What’s Going On?

San Mateo County Fairgrounds was host to the famous Maker Faire where maker’s of arts & crafts, gadgets and gizmos, and other various contraptions were shown to the public. Entrance to the fair was at most $25 for at the door costs, but presale tickets were sold at a discount. The fair took over the whole fairgrounds and much was to be seen. Entertainment lined the fairgrounds inside and out with tons of stuff to see and do left and right. Food was all over the places and looked and smelled great.

One of the most entertaining things to see at this show was being able to see music come from electrical arcs from Tesla coils. With a live band playing as back up, a man in a wire meshed suit stood between two huge Tesla coils and was able to allow electricity to go to his suit and closing the circuit.

This year Bazaar Bizarre SF obtained the Cypress Room where vendors from all over came to show off their work. Lots of people came to shop around and many just looked around at some of the cool and interesting creations that people can come up with. Many vendors sold jewelry and clothing, but some of the most interesting ones came from a few that made stuffed animals from different types of materials. Some animals were made from cotton (yarn), some from felt, and some from denim or other various materials.

Having walked around the bazaar there were many things that I wish I could purchase, but I know if I did that I wouldn’t have any more money left in my bank. However, just being able to see these items brought a sense of joy and happiness to me.

Although, I did not spend much time searching the whole fairgrounds, I had a great time meeting the makers of Bazaar Bizarre. They are ordinary people trying to make a living by selling some of their creations. A lot of them do it as a hobby, but most of them do it for a living. Come out to an event and help support local artists, artists including myself. For more information on Bazaar Bizarre please go to their website at http://www.bazaarbizarre.org/sanfrancisco

The 6th Annual Asian Heritage Street Celebration filled Larkin St. from Civic Center all the way up to Little Saigon. The street festival started with some cold gloomy weather, but heated up by mid-afternoon. Early Asian festivities started with the Faces of Asia parade. The parade started at the Asian Art Museum and went through the festival all the way to the top of the festival at Eddy Street and back down to the Cultural and Jazz Stage.

Featured entertainers of the festival were the West Coast Lion Dance Troupe, Frances Ancheta Becker, Kapakahi, Native Elements, Trackademics, Kat o1o (Crown City Rockers), Far East Movement, The CounterParts, Curt Yagi, Kazha, akai Sky, Chung Ngai Dance Troupe, Argonne Elementary School, Purple Orchids, ASEAN Corner, Chardi Jawani Stanford Bhangra, Gen Taiko, AHSC Best Dance Crew Contest (hosted by WILD 94.9), SF Pinoy Jazz Revnue, Balut Eating Contest, YoYoJoe, Planet Infinity’s More Than Medals Taekwondo Team, Unity Tuy Ngoc Nguyen, and Animemyu.

One thing that this street celebration does not lack in and that is entertainment. It is very difficult to catch everything in one day, but if you can pull it off to catch half of it you did a pretty good job. Just the entertainment on the stages alone was a lot, but don’t forget the street celebration itself. The street festival not to mention has vendors that sell arts & crafts, gifts, food, information, a kiddie carnival, they also have sponsors that give out free things and booths that can even teach you how to play mahjong. If that’s not enough, there’s import cars to check out and if that’s not entertaining enough, there’s Muay Thai Kick-boxing going on all day.

For a festival that starts at 10am and lasts till 6pm, it is one that is jam packed with stuff to do and see. It is a lot of fun and every year it seems to get better and better. What will the festival have in store for San Francisco next year? Who knows, come out to find out.

The Asian Pacific American Heritage Awards kicked off the Asian Heritage Month here in San Francisco at the Herbst Theatre in Civic Center. The Awards ceremony first started with classical music by cellist Charles Wang. The evening progressed with the granting of awards to the following from local dignitaries:

For Emerging Leadership: Thomas Li

For Lifetime Achievement: Dr. Edward Chow

For Community Impact: Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center

Throughout the award ceremony three performances took to the stage with a glow stick performance, a Southern Asian dance troupe, and folk dance from a Burmese group. The finale for the awards ceremony was remarkable with community involvement from all parts of Asia, including that of Vietnam, China, Japan, Pacific Islanders, Burma, South Asia, and many others. The finale was very colorful, not to mention very entertaining.

Following the awards ceremony was a time of Asian styled refreshments from local restaurants and sponsors on the second floor of the War Memorial Building. The food was delicious and the attendance was great. Ending off the night with food and mingling, what more can one ask for. Congratulations to all the award winners and thank you to all the sponsors who made this night possible.

Pictures of the Asian Pacific American Heritage Awards can be seen by clicking on the picture link above. If this post was informative and helpful, please feel free to leave me a comment or donation below. Thank you.

The First Noodle Festival took to the streets of San Francisco in two neighboring districts, North Beach and Chinatown. Each community creates their own awesome style of noodle on a daily basis, but which noodle reigns supreme of the community from which they are from. The Noodle Fest was brought to you buy the Chinatown Community Development Center and North Beach Merchants Association. Many showed up for this event for its first running and I believe it will not be its last.

