Getting Acquainted with Tibetan Cuisine
When I began researching Tibetan food, I imagined that the recipes would all be simple and hearty. And that's exactly what I found. Tibetan food appears to be significantly limited compared to that of neighboring countries such as India and China. Tibet does not seem to enjoy the same abundance of naturally occurring edible flora and fauna, and therefore, the range of flavors and methods of preparation are less varied than those I have found in other Asian cuisines.

With the prevalence of Tibetan Buddhism as the country's main religion, vegetarian food is quite common, using ingredients such as tofu, potatoes, grains and leafy greens. However, the Tibetan diet also includes meats and dairy products, especially those produced by yaks, which are native to the mountainous terrain. These ox-like creatures are raised for both their meat and their milk, which also makes a pungent cheese.

Steamed dumplings filled with savory meats and vegetables are an everyday staple. Rich meat stews made with potatoes and a kind of rustic, doughy pasta are served to warm the cold winter nights. And spicy curries, similar to those of India, are commonly featured at the Tibetan table. Meals are also typically accompanied by simple flatbreads.

12:06 AM PST Permalink |

Dinner & a Movie for the Month of March

Welcome to Dinner & a Movie for the Month of March. This month, I am excited to be featuring the cuisine of Cambodia, and not one but two excellent films: The Killing Fields, and Swimming to Cambodia.

Having spent the past two week on vacation, and the past two days writing film reviews for Cinequest 15, I am a little behind with wrapping up my Road Home Dinner & a Movie. So...without further ado, here are the links to all the Recipes and Photos, as well as my film review of The Road Home.
06:34 PM PST Permalink |

In Search of Tibetan Recipes
As expected, not one of my cookbooks contains a single Tibetan recipe. But when I went online in search of information on Tibetan food and recipes, even without a Sherpa guide, I was pleasantly surprised at the bounty of choices that a simple keyword search yielded. There are at least a half-dozen websites that feature a repertoire of classic Tibetan dishes. So, I cut and pasted all the ones that looked interesting into a single recipe file. Some were duplicates, but among the choices, there was enough variety to come up with a hearty, four-course menu.
12:10 AM PST Permalink |

My Tibetan Cooking Experience
The very idea of preparing a Tibetan meal feels so exotic and exciting that I can't begin to describe it. When I think of Tibet, of course the Himalayas are the first image that springs to mind. And picturing that lofty terrain, I can only imagine the hardships that must be necessary to sustain human life. What grows at that altitude? And how would one manage to lay in an adequate larder of food supplies for the long, harsh winters?

Needless to say, my knowledge of Tibetan food is practically nil. The closest I have come is perusing a menu posted outside Annapurna, a Tibetan restaurant Rene and I happened upon a few months ago in Santa Rosa, California, a town about an hour northwest of Napa. We had just come from a visit to the Charles Schulz Museum, where we enjoyed the collection of memorabilia from the Peanuts cartoon strip. We were on our way to a nearby sushi bar (where else?) when we discovered Annapurna, and although I was most intrigued and curious to learn about Tibetan food, I already had my palate set for sushi. After all, it is my favorite food. Given the choice between sushi and any other kind of food on the planet, I will choose sushi every time. So, alas, I didn't get to try Tibetan food that evening, but something tells me I'm about to learn everything I could possibly want to know about Tibetan cuisine... and more.

12:28 PM PST Permalink |

Happy New Year! and Welcome to ThingsAsian Dinner & a Movie for January 2005!
The film I have chosen for this chilly winter season is Jean-Jacques Annaud's 'Seven Years in Tibet', and a hearty menu of traditional Tibetan dishes to go with.

Based on a true story, the 1997 film stars Brad Pitt as Heinrich Harrer, an Austrian mountain climber who escapes from a World War II POW camp and flees to Tibet. There he enters the forbidden city of Lhasa, where he meets the young Dalai Lama, and eventually becomes his lifelong friend and confidant.

Heinrich Harrer wrote an account of his adventures, also titled Seven Years in Tibet, and later starred as himself in the 1956 version of the film, directed by Hans Nieter.

