Just Drive.

Some things can wait; your patience can save lives.
Focus on your driving, don’t text and drive.

What I Ate for Dinner

Like anyone who has been keeping up with my blog would know that I obtain my weekly meals from my personal chef, Dad. Each week, different dishes are packaged into a bunch of Rubbermaid containers. The dishes I obtain each week are filled with diverse flavors. For example, this week, I received a very delicious combo, the flavors so varied that it can be the epitome of Cantonese cuisine itself! Well, not to that extent, but fairly close to it. Within merely a few hours of time, my dad was able to prepare six dishes!

1.   The first dish he made me was steamed broccoli. I am not really sure why I always hear that kids hate eating broccoli, but I, on the other hand, have loved consuming broccoli ever since I was young. It is even one of my favorite vegetables.

This dish is cooked fairly easily: simply wash the vegetables, drain it, and put into a pot of boiling water to steam until the broccoli becomes dark green. My dad used to add salt to steamed vegetables, but under my influence, he began to leave the steamed vegetables in their natural flavor. I believe that steamed vegetables taste delicious even without the salt.

2.   The second dish my dad cooked was a bean sprout, black fungus (or literally “cloud ear”), carrots, and celery stir fry. The light green, yellow, brown, and orange from the dish was very appetizing. This dish is probably not too hard to cook either. First slice all the ingredients into thin pieces. Place everything into a wok and stir fry, adding salt as needed.

3.   The third dish was soy sauce beef tongue. I don’t really know how common other cultures eat beef tongues, but Cantonese people eat it a lot! This is one of my favorite dishes. The flavors and textures are just perfect. Don’t ask me how to cook this. The difficulty of this dish is beyond my comprehension. 

4.   The fourth dish was beef brisket and potatoes. I really enjoyed this one too, except the meat could be a little tenderer. According to Dad, the meat was on sale. Like the previous dish, I would not know where to begin cooking this. 

5.   The fifth dish was steamed minced pork and salted fish. As many may know, salted fish has been studied and known to increase the risk of nasal cancer. Yet, salted fish is still a big part of Cantonese culture because the fish is delicious and embodies many stories and history. This dish, according to my dad, is one of the simplest ways to bring out the flavor of salted fish. 

6.   The final dish, which is my absolute favorite this week, is pan fried salmon. I usually like to eat salmon raw because I do not like the dried and rough texture of salmon once it is cooked. But to my surprise, this dish was executed perfectly (as expected from a chef with over 30 years of experience). The fish was cooked yet not overcooked. The meat was lean yet had a little bit of fat around the edges. It was very delicious. To share this joy with you, here’s the simple recipe:

Ingredients:

Salmon

Salt

Sugar

Garlic Salt

(other seasonings as preferred)

  

Process:

1.       Rinse the fish and wipe it dry.

2.       Marinate the fish with the above seasonings.

3.       Put the fish into pan to fry.

4.       Voila! 

 

Hope your fish turned out as scrumptious as the one I ate for dinner! 

The Cure for Homesickness

Unless I am in college, I am usually at home. My home is approximately twenty miles away from school, a good distance that is not too far and not too close. Despite these twenty short miles away, homesickness, nevertheless, always finds its way into my feelings, especially during times of stress, sadness—and hunger.

People say any chocolate and sweets are great at curing such feelings, but I disagree. It is kind of like saying, “Which reminds you more of your mom—a store bought Abercrombie and Fitch cardigan or the one-size-too-large sweater knit by your personal designer (your mom)?” Excuse me for using such bad analogy, but of course the latter! What is a better way to cheer a person up than to see something that reminds you of the people you love? This works the same way in food as well. Eating the foods made by the people you love is the best way to cure homesickness! So that’s how I overcome my homesickness—I eat my dad’s cooking.

It is all thanks to my laziness and minimal talent in cooking that I have the honor of eating my dad’s cooking every day. Like a large portion of college students today, I bring back my dad’s cooking from home, store it in the fridge, and microwave every time I want to eat it. In addition to the delicious taste, the different dishes that my dad cooks remind me of the stories and origins behind each dish. Some remind me of times in elementary school when I bring rice and various Chinese dishes for lunch while others are reminiscent of foods we ate in Hong Kong. This particular dish has an enlightening origin:

Beef Short Ribs

 














Ingredients

Beef Short Ribs
Garlic
Scallion
Soy sauce


Directions

1. Chop up the garlic and scallion and mix it in the soy sauce.

2. Start stir frying the short ribs until they start turning color.

3. Add in the mixture and fry until ribs turn golden brown 


This wonderful recipe came to us during a Christmas gathering at my aunt’s house. The one dish that stood out to our whole family that night was the beef short ribs. The spiciness from the garlic and the hint of sweetness and saltiness from the soy sauce made the taste heavenly. Because the dish was so great, we asked my aunt for the recipe. Funny thing was my aunt did not create this. The recipe actually came from my cousin, who obtained it from the chef at his middle school!

