Cha Xiu Bao

Camel Burger from Heston Blumenthal

Speaking as a foodie, this is just so timely with all the uproars over the region: a "Humpy" meal from Heston Blumenthal inspired by Lawrence of Arabia. I guess the only way for me to one-up on my man would be a horse burger a la Genghis Khan of Mongal Grassland!

Wok With Nana on WSJ

Hey Mr. Bourdain, We Can Do Better

Geez, that is a downright catchy way to start the conversation... though I can't remember saying that. Or did I say “writing a food blog is passé”? I mean, it's a bit perverse to say that when you're still trying to run a food blog yourself, no?

There's tons of things me and Nana need to patch up as we progress. But putting things into perspective, video blogging is definitely a force to the reckoned with [link of the article by Amy here]. 

Food porn will be taken to new height!

'Naked chef' to debut on Hong Kong adult channel

A Hong Kong adult channel is set to debut a cooking show headlined by a nude host who will prepare Cantonese dishes wearing a transparent apron -- an apparent bid to encourage more men to cook.

24 Hours at Amber

It was November when I first mentioned about doing a "24-hour at" kind of thing when I saw Richard popped up 2 pieces of time-lapse video for his Dutch counterparts on his Facebook page. I know we're in for some ground-breaking endeavor when Ricard jumped into the idea without any hesitation: he replied within seconds to my tease.

What followed were meetings and meetings. Stephen (my dearest production partner) and I sit down with Richard a couple times to go through the idea in details. More than talks, we literally stationed at the kitchen for a whole evening to feel it out -- we knew from the outset that it's very important to get a grip on where is the action. The point is to be at the right place at the right time for this kind of video genre. We run through shooting ideas and angles again and again at the bar off Amber (the Scotches on the house surely soothed up the brainstorming process a great deal). We even invited our friend to be the project manager and diagrammed a chart about exactly where should we be shooting during the 24 hours. The process was strenous but ultimately rewarding for we all knew we're in for some sort of history. The goal is simple: 24 hours for Amber in all its glory, under 3 minutes. Bang, a first for everyone involved. 

So here it is, I hope you can sense what I felt when you watch it. Inside the kitchen there's grace and there's awareness. A sense of where things belong and what is to be done. In kitchen jargon it is what we called the dance in the kitchen. All thing said, it's about time for a well-deserved first for Asia. Please enjoy.

Ok I'm late but it's never too late to pull the rabbit out of the hat, right?

Well, happy Chinese New Year to y'all.