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“Books for Cooks: New TV show, book build on Yan’s passion” profiles Asian-American cook Martin Yan, a local San Francisco Bay Area resident.
“Now in his 30th year on television, Yan is still cooking - and spreading the message of honest food cooked fresh the Asian way. “I think it’s passion,” says Yan of a career that spans more than 2,000 episodes broadcast worldwide. “If you’re not passionate, if you don’t like what you do - you don’t even last for three years.” This year, that passion expresses itself in a new public television series, “Martin Yan’s China,” an exploration of the different schools of Chinese cooking that is part travelogue, part cooking instruction. The show, as well as the companion book Yan wrote, covers material that would have been impossible to introduce to Americans when Yan launched his television career. At the time, soy sauce was exotic and a wok was a funny-shaped frying pan you had to look hard to find.”
Yan is most known for his television series, “Yan Can Cook” - with the sort of cheesy tag line playing on his name - “If Yan can cook, so can you.” Personally, I think Ming Tsai represents a more modern approach and mainstream image to cooking shows (Tsai currently hosts PBS’s cooking show, Simply Ming and used to be on the Food Network’s East Meets West with Ming Tsai).
17 Comments | Posted in: Food & Drink
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Apparently 1 min and 14 secs…
“I roll with a clan, you look like Jackie Chan” OHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
NOT
EDIT: this is Lupe Fiasco and Chris Brown backstage after a show in London for those of you who may not have recognized them…
5 Comments | Posted in: WTF
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Last year, I had the opportunity to meet the writer/producer of the film Formosa Betrayed, Will Tiao as he was trying to raise money for the film. Formosa Betrayed is based on actual events that happened in the early-80s, about a student spy network which focuses on the political and social activities of Chinese and Taiwanese-American students on the campus. The filmmaker is looking for actors in an open casting call:
“We are looking for Taiwanese and Chinese actors, both male and female, ages 20-50 years old for roles in FORMOSA BETRAYED. Please send headshots and resumes to castingmail@comcast.net. If called back by our casting director, you must be willing to be filmed on tape. If cast in the film, you must be a local Chicago hire, ie: any transportation to Chicago and housing in Chicago must be covered on your own. Must be available during the months of April to mid-May. If able to speak Taiwanese or Mandarin, please list on your resume. For further information, visit www.formosathemovie.com“
The film is being positioned as an international political thriller, like The Interpreter, The Manchurian Candidate, Air Force One, Patriot Games, etc… I remember my aunt telling me (who is always telling me something…) about KMT spies being on college campuses as I went off to college. So when Will Tiao was trying to raise money for the film, this quickly got written up in the Taiwanese and American press. If you or someone you know who is Chinese or Taiwanese that lives in the Chicago area, and might be interested, be sure to pass the info along!
1 Comment | Posted in: Entertainment, Movies
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A week or two ago I was fortunate enough to go to the 26th Annual San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (Okay, seriously, when the acronym is longer than most English words, that is when you need you come up with a snappier name.) The Center for Asian American Media had an interactive display where people could talk into a MacBook Pro and give their thoughts about San Francisco, Asian media and everything in between. They recently released the produced video, and what do you know, I make a cameo appearance along with Goh Nakamura. You’ll be able to tell it’s me by my fat face trying to say snarky things about hipsters.
(Thanks for the heads-up, Sylvia)
3 Comments | Posted in: Entertainment, Observations
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In today’s San Jose Mercury News, the newspaper reports in “San Jose City Council approves ‘Little Saigon’ banners:”
“After months of protests, rallies, even a hunger strike, the San Jose City Council on Tuesday voted to allow “Welcome to Little Saigon”banners to informally recognize a Vietnamese retail area on Story Road. The 10-0 vote brought an end to the incredible uproar over the last several months after the council voted to call the area “Saigon Business District,” enraging thousands in the community who wanted “Little Saigon.”… At the center of the months-long firestorm was Madison Nguyen, the only Vietnamese-American on the council. Activists called her a traitor and a liar for initially opposing the name Little Saigon… Nguyen preferred the name Saigon Business District - even though an official city survey conducted last summer showed Little Saigon was the preferred name…. The ordeal zapped time and energy from the city and sparked unwanted international media attention.”