The festival was held on Grant Street between the Pacific and Vallejo Streets. On each end of the festival were two great bands. On the Pacific Street Stage was Jest Jammin. A cover-band known for their funk and jazzy hits of the late 70s and 80s. On the Vallejo Street Stage was the MS Collective jazz band.

Throughout the event there were a couple of live demonstrations on how to make two types of noodles/pasta. Chef Shen demonstrated to the audience on how to make Shanghai dumplings, while Chef Carventz demonstrated how to roll out some pasta and make ravioli. Both demonstrations were pretty interesting.

The food at the festival was a hit with samplings from six vendors for $15 pre-ordered or $20 at the fest. Many vendors at the festival did not anticipate the high volume of supporters and thus did not have enough pasta to distribute to paying consumers. Nonetheless, I can tell by the all the faces that everyone was pleased by the great food and fun that they had. Perhaps next year, the festival will grow in size and more demonstrations will be featured on perhaps how to cook certain dishes. Until next year, we will see what happens. If the festival is put on again, make sure you venture out and tastes what North Beach and Chinatown have to offer.

Pictures of the Noodle Fest can be seen by clicking on the picture link above. If this post was informative and helpful, please feel free to leave me a comment or donation below. Thank you.

The Cherry Blossom Grand Parade was held this year on one of the warmest days that San Francisco has had this year thus far. The parade started in the early afternoon and lasted for about two hours. Meanwhile in the morning, there were tons to see and do. I eventually spent most of my time observing a few exhibits at the Hotel Kabuki. There I got to see some pretty awesome exhibits.

There were four main exhibits that were shown on Sunday and they were the origami exhibit, the bonsai tree exhibit, the paper doll exhibit, and the samurai sword exhibit. My favorite of the four was the paper dolls exhibit. Such great craftsmanship had gone into them that I felt like taking one home; however to my dismay, they were not for sale.

The Grand Parade featured a few local schools, local politicians and dignitaries, pageant contestants and queens, taiko drum troopes, other music groups, men and women from our local law enforcement, along with our fire department, and much much more. The finale of the parade was the highlight for most festival goers with two men whom are half naked on top of a sake keg carrying device who are being rocked side to side and men who toss sake into the air. It is said that the more the sake carrying device is rocked from side to side the more fortune it will bring.

Following the parade, the festival still kept going strong with their exhibits, bands hitting the stages once again, food vendors cooking up a storm, performances rocking the stage in Peace Plaza, and the festival finished off with an annual raffle where winners were pulled by the beautiful ladies of the Cherry Blossom Queens Program.

No plans for next year for two of the weekends in April, well make sure you pencil in a day at the Cherry Blossom Festival here in SF. It will not be disappointing, unless it rains of course.

Pictures of the holiday party can be seen by clicking on the picture link above. If this post was informative and helpful, please feel free to leave me a comment or donation below. Thank you.

The Cherry Blossom Festival once again never fails to be a fabulous festival and by no means does it get boring year after year. It’s a great Japanese cultural festival traditionally held here in San Francisco’s Japantown. The festival was held for two weekends this year in April and this year the weather was a little unpredictable. The first weekend of the festival it had rained and it really put a damper on attendance.

Although poor weather was present the first weekend, it did not rain on their parade, no pun intended. The second weekend of the festival received great sunny weather. It actually felt like summer in San Francisco for once.

Great things were to be seen at the festival with awesome cultural dances, cultural music, taiko drumming, cultural films, arts and crafts, an origami exhibit, a bonsai tree exhibit, a Japanese paper doll exhibit, a samurai sword exhibit, import cars, live jazz and funk bands, mochi making, great food, and much much more.

Probably the most interesting exhibit at the festival would have to be the Japanese paper doll exhibit. So much time and effort must be put into them that it shows in the final result. The precision that one must have to undergo is just astounding. The paper dolls were very colorful and full of life and you would not have guessed that the clothing would have been made out of folded and cut paper. Pictures of this exhibit and a few other exhibits I mentioned can be found on the link from the next posting.

Great fun and entertainment, the Cherry Blossom Festival is one of the greatest cultural festivals that is held here in San Francisco. If you haven’t checked it be sure to mark it on your calendars for next year because it will be a great time, you can count on that.

The Center for Asian American Media celebrates it’s 30th anniversary this year with a fabulous gala held at the amazing Fisherman’s Wharf location of the Ana Madera Restaurant. The evening started off with a small welcome and introduction to guests from special celebrity MCs Roger Fan (Fast & The Furious) and Tamlyn Tomita (Joy Luck Club).

Following introductions, delicious food from seven restaurants brought guests mouth watering tastes of Asian Cuisine. The tastes of Asia came from Khai Duong with Ana Mandara, Lawrence C.C. Chu with Chef Chu’s, Dennis Wong with Le Soleil, Jackson Yu with Live Sushi Bar, Peter Chan with South Sea Seafood Village, Hung Le with Three Seasons, and last but not least Jeff Hubbard and Roy Yamaguchi with Roy’s Hawaiian Fusion.

The evening’s special tribute was in honor of filmmaker Loni Ding who was one of few that helped Asians pave the way for Asian American media. Family members of Loni Ding, David Welsh and May Ying Welsh were also honored on behalf of the Center of Asian American Media who were pleased to support the idea of the Loni Ding Award which is honor of her passionate documentary filmmaking that gives voice to underrepresented communities.

