so i am told to blog about my experience with the iron chef challenge.

but first, let me give a little background to those who are stumbling upon this page on accident and have no idea what we're all talking about. the "iron chef challenge" was essentially a project for our asian american culture class at sfsu. prior to this project the class was separated into groups and each group was supposed to create a dish that combined american food with asian food based on an assigned country. when we presented our dish, we went up against another group with a different country and were critiqued by judges. scoring was based on taste, presentation, originality, and education/entertainment.

our country was vietnam and we chose to make two dishes. the first was the traditional american cobb salad with the vietnamese lemon grass chicken. the second was the vietnamese springroll with american garlic shrimp.

i just wanna take note that in every group's dishes, i noticed that the american part of the food made it fattening. and i found that both funny and interesting. take our food for example, the garlic shrimp consisted of lots of butter and garlic. and then there was the cobb salad which has bacon on it, but we skipped that part. can you say unhealthy? lol it just goes to show how the american diet has turned out to be.

personally, i think we did really good. i'm not gonna say we were the best, but we set the bar pretty high. and although our food came off as "unoriginal" (based on the comments on our springrolls), anyone who even took the effort to look into it enough and see our effort would have seen that our food was indeed original. props to the TA judges melisa and ryan for recognizing that.

we're not sore losers. i just felt like the competition between us and 210's finest was a bit biased from the get-go. first of all, they had japanese food going up against our vietnamese food. now we all know how much more popular japanese food is than vietnamese food is. in fact when i first heard of the project i wanted japan as our country because i thought it would be easy. i'm glad we ended up with vietnam though. second of all, the minute we started plating i felt like i saw the bias. i don't want to go into specifics why, but that's just how i felt. and then the presentations went. and i admit, some of us didn't seem too prepared with the info or history and we weren't very exciting with it, but we did a really good job at explaining the american/vietnamese aspects of our dish and the history of each. and we didn't really read off of pieces of paper. well, not me anyway. but 210's finest wasn't all that wow either. we should have been tied. really.

it's whatever. it's just a school project. i think i was just upset because i got sick the day before, lost my voice, was late for class because we still had to prepare our food, and i wore shoes that hurt my feet so much that day we presented. yeah, all that in one day. AND we lost, to top it all off. yea, that was one of the worst days of my life. haha.

but all together, it still turned out to be a positive experience. and i agree with amanda, it did bring our group closer. blame it on the alcohol... hahaha jk.

-Donna

Food Challenge

I could go on for DAYS about the food challenge... but i'll make this short and sweet...

First of all I just want to say that this challenge definitely made this group just a tad bit closer to each other. Food challenge = bonding time! (Only because it took about 375668 days to marinate and cook the damn chicken/shrimp!) So i must say the bonding aspect of the challenge was one that i was happy about... on the other hand... i must say im pretty upset about the actual challenge. im not the "sore loser" type but i felt (as well as my fellow group members) that we were judged unfairly.
1. Some judges didn't realize the american aspects of our dishes (particularly the spring rolls)
2. One judge failed to use the sauce that was incorporated with the spring rolls..in other words..missed out on the full taste!!

I know that presentation was a big part of this challenge but shit was our presentation really that bad?!? i mean...if we "killed it" on TASTE.. then what's the problem here?! unlike other groups...we had the dishes plated separately... for presentation as well as for the judges convenience... uhmmm plus i could ABSOLUTELY picture these dishes in an actual restaurant.. p.s mixed persuasian members; I TOLD YOU WE SHOULD HAVE BROUGHT THE VASE WITH FLOWERS! Perhaps our presentation would have been sooo much more creative? haha anyways.

Did i mention i can't even count how many compliments we received about how delectable our food tasted?

ok lastly, i gotta admit.. it's just so damn upsetting when your group puts in sooo much effort and ultimately end up not getting enough credit for it... not to mention the day/night we spent preparing and making the food was one of the worst freakin' days of my life! [[ not because of my group :) ]] Seriously though... it was.

Although i do gotta say... Congratulations to 210's Finest... im glad we were paired up with a team with so much drive and who also put in a huge amount of time and effort into this project. :)

-Amanda

Judging a face

I know I've heard this comment a lot, and I'm sure everyone else has well, and regardless of how many times I continue to hear this comment, it never fails to irritate me when I hear it. I hate when people outside of the Asian race continuously clumps all Asian ethnicities together as one, assuming that all of us are one particular ethnicity, rather than trying to get to know what other ethnicities are out amongst them in society. I've noticed that a lot of Caucasian people tend to assume all Asian people are Chinese or Filipino. What in the world is that all about? Chinese people and Filipino people don't define the Asian race, thank you very much. There are plenty of other ethnicities and cultures that come together to form the Asian race, such as Vietnamese, Cambodian, Thai, Japanese, Korean, etc. that are also under the Asian race umbrella, but everyone fails to address these other ethnicities and shed light on them so that people are more willing to learn about them.

