Eleanor Hoh

Asian Culture Festival 2011

March 6, 2011 By Eleanor Hoh Leave a Comment

I literally ran through the Asian Culture Festival today cause I spent so long at dim sum with Twitter buddies! It was at the Fruit and Spice Park, well who knew it was soooo far down. But definitely worth going. Here are just some of hundreds of photos I took to give you an idea what’s there! They expanded the park with a lake and bridge, so it’s HUGE, wear comfy shoes!

Check back, I’ll be adding more photos with more food etc. & other interesting things that caught my eye.

Stop by Fruit & Spice booth, the volunteers will tell you all about the unusual fruit and spices! I loved this beautiful one, uh, don’t remember name but told Thai people like to use to color their sticky rice, anyone?

Tons of fresh herbs.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Photo Op

Bought beautiful double stem orchid $10, bee pollen from the Honey guy & Thai fresh made chicken & taro curry puffs, banana wrapped sticky rice with taro, banana & mung beans. Can’t wait to try them tomorrow.

Don’t forget to see the exquisite Ikebana demo and exhibit.

Cook Like a Wok Star 1.0

March 3, 2011 By Eleanor Hoh 1 Comment

Cook like a Wok Star is a series of quick, short posts to get you cooking in your wok, give you ideas for simple weeknight dinners and hopefully with leftovers for lunches too!

Even if you don’t have my cast iron wok set or know my NO-recipe technique, I hope these posts will inspire and encourage you to use your wok for cooking most anything and not just for an Asian stir fry!

I tend to think of more things to add after my posts, so do subscribe to get the updates…here’s my first one, enjoy…

A wok is a perfect shape and size for big batch cooking.

It’s fast and keeps its flavor, texture & color.

I lightly stir fried with Tea seed oil, garlic & ginger.

You don’t even need to do that if you don’t want to.

Par boil a big head of broccoli in my cast iron wok!

I marinaded skirt steak 2 ways and stuck under broiler.

Satay sauce & Stubbs BBQ sauce are both thick sauces so they cling to the meat. I used 2 different marinades on one skirt steak for variation. I know when it’s done by just the aroma, no timing needed! Flip over, slather more sauce & that’s it!

Grilled Satay Skirt Steak, penne with broccoli
Looks like a typical western dinner but with Asian flair!

Made enough for hubby’s lunch & our dinner!

During the week, I’ll use these and different ingredients to pull together a dinner, so much FUN! Sometimes, I’ll add a light balsamic salad dressing, sometimes sauce from the skirt steak marinade. But, my favorite is just stir frying my veggies with a a dash of tamari and sherry. So crunchy and full of flavor.

Love to hear what inspires your weeknight dinners without using any recipes and better yet cooked in a wok?!

Here are more ways to help you succeed at being a Wok Star!
Wok Up Your Own Creations

Stir Frying Without Recipes

Seasonal Foods

Chinese New Year at Chu's

February 7, 2011 By Eleanor Hoh Leave a Comment

We decided foolishly to celebrate Chinese New Year day at Chu’s with my sister, her hubby and her friends. Calm before craziness, but to be expected for such a big event. Chu’s will be holding another Chinese New Year event this Friday, February 11. So, if you want to experience a traditional dragon dance etc., reserve NOW. Enjoy. Don’t say I didn’t warn you there’s a long wait before your dinner arrives, so have a little snack before going. Worth the wait and good to have an appetite. Happy Rabbit Year!

Wok Star Eleanor Hoh & Norika Chu

We managed to get a shot together before guests arrived!

Norika presents Peking Duck before carving it up!

Norika was so fast at carving & making these rolls for us!

Definitely don’t want to share with so many next time.

After waiting 1 1/2 hours for our dinner to arrive, everyone snatched these rolls so I had to scramble to get this shot and others! Sorry, they’re all a bit dark and blurry.

Here’s remainder of Peking duck stir fried with veggies.

Huge scallops with black beans & bell peppers on a sizzling platter.

We had to order long life noodles for luck. This came with seafood & veggie.

Loved this eggplant dish that came in a clay pot and kept hot on a little burner.

The guy who leads the dragon has to learn to get OUT OF THE WAY so silly us can get the shot! The guy was in every shot I took. Lots of banging of drums and cymbals. I put a red packet into the mouth of the dragon dancer. He looked dazzled by the frenzy. His mouth was full of red packets, poor thing.

East meets west with jazz music in between.

Baby bok choy, needed twice as much. We love veggies.

It’s very strange eating with westerners, they don’t understand ‘family style’ where you pick what you want and eat slowly with your rice! Well, the other reason was we were STARVING. Everything was delicious.

After dinner, we dropped by Villa 221 to enjoy reggae music on the beautiful back deck. The weather was gorgeous. I am quite excited about this new venue and hope to hold some of my Wok Star events there. They have a cozy and cool lounge area to set the mood and tone to my class.

If you fell off track with your New Year’s resolution, this post explains my easy approach and Wok Star Kit with everything to help you kickstart for a healthier, happier and slimmer you.

You might also enjoy a Simple Home Dinner my sister and I made together showing that dinners don’t have to be a big deal.

Eleanor Hoh

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