ I had no choice but to learn how to make this. So I turned to the best chef I know when it comes to Indian cooking- my mom. She has this wonderful knack of trying a meal at a restaurant and then replicating it at home. I slightly modified her recipe by adding a few more spices…

I once read somewhere that butter chicken was created when a hungry man walked into an Indian restaurant and they had no curry left. The chef decided to whip up a quick meal by throwing a tandoori chicken into a simple gravy of butter, tomatoes and a few spices. And thus, butter chicken was born. Also known as murgh makhani, this is curry not for the faint hearted- literally! Originating from Mughlai cuisine, it has lashings of butter (duh!) and cream to give it that dreamy, creamy texture. This is one dish where skimping on these two essential ingredients is not recommended. What I love about this recipe is that it doesn’t contain any food coloring to give it that gleaming red color.

Many people love eating Indian food at restaurants but are often intimidated about trying it at home. This recipe is super simple so you’ll have no excuse to order take out again. It is best served with steamed rice or butter naan.

Butter Chicken Recipe

Ingredients:

500 grams boneless chicken, cut into 1-inch cubes
juice of 1 lemon
salt and red chili powder, to taste
1 cup yogurt
2 tsp ginger
2 tsp garlic
1 1/2 tbs tandoori masala
3 tbs butter
2 cardamoms
1 cinnamon stick
2 cloves
4 medium ripe tomatoes, blended
1 tbs tomato paste
1 tsp garam masala
1 tbs honey
1 tbs dried fenugreek leaves
250 ml thick cream
extra butter or coriander to garnish

Method:

Marinate the chicken cubes in lemon juice, salt, chili powder, yogurt, ginger, garlic and tandoori powder for at least half an hour. Overnight is best. Preheat the oven to the highest grill setting. Place the chicken on a baking tray closest to the grill and grill for at least 10 minutes on each side or until cooked. Allow the chicken to cook until it JUST starts to char.

To prepare the gravy, heat and melt the butter. Add to it the the cardamoms, cinnamon sticks and cloves. Stir fry for a minute before adding the tomatoes and tomato paste, Let this simmer on low to medium heat, half covered, for about 15-20 minutes. You will notice the gravy thicken and the oil will form a film on top. If the gravy is too thick, you can add a small amount of water. Add the rest of the ingredients as well as the grilled chicken and simmer for another 15 minutes. Garnish with butter or coriander.

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How to cook perfect rice - in a frying pan

Rice is central to Japanese cuisine, so like most Japanese people, I have owned a rice cooker for as long as I can remember. Therefore, I usually cook rice in it. Sometimes I resort to another appliance, such as a pressure cooker for cooking brown rice. But truth be told I am not that good at making rice in a pot, mainly because I rarely have to do it. My rice cooker is always there for me. (My basic rice cooking method is here.)

But, recently I’ve been in several situations where I haven’t had a rice cooker, but really needed to make some rice, either for eating or to make demo bentos during my book tour. That’s when I decided to try making the rice in a frying pan. I’d seen this method on an NHK TV show called Necchuu Sutajiamu (Passion Stadium…yep I know, Japanese program show names can be a bit odd, especially in translation) back in October, and had been very intrigued at how easy it looked. I looked it up the program’s website (Japanese page) as well as a how-to on Cookpad (also Japanese), the Japanese mega-cooking site, and gave it a try.

And you know what…it’s so easy, and the results are really fantastic! I had perfectly cooked rice in less than 30 minute from measuring out to serving. Amazing!

I’ve tried commonly available methods of cooking rice before, such as adding rice to boiling water or vice versa, letting rice come to a boil in water in a pan and putting a lid on and letting it rest, and so on. None of those methods really worked to my satisfaction, especially for Japanese style rice — you know, the kind that goes with Japanese meals, that gets turned into sushi rice, and so on. I am extremely picky about how my rice turns out. So this method was quite a revelation for me, in terms of how easy and foolproof it is.

I did have to make some small adjustments to the basic method to accommodate the quirks of an electric stovetop (as I explained in my my fried rice in a frying pain article, electric ranges are common in Europe, not so in Japan or the U.S., and I’m constantly adjusting my methods accordingly). Otherwise though, it’s such a quick and easy method of making rice that I have been doing it this way quite often.

