By Amanda Strombom
For Northwest Asian Weekly

Esther Park-Hwang will be one of the speaker at Vegfest. (Photo by Rozarii Lynch )

Asian chefs are among the many chefs featured at this year’s Vegfest. The event is to be held on April 10 and 11 at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall. Vegfest is the biggest vegetarian food festival in the United States and features more than 500 different kinds of dishes. The event is ideal for people who have questions about how to improve their diet, what to buy, and how to cook it. Read the full story

Here are some yummy traditional foods that kids will like

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By Ryan Pangilinan
Northwest Asian Weekly

For many people who grew up in an Asian American household, the Lunar New Year was always celebrated, whether by going out to a restaurant or watching the annual parade. Despite many cultural differences, the collective wishes and hopes for a community bubbles up during this time of the year.  Read the full story

By Vivian Luu
Northwest Asian Weekly

Over-reported

Michael Jackson

1. Michael Jackson dies at the age of 50, but you already knew that

Our bodies pulsed to “Thriller.” Our hearts sank for “Billie Jean.” And when Michael Jackson announced his “This Is It” tour, we went bananas.

And then the world mourned his death, after he died from cardiac arrest on June 25 at age 50. Read the full story

By Steven Cong
Northwest Asian Weekly

“As you know, we, the Korean people, have to have Thanksgiving with rice and kimchi,” said Paul Chunki Kim, a Korean American realtor in Puyallup. Read the full story

By Leslie Yeh
Northwest Asian Weekly

As is inevitable with most major holidays, Thanksgiving Day’s historical and cultural roots (dating more than 350 years ago) have long been traded in for cross-cultural exposure and mass marketing in the United States. Though it may sound bad, it has its advantages. Read the full story

By James Tabafunda
Northwest Asian Weekly

Pat Tanumihardja

She had to face cultural differences at an early age. Now, she celebrates the differences and similarities in Asian cultures in her latest nonfiction work.

Born in Jakarta, Indonesia, Pat Tanumihardja, 36, says she always felt different than her Asian peers while growing up even though she didn’t look any different from them.

Tanumihardja, her older brother, Mars, and her parents moved to a housing estate in Serangoon Gardens, Singapore, when she was just a few months old.

“My brother and I would ride our bikes through this little village and play with the chickens that ran around,” she recalled. “So, I think we had the best of both worlds, living in the city and also being able to experience some rural life as well.” Read the full story

Chicken feet, simmered in a special house sauce, is a popular dim sum dish. Jade Garden Restaurant’s chicken feet (above) is particularly known for its succulence. (Photo by George Liu/NWAW)

By Assunta Ng
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

I could never imagine that chick­en feet, despised by many Americans, would be the thing to link China and America in a win-win situation. Read the full story

Literally food-on-the-go, the new trend these days are food trucks that use the micro-blog Twitter to alert fans of their location. Photo by Jason Cruz/NWAW.

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By Assunta Ng
Northwest Asian Weekly

Dim sum: If you don’t know what it is, you have been missing out on some of the finest delights for your palate.

Dim sum means “heart’s delight.” It is a Cantonese-style Chinese lunch with bits of meat, seafood, and vegetables. The dishes are similar in size to appetizers.

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Images by Stacy Nguyen

By Stacy Nguyen
Northwest Asian Weekly

My mom banned turkey from our Christmas table this year. The reason why is because she doesn’t want to buy a vat of peanut oil or set up our industrial propane-fueled five-gallon deep fryer or risk third degree burns and disfiguration.

I know — so lazy.

Around this time of year, many of us go through these trials and tribulations just to make a genetic dud of a bird taste just “all right.” Why?

Well, there’s something to be said about tradition. We repeat these rituals because it stirs happy memories in us. Asian Americans are in a unique position because many of us didn’t learn about Santa Claus or pumpkin pie from our parents. This education came from TV and school. Read the full story

Part 2: bites to remember in Beijing

This is a soup of sea cucumber that is stewed inside a papaya. (Photos taken by George Liu.)

By Assunta Ng
Northwest Asian Weekly

In 1981, I raved and ranted simultaneously over an authentic Beijing (Peking) duck dinner while in Beijing.

The reason was due to the fact that one bite of a delicious duck meat was accompanied by a mouth full of fat.

The grease ruined my appetite because I didn’t care for the calories. The duck I ate was forced fed with tons of food before a chef roasted it. Read the full story