konapun: cutest fun cooking kit from Japan!

My sister sent me a video of what the new toy food in Japan is like. Is astonishing. The cooking toys are called Konapun which allows you to cook with your miniature items. Yes actually cook! Just watch. I am still amazed by it.







You probably feel more like a chemist than a cook with these toys. But they look awful fun, and whatever is cooked up is just too cute. I want!

bleeding heart

A scary bloody heart cake by Lily Vanilli. Too bad I missed this one for Valentines.

"WISH" i am currently snacking on...HK street roasted chestnut

When I was still in Hong Kong, I will walk the streets and smell out the roasted chestnut street vendor. It is my favorite street food in the winter; hugging the warm brown bag of roasted chestnut with a wonderful smell following you. I miss it. There are no street vendors here, what come close is just packaged cooked chestnut that are void of any warm toastiness. I did eat at least a pound of chestnut when I was there.

some food and game fun 4

Just look at all those cakes and sweets on the screen shot, and tell me if the game is not socially irresponsible for the health of all the children played it. The Bubble Bobble is one of my sister's and brother's favorite game, and it got some really catchy music.

toasty ants!

From ThinkGeek, "The world's largest ant - you know, to eat! A delicacy from the Colombian Amazon."

Seoul: korean BBQ

Can't leave Korea with out trying their barbecue! It was so tasty and the beef was tender and the smell of it all was just wonderful.

Seoul: Noryangjin fish market

Finally I got to try life octopus! Quite fun to eat, I like the texture and with sesame oil, it was pretty good.

Seoul: bibimbap

The rush of flavors from this mixture of vegetables and beef, rice and spices in the hot stone pot was sensational. This Korean dish is called bibimbap. I devoured it in minutes, and wanted second. It was so hot and spicy, and savory sweet; just thinking of it makes my mouth watery. I want to taste it again.

Back to Philly

Now, back from my trip to Hong Kong and Seoul. Back to the daily grind, no more goofing off and simply just enjoying life and be carefree! no more vacation. Terribly miss Hong Kong and Seoul. They were such lively cities, stores and places open late, crowded streets, great food, cafes where u can go at midnight for coffee and play board games. I miss them. I miss all the wonderful food, and the energy of a buzzing city. I will soon post about Seoul.

Hong Kong: desserts

Desserts spots in Hong Kong are quite popular where tiny places serve only desserts, really good desserts. With my cousins, we went to this well known spot near time square. We ordered black sesame sweet dumpling in herbal dates sweet tea, dumpling in sweet almond soup and steamed egg pudding. I loved the sweet warm dumpling filled with the tasty black sesame paste. Also the egg pudding was so perfectly soft and smooth, and warm and light when you eat it, just heavenly.

Lunar New Year's breakfast

Food eaten during Chinese new year always have meaning of luck and goodness associate with them. At home, on new year's morning, as a family tradition, the younger generation will serve tea to the most respected elder of family. We sat down for a wonderful breakfast with sweet soup of lotus seeds with a boiled egg. We also had pan fried savory taro cake and daikon cake, and sweet water chestnut cake and glutinous cake seared with egg. My favorite are the water chestnut cake, slightly sweet with a wonderful texture, and the lotus egg sweet soup.

Lunar New Year's Eve dinner: Chicken

Another fresh new year is hear, let's stuff our bellies with wonderful food and have a good sleep before living another year! The biggest event on Chinese New Year's Eve was the dinner with family. The meal was comprised of many delicious specialty food for the occasion. The dinner had soup, fish, vegetarian dish with 12+ ingredients, a chicken, and other tasty oily dishes. Chicken was one of the star dish (is expensive in HK). This chicken along with liver, gizzard and a fatty heart was steamed and was consider big and fat. It's served with ginger and spring onion sauce. Perhaps, in America we are used to seeing huge, boneless and skinless chicken breast, however those are nowhere to be seen in the wet market here in Hong Kong. The chicken was picked before the kill, then was feathered in the morning; we cooked it later the same evening. It's chicken with real chicken flavor, and tasty bones you can suck on.

perfect for winter: clay pot rice

Is cold and breezy in Hong Kong (not as much as in Philly) and all I want is a hot fluffy bowl of clay pot rice. So along with my cousins, we went to the place on top of a wet market where people are loud and rude, and smoke friendly. However, their clay pot rice was just what I need. I ordered the pot with Chinese sausages. It took around 35 to 45 min. for the pots to come, take time to cook, then when they arrived the server lifted the lids and poured some soysauce in and covered them. We let them sit while the sauce and juice all went into the rice for another 15 min. or so. And the taste was so perfectly warm and delicious. All I need was the rice; I didn't care much about the sausages, the rice was golden.