Asian Food Blogs to Bookmark
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Ever get a hankering for some great Hokkien mee? Want to throw together the perfect shabu-shabu? Looking for beautiful photos of mouth-watering caldereta? If you answered yes to any of these questions — and even if you didn't — you won't want to overlook these great websites dedicated to the cuisines of East Asia.
Of course, there are thousands of food blogs out there covering all kinds of food. Asian cuisine is no exception. But a great food blog needs three things: awesome recipes, excellent photos and, above all, regular posts. Not necessarily daily posts, but often enough to at least let you know the author is still living.
If I were bookmarking my best blog picks for East Asia's major cuisines, these are the ones I would choose.
[Note: Two countries are conspicuous in their absence — China and Thailand. I just couldn't find any blogs out there that passed my muster. It's possible I've overlooked some that are truly wonderful. I you can point them out, I would love to know!!]
All East Asia: Rasa Malaysia
The grand dame of Asian food blogs, Rasa Malaysia covers not just Malaysian food, but the cuisine of all East Asia. The food photography is unbelievably beautiful, and the recipes are easy to understand and well organized.
Navigating your way around the site is a little confusing and can be a bit of a pain. Too many times clicking a link popped open a new window. And it wasn't always clear if I was still on the main site.
Still, if you want true inspiration in Asian cuisine, Rasa Malaysia can get you there.
Korea: About's Korean Food Blog
Well, I looked. And in the end I couldn't find all that much. About.com's section on Korean food does an adequate, if bare-bones, job of covering Korean cooking. But the photos are small and spare, and there are very few entries that dive deeper into the food culture.
Korea is a boisterously foodie nation. Koreans love Korean food. And their hearty, bold cooking is becoming more and more popular throughout Asia and North America. They deserve better. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
Japan: The Japanese Food Report
I love this website! Japanese food can be intimidating to the home cook. But the Japanese Food Report gives you basic, homestyle Japanese meals and lots of helpful tips on Japanese ingredients and cooking methods.
The site is full of big, bold and beautiful photographs. It also makes good use of instructional videos, with helpful stuff like "Sharpening Japanese Knives" or making "Mizutaki Hot Pot."
Navigating around the site is a little confusing, and it's difficult to find specific recipes. Even so, I have to recommend JFP as one of the best Japanese food blogs I've come across.
Malaysia: Delicious Asian Food
This is a blog devoted to a mixture of Chinese and Malaysian recipes, along with a smattering of recipes from other countries in the region.
You can find genuine Malay recipes here. Not just take-out stuff like kung pao chicken, but fun things like hairy gourd soup and pineapple prawn sambal. The photos sometimes poorly lit, but they do a fine job of illustrating what a dish should look like.
Philippines: Burnt Lumpia
Good Filipino recipes can be hard to find in cyberspace. Never fear! Burnt Lumpia is here!
This well-photographed website includes all the Pinoy favorites — adobo, ukoy, pancit and, of course, lumpia. Many recipes have instructive photos to guide you through each step.
Written by a Filipino expatriate in L.A., Burnt Lumpia has a sense of humor too, which makes it a delightful read.
Vietnam: Vietworld Kitchen
The kitchen of the title is that of Andrea Nguyen, a professional food writer based in Northern California. Ms. Nguyen peppers her site with all the best Vietnamese recipes along with appetizing photographs.
She also has a number of entries covering other aspects of Vietnamese cooking, including information on special ingredients and historical background.
Now I'd like to know what your favorite Asian food blogs are!
