Writing Travel

The year is new, everywhere, every day, and not just for dragons

 

Chinese New Year reminds me that a new year can start any day of one's life. Here are a few of my favorite sites celebrating this week's beginning of the Year of the Dragon.

• Based in Taiwan, Carrie Kellenberger shares her experience of last year's Year of the Lion Lunar New Year Celebrations in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia Borneo.
• From Malaysia, Wilson Ng & Rachel Ting's PlacesandFoods.com blog features their Neroteca Meatilicous Chinese New Year 2012. Alas, no dragon meat appears among the many carnivorous treats. 
• In Southern California, Kayte Deioma lists all the Los Angeles-area Chinese and Vietnamese New Year celebrations planned throughout January and February This week, Disneyland Resort celebrates from January 20 through January 29. You can also catch the Golden Dragon Parade on Saturday, January 28, in Chinatown.

Where is your favorite place to celebrate Chinese New Year, or any other new beginning?

Photo credit: Daniel Y. Go/Flickr Creative Commons

 

Update on vegetarian cooking classes in the Bay Area with La Cucina di Terresa

This morning's newsletter from Theresa Murphy of La Cucina di Terresa includes date changes plus complete menus for her "Cuisine de la Terre" cooking classes in San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland next month.

Inclusive dates are now Sunday, March 13, through Thursday, March 17.

Check out Theresa's full site, La Cucina di Terresa, to view her photos and sample her recipes. She also offers a free monthly subscription newsletter.

Live in the Bay Area? Love great vegetarian food, wine, and company? Meet La Cucina di Terresa

Organic-vegetarian chef extraordinaire and Parisian expat Theresa Murphy of La Cucina di Terresa returns to the San Francisco Bay Area in March 2011 with the second edition of her cooking class series. Theresa is seeking a host kitchen for the upcoming event. In exchange, the host will enjoy free tuition, superb food, and wonderful company.

Click here for photos, menus, and recipes from last year.

Some of my friends may know Theresa as my landlady in Paris when I skipped Christmas 2008 to take care of her cats while she celebrated with her family at home in the States. I cannot recommend her too highly. She is a true artist with food, images, and words.

Check out Theresa's full site, La Cucina di Terresa, to view her photos and sample her recipes. She also offers a free monthly subscription newsletter.

 

Related articles by Zemanta

• Greens' lemon cake a year-round star (sfgate.com)

Late supper at Bien Trucha

Late supper at the fabulous Bien Trucha in Geneva, Illinois: Rick Bayless would love this authentic Mexican haute cuisine.

No reservations taken, so get there early to put your name in for a table. The kitchen closes at 8:45 pm. We lost count of how many latecomers were turned away.

Arriving before 7 pm, there was a 90 minute wait, so we started on the patio (cash only) with guacamole and a couple of Tecates. If we'd had more cash on hand, I would have gone for one of their special margaritas made with fresh lime juice.

"Grits is good" and other useful facts about Alabama

Chef Clayton Sherrod's shrimp and grits

Yes, grits really is good. I sampled three versions of the best grits in Birmingham recently, prepared in two fabled restaurants, Frank Stitt's Highlands Bar and Grill and Chris and Idie Hastings' Hot and Hot Fish Club, and by the catering firm of a magnificent local chef, Clayton Sherrod.

I'd just ordered the shrimp and grits for dinner at Hot and Hot Fish Club. As Mary Evelyn, our server, moved to the other end of the table, I began raving about the grits I'd had for breakfast that morning at Jones Valley Urban Farm, where Chef Clayton had catered for a group of visiting journalists.

"Chef Clayton's grits," I said, "are the standard by which I'll judge all grits in the future."

My dining companion, an Alabama native, had to differ.

"Grits," she decreed, "is a singular, collective noun that takes a singular verb." Examples followed. "This grits is good," she offered. "Grits is often served at weddings in Alabama." My friend continued, "I was an English major, and I was born in Selma. I know what I'm talking about."

I love this stuff. As a student of descriptive linguistics as well as an obsessively meticulous copy editor, I appreciate every instance where the living language refuses to follow a style guide.

I also love grits, but only when prepared in the best and most proper manner. Chef Clayton gave practical advice: Cook your grits for 20 minutes. If you need more help, watch the film My Cousin Vinnie.

Breakfast by Chef Clayton, served al fresco at Jones Valley Urban Farm