Note that the recipe/method here is for Japanese-style white rice. It should work with other white rice types too, but you may need to adjust the water amounts. Brown rice will need to be soaked in water for several hours if you’re going to try cooking it in a frying pan. (I’ve seen brown rice that has been pre-treated to cook in the same amount of time as white rice in Japan and some Japanese grocery stores elsewhere, so you could try looking for that.)

You need:

Japanese style medium-grain white rice (see Looking at different types of rice) A frying pan with a non-stick surface. I used a 28 cm / 11 inch diameter model. I recommend a similar size for making 1 to 2 cups of rice. A tight fitting lid for the frying pan. The lid does need to fit well so that excess steam gets trapped. A glass one is nice since it lets you see your rice’s progress without opening the lid.

Following the method described in my basic rice how-to, rinse the rice and drain it well. (Rinsing does make a difference in taste! You just need to do it a few times.) Put the drained rice plus 1.1 times the amount of water by volume in the frying pan. So, if you have 1 cup of rice, use 1 cup and a bit of water. For 2 cups of rice, use 2.2 cups (about 2 and 1/4) water. I don’t recommend doing more than 2 cups at a time in this size frying pan.

At this point, ideally you’ll let the rice soak a bit (about half an hour) for plumper grains, but you can skip the soaking if you’re in a big hurry.

Put the frying pan on the stovetop over high heat with the lid on. Bring to a boil - the water will bubble aggressively, like so.

Give the rice a good stir up from the bottom with a spoon or spatula.

Replace the lid tightly. Lower the heat immediately to low.

If you’re using an electric range, the heat will not respond instantly so you’ll have high heat for a couple of minutes. Take the frying pan off the hot burner for a couple of minutes until the burner has had a chance to cool down to the low level.

Let the rice cook on the low setting. You’ll see the water get absorbed rapidly and big, starchy bubbles on the surface. This only takes about 5 minutes so be sure you’re hovering near the pan with an eye on it! (I do other dinner-prep stuff while the rice is steaming.)

Once the bubbles have subsided, you’ll see the surface of the rice with nice, even steam holes all over it. As soon this happens, turn the heat up to high for a minute or two, then turn the heat off. If you’re using an electric range, take the pan off the hot burner and put it somewhere else (like on top of an unused burner).

Let the pan rest with the lid on for a minimum of 10 minutes. This is very important, otherwise you may end up with a little hard center in your rice grains. Al dente is good for pasta, not for rice! (At least, it’s not good for Japanese style rice. Other rices, I don’t think so either.)

And…here’s the cooked rice. Looks beautiful, doesn’t it?

Here’s the rice fluffed up. Perfectly cooked and ready to eat as-is or turn into onigiri, sushi rice, or whatever your heart desires.

And…there are no burned bits stuck to the pan - I love easy cleanup! (Note: if you use a regular frying pan withint a non-stick surface, you may get some stuck-on bits. Also, if the final burst of high heat is too long, the bottom of the rice may get a bit brown.)

I had some of this batch as tamago kake gohan, raw egg and soy sauce on hot rice - one of my favorite breakfasts or snacks. (Not recommended unless you have really fresh, safe eggs.)

Why does this work? According to that Passion Stadium broadcast it’s because in a frying pan, the rice is spread out thinly on a large cooking surface, so it cooks fast and evenly. (That’s why you shouldn’t cook more than 2 cups (US cup measure, where 1 cup is about 240ml) of rice at a time in a 10-12 inch (26-30 cm) frying pan. If you’re doing a large amount of rice, I’d recommend two frying pans going at once!

The tight fitting lid is very important, otherwise too much steam will escape during the cooking process. The one I use is a model that fits pans of various sizes, and is really handy.

I think this method is preferable to cooking rice in the oven. It’s just as foolproof, much faster (you can have the rice all cooked in the time it takes to heat up a big oven) and far more energy efficient. And I like it better than microwave-cooking rice too, because I find having open take the bowl out of the microwave and stirring, etc. to be too cumbersome. To avoid all that taking out and stirring you need a special microwave-rice-cooking bowl, and this is all about not having to get special equipment to cook rice.

My rice cooker is still my everyday rice cooking device, since you can’t beat its hands-off reliability and delayed-cooking-with-timer capability, not to mention the keep-warm feature. But if you don’t have a rice cooker, and don’t want to get one for whatever reason, or you’re in a hurry to get some rice cooked in the shortest amount of time, I hope you’ll give this a try!

