Modern Kaiseki Dinner @ Maru in Aoyama
I got to go to Japan in August for work, and Annie tagged along with me that week. We had many memorable meals of incredible Japanese food. One of those meals was this super exquisite kaiseki meal at Rakushokushu Maru restaurant in Aoyama near the Shibuya section of Tokyo.
Roast Chicken Ramadan Recipe
Annie made this recipe during the fasting month of Ramadan. Packed with Southeast Asian spices, the flavors will wow you. All the prep work is done the night before, so you can get dinner on the table with no fuss the next day.
Sibu Central Market
My mom came to visit us from Hawaii in September. We were all invited by our good friend Mike to come visit his hometown of Sibu, about 8 hours’ drive away from Kuching. The first place he took us was the Sibu Central Market, the largest open market in Malaysia. It was an unforgettable, eye-opening experience.
Sarawak Cultural Village
When we returned to Kuching, we took Mom to the Sarawak Cultural Village, a “living museum” where you can go to learn about how the various ethnic groups of Sarawak lived. We really are blessed to be living in this place with such a harmony of the different peoples.
Stir-Fried Pork with Long Beans
This Thai-inspired recipe is so amazing in its complexity of flavors.
In October, Annie and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. During our trip over to Peninsular Malaysia, Annie posted a 3-part series (We’re Just Friends…Right?, Can We Still Be Friends?, and Friends Forever) telling the story of our blossoming relationship. It was a break from our usual recipe or review posts, and allowed our readers a more personal glimpse into our story.
Beef Stew with Tomatoes, Orange Zest and Olives
This year, most of our recipes have been Asian, as it’s harder to find ingredients for Western-style dishes here in Kuching. But sometimes we just have to go West. This recipe is our go-to recipe for beef stew, and it’s perfect.
Masala Vadai
We finished off the year with a recipe for Masala Vadai, a deep-fried South Indian snack. I love curry leaves, and this recipe is chock-full of that wonderful herb.
And there you have our 20 (or so) favorite posts from 2010. We have so much more to share with you from all the dishes we’re cooking to all the places we’re visiting. So thank you, dear reader, for staying with us!
Cheers and Aloha, Nate and Annie
What a nice way to start the New Year with this wonderful ‘countdown’ of your 20 all-time favs. I’m eyeing on the dumpling skin. I have yet to make those. I bought some ‘char siu pau’ (frozen, of course) at the Asian store not so long ago, and steamed those. Now my 2 boys pls hubby are asking me to make these ‘pau’s’ from scratch. Hmmm…. I’ll come back to your post very soon again for the art of making the dumpling skin. Some recipes say to use yeast, others not. Your recipe does not need yeast, so I guess that’s sth I can follow, but I think you need to get the right dumpling flour?? I have a packet of “bapao” wheat starch. In your recipe you mentioned just-boiled water, I take it that it’s really quite hot water. As you can see, I’m really a novice where baking or anything to do with flour is concerned 🙁
I wish you both and your family a wonderful New Year 2011!
IH,
these dumpling skins are for making gyoza, jiaozi, sui gow, and won tons. They aren’t for making pao/bau.
We will do a steamed bao recipe this year. Thanks for the reminder!
I have some of these bookmarked from before, but now I have even more! Great roundup!
Kristen –
which one interests you the most?
great list!
I gotta raise my glass to that squid! Happy New Year. GREG