I love Asian food

Ahh, I am still at work and I am hungry. I've been hungry all night. When I get home, I cook "mari special" :-). It is an easy, quick, low calorie, and hot Korean food. To be honest with you, it is almost the same as this, but I pick different vegetables each time. What I want to eat most would be what I need to eat most. This is my cooking policy. How can this be low in calories? The reason is the main ingredients are non-calorie devil's tonge, it is konjack. it is very delicious.

Not only Korean, I like many ethnic Asian foods: Thai food, Vietnamese, and of course Chinese.
Vietnam pho (recipe) is good when I get a cold. Mild soup and rice noodles gently warm my body. I use this at home. And I love Goi cuon (recipe). It is a little bit hard to roll up at home. And my favorite soup is this Tom Yam Kung (recipe).. I hardly cook Thai food at home, so I go to a restaurant when I want it. She talks about nice place, so I will try there next! And in China, it is hard to pick up one. But tonight! I want to eat Nikuman!(this is the image in my head now) (This is the image in my head now.) This Edosei Nikuman is famous in Yokohama China town, when I go there, I always get some. They have a very big one, but of course I get a normal one.

Ah in the end, I have found a food blog with nice photos, her husband is in politics. I don't know who it is. By the way, she cooks nice food everyday.

Comments

[Asian]

this makes me miss asian food very much… living a long way and only get to go home once in a (long) while, i have to make do with what i can find here but they are just not the same…

[Huang]

Food is also one of my fave topics.

I live in Singapore and we have a great variety of different cuisines.

Knorr has tomyam soup cubes that taste quite authentic. I like to use them for Thai style shabu-shabu. Seafood goes especially well with tomyam. And autumn/winter is the right weather to have steamboat/hotpot/shabu-shabu.

I once ate homemade pho and saw that the stock was cooked with oxtail, ginger, big onions, cinnamon, star anise and dried wolfberries (kukoshi; http://alternativehealing.org./qi_zi.htm). Chicken bones can be used in lieu of oxtail for a less oily healthy version.

To make sure the pho smells right, you need mint leaves and the long type of basil (it reminds me of aquarium grass !). Here in Singapore, I can get that basil only at Thai specialty shops.

Oh, I'm drooling now !!!

[Cabbie]

Mari have you tried Thai Koku Ramen in Waseda dori (I think they opened another branch near Takananobaba station quite some time ago) . They make a mean Tom yum noodle soup.

[robert]

thank you my friend! I have been working on several processes to transfer 2D images to 3D media. I have been doing alot of ceramics lately and I want to expand my clay vocabulary if you will. I have considered encaustic as an alternative, but decided I wanted to play with stencil work and a glaze/slip/stain layering concept. The things is I need a stencil I could affix to the surface underneath a glaze layer to keep the transfered image from softening too much. this may not be possible, but the idea occurred to me while reading your post that it might be a path to solution. I thank you again for the info. It might be some time since I'll get to try this since the quarter is almost up. :)

[Charles]

What, you want information on the Toshaban? It really is a most fascinating story, I just sent Mari this link the other day, which describes the process.

[robert]

wow charles! I did not know that. I wonder if there is some way you could direct me to this process! I am really quite interested. I'll do research and see if I can find a supply between online and my friends overseas. Mari-san might have more info as well. This bit has been a nifty side note to an already delicious topic! <(^.^)>

[Mariko]

Oishisoo!!!! Now I am hungry. Can you post the recipe for the Mari Special in English, please?

[Charles]

It's funny you mention konyaku. It is a valuable artists material. Sheets of dried konnyaku were used as stencils in the Toshaban, the first mimeograph machine. It can also be used in some old antique photographic processes. I use one of those processes in my own photo printing, but I use plain gelatin because I can't find suitable konyaku here in the US. I wonder where I could find plain white konyaku powder?

[robert]

Ah, now you've touched upon one of my passions! I love food, cooking it, creating art with it. ( no I don't paint with it) I like to make up my own dishes, but I dont use recipes usually unless it is something I dont have the concept for (for me that means alot of asian cooking) I am still learning the various spices/flavors for the asian style..but I already have a pretty good range from Thai to Vietnamese and Chinese. Thanks to my friends who let me cook with them sometimes. Japanese style is fun too, but I confess for me it is hardest because there is alot of method built into it. I am not so structured in my approach to food. I like to deal with textures, colors and subtleties of spice interaction. I like to finish each dish with some small flair. like adding little drips of cream to asparagus soup and then running a toothpick/skewer through the drips to make leaf, or heart shapes. adding a few thin strips of green onion to dress, or perhaps a few leaves of basil. I think sometimes what makes the food taste best is the presentation. If it entices my eyes then I am usually interested in finding out what it tastes like. I love Asian food, and you mentioned Pho!!! I love to go to this place in Seattle called Pho' Ba'c. They have the best Pho' Ta'i..and huge portions (I can only eat the normal size), the best for rainy Seattle winters. MMM this post made me hugry Mari. I truly enjoy your food posts!! may I have a toothpick now? ^_^