City2Surf 2012 - an excuse to fill up on carbs

Yes! It's happening alright; this Sunday, I'll be participating in City2Surf, one of the world's largest running events. It also happens to be on my list of things to do: enter a sporting event/race and finish it.  Mind you, I'll actually be walking with a group of folks from the studio where I work.  The streets here in Sydney will be jam packed as 80,000 people make their way from the city, in a 14km (8.7 miles) trek, to the infamous Bondi Beach.

In doing so, I decided to use this opportunity to raise funds for a not-for-profit (non-profit) organisation called Sustainable Table.  It uses "food as an entree to explore sustainability issues," and increases our "awareness of how today's industralised food system affects our environment."  By working together, we can help to overcome challenges, such as this one.

A BIG AND FLUFFY THANK YOU to those who have supported me for this cause! Especially you anonymous people I can't write a personal thank you to.  I will be thinking of you guys when I cross the finish line (which will probably be done in-style by dancing some Bachata in some silly 80s outfits).  So let's hope blue skies and the sun will emerge in time for Sunday.

And for those who would still like to donate, you can still do so by clicking here.  Cheers!

2012 Sydney edition of the Good Food and Wine Show

Last year, I went to the Good Food and Wine Show as a spectator.  This year, I was on the other side of the table working 2 days of the 3-day event (one of those days was reserved to see LADY GAGA!!) as a volunteer for the Chef's Table, which featured celebrity chefs Adrian Richardson, Anna Gare, and Miguel Maestre from the Lifestyle Food Channel.

During lunch, I did have a few moments to wander around the various stalls and stock up on some products as well as sampling some of the things that were being prepared.  

Most of the hours were spent in the kitchen and on the floor. Each of the chefs prepared 3 dishes - most had 2 savory and 1 sweet and the other chef had all savory plates.  Let's get down to the photos I snapped while I was in the kitchen, enjoy!

Avocado Carpaccio with Seared Scallops

Leek Tarte Tatin
(upside-down tart where the filling is caramelised first before baking)

Pork Sausage with a Soft, Herby, Cheesy Polenta

Choc Date Nut Torte (center, amazing!!!), Leek Tarte Tatin (upper right), Beetroot Cured Trout

Looking at these pictures is surely stimulating my appetite but it could also be that I'm posting this pre-lunch. If you're interested in getting the recipe from any of the above, let me know and I'll send them your way.  

Memories from Malaysia - Part 2

What I love about food is that it brings people together.  Whether it's with family, close ties, friends, or even strangers, eating is vital to our well-being.  The memories I have back at home, a lot of the time revolve around food, like making a special dessert with my mom that she's especially known for.  I recently called her the other day and she had told me she made some (oh the pain of not being able to eat it!).

Family is so important and the traditions that are brought along are equally so.  In my visit to my friend's hometown of Sitiawan, in the province of Perak, Malaysia, he brought me to this street corner shop.  It was run down but that didn't stop the shop from producing a wonderfully executed biscuit snack called kompiang.

This was already the 4th generation of family members who ran the shop.  Though there are 3-4 different locations in town, this one was known to be the best ones with an average waiting time of 20-30 minutes.  

The history behind it is that it was the food soldiers took with them in the 1500's because of its trans-portability.  The hole in the center allowed the soldiers to place it on a string and carry it around with them easily.

The man pictured above is placing each kompiang biscuit in the clay oven.  Meanwhile, I tried to sneak one because they smelled so good!  But alas, I waited and it was all worth it to hear the story and eat the kompiang biscuits.

Memories from Malaysia - Part 1

The good thing about waiting awhile in between posts is that I get these spouts of energy and then really get into it!  So let's say I've taken an extended coffee break:

White Coffee in Ipoh, Malyasia.
Coffee beans are roasted in margarine, then brewed and served with sweetened condensed milk.  