(ETA: Yes, I do know what paella and risotto are. The texture of the rice in either dish is completely different from what I want Japanese style rice to turn out to be.)

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Talk Now! Learn Mongolian - Beginning Level

Talk Now! is designed for people who want to learn a language quickly. If you don't have time to become fluent, but need the basics in a hurry, Talk Now! is for you. Talk Now! uses games and quizzes as a basis for making the learning process fun and relaxing.

Features:

* Talk Now! is ideal for beginners.
* Comprehensive. Topics include: phrases, first words, food, shopping, countries, colors, telling time, numbers, and human body parts.
* Interactive. Immediate response to every choice you make. Addictive, fun, and easy!
* Compare your pronunciation. Compare yourself with native speakers using the record facility. Microphone required.
* Test your knowledge. Easy and hard quizzes, plus a challenging memory game.
* Monitor your progress. Keep a check on your total score and print your own awards.
* On-screen help. Help available at all times in over 75 languages.
* Print a picture dictionary. Print your own dictionary for a handy reference.

Learn to speak using your own native language!
Most language software sold in the U.S. requires you to first be proficient in English before you can learn another language. Not with EuroTalk software! All on-screen help and menus, words and phrases, quizzes and tests--even the printable dictionary can be changed to the language of your choice!

Amharic, Arabic, Bengali, Cantonese, Catalan, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Mandarin, Malay, Manx, Norwegian, Papiamento, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Romanian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, Tibetan, Turkish, Vietnamese, Welsh, Zulu, or any of over 80 different languages!

Price: $29.99

Click here to buy from Amazon

Longevity Peach Bun for Birthday

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I'm Writing a Cookbook!

 

When I first started this blog 3 and a half years ago, I had an inkling that maybe I would someday write a book.  I had just arrived in Beijing, after a couple years in New York attending culinary school, working in a pastry kitchen, and writing freelance food and travel articles. I had a lot of interests, mostly centered around food. But where would I start?

The road from blog to book always seemed to be a fuzzy path. There were a lot of blogs in the news whose writers found agents and publishers seemingly overnight, and others I enjoy reading whose writers segued into other media opportunities, which led to the books. But at that time I didn't know where to begin. So I just concentrated on eating.

Getting acquainted with Beijing was a really eye-opening experience, and I just started photographing and sampling street food and restaurant meals wherever I went. I experimented with making Sichuan dishes from favorite restaurants at home, and when I wanted a break from spicy food, started cooking Cantonese dishes that my parents had taught me. Pretty soon the comments started coming, and questions about how to use this spice or that vegetable. That was encouragement enough to continue, despite the long hours.

Soon I started teaching Chinese cooking at a nice little school located in one of Beijing's disappearing hutongs. And continued blogging, throughout my stay in Beijing, living in Shanghai, traveling through Southeast Asia, working in San Francisco, and finally after moving back to New York. At first I thought that having a blog primarily focused on Chinese food might be a little limiting, that I would run out of topics after a while. Luckily, so far that hasn't been the case.

What I want to continue writing about could fill a whole book, at least. So I decided last June that this would be the summer I devoted to drafting a really good book proposal, even if the work meant losing sleep and quality time with the sun. It would be a cookbook, I decided, but it also had to incorporate a ton of history and stories behind the food. Fortunately, after months of writing and rewriting, I was able to find an amazing agent and publisher as excited about the idea as I was.

So I'm happy to share with all of you my current big project, my first cookbook, for Random House/Ballantine that is due out Fall 2012, if all goes well. It's a collection of Chinese take-out favorites and classic Chinatown dishes to make in your own kitchen. And because I'm so obsessed with culinary culture, the book will also explore the history and influence of Chinese food in the US. The cookbook will be, in short, a celebration of the Chinese comfort food favorites that America has helped shape. 

So I want to ask all of you who have been such loyal visitors, both long-time readers and anyone who has just stumbled upon the site (I hope you'll stay for a while!): What are some of your favorite Chinese take-out dishes, ones that you want to learn and see in the cookbook?  Or what are some Chinese dishes you fondly remember eating as a kid, or dishes your parents or grandparents still reminisce about, from the times when Chinese food was considered "exotic"?

