Inspired by Luxirare‘s Dim Sum series… I had to give it a shot. But my photo skills just aren’t quite there….
Having a look at my series afterwards, the images don’t even come close in comparison to my inspiration. They just aren’t as interesting as I’d hoped. Perhaps the composition of the photos could be a bit more interesting in telling the story of what’s happening in the surroundings or on the table. Or I could have zoomed in a lot more to focus on the intricate details that make dim sum delicate and delicious. Any photographers out there with suggestions and critiques??
While I was in SF, my lovely cousin treated me to dim sum at Koi Palace. For the higher than usual dim sum prices, this is not a place for the typical dim sum dishes of shrimp dumplings or shu mai and sticky rice (which are also on the menu). There were many unusual dishes and twists to the usual affair. With choosing many unique items on the menu, our success rate was about 70% of dishes we ordered being deliciously delicate and beyond any other regular dim sum I’ve had; also on par with high end food expectations. Highly recommended 
Xiao long bao (小笼包) was definitely one of the best dishes. With a delicately thin wrapper that highlighted the soft, well balanced, and not too dense, savory pork filling.
Other dishes were drunken chicken, vegetarian goose (made of tofu skin), and fried tofu.
The filo durian was rich and creamy. If you’re a durian fan, you’ll love this creaminess wrapped in flakey delicate filo. I can’t personally say that I’m one of those crazy fans, but I certainly don’t dislike the fruit that smells like skunk. It’s definitely worth a try.
My favorite of the dishes we had is the coffee marinated spareribs: tender and savory with just a hint of coffee, completely worth eating with your hands and licking your fingers.
I love dim sum. In addition to the comunal eating of this meal and the beauty and delicacy of the foods involved, the experience totally stretches the “American” perception of “Chinese food”.
我爱广东菜点心。在旧金山我们吃没吃过的特别点心。有点贵但真很好吃。我最喜欢的是咖啡排骨。咖啡味道真不浓。
点心文化在一起吃真有意思能尝尝很多不同菜还有不同美国化中菜。
Last month I spent four days vacationing in the small resort town of Manchester, Vermont. During this trip we ate only at locally-owned restaurants and shops where I had some of the most freshly prepared food I have ever tasted. The one thing that I couldn’t help but notice was that each place had a perfectly tossed salad with juuuust the right amount of dressing.
On a side note, the real reason that motivated me to post was coming across an article about Vermont Gold vodka, made from 100% maple sap.
Starting with pure Vermont maple sap (harvested for only a few weeks of every year), the brew undergoes a triple distillation process using local spring water, and vodka passes through a charcoal filter at the end of each cycle to remove impurities. The strict attention to detail in the distilling and fermentation process, along with the freshest local ingredients, results in the clean, maple-infused taste.
via CoolHunting
And now onto some restaurant highlights from the trip:
The favorite of the three dishes we tried at Up for Breakfast was a deliciously savory potato quiche with spicy sausage. With great reviews online, we had to try it, but perhaps it was over-hyped. Or maybe we should have stuck with less exotic things on the menu instead of going for the crab wrapped crepe with poached egg. Although good and filling, I wasn’t blown away and found other places more worth the 30 minute wait.
Depot Cafe was one of the most unique experiences with the cafe literally located in the middle of a furniture store. The mushroom pizza was freshly prepared and the smokey-ness from the brick oven added a great subtle flavor to the earthy mushrooms. The thin crust was not too crunchy and had a good bite and texture. Be aware, this is no Italian cafe; the food is very much Turkish. Definitely recommended.
Dueling Starbucks and Peet’s coffee shops are located directly across the street from each other in the town of Alameda, CA (Bay Area). I’m sure it’s not the only corner in the area with multiple coffee shops. When two huge coffee chains open shop so close together, it certainly shows the presence of coffee culture.
Coffee culture and cafes are growing in Beijing. In certain areas there are multiple cafes in the neighborhood, particularly in the university area of Wudaokou (五道口). I’ve spent my share of time in these cafes and it’s not much different from the ones in the States: friends gather and chat, spend hours using the wifi and doing work, or running in for a quick snack and drink. I must admit that the food and coffee quality could use improvement, but knowing that the cafes are easily accessible and growing in numbers shows a definite demand for the service and atmosphere.
星巴克和Peet’s Coffee 在互相对面。在旧金山能看到咖啡文化是很重要， 当然有别的路口也有多种咖啡店。在北京五道口也有非常多咖啡馆，我自己花了很多时间在这里的咖啡馆。北京的咖啡馆好像美国的：朋友在聊聊天，上网，做工作，或者快吃或者喝东西。但在咖啡馆的西菜能 能更好。有真么多咖啡馆，我们知道这样的商店能有多.
Cooking Dinner Vol. I from William Hereford is a beautifully filmed and wonderful concept for the food preparation experience. The imagery with perfectly fitting typography and soundtrack really indulges all of your senses while cooking.
With the redefinition of how content is created, shared, and digested, Cooking Dinner Vol. 1 definitely gets the mental wheels spinning on the potential direction of food magazines, with thought to beautifully shot, yet easily digestible vignettes.
It’s a great example of a new concept for food magazines moving towards the tablet technology, while also engaging the user:
Tablets (and the internet really) provide the opportunity to look at moving images with the same studied intensity as a still photograph. Traditionally we are at the director’s mercy regarding when a shot begins and ends- the whole experience is fleeting, which can be wonderful, but I like the idea of creating a moving image which runs on a loop or is shot over a long period of time so the media can be consumed and studied in ways a traditional film cannot.