01:41 PM PST Permalink |

A Beethoven Bon Enkai
About five years ago, Mark Kent, one of my oldest and dearest friends, gave me a boxed CD collection of all nine of Beethoven's symphonies. Mark is a newspaper editor for the Mobile Register in my hometown. In fact, that's where we met 30 years ago. I was just out of high school, working my first job as a typist in the Classified Department. My desk had a view of the lobby through a glass divider, and every afternoon about 3:00, Mark Kent would come riding into the lobby on his ten-speed bicycle and carry it up three flights of stairs to his desk, where he worked as a night reporter in the news department. Over time and a mutual love of music, we became friends, and soon after I moved to California, Mark began making annual sightseeing trips across the country in the late summer, with my house in the Napa Valley being the turnaround point at which he headed home to Mobile via Los Angeles.

The year that Mark gave me the boxed set of Beethoven symphonies, he raved about the exhilarating experience of listening to all nine of them in a row on the long stretches of highway between Alabama and California. So, a few months later, on New Year's Eve, my son Will and I decided to give it a try. We calculated the length of each symphony, added them all up and discovered that if we began with Beethoven's First at about 6:00 p.m., Beethoven's Ninth would finish just after midnight. That evening, as we listened to all that glorious music, Will and I made a gourmet dinner of Roast Duck with Wild Rice and Haricots Vert. It was heavenly and has since become an annual New Year's Eve tradition for the two of us.

As a caricature artist and entertainer, naturally Rene always works on New Year's Eve. He's been working the same gig for several years now: an alcohol-free gathering at a community center here in Napa. He always finishes at 11:30, just in time to arrive at my place for a kiss and a glass of champagne at midnight. And, of course, I always have a portion of our gourmet dinner warm and waiting for him.

Here's the menu I have planned for my Annual New Year's Eve Gourmet Beethoven Dinner:

Appetizers: Puff Pastries filled with Bleu Cheese & Bacon; and Crab Croquettes with Lemon Caper Pimiento Mayonnaise

Soup: Creamy Potato Leek Vichysoisse

Salad: Mixed Baby Greens and Watercress with Maguro Sashimi, Daikon Radish and Wasabi Vinaigrette

Main Course: Grilled Petite Filet Mignon, Shrimp & Scallop Brochettes, Spinach and Mushroom Tart; Steamed Yams with Honey Butter; and a Sauteed Vegetable Medley

Dessert: Chocolate Coconut Pastry with Butterscotch Ice Cream

And...we'll be enjoying it on the first night in our new home. We've moved to a lovely Victorian duplex, just four blocks from where we used to live.

Here's wishing all our ThingsAsian readers a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year!

12:55 AM PST Permalink |

Memento Mori
I had a completely different entry composed for today's weblog. But in the wake of the tsunami tragedy in Asia, anything else I might have said would seem trivial by comparison. Instead, I ask that all visitors to my weblog today pause for a moment's reflection to honor the victims, to contemplate the fragile and ephemeral nature of life, and to pray that some greater good will come of this tragedy as nations join together in a shared effort to offer aid.
07:36 AM PST Permalink |

My 'American Adobo' Film Review
Meet Tere, Mike, Gerry, Marissa and Raul: five thirty-something, urban Filipino professionals living in New York City. Vexed by life's slings and arrows, and shadowed by their own shortcomings, every so often, they gather 'round the dinner table for a little intimate camaraderie and commiseration over a heaping helping of Tere's Chicken Adobo, the national dish of the Philippines.

Here is a link to my American Adobo Film Review.

12:22 AM PST Permalink |

'American Adobo' Filipino Dinner & a Movie Recipes & Photos
My 'American Adobo' Dinner & a Movie was fantastic. The menu included Chicken & Shrimp Lumpia Wrappers with Ginger-Lime Dipping Sauce, Empanadas Filled with Chorizo, Whitefish Kinilaw with Fresh Mango & Coconut Cream, Tamarind Soup with Shrimp, Tilapia Escabeche, Chicken Adobo and Jasmine Rice.

Here is a link to all the Recipes and Photos.

12:15 AM PST Permalink |

My 'American Adobo' Dinner & a Movie: How Everything Turned Out
After a lovely Christmas holiday with friends and family, my American Adobo Dinner & a Movie was an added bonus to the week's festivities. Although it meant yet another day in the kitchen, the Filipino banquet was well worth the effort. And if the dishes I made were even close to the real thing, then I love Filipino cuisine.