I've even had times when people would literally ARGUE with me about my ethnicity - I mean, really? You're going to argue with me about what ethnicity I am? When I tell you I'm not Chinese or Filipino or Japanese, that usually means that I don't fall under either of these ethnicities and that I'm a different ethnicity classified under the Asian umbrella, so get over it - you're guess wasn't right, better luck with the next Asian girl that comes by. I know that I don't look like your average Vietnamese girl - I hear these types of comments all the time...

"You look mixed - are you half white and half Chinese?"
"You look Chinese because of the shape of your eyes."
"Are you Filipino? You have to be Filipino. Look at your hair!"

I mean, maybe it's because my eyes are more almond-shaped than other Vietnamese girls, or maybe my colored contacts throw people off. I think I look Vietnamese, but apparently, to EVERYONE else, I don't. I look like a mix of various things that no one can figure out. In a way, that isn't a bad thing, and in a way, it is. I know when I had light brown hair and thick blonde streaks in my hair, people would think I was Filipino all the time, and then they'd sit there and have the audacity to argue with me about my ethnicity. I mean, I've even gotten mistaken for Mexican and Caucasian before... THAT assumption was a new one. Whatever the reasons are for clumping us all together like we're a whole bunch of nobodys that fail to exist, it's crap. From time to time, it does offend me because people are just making assumptions based on what they claim as [ignorant] knowledge. I try to brush it off and just forget about it, but lately, I hear it consistently, all the time and it's frusturating to hear.

I mean really? What defines an Asian girl as "a typical Asian girl"? I don't think people should make assumption based on what they see in someone's appearance, because that doesn't really tell you much about anything... instead, people should be more open to learning about ethnicities and cultures unknown to them.

--Kim [=

Doggie Appetizer?

Okay So I've been totally out of the loop for this blog thing. I thought we were doing it in order? Oh well, I'll blog anyways even if I'm not suppose to . Lol.

So I got a puppy a few weeks ago & I'm extremely excited but I feel so pooped because it is LITERALLY like having a kid. Jesus. Anyway, I work at a Asian food joint & I brought the little guy in to let him meet my manager. A group of regular customers ( older asian american men) came up to us & immediately told me to take it away from my manager ( who is a chinese woman) because she will cook him for an appetizer. I nervously giggled at the comment but almost instantly I thought about Asian American Cultures class because this topic has been brought up previously. I looked at my manager & she just ignored the comment and kept her eyes on my puppy (his name is Kupid btw).

I was quite offended by the comment although I knew it was a harmless joke, my guard went up. A couple of moments later before they left, one man came up to the register & before he said his good-bye's he reminded me to be careful about my puppy. I mean AGAIN?! Do you need to remind me AGAIN?! That is like my baby, you are warning me about being eaten. Not cool.

I freely googled " Why do asians eat dog?" & many forums, question-answer sites, and archives came up as results. Immediately we conclude that this tradition is "wrong", "weird" and "WRONG". We all know that the world has it's own share of ignorant people. People who continue to judge others and their culture rather than respecting it. Moreover, having people who reply to these forums by saying " Because asians are weird." only pisses off the the individuals who are knowledgeable about the dog eating issue among Asians, particularly the Koreans and Chinese.

According to Korea Animal Rights Advocates(KARA), the Chinese have been eating dogs for the last 7,000 years. It became a tradition for the Chinese and it was copied by the Koreans at some point. The dog meat was a delicacy before, but is very rarely seen in the U.S. As americans, some can freely eat cows, chicken, and pig with no problem. But because we are familiar with having dogs as our pets, we have trouble imagining their puppy on their dinner plate. In all, dog eating was a part of their asian culture. We, as americans also have our own crazy culture. Just because it is something Americans do not agree on, it doesn't allow us to disrespect the culture of others.

When do you EVER see "DOG" on the menus of Korean/Chinese joints here in America? Never. So stop feeding the stereotype.

-dolene

Food Challenge

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Hope you guys managed to stay DRY and WARM in the cold wind and rain. [=

So I know I'm a little late with this post, but I just wanted to congratulate everyone for working so hard on the food challenge. We know we did our best, and that's all that matters. Besides, we had fun that night, haha. Although we lost, we all know that we deserved to win as well. We all tried our best, researching and concocting all sort of ideas for our dishes... and on top of that, we spent HOURS cooking the chicken and marinating the shrimp for the salad and spring rolls, and good thing we did because they came out fabulous! =D

Anyway, I honestly felt like some of the judges were unfair when it came to the judging because they didn't really ASK what they didn't understand about the dishes. Yes, there are shrimp in spring rolls... but not garlic butter shrimp that's been marinated for 2 hours, and that's how the dish was original. Like Ryan said, it really was like having shrimp scampi in a rice paper. The lemon grass chicken salad was different because it was spicy chicken rather than just grilled chicken. In a sense, it was like we flipped our dishes - the salad was the American dish with the Vietnamese twist, and the spring roll was a Vietnamese dish with an American twist. I also felt like some of the judges were a little bias, and a little more critical on us than our competitors, and I know my team agrees with me when I say that.

