Although the Chinese restaurant industry represents 45,000 Chinese restaurants across the U.S., that generates over $20 billion in annual sales, most Americans diners still think of Chinese food as a cheap take-out of chow mein, spring rolls and fortune cookies. While Chinese food has reinvented itself many times over on the Asian culinary scene – whose amazing growth was fueled by the recent economic boom – its counterpart in the U.S. has not yet acheived the same stature.
Join New York Times reporter and author of The Fortune Cookies Chronicles – Jennifer 8. Lee in a conversation with world renown Chef Martin Yan, a celebrated host of over 3,000 cooking shows broadcast worldwide, author of over 30 cookbooks and, most recently, Founder and Chairman of Martin Yan’s Culinary Arts Center in Shenzhen, China. Chef Yan has launched his center to promote the Chinese culinary arts in response to the world’s fascination with Chinese heritage and cuisine. There will be a live food demonstration.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Asia Society and Museum
725 Park Avenue
New York, NY
Master Sculptor Jimmy Zhang Features Chinese Zodiac Food Showcase at Top 100 Chinese Restaurants in the USA Awards Show at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino
Award winning Culinary Artist Chef Jimmy Zhang featured a Chinese zodiac culinary art showcase in celebration of the Year of the Ox at the 5th Annual Top 100 Chinese Restaurants in the USA Awards Show at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. Organized by Chinese Restaurant News, the Top 100 Chinese Restaurants Awards Show recognizes, cultivates and preserves the best in Chinese cuisine. Award winning Chef Martin Yan and Theresa Lin Cheng hosted the show and announced the winners.
Chef Jimmy Zhang is founder of Art Chef, Inc and is recognized as one of the best Chinese culinary produce artists. Zhang can transform carrots into mice, taro roots into birds or a sweet potato into a stallion. Zhang sculpts food into scenes from a fairy tale. Chef Zhang is an amazing talent, said Betty Xie, Editor in chief, Chinese Restaurant News.
Located in the Bay Area since 1998, Art Chef, Inc has been actively promoting the intricate Chinese art of fruit and vegetable carvings to the general public as well as the food service industry in the US. For more information, please go to www.artchef.com.
Over 500 Chinese restaurateurs from all over the nation gathered in Las Vegas on January 5 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino to attend the 5th Annual Top 100 Chinese Restaurants in the USA Awards Show & Conference.
Once associated with the likes of Bordeaux and Bavaria, fine wines are now a growing presence in Asia from Bombay to Beijing. Apart from importing alcoholic beverages in frenzy, Asian vineyards have also emerged to produce respectable wines – in such places as Thailand, Vietnam and China. Here in America, restaurateurs have taken cue to reinvent their menus pairing their fine cuisines with refreshing innovative drinks, imported Asian beers and wines with outstanding results.
On December 1st, the Asia Society, co-presented with Savory Productions, Inc., hosted “Wine and Spirits with Asian Cuisine: A Perfect Pairing!” Panelists Cynthia Sin-Yi Cheng (Founder, cyn-et-vin; Wine Editor, Cravings, New York), Chris Johnson (Mixologist and Sake Master, Bao 111, New York), Litty Mathews (Mixologist, Modern Spirits, Monrovia, California), Nobu Otsu (Proprietor, The Winery, New York) and moderator James Oseland (Editor in Chief, Saveur Magazine) discussed the exciting topic to a sold out house.
FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: (Back Row) Nobu Otsu, James Oseland, Chris Johnson (Front Row) Litty Mathews, Cynthia Sin-Yi Cheng
Among the many alternatives for conventional fast food, noodles as quick service meals are becoming more popular. It is easy to find a variety of noodle shops in Asian enclaves, offering anything from wonton noodles, Vietnamese pho to Japanese udon bowl and chic soba noodles. These are the real alternatives many people have known as affordable, tasty and satisfying.
In the Chinese culture, the Mid-Autumn Festival celebratory meal is like a Thanksgiving dinner. Traditionally, it is one of the most important festivals, second only to the Lunar New Year. To kids, it is as much fun as Halloween, because back in those days, we got to roam the streets with our paper lanterns of all shapes (some are almost like piñata).
I still have very fond memories about celebrating this festival with extended family on the rooftop of our building, laying out a spread of good eats, cutting and sharing moon cakes and all sorts of fruits and nuts. According to the old tradition, we welcome the moon on the 14th day of the 8th month on the lunar calendar, celebrate with a sumptuous spread on the 15th when the moon is perfectly round and bright, and chase after the moon on the 16th with more eating. It’s really a 3-day affair, usually in the open air in the evening, as the central theme is to enjoy the full moon.
When Kian, a.k.a. Red Cook, invited my husband and me to a taste his fancy Mid-Autumn Festival dinner on the lovely rooftop terrace of Nobu Otsu (who owns The Winery in Harlem), I was overjoyed. Not only would I taste delicious and superb meal with carefully paired wine, now becoming a signature of his elegant Private Chinese Kitchen dinners, I also get to relive the childhood memories.
In America, and now in some overseas countries, Zagat is the dominant restaurant guide which comes to be the gold standard for evaluating restaurants. Zagat-rated is now a badge of honor for chefs and restaurateurs, giving would-be diners some frame of reference what they can expect about an eatery – for food, ambiance, price and service.
But in Singapore, the Asian island state where the favorite national pastime is eating and a popular mantra is “die, die must try” – another food guru reigns supreme – K F Seetoh.
It is very frustrating for me to watch some of the culinary segments on television meant to be the cultural backdrop for the Olympic Games in China. Too much air time has been devoted to the weird scorpions on a stick which is certainly not a staple for the average Chinese. This only adds to the wrong impression that people in China are uncivilized, an image the government is trying hard to correct with ultra modern buildings and super highways. With some five thousand years of history, through famine and wars, people have adapted to find food in all places to survive, and ingeniously turned every part of an animal, and some exotic ingredients like jelly fish into gourmet. This is not unlike many other foreign cultures.
Being the only child in the family, I rarely had to “fight” for food at the family table growing up. I was introduced to all types of (adult) foods since early childhood, and thankfully, my mother was a pretty good cook. I got along very well with my cousins, my usual playmates, who shared many a meals together. There was hardly any physical incident that was worth remembering, let alone one that involved food. But there sure was one for the record book.
Posted by newasiancuisine 
Posted by newasiancuisine 
Posted by newasiancuisine 