Every since then, we would cook this dish from time to time. And each time, my dad alters the recipe little by little to better suit our family’s taste buds. And each time I eat this, I am reminded of the origins of this recipe and the times when we sat around our long rectangular table in our small dining room fighting for the parts with more meat and sauce. Whenever these stories enter my mind, my homesickness slowly goes away and gives me more courage to venture through the rest of the week. As you can see, home-cooked food is a great cure for homesickness!

The Mouth Never Stops Eating

When I still lived in Hong Kong, I always looked forward to every minute of the day because food awaited and crossed every path I took. I remembered that before school every morning, our family would take a one hour walk in the mountains before we headed off to breakfast. Sometimes we would eat in the Cantonese fast food chain restaurant called Café de Coral, or go have congee and fried bread sticks called youtiao from the street market or grab some sticky rice and soymilk from street vendors, or order dim sum from a restaurant nearby.

After school, I was usually confronted with more food-related decisions that I needed to make. In Hong Kong, school ends earlier. We usually got off of school by lunchtime. I could still recall smelling the roasted duck and barbeque pork on my way back from school. Sometimes I would grab a lunchbox from these street vendors. The lunchbox included a choice of the roasted goods, rice, and a drink, usually soda or milk tea. This famous lunchbox is packaged in the classic white Styrofoam box and the yellow and orange floral paper cup.  

In a few hours, around 3 in the afternoon or so, it is the time for high tea, a tradition Cantonese people inherited from the English when Hong Kong was still under British rule. High tea is the meal between lunch and dinner time where people could obtain appetizer-sized lunch food items and various other snack munchies. Prices are usually lower and more specials occur during high tea so sometimes people will wait till this time to get lunch in order to save some money. Almost every restaurant has high tea. Typical high tea foods include fried chicken wings, French toast, Pineapple bun with butter sandwiched between (called this not because it is pineapple-flavored, but because the bun looks like a pineapple), Ramen with different toppings, different flavors of shaved ice, and many more. But the distinction of high tea foods is less apparent. In the past, there were only a few high tea foods, but now, with more cultural influences, everything is becoming less traditional and more foods are eaten during this time.

For dinner, my mom usually went down to the street markets and shopped for ingredients for that night’s dinner. Shopping for food in Hong Kong is very different from shopping for food in America. In America, our family always had to buy in bulk since it is not as convenient to drive to the supermarket each time we needed something. In Hong Kong, on the other hand, supermarkets and markets are usually right below the apartments or down the street, making shopping much more convenient. Ingredients sold are also fresh and not frozen.

In addition to eating at home, we sometimes would walk to restaurants nearby, which catered from Chinese foods to a wide variety of foods from a wide variety of cultures. Some are very traditional while many are more fusion cuisines. Then after dinner, sometimes people go out to places especially for desserts. In Hong Kong, there are places to eat desserts called sweet soup.

If you think that’s all the meals eaten on a typical day, then think again! The last meal of the day… or the early meal in the morning is the midnight snack meal, which can basically be everything--only that it is eaten at midnight or later!

As you can see, a typical day in Hong Kong consists of non-stop eating!

Cantonese Style Pork Feet in Ginger Vinegar

Whenever I talk about food, the conversation always leads back to my idol/hero of the culinary world. He is a food critic (well, also a columnist, author, television host, movie producer, and restaurant owner) who has a lot of international experience. His family is originally from Guangdong, a very fitting birthplace for a food critic! Like a Chinese saying advices, one should “be born in Suzhou, live in Hangzhou, eat in Guangzhou, die in Liuzhou” since Suzhou is a beautiful place, said to be the birthplace of many beauties, Hangzhou has beautiful landscape, a comfortable environment for living, Guangzhou is renowned for its cuisine, and Liuzhou has great wood, good for building coffins. But Chua Lam, my idol, is actually born in Singapore. He initially wanted study art in France, but went to Japan instead. After this, he moved to Hong Kong and has stayed there since. 

