Ermagawddddd It's ASIAN FOOD in Times Square! Like a lot of Asian Food :D mehehhee It was so exciting. The different stands all tried super hard to entice us to buy their food and it worked. Something about food cooking in a grill right in front of you is extremely enticing. There was tons of Korean food, from kimchi to bulgogi and even dduk. The thai stand was equally as cool. There was a lady dressed in traditional Thai garbs taking pictures with people passing by. She was sooo pretty. I wish I had gotten a picture with her. There was Japanese oden and Chinese street food like dumplings and skewers. What I didn't get was why there was a Spanish stand selling Paella lolz. It's an Asian food fest and last time I checked, Spanish wasn't Asian. It was scary though how crowded it was there. The moment you get in, you practically move at a snail's pace with the crowd. If you didn't move, you'd get pushed along (or crushed). If you wanted to move faster, well too bad you can't lolz. An awesome thing that happened though was we got a lot of free ice-cream each. (YAY for being cute Asian hipsters mehehe)
The food stands were there on June 25th and 26th. On the 25th, there were cultural shows from different Asian countries. I only stayed for part of the Japanese tea ceremony cause it was wayyyy too hot outside (and for some reason I was wearing black jeans >_<). I thought it was really nice though, that there is such a festival to educate the public about food from different cultures. It's tiring to hear over and over again the same responses from ignorant people. Chinese food is more than just fried rice and sweet and sour pork (and no, fortune cookies aren't really Chinese =_=). Korean food is more than just kimchi. Japanese food is more than just ramen. There is so much good food out there. It's about time people try it out.
The food stands were there on June 25th and 26th. On the 25th, there were cultural shows from different Asian countries. I only stayed for part of the Japanese tea ceremony cause it was wayyyy too hot outside (and for some reason I was wearing black jeans >_<). I thought it was really nice though, that there is such a festival to educate the public about food from different cultures. It's tiring to hear over and over again the same responses from ignorant people. Chinese food is more than just fried rice and sweet and sour pork (and no, fortune cookies aren't really Chinese =_=). Korean food is more than just kimchi. Japanese food is more than just ramen. There is so much good food out there. It's about time people try it out.
On the 26th, there were cooking competitions in addition to the food stands. There were a total of 5 cooking competitions each for a different province in China. The food smelled amazinggg and I actually learned quite a lot about Chinese cuisine. So Chinese cuisine is cooked to heal the body and spirit. There isn't much plating in traditional Chinese cooking because it is believed that if food was cooked with the nutrients still intact, it would automatically look delicious. Different types of food are also believed to be either yin or yang. If a person's health is more yang, then they are supposed to eat yin food to balance it out. Unlike other cuisines, Chinese food is made with only 1 type of knife. Everything from, slicing and dicing to tenderizing meat, is done with a cleaver. That's why a Chinese chef has to be extremely skilled in order to master all the knife techniques. Even though I'm Chinese, there was so much I learned from this event.
One thing I learned about myself though is that crowds are too overwhelming for me. I'm naturally a detail-orientated person. With everything happening at once, my brain was on overload and I just got so tired afterwards. I was emotionally, physically, and mentally drained. @_@ In the end, we opted for our usual chill place to just relax. Tis was a good 2 days though =D Good food and it was a great learning experience.