Being here in Australia has exposed me to different cultures than I'm normally used to, like the Malaysian one.  So when my friend Alex told me he was going to be in Malaysia the same time I was in Thailand and recommended that I go visit the country, then I couldn't pass up the opportunity.  After all, between Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur is a short 2-hour flight, the equivalent of driving in traffic from one end of Los Angeles to the other.

Welcome to Kuala Lumpur

Thanks to the wonderful world of CouchSurfing, I've certainly made a lot of great friends who enjoy a lot of the same hobbies from traveling, to eating, to really getting down and exploring all the different cultures the world has to offer.  Alex, who I originally met in LA and who also lives there, together with some of his friends along the way, showed me the local side of Malaysia from Kuala Lumpur, to Ipoh, to his hometown of Sitiawan.  Here's just some of my visual and edible experiences I had:

2 different types of the fruit, rambutan

Savory or sweet snacks wrapped in banana leaves;
chicken heads - hmm..wonder what they're going to make out of that..

Grilled fish and laksa - there's too much to eat here!

Sweet potatoes and salted, steamed chicken

Everyone needs a quick sugar fix for some Cendol - jelly noodles made with rice flour, food coloring from  pandan leaves, palm sugar, coconut milk, red beans and shaved ice

Another visit to the land of smiles: this is Thailand 2011 - 2012

Where do I even begin? The last post I did was nearly 3 months ago (eek!) and lots has happened! 

The month of December and January brought lots of much needed travel.  As my work and holiday visa was nearly up and I needed to make a "visa run," I opted to go to Thailand once again.  With some family and friends there, along with more desire for culinary adventures, the decision was easy.  I have to say that with each visit, I'm learning how to be a better Thai.  And by that, I'm eating more dishes that, when I was a kid, I found not suited for my American taste buds but fortunately, times are changing!

So enough with the talking and on with the pictures! 

Jet-setting: one of my favorite hobbies

I even found a "food stylist" magazine while waiting at a salon! 

Everywhere you look, the streets are lined with food.

Follow me on my trails through the country...

A resemblance between the art and the papaya salads.

The unpretentiousness of street food

Grilling bananas!

Disposable cone-shaped water cups and watching a sunset in BKK!

Make a wish! Write your dreams! 

Loving the yellow tabletop!

A nice lunch with my mum, auntie, and brother.  

Up in Chiang Mai.  On the right, boiling eggs in the hot springs.

The many flavors (sauces) of Thailand.

Strike-a-pose!

A gorgeous sunset.

Overall, a really good trip!

Guest blogger Kha Hoang in Vietnam - Snakes on a plate

In this post, I welcome my first guest blogger, Kha Hoang, whom I met back 5 years ago studying abroad in Spain.  Here, he travels from San Diego, California all the way to Hanoi, Vietnam and decides to get down and dirty, with the snakes that is.  It's been a year since my bug eating adventures so this was the perfect post:

If you are an adventurous eater and want to invoke the spirit of Andrew Zimmern, one destination that should be considered is Le Mat Village.  Le Mat village is called the Snake Village and is about 30 minutes outside of Hanoi’s Old Quarter in Vietnam.  Here you can find many restaurants that specialize in the preparation of snake for your eating pleasure.

When we sat down, a guy came out with a live snake and proceeded to slice it open right next to our table within a minute of us getting there.

The snake handler first slits it and then drains some blood into a pitcher of rice wine and then after that is done, he cuts out the heart while it is still beating and places it in a plate to be put into a shot later on.

The snake then is ready to go back into the kitchen.  Some places cut open the gall bladder and put snake bile into the rice wine as well, unfortunately (maybe fortunately) our restaurant did not do this.  Something to take note of, we were told that eating snake increases guys’ “sexy power.”

This was how our snake was prepared:

You could be fooled, it looks like a strawberry drink

Rice wine infused with snake blood – the rice wine is relatively strong, probably at least 60 proof.  You don’t really taste the blood in the rice wine.  However, if you let the blood rice wine sit at your table for a bit you can see the blood start to coagulate, which led me to want to take them quicker so as not to get too sketched out about doing them.