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Book Review: Kawaii Bento Boxes

There aren’t many bento cookbooks written in English, so of course I’m curious when a new one comes out. I’m a big fan of Japanese-language cookbooks for their glanceable step-by-step photos and intuitive graphic presentation of complex material. Kawaii Bento Boxes: Cute and Convenient Japanese Meals on the Go, newly published by Japan Publications Trading’s Boutique-Sha, really captures the essence of fun, kids-oriented Japanese bento cookbooks.

As I was leafing through it, though, something started to seem oddly familiar. A quick browse through my kitchen bookshelf revealed why I was experiencing deja vu: it’s a straight translation of the same publisher’s Japanese-language cookbook Ichinenju Yakudatsu Tsuen Obento: Daisukina Kondate ga Ippai: (“Children’s Bentos that are Helpful Year-round: Lots of Favorite Menus”), with identical photos, layout, and text.

Now, there are both good and bad aspects to a straight translation of a bento cookbook written for the Japanese market. It’s extremely well suited for bento enthusiasts or Japanophiles already familiar with Japanese food, but may miss the mark for others…

Like Hawaii’s Bento Box Cookbook (see my full review here), Kawaii Bento Boxes is aimed at parents of young children who want to add playfulness to packed lunches, with simple recipes for very Japanese bentos that can be prepared in 20 minutes or less. You can browse the inside of the book at Amazon, and view the full table of contents and sample pages. The US$18.95 book (currently $12.89 on Amazon) is 82 pages long and in soft-cover magazine-book (”mook”) format.

1. The Book Structure

Kawaii Bento Boxes opens with some brief but solid introductory material about bento basics, including an overview of bento gear and how to pack a bento (browsable in full on Amazon).

Most of the book consists of photos of cute sample lunches with short recipes and a time estimate of how long it will take to prepare the bento (usually 15-20 minutes, assuming you’ve got staples like cooked rice already made, fresh or frozen). Every other page has an abbreviated step-by-step tutorial with photos, like the section on how to make rolled pancakes below (very helpful). These lunches are further divided into types, such as rice, sushi, bread, pasta, warm-weather, cold-weather, favorites, and picnic bentos. Here’s the pancake page:

Throughout the book are a number of sections showing variations on a theme, that may inspire readers to think outside the box with their own creations. Here’s a page with differently decorated onigiri rice balls (see below) and a sample lunch.

Here’s the same page in the Japanese original, so you can see they’re identical.

And a few pages of food art accents made with eggs, sausages, fruits and vegetables.

Note the classic apple rabbits! (See my apple rabbit tutorial for detailed directions.)

At the end of the book is a visual, color-coded index of additional recipes, organized by the main color of the dish: brown/black, white, yellow, red, or green. This makes sense when you think of the five-color rule of thumb for bento composition. You know how a colorful meal is a healthy meal? Including a variety of different colored foods in a bento helps ensure a balance of nutrients, so it’s handy to have a glanceable index of recipes sorted by color. Staring into the fridge and can’t think of, say, a red/orange dish? Leaf through some cookbooks organized like this and you might get some quick ideas.

2. The Nitty Gritty

My main hesitation about recommending this book for everyone is the food itself and the lack of background information for those unfamiliar with the ins and outs of Japanese food. It includes unusual ingredients that may not appeal to the average American child, like gobo (burdock root), natto (fermented soy beans), ume (sour plum), and eel.

To get some perspective, I showed this book to a couple of mom friends (American and English) who pack lunches for their kindergarten-aged children. Their take was that they might use it for inspiration and general ideas for ways to pack bentos and what to include, but that it looks time-consuming so they’d probably apply their own food. The dishes seemed unusual to them and geared toward a Japanese audience (yakisoba sandwich, anyone?), and they didn’t always understand what some of the bento accessories like sauce containers were, mistaking them for actual food. Japanese readers wouldn’t necessarily need an explanation, but non-Japanese would definitely benefit from more background information or the inclusion of slightly different dishes that are more common here.

Overall, Kawaii Bento Boxes is quite professionally done, but with some omissions that may make it a little confusing to a Western audience looking to quickly prepare recipes with ingredients already in the kitchen. Look at it as inspiration, though, and you’ll come away with a lot of fresh new ideas for lunches you’d like to prepare using foods your family already enjoys.

If you’re already familiar with bento lunches and Japanese food, however, I think you’ll really enjoy this little gem. The Japanese version has been one of my favorites for a while now, so I’m pleased that it’s now accessible to English-readers.

FURTHER READING:

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