Hi everybody I’m back from the break. Over Christmas we received a box of the popular Tokyo Banana sponge cakes (that came with a free charm). As much as I wanted to save some of it for later, the expiration date arrived quickly.

I like mine served cold to go along with hot green tea.

Thanks to those who left me feedback and since there were requests to see more of the before and after shots, I did some photoshopping on this image, just hover to remove all makeup.

This may sound odd (or perhaps erroneous) but I kind of like my sushi warm. Really.

I would eat them as they are served in sushi restaurants, but I do like to buy take-outs the night before so that I can steam with chilli and soy sauce for next day’s lunch or dinner. Maybe I’m treating them like dim sum. Hopefully no sushi chef is reading this.

Unless one is allergic or unsuitable to consume milk, the goodness of raw milk from a clean farm and grass-fed cattle could be a great beverage to benefit from.

More:

• Real milk cures many diseases
• Cows genetically modified to produce ‘human’ milk
• Daughter helps father fight colon cancer with her breast milk
• Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund (A non-profit organization to help defend organic farmers across the US)
• FDA tyranny over raw grass-fed milk
• Farmageddon

It’s horrifying when I read that influential biotech companies promoting genetically modified (GM) foods insist that unnatural genetic alterations and continuous use of lethal herbicide will be the best way to feed the world and stop hunger.

This is only part of the horror. A report revealed that industry and regulators were aware that glyphosate (an active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup) causes deformities as early as the 1980s but withheld the information from the public.

The implications of GM foods extend to other health complications too, and not only that, poor farmers pushed to plant only GM seeds find themselves totally reliant on herbicides and GM seeds. I recently watched two documentaries tracing the lives of such farmers in China and Thailand, torn between price, demand and the know-how to cut their costs. I’m moved to post about an inspiring Thai rice farmer determined to stay organic and true to the original way of farming. More on that in another day, after I collect my thoughts.

So what the farmers harvest from their GM crops will end up somewhere in our grocers’. Here’s a partial list of GM foods that is found largely in processed products:

• Soy (derivatives such as soy lecithin, soy bean oil)
• Sugar from sugar beets
• Corn (derivatives such as high fructose corn syrup)
• Hawaiian papaya
• Cottonseed (used in vegetable cooking oils)
• Certain varieties of zucchini
• Canola (canola oil)
• Crookneck squash
• Milk containing rbGH
• Rennet (containing genetically modified enzymes) used to make hard cheeses
• Aspartame (NutraSweet)

More:

• 10 reasons to avoid GMOs
• Non-GMO shopping guide
• GM farming drives Indian farmers to suicide

Books:

• Genetic Roulette
• Seeds of Deception

Last week, hub handed me mooncakes from Fullerton Hotel given by a client from work.

In most of my encounters with mooncake boxes/chests, this is probably the longest, at 46cm. I almost had to shoot in panoramic mode :)

p.s. Remember the LV-looking mooncake bag from last year? I saw a lady carrying it like a real handbag!

When hub travelled to China recently, he brought back a free magazine picked up from an airport. I read it through the other day as I was very intrigued by its cover picture (via Corbis)- a beautiful tea terrace field on Wuyi Mountain (an Unesco WHS) in Fujian province.

The writer of the cover story on Fujian’s famous teas mentioned that drinking rock tea (岩茶) from Wuyi will not taste the same after you have been to the unadulterated mountain tea fields (and witnessed the care and attention given to the leaves). How true! And isn’t that feeling mutual when partaking food grown with your hands from your own garden or field?

Since posting about Ta Pantry, I have been seeking to find out more of such private dining places around Asia or beyond. You don’t know how happy I was when chef Ankit email me recently to share about his private kitchen Jaune located in Sydney, Australia.

Ankit studied at the Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and trained at the 3 Michelin starred L’Astrance before returning to Sydney to start Jaune with his brother.

Every weekend Jaune offers 8 diners a surprise French-inspired menu of 7 to 9 courses at a fixed price. If you are looking for a unique dining experience the next time you are in Sydney, do make a reservation at Jaune. I know I will.

It’s great fun to see the tantalizing works of stylist Evelina Bratell photographed by Carl Kleiner for Dutch magazine “Blend”.

Pretty interesting to see coffee powders, and linguine + rice noodles parading like that.

The duo’s work for Ikea’s baking book “Hembakat är Bäst (Homemade is Best) is also quite engaging.