When some of the judges said our dishes were "unoriginal", I feel like they didn't take the time to really taste the differences in the dishes, particularly with the spring rolls. The lemon garlic butter sauce drizzled on the plate was what really brought the spring roll dish together, so if the judges didn't eat the spring roll with the sauce, the full effect wasn't there, and thus, caused our dish to fall flat when it clearly shouldn't have. I read our competitors blog [210's Finest], and I do have to agree with Jiawei when he said the judges need to realize that we're all extremely busy outside of this class, and that all the time we spent late into the night cooking wasn't something easy to do. We all work, and we all have other classes that we need to study for, but we invest a great deal of time into this. I mean, I spent time at work researching recipes and trying to combine two dishes so that it would taste good and still fulfill all of the guidelines presented to us. I also agree with him when he says that this competition did bring out the best of both teams because it's evident that both teams put a lot of time and effort into their dishes and presentations.

Although we were extremely upset that we lost, we know we worked our asses off and that our food was delicious. [= And, I do congratulate 210's finest for winning - it was a close competition, but don't get cocky because we only lost by 2 points. You guys got lucky! Haha. Anyway, I included the 2 recipes for the lemongrass chicken and the garlic shrimp if you guys want to attempt making it on your own. Add and take out spices and seasoning if you'd like - we did. We adjusted it to fit our taste buds. [=

--Kim [=

PS: Donna - can you post up the pictures from that night? Thanks hun. =D

Chicken in Lemon Grass and Chili (Gà xào xã ớt)
Ingredients:
3 lb chicken
1 large onion
Salt to taste
1 tbs ground chillies
1 tbs granulated sugar
1 cup water
4 garlic cloves
3 tbs vegetable oil
2 tbs minched lemon grass
4 tbs Nuoc Mam (Vietnamese fish sauce)
1 tbs caramel sauce
Directions: Rinse chicken and dry well. Cut into small pieces. Peel garlic and slice finely. Cut onion into halves lengthwise and then cut lengthwise into 1/2 inch strips. Heat oil in large frying pan over medium heat. Add a pinch of salt, garlic and onion. Fry over medium heat until onion becomes translucent. Add lemon grass and chili. Fry 1 to 2 minutes until fragrant. Add chicken and cook until lightly browned. Add fish sauce, sugar and caramel sauce, mixing well . Add 1 cup water and cook 45 minutes or until chicken is tender . Stir occasionally and add more water if necessary. Serve hot with caramel sauce.

To prepare caramel sauce: Mix 1/2 c sugar with 4 tablespoons of water in heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat and let boil until mixture changes color. Turn heat down to low and heat until brown. Add 1/2 cup water to mixture. Remove from heat.

GARLIC BUTTER SHRIMP
Ingredients:
· 2 pounds jumbo shrimps, shelled and deveined, tail left on
· 1 large clove garlic, crushed
· salt
· juice of 1 lime or lemon
· 1/3 cup olive oil
· garlic butter, below
Preparation:
Use scissors to remove shells without disturbing tails. In a non-reactive bowl, combine crushed garlic, salt, lime juice, and olive oil. Put shrimp in bowl; stir to coat well. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours. Thread shrimp onto skewers and grill 5 to 6 inches from coals for about 12 to 15 minutes, turning frequently. Remove tails if cooking under broiler.

Garlic Butter for Dipping
· 1/2 cup butter
· 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
· 1 tablespoon lemon juice (about 1/2 lemon)
· 1/8 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
· 1 large garlic clove, crushed
· salt
In a small saucepan, melt butter. Add remaining ingredients; heat for 1 minute. Serve with shrimp or other seafood.

My Wonderful Weekend ! ! !

