Here are a series of spoofs of Sanlu commercials. Sanlu is the major Chinese baby milk company currently under fire for distributing tainted milk. According to Danwei this clip has already been taken off Chinese video sharing sites, but you can still find it on YouTube.
Even if you don’t speak Chinese (like me) you’ll still find […]

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My intention was to do a simple, wholesome post linking to this Betel Nut Girls gallery (PG-13 FW) on Asian-sirens, but while browsing through the comments I came across this relic — a funny article from 1992 about a hot dog stand called Bikini Weenie in Yonkers, New York.
Are the bikini-clad hot dog vendors who […]

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And if they did come out of the water it might be at Jangsaengpo Port, Ulsan, near where I live, where there is a long row of whale restaurants lining the coast. More on that in a minute.
From the Telegraph:
Scientists in Japan have given a beluga whale a vocabulary of three words, the first time a […]

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Last night my wife made Buffalo wings, chow mien and margaritas for dinner. That won’t sound very impressive to any of you living outside of Korea or a few other parts of Asia, but those who do know how rare such foods can be.
As I was carrying the margaritas to the table (the food was already there) […]

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Plenty of interesting food experiences to be had in Beijing at the Olympics. I want to read an interview with the  guy who eats nothing but Pizza Hut and McDonalds while he’s there. Pictured above are seahorses on skewers, which are mentioned in this Yahoo! article that hasn’t hopefully already been displayed on their sickeningly influential […]

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I’m a couple weeks late on this, but it’s worth a note. Anyone have a Benihana experience they’d like to share?
Rocky Aoki, who founded the theatrical Benihana chain of steakhouses, where Japanese chefs with flashing knives double as performers, died Thursday night in Manhattan. He was 69.
The cause was pneumonia, said Nancy Bauer, a spokeswoman […]

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This will probably be one of those posts that a lot of readers in America could care less about and won’t find the slightest bit novel, but when I was recently in Sacramento around my sister’s house a sign caught my eye advertising a sushi sports bar.
I like sushi and I have an soft spot […]

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Words by David Chalk, Photography by the Minister of Fun
I spent a lot of last week writing about a gas promotion at historic Tropicana Field and a food promotion at Yankee Stadium. But when I got cheap tickets to see the Mets at Shea Stadium, I went without knowing I would be attending perhaps […]

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American beef is apparently flying off the shelves in South Korea — my wife’s father even has a new contract delivering the stuff all over Busan. But the story is still in the Korean news — smaller protests continue as President Lee Myung-bak makes more changes to appease the public.But most interestingly the TV program […]

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This is a great story from the LA Times about an entrepreneur who, somewhat reluctantly, has stumbled upon a bonanza selling live fish — almost exclusively to Asian markets and restaurants.
Most of the action here takes place in the China/Asia town in downtown Oakland, just a few blocks from where I lived for several […]

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I go to a lot of weddings in Korea. My wife works for a big company and all her friends are of Korean marrying age. Going to a bunch of weddings might seem like torture for some of you, but I enoy it. Well, I enjoy the buffets. This probably sounds rude if you’ve never been to a Korean wedding, but trust me, […]

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Over the weekend I wrote a piece for the travel and culture magazine Seoul about Busan. One of the things I wanted to include was an Anchang Village, a fairly remote place in the mountains. If you’ve ever been to Busan you know it’s something like a city dropped into a mountain range by the sea. Anchang Village is technically […]

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What’s better than a woman riding a giant shrimp to advertise a new item at the Korean McDonalds?

Korea’s most beautiful entertainer advertising a waterpark.

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By David Chalk
Last Sunday, I accidentally ended up at my first New York street festival of the year. From May to September, these street fairs are about as hard to find as a Starbucks.
Still, one thing made this street fair special, something I’d never seen at one before…. there was a stand selling Korean food!
The […]

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Last month a dental nurse and several friends walked into a Higashi Matsuyama Itoyokado McDonald’s in Saitama Prefecture, but what followed was no ordinary meal.
According to the Mainichi Daily News:
The group apparently took up a corner counter not easily visible to serving staff and went about their purportedly pornographic proclivities.
Ochiai apparently spent the time with his […]

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DATELINE: Bloomington, Indiana, USA
According to the 2000 Census there are 1,008 Korean people in Bloomington, though the Indiana University student body likely swells those numbers off of the books. In any event, I’m now convinced that all of them know Mama’s Restaurant: “Korean Cuisine,” downstairs from the yoga place and caddy corner to the Sherman-Williams […]

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A couple of minor league teams in South Dakota, the Sioux Falls Canaries and Dakota Provisions, are teaming up to bring fans a new item at the concession stands — Fowl Balls.
But these aren’t any ordinary balls, these are testicles. Deep fried turkey testicles.
The press-release says turkey testicles are delicacies in Japan and China. For […]

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There are plenty of Izakaya bars in Korea, but like the Japanese-style ramen joints that sometimes pop up here, it doesn’t hold a candle to the real thing. Most places use the word Izakaya as an excuse to charge extra for food that’s basically Korean. And in terms of the atmosphere and creativity, I’d might have […]

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From Korea Beat:
The March 25th broadcast of actress Hwan In-yeong’s “luxury lifestyle” ETN TV program, 백만장자의 쇼핑백 (The Millionaire’s Shopping Bag), had her try out “naked sushi”, which the Sports Hankook noted was invented in the United States and is supposed to make its eaters healthier.

I’ve only ever seen this in movies. I can’t believe […]

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Terrific article by Norimitsu Onishi for the New York Times titled Spaghetti Stir-Fry and Hambagoo: Japan Looks West, about a number of the Western-influenced dishes that have become staples of Japanese cuisine (Yoshoku)
Yoshoku was born during Japan’s Meiji Restoration, the period that followed this isolationist country’s forced opening by America’s so-called Black Ships in 1854. […]

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