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US Army Ranger Master Sgt. Mark Morgan: six tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq; ranked number three in the world as pastry chef. From the Peninsula Warrior:

“I’m not as good as I used to be – it’s been 10 years,” the Bronze Star recipient said, referring to the past decade that he served in the 75th Ranger Regiment. He deployed twice to Iraq and four times to Afghanistan in support of Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom.

But it can be said that he must have left quite the lasting impression among those in the culinary circuits, because he previously competed in the WACS Culinary World Cup in 1998, 2000 and 2004 as a member of the Army’s culinary arts team. Morgan continues to remain in touch with ACF coaches and managers.

“Networking (is) probably the reason for the ‘name drop,’” he said.

His peanut butter ganache earned him third place among 55 pastry chefs. Morgan also prepared four desserts, which together, were called “Pumpkin and Spice”. They included a spiced pumpkin custard; walnut cake inside a coconut blossom; red currant compote; and a cinnamon beignet on poached pumpkin petals, a trio of cranberry, and honey, yogurt and pumpkin sorbet with a pumpkin-thyme essence.

Super Baozi vs Sushi man from sun haipeng on Vimeo.

Just add this to the list of food attacking each other videos.

So I may have quibbled in the past with the general precepts of veganism.

In my view its moral philosophy, claims to ecological superiority and overall social value remain contentious.

But I sure do love their shoes....introducing the "Vegan" wrap around boot from Tom's Ethical Shoe Store




Not loving the dried pig ear bracelet so much

I am not sure if Maytel is ready for this.


A colloidal and humble sibling of okonomiyaki is called monja-yaki.

While okonomiyaki is more of Osaka-origin (western Japan) and has a Hiroshima (southwestern Japan) variant, monja-yaki is of downtown Tokyo (eastern Japan)-origin.

Similar ingredients (shredded cabbage, flour, dashi broth, plus some extra meat, seafood, veggies etc.), but more watery.


Due to its high water content, it never solidifies.

You first fry the cabbage on the griddle, then make a cabbage circle weir, then pour the watery flour-mix ingredients in the middle. The batter is so watery that without the cabbage weir, it won't stay on the griddle.

When it's cooked it has a consistency of slime.


When done, you eat it with the special small metal scraper, directly from the griddle.


I know what you might be thinking.

It pretty much looks like puke.

As a matter of fact, the very first time I ate monja-yaki when I was a kid, I puked later in the evening, and thought it's not that different.

Okonomiyaki and monja-yaki, those flour batter food originates back in the postwar days in Japan. Having been bombed throughout the country, the rice was scarse, so people made something with flour that came in the aid package, mostly from the U.S.

Speaking of monja-yaki, there has not been much ingredient other than flour, water and a bit of chopped cabbage and seasonings.

Small candy shops would have a small griddle out on the street, and kids would come holding their wee pennies. They'd play with the batter by drawing letters on the griddle, thus the name monja-yaki (coming from moji=letter and yaki=fry).

Today it has become a lot more lux, some monja-yaki restaurants even throw in Norwegian salmon.

Tsukishima is famous for having their shopping arcade filled with fifty or more of these monja-yaki restaurants that it's often referred to as "monja street."

There may be some competitions, but when one place is full, impatient customers would go to another two doors down, so all in all it's not that ferocious. The problem is, once you are done with monja-yaki and want to move onto something else, you are surrounded by fifty other restaurants that serve the same thing.

The monja-yaki restaurants close somewhat early, most of them closing well before 10pm.

Another downtown monja-yaki enclave is found in tourist-friendly Asakusa, but unlike the monja street in Tsukishima, the restaurants there are more scattered.

Seeing the history of war presented as stop-motion animated hamburgers does not in any way make it more palatable.