East Asian Kitchen – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Perhaps more than anyone I’ve ever met, my Singaporean friend Ming Lee (God rest his beautiful soul) regarded people by the content of their character, not by physical characteristics.  So, it surprised me to hear him joke “we all look alike.”  It was an unsolicited admission that even he couldn’t always discern the cultural genesis of Asian people he met.  He also joked “at least I can always tell where an Asian restaurant’s food comes from.”  Ming was a bona fide gastronome who introduced me to the cuisine of Singapore and Malaysia.  Like me, he disliked restaurants in which overt homogenization of Asian food was apparent.  Sure, different culinary cultures across Southeast Asia have borrowed from one another over the…

I Grill Korean BBQ & Hotpot

You hear it very time a seismic event or devastating conflagration strikes California.  Doomsayers seem to come out from under the rocks to proclaim it “divine castigation.”  That’s also their argument when the Golden State’s elections don’t go as they would like.  These very same people don’t seem to like much about California.  Such negativity makes me wonder if these fatalists have ever spent much time in this fabled  land of opportunity and adventure.  There’s got to be a reason California is the most populous state in the union.  Surely the forty-million residents would be leaving in droves if it was that bad. Although the Air Force took me to most of the contiguous states in the country, it was…

K Style Kitchen – Albuquerque, New Mexico

If you’re susceptible to the power of suggestion–especially as it pertains to ear worms (recurring tunes that involuntarily pop up and stick in your mind)–you’re probably going to hate me (or you can skip this paragraph and continue to love me).  That’s because if you do read this paragraph you’re going to be humming to yourself one of the most annoying songs of all time–Gangnam Style.  Arguably, Gangnam Style is not as annoying as La Macarena or My Humps (which Rolling Stone declared “the most annoying song ever”). The more you try to suppress Gangnam Style, the more your impetus to hum it increases, a mental process known as ironic process theory.  By the way, those most at risk for…

Hanmi Korean-Chinese Fusion – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Popular culture is defined as “commonly known information that briefly holds the public interest. It is typically discussed in various mass media, including TV and the Internet, and becomes a topic of everyday conversation (what used to be called a “water cooler conversation” before that term fell from popularity).  Apparently you’re out of touch with pop culture when you believe Game of Thrones is a video game and that Taylor Swift is a sprinter, the female equivalent of Usain Bolt. Approaching forty years of youth, I’d probably be completely out of touch with pop culture were it not for our interns at UNM Information Technology.  They do their best to educate this old fogey on what’s lit, cool, on fleek…