Chua Lam has written many books and articles on food and various other topics. He also hosted many travel shows where he introduced cuisines from many different countries! What I am most impressed with is his free-spirited character, sense of humor, and admirable ideas about food (and the signature orange bag he always carries with him). Although society is always promoting healthier methods of cooking and eating, Chua Lam is persistent about using lard in cooking and drinking alcohol. He believes that ingredients should be cooked in simple and traditional ways. I also agree with his philosophy and that’s why I am not a very big fan of fusion cuisine. 

Speaking of traditional cuisine, I have a special recipe I want to introduce today. It is called 豬腳薑 in Chinese, translated as Cantonese Style Pork Feet in Ginger Vinegar. It is a dish that Cantonese people eat after a baby has been born. Usually the baby’s family is the one who cooks this dish. They would usually cook many portions and distribute it to their relatives and friends to celebrate the baby’s birth and to heal the baby’s mother’s weakened state after giving birth. Although this is the main purpose for cooking this dish, this dish can also be eaten at dim sum or cooked whenever someone has a craving for it. And that is exactly what our family had this weekend. 

Cantonese Style Pork Feet in Ginger Vinegar

Ingredients
(Portions can be adjusted depending how many servings you want to make)
Ginger (peeled and pounded once)
Eggs
Pork Feet
Sweet Vinegar

Directions

1. After peeling the ginger and pounding it once, wait for the ginger to dry then use a saucer to sauté it and add it into a pot of sweet vinegar to soak the ginger. Boil the mixture for one hour. 
2. Pour boiled water over the pork feet to get rid of the meat smell and put it in the sweet vinegar mix and boil the mixture for another 2 hours. Let the mixture sit for several days.   
3. Put in eggs and boil the mixture for another hour. Then it is ready for serving. 

After cooking it for several days, the pork feet and eggs should have entirely soaked in the favor from the sweet vinegar and ginger, giving the final product a mix of sweet and sour taste and a hint of spiciness from the ginger. Although this is a recipe that takes over several days to cook, the taste is definitely worth the amount of time spent!

My Special Person on the W.W.W.

As I was following my routine of cruising on the web, I decided to research food recipes on de.li.cious, just to see what is out there in the internet world. For those of you who have never heard of de.li.cious, this is a social bookmarking site that allows anyone to store their bookmarks on the web, so anyone can conveniently bring their bookmarks anywhere! People can tag these bookmarks and anyone with the right search words can look for these sites. Very resourceful indeed.

If you think about it, looking for the right tagger on these bookmarking sites is like searching for a soul mate. The perfect tagger would be someone who has similar ways of thinking and practices and the same interests. But it’s really hard nowadays to find someone like that. Nobody really likes “romantic strolls down the beach under a moonlit night,” let alone someone who wants to break out from their “food-eating” bubble and explore bizarre, unconventional recipes.

Yet, when you are intensely looking for something, you can never find it, but the moment you stopped looking, or even cared to think about it, the thing you are looking for appears. That is exactly what happened. With no intentions of finding that special person on the virtual planet, I searched for tags like “Cantonese cuisine” and “Canto recipes,” hoping to get lucky and run into an informative site of unordinary good Cantonese foods. After clicking on a link to a site, which brings me to a list of the people who tag the site, and clicking on another link that brings me to sites they have tagged, then searching through the taggers that tagged a particular site on that person’s list of sites, I found Mimmie29. She/he is my social bookmarking soul mate.

Mimmie29 is the walking library I have been looking for. She/he is an adventure-loving individual who loves to @try different foods and a person with well-rounded interests like games, technology, animal, and beauty as evident in her/his diverse tag cloud. 

You know the three little bears story of having porridge that’s just right? Well, the amount of bookmarks Mimmie29 has is just right: not too much to overcrowd the uniqueness of each bookmark and not too little to appear impassive about the topics. With a total of 1251 bookmarks, 117 are bookmarked on the topic of Chinese cuisine!

There really is no bookmarking pattern for Mimmie29. Although she/he bookmarks fairly frequently, some months she bookmarks less and sometimes more. But for sure, the M-ster marks a lot of pages on food, especially Chinese recipes. Mimmie29 even bookmarks videos on cooking!