Pictures of the gala can be seen by clicking on the picture link above. If this post was informative and helpful, please feel free to leave me a comment or donation below. Thank you.

Lately, I’ve been trying to cook up different types of recipes of chicken wings. I am in hot pursuit in finding the flavor that I want to be known for making. The decisions are hard; Should I make them sweet? Should I make the salty? Should I make the spicy? or Should I make the sweet, salty, and spicy? The different ways you can prepare wings are mind boggling and so far I’ve only touched the surface of it.

In this second wing experiment, I came up with six different flavors. The flavors and styles that I tried were (starting from the bottom and rotating clockwise): Salt and Pepper Wings (spicy), Asian Honey BBQ Wings, Soy Sauce/Sugar/Spices Wings,  Salt and Pepper with 5 spice battered Wings, Jamaican Wings, and Spicy Fried Chicken Wings.

All of the wings that I’ve tried were pretty good, but in this experiment by far the Salt and Pepper Wings won the competition. Something about the fine balance of spicy and salty had just won me over. It is probably one of my favorite styles to prepare any type of meat. For example, if I were to order in a Chinese restaurant I’d typically order either the Salt and Pepper Squid, Salt and Pepper Spareribs, Salt and Pepper Shrimp, and of course Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings. You might ask would I order all of them at the same meal. The answer is probably not, but on occasion I have ordered at least two of the above.

So far the two experiments I have done so far have been wings that were deep fried. They probably are not the best for you, but I believe they are the best tasting wings you could have. In the past, I’ve made my share of baked chicken and  teriyaki chicken or Chinese marinaded chicken over the stove, but in my opinion nothing can beat the deep fried aspect of cooking.

For now this has been my second wing experiment, but I hope to bring you different types of foods whenever I get the chance.

If you enjoyed this post and it was informative and helpful, please feel free to leave me a comment or donation below. Thank you.

Lately, I’ve been having one of those craving moments where I just need to satisfy my cravings and the thing I was craving was lumpia. Lumpia has always been one of my favorite snacks/foods for a very long time, but not until recently have I got the courage to make some of my very own myself.

In my opinion, lumpia is probably one of things that take a long time to prep, but to cook is rather easy.  I spent most of my time cutting veggies and chopping up shrimp. Good thing I didn’t have to grind my own pork or that would have taken a lot more time.

First thing I did in preparing for one of the best things on earth was to cut green beans in quarters lengthwise. Next, I peeled carrots and then had them grated. I then seasoned my ground pork with several different spices and then cut up my shrimp. To make sure that everything had a similar consistency I cooked everything separately. I stir fried the veggies until they were soft, but not to the point where it would get mushy. Then I cooked the pork and drained off the excess fat and then added in the shrimp.

Once all my ingredients were cooked, I waited till my mixture was cooled before I began to wrap. When the filling was cooled I basically rolled them into egg roll-like rolls. When I finished wrapping all of the lumpia I packaged most of it to freeze as I cooked a few fresh in oil. I made 55 lumpia on this trial and I must say it was fun, but took a rather long time to make. However, the outcome was success and deliciousness. I think in the future if I were to make more lumpia I would have a lumpia making party to make things just fly by quickly. Accompanying my first batch I made a nice and cool vinegar based slaw. I then poured some Thai chili sauce for dipping.  When eaten altogether it was an evenly balanced snack of vegetables and meat. I think the only thing missing was some fried chicken wings, but I will post more later on the 2nd chicken wing experiment soon.

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What do you do when you have a hunger? You try and satisfy that hunger right? Now what is your favorite type of food that you crave? Well for me it can be many things, but one of the things that are on the top of my list would be chicken wings. I love chicken wings any way that they can be prepared and usually there is no discrimination at all. Yes, I love burgers, hot dogs, and pizza; however, it’s the mighty chicken wing that always screams “winner winner chicken dinner!”

Well to satisfy my craving I ran to the store to buy some supplies and made myself 5 different type of wings and I called it my First Wing Experiment. I never would have thought that I’d go mad for trying to make up a variety of wings, but did I ever. My First Wing Experiment consisted of wings that were crunchy and crispy and all I had to master next was to find that flavor of sauce that would please my appetite.

The flavors for my wings that I have chosen were a tangy Asian glaze, lemon pepper, barbeque, garlic parmesan, and buffalo spicy. All the wings I must say were pretty good, but the kickers that I’d have to say were hands down the best were my lemon pepper and garlic parmesan. Those two I will have to call my signature flavors. The lemon has a bit of zip from the lemon and the savory from the salt, and the garlic parmesan was a good balance of aroma from the garlic and savory from the cheese and salt.

I plan to have my Second Wing Experiment pretty soon since my first attempt was so successful. In the next experiment, I will try to do more on Asian flavors and see if I can master a good fried chicken batter. Until next, I hope you get a chance to make some of your own and share the results with me. I can’t wait to experiment next.

If this post was informative and helpful, please feel free to leave me a comment or donation below. Thank you.