I have to agree. Hopefully this whole controversy is over for good. Saigon Business District doesn’t exactly roll of the tongue… and it was just crazy how much time and negative energy was sucked into this, in my opinion, senseless mess. There are bigger things to worry about in San Jose than naming a neighborhood - like affordable housing and I imagine, an upcoming budget shortfall that all California cities will be facing due to the decline of the economy.
6 Comments | Posted in: Current Events, Politics
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I guess one Taiwanese man who lived to 103 got what he wanted… a stripper at his funeral.
Son Honors Dad’s Wish, Hires Stripper for Taiwan Funeral
Tuesday, March 25, 2008A man hired a stripper to perform at the funeral of his father — who happened to have a fondness for gentlemen’s clubs, according to reports from Taiwan.
Taiwanese newspaper the United Daily News reported that Cai Jinlai had been promised a stripper for his funeral if he lived to 100.
Jinlai was 103 when he died — reportedly leaving behind more than 100 “descendants.”
He had died after walking about 3.1 miles to a town in Taichung County to vote in an election in the Taichung.
His son, Cai Ruigong, told the newspaper that he had paid more than $170 for the stripper to dance around the coffin at the funeral.
“He would travel around the island with his friends to see these [strip] shows,” Ruigong said.
According to reports, the exotic dancer performance at the funeral lasted 10 minutes.
I think it’s an interesting juxtaposition that the man died while walking 3+ miles to VOTE in the elections. Oh those Taiwanese people… crazy about voting!!!
Thanks to Grace Chu for this tip.
39 Comments | Posted in: Current Events, Lifestyles, WTF
In Greece yesterday, the Olympic torch was lit and the ceremony was briefly interrupted by members of the Athens chapter of Reporters Without Borders. It was broadcast live by Greek television, but China state television cut away to a prerecorded scene. In “Olympic Event: Protests Kick Off The Torch Relay,” The Wall Street Journal reports:
“The gold-medal venue on the activists’ calendar is San Francisco, the Olympic torch’s only stop in North America when it arrives April 9. There, activists are expected to oppose a long menu of Chinese policies, including what they call repression in Tibet and Beijing’s support of oppressive regimes in Sudan and Myanmar. Demonstrators plan to take up banners on behalf of Taiwan and the spiritual group Falun Gong.”
The newspaper goes on to report what the coalition of Dafur groups are doing, as well as The Burmese American Democratic Alliance (plans an aerial event with a plane to tow a “Free Burma” banner” as well as lead a walk across the Golden Gate Bridge (possibly stopping lanes of traffic), and Students for a Free Tibet, (launching dozens of helium balloons carrying signs as well as placing banners on high-profile structures around San Francisco - possibly the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and/or the Transamerica Pyramid).
For the life of me, I don’t see how the Chinese picked San Francisco as the only city in the United States to do the torch relay - they might have as well picked Berkeley. I think Los Angeles would be a “safer” choice in regards to local activists protesting against the Chinese government. Then again, any city in the United States would be ground zero for anti-Chinese activists. I can only imagine what it will be like if the protesters steal the day from the Olympic Torch relay - a huge embarrassment to the Chinese and a diplomatic nightmare for the United States. But the Chinese can only censor their country’s media, not the rest of the free world’s.
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I don’t care where you learned it or how. It seems that at some point, there was probably an Asian involved, wasn’t there? Pen twirling that is. Don’t deny it. You were in awe when you first saw it and you just gaped at the defiance of gravity as the pens just went back and forth and all over the place. You never knew pens could be fun, yet the person doing it looked bored and was probably studying.
Now, there’s a new pen, specially crafted for the art of twirling. It’s balanced, and has colorful LEDs and has different styles depending on what type of pen-twirling you do. PENmawashi was developed by champion pen twirler, Hideaki, and you probably don’t care but you know that you really really want one. Especially after watching the video and head-banging to that hard rock piece that accompanies it.
Photo Credit: (lintmachine)
4 Comments | Posted in: Observations
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