I am especially impressed with the passion she puts into her bookmarks. Although she/he could have bookmarked only once for some sites, Mimmie29 likes to bookmark individual recipes she likes from the same sites. Not something I really do, but it tells me a lot about the particular recipes she/he likes…which so far, are also foods that I love!

As for tagging these resourceful pages, Mimmie29 does not clutter each bookmark with many tags: only a few to let you get an idea of what the bookmark's about. I must add that she/he took the time to put tags on each of her/his bookmark! Because no comments are given to the bookmarks, it does not give other bookmark-explorers biased opinions. On top of that, M-ster has great organization. She/he tends to group websites with broader tags, only putting more specific tags if the website, for example, links to a particular recipe like Three Cups Chicken.

From Mimmie29’s list of bookmarks, I found some interesting sites that I can use for my research on Cantonese food and culture. These sites are great because they are always a little more than just websites and blogs on Chinese cuisine, there is always a little twist to them. Like The Asian Grandmother’s Cookbook, which has a bigger mission than just spreading recipes:

a compilation of family and homecooking recipes from across the Asian smorgasbord, the idea being that grandmothers are the closest link we have to our cultures and traditions. It’ll also contain anecdotes and stories about family, food traditions, grandmothers, mothers and aunts. I envision it as a way to preserve traditional recipes for future generations.

Appetite for China is another interesting website on Chinese good eats. The author of this blog comes from a diverse background, bringing fusion flavors into her recipes.

I can never be bored with the list of websites on Mimmie29’s bookmarks. They provide me with helpful links and in addition, bring surprises to sites that intrigue my interest. Mimmie29 is indeed my soul mate, someone I intend to spend the rest of my life with...bookmarking!

Trifecta

Introduction to Food Adventures (1)
Ever since 5 o’clock this afternoon, I have been trying to think of a way to introduce this blog. Since then, 5 hours have passed and my mind is still a blank. I really want to tell you about my culture, my love for eating, my culture’s love for eating, my culture’s love for uncommon foods, but I cannot formulate the words to do so.

Writer’s block has always been a problem for me. I have many ideas, but it takes me a really long time to cohesively connect all my thoughts together. Maybe that is the reason I prefer blogging to writing essays. To me, blogs are like journals. They are chapters of personal stories and thoughts that do not necessary need a thesis, topic sentence, or be the typical five paragraph essay. They are like freewriting and brainstorming, something that I love to do. I actually keep a personal blog that I share with my friends. This blog allows me to express my mind without worrying about how childish, overly excited, or depressed I may sound.

I guess I can start by telling you about my family. My parents are also big fans of food and different kinds of food. I am pretty sure that is where I got my love of food from. We are constantly in search of delicious dishes. Whenever we find a good recipe, my dad (the cook of our family) will try to recreate it in our kitchen.

Did you know that my dad learn how to cook by himself? He always tells us that he learned to cook when he started working and living by himself. His cooking skills developed from over thirty years of trial and error, observing other good cooks in our family, and looking up recipes. But unfortunately, ever since my dad learned to cook, my mom stopped cooking and our weights have been steadily increasing.

Being a daughter of a good cook, I always feel that I should inherit his heirloom of recipes one day. I think I have a little talent in cooking, but the foods I make always turn into an alteration of the recipes. Thus, I immerse my passion for food in eating and watching shows like Ace of Cakes, Iron Chef (though I personally prefer the Japanese version over the American one), Emeril Live (Gotta love Emeril and his BAM!), Food Network Challenge, Man v. Food, Cake Boss, and Top Chef. That is why I feel very fortunate to come from a Cantonese family because we eat many weird and unusual foods in our culture like field mice, crickets, and scorpions (well, that’s not on our daily menu). As Cantonese people put it, “as long as its back faces the sky then you can eat it”.

Using my dad’s cooking, I want to introduce interesting recipes that may be strange in some cultures, but delicious in our family and tradition. I want to tell you more about Cantonese cuisine and the different cooking methods. Hopefully my recipes will persuade you to try something new next time you are thinking of eating. Welcome to Food Adventures!

A Source of Inspiration and Perspiration (2)
Because this is my first food blog (and being the studious worker and meticulous architecture student that I am), I have been researching precedents and journeying through different food blogs on the internet for examples and potential models. The web of connections eventually led me to Kitchenscraps.

