excuse me for my absence. but could you wait a little while longer?

Okay, no excuses. I haven't blogged for a while, and it really shows. My ability to join words together to form eloquent and complete sentences has really.... um... gotten badder. Yeah, I know. That bad.

I could blame it on the change of job, and lack of money for a while. I could also blame my lack of blogging on the tiny excuse for a kitchen in my apartment here in Japan. Or, maybe I've just been lazy spending this last year (yikes... that was longer than I thought) thinking of excuses for why I haven't blogged.

Well this changes, NOW. Well, not 'now' exactly, since this post still doesn't make any mention of food. But with my recent move back above the poverty line, my purchase of my own bento box for lunches, and also with my upcoming culinary adventure to Hong Kong, I'm hoping to change all that.

I hope. Hopefully I'll find m food muse in Hong Kong to make me write about food again. Plus, feel more inspired to blog about attempting to make lunches from leftovers and cooking food in a tiny kitchen, and limited ingredients. Just give me another week. Promise. That's not too long, right?

my coffee confession

Like almost every other person around the world, I love a good coffee. The only thing better than a mid-afternoon latte as a pick-me-up would be the lively conversation among the company of friends that usually goes with it. Then again, maybe it's just the fact I've just had my daily caffeine hit which makes the conversation seem livelier and less cranky.

But I have a confession to make. Well, two actually. I find myself in stuck in the middle of two opposing sides, trying to appease them all, trying to avoid all the hurt feelings of betrayal that may arise when I finally come clean. 

the two little pigs

In two days time, people all over the world will be surrounded by friends and family and enjoying each other's company in this festive time of the year. And presumably, this will also involve my favourite pastime: food. It's the only time of the year where it's not just justified, but expected of people to gorge themselves on a week's worth of food in a single sitting. For many, this involves Christmas ham or turkey. And for the lucky few, it involves turducken.

In our house, however, we somehow acquired the tradition of half a Chinese roast pig. I'm not sure how it started, but according to the legends (i.e. my dad), someone got sick of the inevitable ham-leftover meals and decided to order a pig from a Chinese restaurant. It turned out to be a resounding success, and now, my family spends most of the year fantasizing about the next Christmas pig. Family gatherings will inevitably lead to discussion of how much pork will be consumed, which family members are letting the team down (the dreaded salad eaters), and the next generation of rising stars.

because there just aren't enough...

I know, I know. Just another food blog. How cliché. But hey, it's my blogspot, and I can write (or cry) if I want to. And sure, I do have another blog to post my self-aborbent musings, but seeing how my obsession with food seems to grow day by day, I figured I should start a gastrocentric blog dedicated to things I've cooked, eaten, sipped, or tasted.

Growing up with an Asian upbringing in Melbourne exposed me to a lot of different types of cuisines and foods as a kid, and after subsisting of a diet of Japanese food for the last few years, I've tried a bunch of stuff most people wouldn't even think about putting in their mouth. Ox tongue, ramen flavoured ice cream, raw chicken hearts, silkworm larvae - I'll eat anything. Well, almost anything. I found out the hard way this wasn't the case after seeing the still-wriggling scorpions on skewers in Beijing's night market.

Regardless of my failed scorpion attempt, I'm always looking to try new foods and combinations of flavours and textures, trying now make my own culinary experiments. Although I'm still a fair way away from my future Masterchef aspirations, I'm hoping to get there eventually, one delicious morsel at a time.