Snake’s beating heart inside on­e of the shots – I wanted to do this, but I allowed my older brother to take it.  He said you don’t taste the heart when it is in the shot, but you feel it beating as it goes down.

From L to R: fried snake skin, grilled snake, deep fried snake spring rolls, snake meat in la lot 

Fried snake skin – nothing special really, it was fried but it was still a little chewy

Grilled snake – I wasn’t a big fan of this.  All of the dishes had bones in them (a lot of bones) and eating this was a chore.  Snake definitely has a distinct taste, most similar thing I have eaten previously was frog.  The texture is closer to chicken than beef if you haven’t tried frog before.

Deep fried snake spring rolls – These were pretty tasty, but small for a deep fried spring roll.  The snake was pretty mild tasting here.

Snake meat with lemon grass and chili wrapped in la lot (betel leaf) – This was probably my favorite dish.  If you have ever been to a Vietnamese restaurant and ordered Bo 7 Mon (7 courses of beef) then you would recognize this dish.  This dish, the snake spring rolls, and fried snake skin were did not have bones in them.

Pan fried bones with rice crackers – the thought of this one was not terribly appealing.  To eat this you spoon some fried bones onto a rice cracker then put on some nuoc mam cham (dipping sauce that you often get when you eat spring rolls).

Rice porridge with snake – This was just like any other rice porridge but with small bits of snake

A couple tips if you are to go to Le Mat:

• Negotiate the price before you sit down to eat
• Ask them if you can watch them cook the snake (to make sure it is the one they originally brought out).
• If it looks good, eat it (and even if it doesn’t, try it)

Lastly, thanks Linda for letting me be a guest blogger on My Hungry Monster.

Post by Kha Hoang.  Photos by Kha Hoang and Benjamin White.

A year abroad and a year without bananas

Excuse the cheese for a bit, but it's time for me to take a look back.

It's been a little over a year since I've left home, the city of Angels, and embarked on this journey called life.  My love for traveling and exploring more of this world has certainly been an eye-opening experience and that's what I love about it: I never stop learning.  It's through the problems and challenges we are faced with that each time that we are able to grow from them.

As Thanksgiving is a time to sit back, reflect, and give thanks, I do have to admit - I'm quite the fortunate person to have so many wonderful people in my life and for that, I am grateful.  When people ask, "what do you miss most?" I simply respond with my 3 F's: "Family, Friends, and Food."  The ongoing support that I receive is what holds me together.  Though I may be miles kilometres apart from some, there's no doubt in my mind that those relationships can still flourish.  Sometimes, it's as easy as picking up from where you last left off.

After being here in Sydney, Australia for quite some time, it was only within the recent months that I've felt at "home."  Home for me will always be LA but for right now, it's here.

Little could I predict the circumstances that were going to happen.  A year abroad over here nearly meant giving up something that was a part of my life everyday: BANANAS.  Yes, yes, (pause) I said bananas.

No frills, no glamour shots.  Just simple.

Okay, maybe not an entire year but still.  Eating and getting my daily potassium was not only tasty but also beneficial for my health.  When a major cyclone (Cyclone Yasi) hit northern Queensland, Australia, the crops were affected for a good amount of time.  People gave up bananas because they got too expensive averaging about $15AUD/kg (or about $7USD/lb).  But now the prices have finally returned to normal and I've eaten more than just a bunch.  Linda the Monkey has returned.

All things aside, I'm sitting in a park finishing this blog post on a rather beautiful and sunny day.  The cool breeze is blowing against my skin and I can't say how appreciative I am of my friends and family so thank you for everything, really.  Hopefully everyone is well rested and ready for the week!

"Happiness is not a station you arrive at, but a manner of traveling." - Margaret B. Runbeck