I was immediately captivated by the colorful and adorable illustrations, drawn with a “sketchy” hand that illustrates so much character and personality. Each post is like reading a story, narratives filled with humor, history, culture, and facts. It is academic in content yet presented in a style that is not filled with technical terms or lengthy vocab words, which is perfect for everyone to read!

The recipes (one per post) are preceded by comical introductions. And then the storyteller moves to a more serious tone, sprinkling with amusing words here and there when presenting the directions. Although fairly random, the posts are linked by a common theme of delicious recipes and fun illustrations.

As I was reading his blog, I thought I might share this particular post with you. I had to look up a lot of words (like "Babushka" and "borscht") from this post because this is a soup recipe combined with ingredients from many cultures I am unfamiliar with.

Here's another entertaining one. Don't you like how he personifies the asparagus? That is something this blogger likes to do often. I think this makes his posts seem more like a children's story. The blogger also likes to include facts. It is enlightening to learn facts about the food you are eating. Let me tell you a fact:

Only some people produce the sulfurous smelling urine after consuming asparagus but, to complicate things, not every one who produces the odour is able to smell it. Resulting in 4 categories

Those who produce the odour but cannot smell it

Those who do not produce the odour and cannot smell it 

Those who produce the odour and can smell it 

Those who do not produce the odour but can smell it in other peoples’ urine

Although he posts several times a month, unfortunately, he hasn't updated his blog in awhile; must be busy with his book. I forgot to tell you more about the author of Kitchenscraps! His name is Pierre Lamielle, an award-winning illustrator in the process of publishing (or has published) his own cook book. Mister or Monsieur Lamielle completed a graphic design and illustration program from a college in Vancouver and began his career as a designer for the Vancouver Sun. Monsieur Lamielle later moved to Calgary, where he wrote food articles for the Calgary Herald’s Swerve magazine. His column has been described by some as

offbeat writing [with] irreverent illustrations-and great recipes.

After some ups and downs, Monsieur Lamielle furthered his education in the culinary world by enrolling in the French Culinary Institute in The Big Apple. And now, Monsieur Lamielle has probably published his first cookbook! Congratulations! 

I really enjoy the fun attitude Mr. Lamielle brings to his blog posts. I am going to strive for the same approach; hopefully I can make you laugh too. Similar to this blog, I will be introducing less known recipes, all from my Cantonese culture. Don’t worry, I won’t bore you with the orange chicken, fried rice, or chow mein recipes. In addition, I will occasionally be slipping in Chinese proverbs and traditional stories so you can learn about other aspects of Cantonese culture too. Please look forward to the next episode of Food Adventures!  

Side Trip (3) 

As I was planning to write in my blog this weekend, I was lured into the grasp of the World Wide Web. No matter how much I struggled to break free from the millions and millions of temptations on the web, I was nevertheless stuck online. Anyways, as I was scramming for a way out, I came across another interesting and entertaining food blog that I thought I might share with you all.

David Lebovitz brings to his blog, Living the Sweet Life in Paris, years of expertise in the culinary (especially in the pastry) world. He is the author of many best-selling books that provide guides to desserts and tell his food-related traveling experiences in Paris.

I really enjoy the easygoing tone he carries in all of his posts. The variety of post topics, blogging from interesting highlights from his travels to introducing wonderful shops and restaurants in Paris and cooking up delicious desserts, is full of surprises. Just like this cookie for example.

Although Mr. Lebovitz reveals his personality through his personal traveling experiences and thoughts, he still maintains a more commercial and business side by dedicating sections of the blog to promote his books and events. It is interesting that in these sections, Mr. Lebovitz is referred to in third person.

As I was reading his blog, I noticed that Mr. Lebovitz comes off as humorous without appearing like he intentionally pretended to be funny in order to get laughs from the audience in his writing. Unlike other bloggers who fill their posts with adjectives and different figures of speech for comical effect, Mr. Lebovitz straightforwardly—in a non-straightforward kind of way—retells his adventures in Paris, subtly causing a few chuckles (it worked for me at least!). Mr. Lebovitz also has a tendency to write long sentences (starting with dependent clauses too) and interrupt his sentences with many side thoughts. He also likes to digress into other stories and somehow manages to connect back with the main topic of the post. I guess his style of loose paragraph structure and lengthy sentences illustrate more of his thought process and his personality.

