Check out this website I stumbled upon. Isn’t it clever to have your supply of Asian food products delivered to you?! Pardon my excitement but this is the first time I learned about its existence. I sometimes find it quite troublesome to schedule a trip to the Asian food store after I do my grocery-shopping, especially if you don’t live anywhere near one. And when I do find the time, I splurge like there’s no tomorrow! From Chippy to frozen Bangus to Ma-ling! Anything for a taste of home! Sigh..

This is the real Heaven on a Stick.
Thick sliced of fresh Renkon (Lotus root).  Washed and white.  About half an inch thick.  Crumbed lightly and then deep fried relatively slowly on a butterfly skewer.  Eaten straight from the kitchen and dipped in Ponzu sauce, they have to be my favourite thing in the world at the moment.  Try beating that.

If you love Asian stirfry, but investing in a high-powered stove with 35K BTU is out of the question, this might be one answer for you. StirCrazy is a restaurant chain with several locations in the Midwest, plus New York and Florida. Their first restaurant opened in September ‘06 with more popping up since then to total the current 9, and with 4 more opening in the coming fall and spring. StirCrazy is a concept similar to BD’s Mongo, except StirCrazy uses the familiar wok. Having a dish cooked right in front of you, over roaring …read more

I have been denying this for the longest time. But Amazon is the behemoth that no one can avoid. I always search for the best prices on everything and sometimes, sometimes, other folks beat Amazon. But they’ve become this one-stop shop. It’s like Walmart (only nicer, and with a better selection) come to my front door. Heck, if I didn’t have Jungle Jim’s 10 minutes from me, this would be the next best thing. Come winter they might seem more attractive than they do now. You can find things like rice (even sticky …read more

Oklahoma City has a large Asian — particularly Vietnamese — population, being one of the cities chosen for refugee relocation when Saigon fell in the ’70’s. Through the years more Vietnamese and other Asian migrants moved to the area and today there are approximately 30,000 Asian-Americans here. Asian businesses are thriving and more keep popping up. If you’re looking to dine out, there is quite a number of Asian restaurants around, but if you’re looking to cook, Super Cao Nguyen is the place to shop for ethnic ingredients.

Parking is rather limited considering the number of people shopping …read more

I got an e-mail yesterday asking me what “tea oil” is and if I would recommend it. I’ve never used tea oil (though I’ve seen it advertised for skin care), so I don’t know how good it is for cooking; Deh-ta Hsiung does say it’s one of the most common cooking oils in China, in his book The Chinese Kitchen. What’s most interesting though is something I read in

The book is a compilation of articles that appeared in the publication Petits Propos Culinaires. There is a piece by James Bauman, in which he talks about the
“great …read more

In Atlanta, Tom Catherall offers sushi alongside his strip steak bestseller.
From Jack Hayes in Nation’s Restaurant News:
The restaurant holds 1,000 guests on Friday and Saturday nights and is on pace to finish its first year with $9 million, the highest gross of all of Catherall’s Atlanta concepts, which also include Goldfish and Twist near Perimeter Mall; Noche in the Virginia-Highland neighborhood; Shout, also in Midtown.
Far from complicated, Strip’s menu features eight salads, five “starters,” four raw-bar selections, nine sandwiches and burgers, nine sides, five desserts and 16 “specials,” including the top-selling 10-ounce and 16-ounce New York strip steaks, priced …read more

Where to shop for Asian food when you’re in Cincinnati. There are other choices, but if you want to go to just one store that has most, if not all, of the Asian ingredients you need, come here.

I’m providing the address, phone and hours here. But if you forget and have to look them up, make sure you look for “Cincinnati Asia Market”, not “Asian”. Their website uses the word “Asian”, but they are registered in the yellow pages as “Asia”. If you look for Asian Market you’ll get to the same street (Reading Road) but …read more

Could you e-mail or post a comment please? I’m trying to compile a list of Aji Ichiban stores (especially in the US), but other locations are okay too — and I only have the New York and Chicago locations. They’re supposed to have at least 12 stores in the US but the Aji Ichiban USA website isn’t working.
Edit:
Candyblog’s review here.