Cooking Dinner Vol.1 tells a lovely story of process and engages those tech geeks who do (and don’t) cook, while making an enjoyable experience in the kitchen.
via PSFK
Cooking Dinner Vol. I的食谱视频真有意思！非常漂亮也用所有的感官。在厨房能很好玩。
Dog ‘n Claw food stand at the New England Aquarium must be new! I didn’t have a chance to try the dogs, but the claws were definitely a refreshing summer snack, or small lunch! The roll is packed with chunks of lobster meat that’s light and refreshing, and just lobster (with mayonaise). With winters in Boston, we really appreciate the summers of sunshine and beautiful weather. But walking around requires energy and wanting to grab snacks along the way while exploring. Boston has never had a true street food culture, but with the release of more licenses and the development of more communal green, outdoor areas in the city, there are a growing number of options for eating on the street. I hadn’t really noticed this until I saw the Dog ‘n Claw stand at the New England Aquarium.
In Boston, food trucks are starting to cook up some serious business -and gaining political attention for their efforts. A number of mobile restaurants are scheduled to gather Aug. 8 for a “food truck festival” in the South End.
在波士顿有很多新的街上的小吃。Dog ‘n Claw 是一个新的我没见过。虽然我没吃它的热狗它的龙虾真好吃。只有很多龙虾！现在波士顿开始有越来越多街上地食品， 对游客真有意思能散散步也一起吃。
Remember when you were yelled at as a kid for eating your crayons? Well now you can!
Crayon (made of food!) is a set of food bars made by Luxirare. Crushing up various foods of the same color family and using marshmallow to hold the ingredients together, crayons are formed in a mold. The flavors are based on colors, not actual flavors; the ingredients of each of the 8 colors are listed on the side of the box. The blue and purple colors are least healthy made with more sugar and candy. You can draw with them too!
Did you ever realize that there’s an insane variety of rice products in the Chinese diet?! Rice porridge (congee), dumplings, noodles, and buns are just a handful. Truly a staple, starting with a breakfast food like congee, “flavored with all manner of additions such as salted eggs, pickled vegetables, meat, or seafood,” and rice dishes for lunch or dinner through to desserts like glutinous rice balls filled with peanut or sesame. Simply resourceful if you ask me! To be able to use one crop to make a multitude of dishes. Not only is rice a staple dietary source, and integrated into cultural celebrations, like zong(4) zi (粽子，tamales) during the 5th lunar month of the Dragon Boat Festival, rice is an interesting look into the integration of food, culture, and language:
Rice appears in a wide range of idioms and expressions. For example, a person’s means of filling his or her bowl, that is, his or her job, is known as a “rice bowl,” so an “iron rice bowl” refers to an “unbreakable” government job-for-life, while a “golden rice bowl” is any well-paid job. Someone who eats a lot is called a “rice bucket,” while someone who eats but does little work is a “rice worm.”
Learn about the overwhelming amount of rice products with the article, Rice by Any Other Name at Travel in Taiwain.
你知不知道中国人用米来做怎么多食品？米真的是最重要：粥，米粉，包子，和饺子就是几个食品用米来做的。还有吃粽子的时候是五一端午节的时间。食品文化和汉语真有关系。
Pintley is a new community of beer drinkers, providing personalized recommendations based on how you rate beers. Sign up for an account, rate beers you’ve tried, and continue to update your profile with tasting notes and ratings to keep a record. Based on your feedback, Pintley recommends beers that you’ll like. You can also browse by brewer or style, see what other’s have said about the library of beers, save beers to favorites or wish list, and interact with other community members. Sounds like a great site for beer fanatics! And a much better way to keep those tasting notes than in a scribbled, old notebook.
新的网站叫Pintley能推荐啤酒。你开了帐户以后对你已经尝过的啤酒评论真么样， 然后Pintley用你已经尝过的啤酒再推荐别的你会喜欢。
Bacon!! Mo’s Bacon Bar, to be exact. I had a taste of this mini-chocolate bar the other day and the salty, sweet flavor was pretty good! I think it was the novelty of the product more than the chocolate itself that made it delicious. Funny how that works. Regardless, along with the infused bacon flavor in the chocolate, which was smooth and not overwhelmingly rich, there were bits and pieces of the alderwood smoked salt giving the chocolate more texture and the impression of salty bacon. A 3oz. bar can be bought on the Vosges “Haut Chocolat” site for $7.50. And many other clever gifts 
There are other flavors too:
Naga: sweet Indian curry + coconut + deep milk chocolate, 41% cacao
Gianduja: almonds + caramelized hazelnut paste + deep milk chocolate
Black Pearl: ginger + wasabi + black sesame seeds + dark chocolate, 55% cacao
Red Fire: Mexican ancho & chipotle chillies + Ceylon cinnamon + dark chocolate, 55% cacao
It’s like Demeter frangrances, but edible. And chocolate!
咸肉和巧克力！日前我尝尝“Mo’s Bacon Bar”的巧克力， 不错。我觉得可能很好吃因为比较特别的小吃。每见过。但特别真的是，味道也甜也咸，巧克力味道也不太浓烈。做礼物真有意思。我想试试它们别的味道。。可以买给我吗？ 呵呵。