It is fairly impressive how he can slowly move the audience away from the topic of the post without the audience even being aware of it. Like in the Stop the Stuffing! post, Mr. Lebovitz starts off by telling his face à face experience with an affiche advocating a stop to le gavage to make foie gras (by the way, my French improved remarkably after reading this post and his blog in general). Eventually, the topic of French ads pleading people not to eat certain foods gradually digresses into the discussion of who’s more adventurous in eating: French or Americans? Then Mr. Lebovitz reveals unexpected information about horse meat:

Only because it's part of the French culinary heritage and vocabulary, and since I'm trying to fit in, I once thought about trying horse meat, just to give it a go. That is, until one of my commenters with horses in North America (where the horse meat in France is imported from), warned me not to, saying the meat was pumped full of chemicals and other icky stuff because the animals weren't being bred for consumption. Not that I needed much prodding, but I decided that I didn't really need to try horse meat after all. But it was close there for a while, folks...whew!

There’s a lot that can be said about Mr. Lebovitz’s style and passion just by looking at this short passage about horse meat. His use of long sentences not only illustrate his spontaneous nature, but also his excitement about sharing this information with everyone that he tries to squeeze as much information as he possibly can with a sentence instead of easily splitting the sentence into two. His insertions of side thoughts in the form of clauses further support the spontaneous nature in his writing. The italicized “really” also reveal his thought process, how he tries to convince himself out of eating horse meat. As for his word choice, the use of “icky” and the onomatopoeia, “whew,” surely brings a child-like side to him, don’t you think?

Enough about horse meat, how about Salted Butter Caramels? In this particular post, Mr. Lebovitz introduces a problem and a solution:

I had a wee bit of a dilemma recently. In my refrigerator was a half-jar of crème fraîche, that I had to use up before I left for a recent vacation on the beach. I'd been thinking about making caramels with it, but I also knew that I would be slipping on a swimsuit within a few weeks. And being alone in my apartment with an open jar of ultra-rich crème fraîche was probably not a good idea.

So what did I do? I hemmed and hawed about it, until I channeled my mother, who would have flipped out if I tossed away the rest of the crème fraîche. (Or anything, for that matter.)

So I made caramels.

Like most of his posts, the use of adjectives and other figures of speech is nearly zero. His use of longer sentences (rarely any short choppy ones) is also prevalent here. I think this post illustrates a little of the humor I was talking about. He likes to tell his audience a lot of random things (like wearing a swimsuit soon), but seems like he doesn’t really care if he gets a response from the audience. He also likes to, as I mentioned before, straightforwardly tell you something without directly telling you. For example, instead of saying that he’ll get fat from making and eating caramels, he implies that by illustrating a visual image of him in a swimsuit at the beach. His thought process is also clear here: he thinks of making caramels, decides not too because it will cause him to gain weight, decides to make them again because of what his mother might say about wasted food. A child-like image is also painted through his word choice (the words “wee,” “hemmed,” and “hawed”) of him contemplating about what to do until he thinks about his mother, who indirectly helps him make his decision.

I think the tone he carries throughout his blog is very fitting for a person blogging about traveling and food. Leisure stories should be told with a relaxed tone filled with excitement. I hope you found him as interesting and entertaining as I did!

Side Trip

As I was planning to write in my blog this weekend, I was lured into the grasp of the World Wide Web. No matter how much I struggled to break free from the millions and millions of temptations on the web, I was nevertheless stuck online. Anyways, as I was scramming for a way out, I came across another interesting and entertaining food blog that I thought I might share with you all.

David Lebovitz brings to his blog, Living the Sweet Life in Paris, years of expertise in the culinary (especially in the pastry) world. He is the author of many best-selling books that provide guides to desserts and tell his food-related traveling experiences in Paris.

I really enjoy the easygoing tone he carries in all of his posts. The variety of post topics, blogging from interesting highlights from his travel to introducing wonderful shops and restaurants in Paris and cooking up delicious desserts, is full of surprises. Just like this cookie for example.

Although Mr. Lebovitz reveals his personality through his personal traveling experiences and thoughts, he still maintains a more commercial and business side by dedicating sections of the blog to promote his books and events. It is interesting that in these sections, Mr. Lebovitz is referred to in third person.

