Cuisine-nera In America: An Afternoon of Talk and Taste - Rice Festival (featuring Asian cuisine)

I haven't really figured out what Filipino cuisine is all about”, said Brad, a guy I met at the train station. It was one of those days when I felt bubbly and good, and I saw this guy carrying the shape of a covered waste can behind his back. He was tall, caucasian and good looking, so the flirtatious me had to strike up a conversation, just to ease up the boredom of waiting for a train and to quench out the curiosity of his backpack.

He said that he was carrying an egyptian drum and informed me of his group, Djinn. We then talked more about music, culture, travels and food which led to the statement above. We exchaned 'net' sites and maybe might see him in one of his gigs in Manhattan. Here's his site http://www.djinnnyc.com/ (He's the American one with the hair..hehehe)

Then I proceeded to Astor Place , where the Asian food demonstrations were being held to celebrate the Rice Festival featuring Asian cuisine.. Upon arriving, A Korean Food Truck fronting the building of the place was giving away small portions of bibimbap.

The entrance foyer of the venue had a couple of exhibitors, giving away free samples. You could grab a bottle of Fiji water as you enter, and the Kyocera knives prided itself on the sharpness thereby giving away the sample cuts of dragon fruit and star fruits (balimbing—btw, here in America, they cost about $2-$5 EACH fruit, unbelievable!)

The Macau table was serving portions of it's chinese version of 'arroz a la cubana' complete with rice, poached egg and cut up beef. Salty is my comment on this one. And there was also a table giving away shots of some liquor, which of course I got. Oh! And not to forget, Singha beer from Thailand was giving away samples of their brew, which I kept replenishing during intermissions. Now that was fun!

There were 4 demonstrations for that afternoon, starting with chinese cuisine by Ching Hue Huang, who was promoting her cookbook “Ching's Fast Food”. She made steamed chicken with chinese mushrooms, goji berries and dried lilly buds. Except for the goji berries, all the ingredients were familiar especially the lilly buds which we often find in our very own humba and some pansits. Then she also made a vegetarian crispy bean curd rolls. It was good, but I prefer our very own mung bean spring roll dipped in vinegar with garlic.

Then there was Angelo Sosa who presented a Malaysian Dish of shrimp belacan. About 3 or 4 “puti” did not like the smell of bagoong being sauteed (belacan is the shrimp paste of Malaysia ). The belacan is similar to the ginamos of Bacolod, compact, dark and dry. The dish was simply comfort food. Reminds me of eating by the beach. Lots of shrimps dipped in spicy pinakurat on mounds of rice. (http://angelososa.com/)

The third speaker was former Miss Korea, who dished out simple bibimbops. It was simple all right, but each vegetable was given care to create the dish. While preparing, she had to relay stories of her drinking sprees...oh well! Not quite, but really, what's good with food but a nice pairing to go with it, right?

The final speaker and one of my favorite chefs was Ming Tsai from the show East Meets West . He combined the orecchiette pasta with black bean he pounded and mixed them with spicy pork and broccoli. And he was also promoting his book “One Pot Meals” . He is not only a good chef, but truly an entertainer as well. I would also dub him as the Jamie Oliver of the chinese people since he was explaining about the awareness of foods leading to cancer, obesity and the like.

I enjoyed my whole afternoon learning and meeting new people, tasting food made by the fine chefs and getting samples from sponsors. I look forward to the next food event......