The Empanadas filled with Chorizo and Potatoes were savory and filling, even though I took a shortcut and used canned crescent rolls for the pastry dough. The Lumpia Wraps filled with Chicken and Shrimp were fantastic, especially with the Lime-Soy Dipping Sauce. The Tamarind-Ginger Soup with Shrimp and Spinach had an unexpectedly delicate flavor, although I was a little disappointed with the color of the broth. The tamarind paste caused it to turn kind of murky and it discolored the pink of the shrimp somewhat. I may try using tamarind powder next time instead. My favorite dish on the menu was the Kinilaw. I used White Roughy for the fish, which I marinted in lime juice and rice wine vinegar. Just before serving, I added freshly grated ginger root and cubes of fresh mango and gently tossed them together in coconut cream.

The Tilapia Escabeche was another unexpected treat. I opted for baking the fish instead of deep frying it, and the piquant sweet and sour sauce was a perfect compliment to the rich flavor of the fish. The title dish, Chicken Adobo, was another success. I was a little skeptical at the thrice-cooked technique, but the result was moist and tender with a slight tang of vinegar in the sauce. I knew I must have done something right when Will's friend Jordan remarked that it was the best chicken he'd ever tasted, and my confidence was further bolstered when I discovered that the Adobo I'd made looked exactly like the dish featured in the movie.

By the time dinner was over, we were all much too stuffed to enjoy the mango sorbet and the fresh watermelon I'd planned for dessert. So those were left to enjoy on another day.

Clean-up was easy, and once it was done, we sat down and enjoyed 'American Adobo', a thoroughly delightful film. I'll be posting a review of it in the next couple of days, but for the moment, I'm moving my household to a Victorian cottage a few blocks away and will be devoting most of my time and energy to that Herculean task for the remainder of the week.

So do check back in a day or two to read my film review and to see photos and recipes for my 'American Adobo' Filipino dinner.
02:54 PM PST Permalink |

ThingsAsian Dinner & a Movie will have a new home next month!
After ten happy and prosperous years at my current address, I'm moving to a new place tomorrow. Just four blocks from where I live now, it's a Victorian cottage in the garden district, with high ceilings and plenty of room to spread out, a spacious kitchen, a separate room off the kitchen for my office, a nice front yard, and a little private patio garden in the back with a flowering fruit tree and space for a vegetable garden. And just two blocks from the lovely Fuller Park.

It's a little scary to be moving after being comfortable for so many years in this old place, but it's so cramped here that the walls are beginning to close in on me. Yet, at the same time, I'm so excited about moving that my head is about to explode. I've been in limbo for several weeks with it, but I did put up some Christmas decorations to make the old place festive for the holidays, and I will be doing my Filipino Dinner & a Movie on Sunday evening, the day after Christmas, with a film called 'American Adobo'.

I've studied the 'feng shui' of the new place and have drawn up detailed schematics for where I should put all my furniture and artwork. And I have a five-day window for the move. I think some of Will's friends are going to be the muscles (for a modest wage and all the pizza and root beer they can consume, of course).

I hope to be settled enough in my new place to enjoy my annual New Year's Eve Gourmet Beethoven Dinner with Will. Every New Year's Eve, we put on Beethoven's First about 6:00 p.m. As the music unfolds, we prepare and enjoy a gourmet dinner together, and the Ninth finishes just at midnight when Rene arrives for a kiss and a glass of champagne after working his annual event at a local community center.

Can't hardly wait!
01:10 AM PST Permalink |

Merry Christmas
In the spirit of this sacred holiday season, let us pray for peace, and above all, tolerance and acceptance of humanity in all its glorious diversity. Peace and Blessings to my precious family and friends, and to my readers, one and all.
09:55 AM PST Permalink |

Christmas Eve
This Christmas is going to be different for me in so many ways. My son's father is traveling for all but two days of the winter break, so Will is with me 'til New Year's Day. Will, Rene and I usually open gifts on Christmas Eve morning, then go to Rene's for another celebration with his family in the evening, after which we take Will to his dad's around midnight. The day after Christmas, Will usually goes to L.A. to visit his grandpa and cousin Josh.