As I was reading his blog, I noticed that Mr. Lebovitz comes off as humorous without appearing like he intentionally pretended to be funny in order to get laughs from the audience in his writing. Unlike other bloggers who fill their posts with adjectives and different figures of speech to sound funny, Mr. Lebovitz straightforwardly—in a non-straightforward kind of way—retells his adventures in Paris, subtly causing a few chuckles (it worked for me at least!). Mr. Lebovitz also has a tendency to write long sentences (starting with dependent clauses too) and interrupt his sentences with side thoughts. He also likes to digress into other stories and somehow manages to connect back with the main topic of the post. I guess his style of loose paragraph structure and lengthy sentences illustrate more of his thought process and his personality.

It is fairly impressive how he can slowly move the audience away from the topic of the post without the audience even being aware of it. Like in the Stop the Stuffing! post, Mr. Lebovitz starts off by telling his face à face experience with a affiche advocating a stop to le gavage to make foie gras (by the way, my French improved remarkably after reading this post and his blog in general). Eventually, the topic of French ads pleading people not to eat certain foods gradually digresses into the discussion of who’s more adventurous in eating: French or Americans? Then Mr. Lebovitz reveals unexpected information about horse meat:

Only because it's part of the French culinary heritage and vocabulary, and since I'm trying to fit in, I once thought about trying horse meat, just to give it a go. That is, until one of my commenters with horses in North America (where the horse meat in France is imported from), warned me not to, saying the meat was pumped full of chemicals and other icky stuff because the animals weren't being bred for consumption. Not that I needed much prodding, but I decided that I didn't really need to try horse meat after all. But it was close there for a while, folks...whew!

There’s a lot that can be said about Mr. Lebovitz’s style and passion just by looking at this short passage about horse meat. His use of long sentences not only illustrate his spontaneous nature, but also his excitement about sharing this information with everyone that he tries to squeeze as much information as he possibly can with a sentence instead of easily splitting the sentence into two. His insertions of side thoughts in the form of clauses further support the spontaneous nature in his writing. The italicized “really” also reveal his thought process, how he tries to convince himself out of eating horse meat. As for his word choice, the use of “icky” and the onomatopoeia, “whew,” surely brings a child-like side to him, don’t you think?

Enough about horse meat, how about Salted Butter Caramels? In this particular post, Mr. Lebovitz introduces a problem and a solution:

I had a wee bit of a dilemma recently. In my refrigerator was a half-jar of crème fraîche, that I had to use up before I left for a recent vacation on the beach. I'd been thinking about making caramels with it, but I also knew that I would be slipping on a swimsuit within a few weeks. And being alone in my apartment with an open jar of ultra-rich crème fraîche was probably not a good idea.

So what did I do? I hemmed and hawed about it, until I channeled my mother, who would have flipped out if I tossed away the rest of the crème fraîche. (Or anything, for that matter.)

So I made caramels.

Like most of his posts, the use of adjectives and other figures of speech is nearly zero. His use of longer sentences (rarely any short choppy ones) is also prevalent here. I think this posts illustrate a little of the humor I was talking about. He likes to tell his audience a lot of random things (like wearing a swimsuit soon), but seems like he doesn’t really care if he gets a response from the audience. He also likes to, as I mentioned before, straightforwardly tell you something without directly telling you. For example, instead of saying that he’ll get fat from making and eating caramels, he implies that by illustrating a visual image of him in a swimsuit at the beach. His thought process is also clear here: he thinks of making caramels, decides not too because it will cause him to gain weight, decides to make them again because of what his mother might say about wasted food. A child-like image is also painted through his word choice (the words “wee,” “hemmed,” and “hawed”) of him contemplating about what to do until he thinks about his mother, who indirectly helps him make his decision.

I think the tone he carries throughout his blog is very fitting for a person blogging about traveling and food. Leisure stories should be told with a relaxed tone filled with excitement. Anyways, I hope you found him as interesting and entertaining as I did.

A Source of Inspiration and Perspiration

Because this is my first food blog (and being the studious worker and meticulous architecture student that I am), I have been researching precedents and journeying through different food blogs on the internet for examples and potential models. The web of connections eventually led me to Kitchenscraps. 

I was immediately captivated by the colorful and adorable illustrations, drawn with a “sketchy” hand that illustrates so much character and personality. Each post is like reading a story, narratives filled with humor, history, culture, and facts. His style of writing is not filled with technical terms or lengthy vocab words, which is perfect for everyone to read! 

The recipes (one per post) are preceded by comical introductions. And then the storyteller moves to a more serious tone, sprinkling with amusing words here and there when presenting the directions. Although fairly random, the posts are linked by a common theme of delicious recipes and fun illustrations.