so my weekend started of on Thursday as usual. I got kidnapped after school. My friends didn't wanna take me home and I was tired out of my mind and needed rest for the night. So dinner started around 8ish at Tony Romas at Jack London Square. It was a good dinner and the bill wasn't so bad. Afterwards, everyone headed to D&B for happy hour and fun fun fun. I was sober all night :) because I had to drive. 0n Friday I had work til 6. Got home and ate then rested for a bit. Got ready to head to the city. I must say it was the worse night ever. First we got to Dirty Martini and my boyfriend forgot is ID. I mean come on, that's the first thing you check for when you leave the house. So I didn't get to go in with my other friends and stayed outside with him. Of course I was mad :) but I got over it. But he realize that he his ID wasn't at home either but his friend had it the whole time, luckily that they were headin' to the city also so he brought the ID w. him. Met up with the others at Whispers to get the ID and for some reason the others wanted to stay idk why cos it was 18+. But I didn't mind as long there's a bar there I'm good to go. So my friend was working and got my girls and I in for free then my other friends were still waiting in line to get in and we felt bad so we lefted and waited in line with them. Security walked by and told my friend that his shoes were appropriate because there's white on the bottom so he couldn't go in. WOW and just 3o minutes before this a guy with all white shoes got into the club. Racist ass security, just because we're Asians. So we all decided to leave and head over to Broadway to Club Sutra 21+ YAY! VIP so we didn't have to pay. we all got in, but my night was already ruined and I was sober. Plus we was only there for about an hour and a half so I sat the whole night looking at all my drunk friends fallin' left and right. ROFL. After the club we all headed to Fortune restaurant to eat. Got home and K0ed. Saturday was a busy day for me. Woke up and headed to the Party warehouse with my friend to buy decorations and balloons for my boyfriend's birthday. It was a HELLO KITTY theme. LOL. don't ask we just thought it would be cute. So we all got ready about 6ish and we were suppose to be there at 8pm to set up but we were lagging with our hair, makeup and blah. You know how girls are. :) So we end up getting there at 9pm and people were expected to show up around 930ish, so we all rushed to put the decorations up and set everything up. It went pretty well. The surprise was a hit and the party went smooth except that I was prettty drunk towards the end of the night so I don't remember much of anything. :( I was planning to stay sober because I thought my boyfriend was gonna be drunk. So the party was coming to an end, and next thing you know Boom a fight broke out but it was all good none of my friends got hurt. HarHarHar. Can't bring Oakland Kids anywhere. So everyone headed back to the block to talk about what happen and next thing you know, I guess the people they fought with followed us and drove by to the house, bad idea for them because they only had 5 people and knowing that the whole block was filled with people. But they end up driving off afterwards. After we headed home because I couldn't walk anymore so I was carried upstairs and next thing you know ran straight to the garbage can. Ugh, I never wanna drink again. I hate the after feeling. Woke up early in the morning because I couldn't sleep anymore and was craving for some VH. It was on hit!!! After a night of drinking, VH makes you feel so much better. And now I'm in bed blogging and tired :( && to top that off, I'm cramping. Sucks. At least I have another day to sleeep in and rest. Which is what I'm finna do now.

******IMPORTANT*****

Host:	SYTFU
Type:	Party - Barbecue
Network:	Global

Start Time:	Saturday, March 21, 2009 at 1:00pm
End Time:	Sunday, March 22, 2009 at 12:00am
Location:	The Alameda Naval Base (near the USS Hornet)
Street:	707 W Hornet Ave
City/Town:	Alameda, CA

Who - Everybody!
What - SYTFU 4th Annual BBQ meet [b]charity event with donations to the Children's Hospital[/b]
Where - The Alameda Naval Base (near the USS Hornet)
Address: 707 W Hornet Ave Alameda, CA 94501
When - Saturday, March 21, 2009, 1:00PM - End of the day
Why - Meet, Cars, Photo Shoot, People, FREE FOOD!

Yup, you heard that right, we are doing it again this year. Last year's events was successful thanks to the 250+ cars, 60+ motorcycles, stunters, and the gigantic crowd from all different forums who showed up to support our event. This year we're looking to make this one bigger and even better than last time; better yet, we are doing this years event with a great cause! [u]We are accepting donations for the Children's Hospital - donations are not required but would be gladly accepted and forwarded on your behalf..[/u] We can't do it without your support! Tell all your friends, crews, brother, sister, mom, dad, grannys, etc! If it gets rained out, we will move the event to the next available sunny weekend. Don't worry, we'll let you guys know ahead of time... we're watching different weather forecasts.

This is a SANCTIONED event by the Alameda Naval Base and the City of Alameda, so as usual, no drama, fighting, burnouts, unnecessary rev'ing, racing, etc... Anyone breaking any rules and causing our event to be at risk of termination will be asked to leave. There will be officers patrolling the area, so we ask you to please be on your best behavior for everybody's enjoyment!

100% of PROFITS ARE DONATED TO THE OAKLAND CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL!

WE HOPE TO SEE YOU ALL THERE!
We also attained a 200 thousand square foot hangar with 50ft high ceilings which would fit approximately 300+ cars inside the hangar and 300+ cars outside... Rain or shine, it is going down!

***Due to a crazy response about reserving spaces in the hangar for different crews/groups/forums, we are having to require a $5 donation per car on a first come first serve basis per group to reserve indoor spots. But don't worry! If not, we have plenty of out door space right in front of the huge hangar doors (that will be open all day) for no charge

xoxo
Julie Joi