But this year it's all going to be different. We will have Christmas Eve at Rene's sister's house (the same one with the big Halloween party), and then we will spend the night at my place and open gifts here on Christmas morning, just like regular folk :>) I'm going to make French beignets (little deep-fried pillows of heaven, dusted with confectioner's sugar) and fresh fruit for brunch.

For my contribution to Rene's Christmas Eve family gathering, I am going to revisit a couple of recipes I've made in recent weeks. I've decided to make the Stuffed Mushrooms and the Salmon with Dill Cream Cheese and Capers from my Thanksgiving feast, and the Kufteh Sabzi Meatballs in Tomato Sauce from my 'Children of Heaven' Iranian Dinner & a Movie. They were all so easy to make, and all so delicious that I have no doubt they will disappear from the buffet table faster than you can say 'Feliz Navidad'.
12:07 AM PST Permalink |

Shopping for Fresh Ingredients & a Tally of the Cost of Dinner
I went shopping for all my fresh ingredients today and got very lucky at one of our local Mexican groceries. They have an in-house butcher shop with fresh meats and seafood at some of the lowest prices in town. I also found many of my specialty items there, including jicama root, tamarind paste, chorizo, jalapenos, and fresh mangoes. I had to go to another grocery store for the Asian items like ginger root, bok choy, bean sprouts, and oyster sauce.

Since the holiday weekend is upon us, I had to shop a couple of days early, as all the grocery stores will close early on Christmas Eve and will be closed on Christmas Day. I'm going to make my 'American Adobo' Filipino dinner the day after Christmas, and since the produce at the grocery store on Sunday won't be any fresher than what's in my fridge, I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed that everything will keep in my crisper and freezer until I'm ready to use it.

A Tally of the Cost of Dinner

The cost of the ingredients for my 'American Adobo' Filipino dinner are listed below. Keep in mind that the prices are based on buying everything new rather than using ingredients that I already have in my pantry. Of course there will be lots of things left over for future meals, so the actual cost of the dinner based on the quantities of the ingredients used to make the dishes will be much lower than the grand total of stocking a pantry from scratch for preparing Filipino cuisine.

Specialty Ingredients:

Tamarind paste or powder - .75
Jicama Root - .57
Oyster Sauce - 2.59
Chili Garlic Sauce - 2.49
Patis - 2.49
Cinnamon - .99
Pastry Crust - 3.58
Palm or Rice Vinegar - 2.49
Coconut Milk - 1.49
Sesame Seeds - .99
Sesame Oil - 3.59
Soy Sauce - 1.99
Bay Leaf - .99
Chorizo - .91
San Miguel Beer - 4.99

Fresh Ingredients:

Chicken Breasts - 1.41
Chicken Legs & Thighs - 2.99
Ground Beef - 6.22
Shrimp - 3.99
Fresh White Fish - 4.99
Whole Fish - 1.07
Limes - .50
Onions - .48
Garlic - .66
Carrots - .29
Scallions - 2.07
Potatoes - .35
Jalapenos - .07
Butter Lettuce - .99
Vinegar - 1.19
Ketchup - 1.49
Ginger - .50
Red & Green Peppers - .94
Green Beans - .81
Napa Cabbage - 1.15
Bean Sprouts - .49
Bok Choy - 1.61
Tomatoes - 1.49
Spinach - .99
Rice - 1.49

Basics:

Eggs - 1.12
Cornstarch - 1.19
Flour - 1.99
Cooking oil - 2.49
Sugar - 1.59
Brown Sugar - 1.19

Total - (in U.S. $) $78.70

12:30 AM PST Permalink |

Taking Photos of My 'American Adobo' Filipino Dinner
This month, both Will and Rene will be joining me for my 'American Adobo' Filipino Dinner & a Movie. We have also invited Will's best friend Jordan. So, I will have plenty of help with taking photos of all the dishes as they come out of the kitchen. Again, we will probably be using Rene's digital camera, as his photos always seem to turn out the best. Something tells me however, that it's the one holding the camera that makes all the difference.
12:22 AM PST Permalink |