As I was reading his blog, I thought I might share this particular post with you. I had to look up a lot of words (like "Babushka" and "borscht") from this post because this is a soup recipe combined with ingredients from many cultures I am unfamiliar with. I think I am probably one those Americans screaming for sour cream too.

Here's another entertaining one. Don't you like how he personifies the asparagus? That is something this blogger likes to do often. I think this makes his posts seem more like a children's story. The blogger also likes to include facts. It is enlightening to learn facts about the food you are eating. Let me tell you a fact:

Only some people produce the sulfurous smelling urine after consuming asparagus but, to complicate things, not every one who produces the odour is able to smell it.

Resulting in 4 categories

Those who produce the odour but cannot smell it

Those who do not produce the odour and cannot smell it

Those who produce the odour and can smell it

Those who do not produce the odour but can smell it in other peoples’ urine

Although he posts several times a month, unfortunately, he hasn't updated his blog in awhile; must be busy with his book. I forgot to tell you more about the author of Kitchenscraps! His name is Pierre Lamielle, an award-winning illustrator in the process of publishing (or has published) his own cook book. Mister or Monsieur Lamielle completed a graphic design and illustration program from a college in Vancouver and began his career as a designer for the Vancouver Sun. Monsieur Lamielle later moved to Calgary, where he wrote food articles for the Calgary Herald’s Swerve magazine. His column has been described by some as

offbeat writing [with] irreverent illustrations-and great recipes.

After some ups and downs, Monsieur Lamielle furthered his education in the culinary world by enrolling in the French Culinary Institute in The Big Apple. And now, Monsieur Lamielle has probably published his first cookbook! Congratulations! 

I really enjoy the fun attitude Mr. Lamielle brings to his blog posts. I am going to strive for the same approach; hopefully I can make you laugh too. Similar to this blog, I will be introducing less known recipes, all from my Cantonese culture. Don’t worry, I won’t bore you with the orange chicken, fried rice, or chow mein recipes. In addition, I will occasionally be slipping in Chinese proverbs and traditional stories so you can learn about other aspects of Cantonese culture too. Please look forward to the next episode of Food Adventures!

Introduction to Food Adventures

Ever since 5 o’clock this afternoon, I have been trying to think of a way to introduce my blog. Since then, 5 hours have passed and my mind is still a blank. Even now I would write a sentence, write one more than delete both and then write another sentence again, delete again, and stare at the computer screen. I really want to tell you about my culture, my love for eating, my culture’s love for eating, my culture’s love for uncommon foods, but I cannot formulate the words to do so.

Writer’s block has always been my problem. I have many ideas, but it takes me a really long time to cohesively connect all these thoughts together. May be that is the reason I prefer blogging to writing essays. To me, blogs are like journals. They are chapters of personal stories and thoughts that do not necessary need a thesis, a topic sentence, or be the typical five paragraph essays. They are like freewriting and brainstorming, something that I love to do. I actually keep a personal blog that I share with my friends. This blog allows me to express my mind without worrying about how childish, overly excited, or depressed I may sound.

I guess I can start by telling you about my family. My parents are also big fans of food and different kinds of food. I am pretty sure that is where I got my love of food from. We are constantly in search of delicious dishes. Whenever we find a good recipe, my dad (the cook of our family) will try to recreate it in our kitchen.

Did you know that my dad learn how to cook by himself? He always tells us that he learned to cook when he started working and living by himself. His cooking skills developed from over thirty years of trial and error, observing other good cooks in our family, and looking up recipes. But unfortunately, ever since my dad learned to cook, my mom stopped cooking and our weights have been steadily increasing.

Being a daughter of a good cook, I always feel that I should inherit his heirloom of recipes one day. I think I have a little talent in cooking, but the foods I make always turn into an alteration of the recipes. Thus, I immerse my passion for food in watching shows from the Food Network and eating. That is why I feel very fortunate to come from a Cantonese family because we eat many weird and unusual foods in our culture. As Cantonese people put it, “as long as its back faces the sky then you can eat it”.

Using my dad’s cooking, I want to introduce interesting recipes that may be strange in some cultures, but delicious in our family and tradition. I want to tell you more about Cantonese cuisine and the different cooking methods. Hopefully my recipes will persuade you to try something new next time you are thinking of eating. Welcome to Food Adventures!