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Pork chops + soy sauce, sugar and a few other ingredients = delicious. Right? Well for this Asian brother that’s a no brainer. But what if the equation was tilapia + peanut butter and a bunch of other stuff? Would the sum of those parts still be delicious? Well, click on the photos below for the answer as well as videos and recipes for both dishes. Here’s a hint: fuck yeah!

Nature's Candy

peanut stew? yes, please.

Alright, as promised, here’s the post about what we did after we watched the pig breakdown at Kokkari.  Though this post is a week later than the previous one, in reality the events about which you will soon read and see an amazing video occurred a  few days after our tutorial when the lesson and the excitement was still fresh.  You see, we got our very own little pig to play with!  And by “play with”  I mean, butcher and cook delicious pig dishes out of.  Hmm, that sounds a little messed up doesn’t it? Well anyway, it was fun and judging by the grunts and the way our friends’ eyes rolled back in ecstasy as they feasted on the meal we prepared, it was indeed delicious.  Click on the photo below for the full story.

Porchetta!

Alright, so a couple weeks ago I was back in the Bay Area for yet another food inspired visit.  And as usual, I ate myself silly.  But as it turns out, I didn’t just get food for my belly.  I also got some food for my brain.   More specifically, me, Matt and Minh got schooled on how to break down a whole pig from the chefs at Kokkari, an awesome Greek restaurant in SF.  It was a real treat to watch professionals in action and see where the different cuts we all see in grocery stores come from on the actual animal. And it was a lesson we would put to good use a few days later.  But that’s for another post.  For now, click on the picture below for the full story and video.

This little piggy went to the kitchen…

Yes, yet another long lag since my last post.  But fear not.  Though I’ve neglected this blog, I haven’t neglected dear food or my enjoyment of it.  Please enjoy this first installment in a three part (because really, aren’t the best stories  told in trilogies?) account of a few of the more notable meals and food inspired gatherings of the latter part of 2009.  Click on the snouts below for the full story of a delicious weekend in Pennsylvania.

oink?

… although I’m actually a fan of eating ribs at all times of the year.  I just needed to give this post a title.

Wassup y’all?!  C Ting is back.   Sorry for the long hiatus.  I was  working quite hard (yes believe it) on a project that frankly took a lot of time and mental energy so I just didn’t have much to give back to you-food. Sorry, you-food and all you three readers of the site.  It’s been too long.  But you can thank the unemployment gods for kicking in and making sure I have ample time to to get back to basics: cooking, eating and thinking about food. You-food.net is back in effect!

Alright  the weekend before last I went to the Big Apple BBQ Festival with the intention of gorging myself on delicious BBQ from pitmasters around the country where bbq reigns supreme. Instead, I was met with ridiculous, meandering lines of people waiting for God knows how long for what were probably delicious but undoubtedly skimpy servings of bbq meat. Perhaps it was worth it and the meat was truly delicious.  I will never know because I didn’t have the patience to wait in line as the rain came pouring down.  But all the smells of sizzling, smoked meat and seeing people nosh on pulled pork, brisquet, sausages and ribs did put me in the mood to bbq some of my own ribs.  So I hight-tailed it to Chinatown, fortified myself with some tasty dumplings (I hadn’t eaten – remember, I was expecting to be filled my stomach with bbq) and went to the Chinese butchers hop where I bought myself a nice two pound rack of pork spare ribs. A couple days later, I went up to the rooftop deck of our apt building and cooked me up some ribs! And then I ate ‘em.  Click on the photo below for the full story and recipe.

eating is believing

Happy Western Calendar New Year and Happy Lunar New Year!  It’s good to be back.  And now that I’m again part of the 7.8% of the nation’s unemployed, I’ll have more time to do more you-food stuff. Lucky you! Alright, so as usual, I wanted to get this post out earlier closer to the new year, but owing to work (don’t have to worry about that now) and that it takes me way to much time by blog standards to write these these things, I present it to you now.

In honor of 2009, I present to you now, Tamales!
(A Chinese New Year Post is in the works)

Click on the image below for the whole enchilada (get it?):

pork tamales are awesome!

Alright, so a couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to spend several days in Tokyo. Though it was a rather brief time and though I speak a sum total of six words of Japanese, I feel qualified to  offer a profound anthropological treatise on Japanese culture.  Actually, I think I’m just going to resort to stereotypes and generalities when I say this: Japanese folks seem to be good at everything.  I don’t know why. They just are – even with things that weren’t indigenous to their culture.  Think about it: rock gardens, bonsai trees, tea ceremonies,  samurai, samurai movies, anime, electronics, cars, all things cute, tv game shows, really expensive jeans, crazy ass fashions, even reggae dance hall. So, think about this level of perfectionism and attention to detail as it pertains to food, something that Japanese folk – no, ALL Asian people are obsessed with (generally speaking, of course) – and you’ll understand my excitement at having the chance to eat Japanese food in Tokyo.  I was not dissappointed.  In fact, I was kind of blown away.  Click on the bento box below for the full story.

Gong Hay Fat Choi! Alright, I know it’s already been a month and a half since Chinese New Year so this post is particularly late. But it takes time to edit all my crappy footage and whittle it down to a comprehensible video that shows the whole (or at least wholish) process of preparing a certain dish. And in this case, the footage was crappier than usual, because I was all ADD (or ADHD if you prefer) trying to follow the prep of four different dishes while also chowing down and hanging out with Bay Area friends I see maybe a few times a year. Alright, enough whining. I just want to give props to Cheryl, Cam, Maia and Dylan for hosting another kick ass (that’s Chinese for awesome) Chinese New Year party in their newly renovated house and amazing kitchen. Also, thanks are in order to Cheryl, Matt, Chiara and Dave for being patient enough to cook and let me put my annoying camera in their face. Alright so check out some of the delicious stuff we cooked that night via these fried chicken wings: