Stomachs on legs are proud to present

Our correspondent in Korea, Coco Solid (see blogpost below) also runs an agony cousin advice blog, philosoflygirl.blogspot.com,
where she drops gems like this on the regular: "I treat office politics like a dancefloor, sometimes I wanna shine - sometimes I'm cool sitting against the wall having a drink and saving my energy."

Here's an excerpt from a recent post, after a chef-dating Auckland waitress wrote in for advice.

Love on the boil


Hi Philosoflygirl,
We had a big family function the other week, lots of people came and my boyfriend's parents stayed with me & my boyfriend.

I went to bed while he and his parents continued talks late into the night.
I woke up and could hear them talking - and my boyfriends mother was telling him that she thought he was happiest when he was going out and working with his last girlfriend...See, his last girlfriend was a chef, and he is too, they were in a big restaurant making lots of money. Since he left her and has been with me, he is about to start his own business and things are financially hard, and I work in a cafe in town so its not like I make much, so together we aren't as rich as what he was with his last girlfriend and can't afford as many luxuries... but I know I support him in his dream, so we can work together one day in our own restaurant that we can own someday...

This has been upsetting me, cause I work hard and help him in his dream to be a chef on his own, and it hurts to hear people think he's better off working back in the hotels. I haven't told him what I heard, but its hard to speak out against someones mum...

Do I tell him what I heard?
Thanks Philosoflygirl...I hope you can help me...
Mere
Freemans Bay, AK.

Whut up girl.
That can easily sound like a tough one.
The good news is its not. I'm about to lay it on you girl so listen up.

Think of it like a 3 layered cake... well a gâteau really. There is your boyfriends completely new direction which is meeting inevitable resistance. Then there is his mothers opinion. The base (and the most important layer) is you. You secretly know you are bringing something less conventional but potentially amazing into his life, it just aint cooked yet. (Booya I get to abuse my food analogy licence, thanks Mere).

We have a saying in my family c/o of our good friend Jodhi Hoani.
"Even Maui had haters". This is especially poignant because it was Maui's own brothers who doubted his fishing abilities. Then he fished up Aotearoa. SHAME.

If the over-heard conversation is upsetting you (and I'm thinking its actually the comparison to his trusty ex that made you insecure) you can definitely tell him. Just be sure to tell him in a way that reinforces the commitment you have for his grand vision. Its pointless to be defensive, critical or lashing out at his mother or his ex. What will that prove? Keep it positive and be the hype-man.

I think you should simply take the classy zen ground and remind him why he chose you to ride shotgun for his slightly edgier future. He aint with his ex anymore so own it. Be as open and supportive as you want him to be when you share what has been bothering you.

And peace out on his Mum. The doubters will eat their words AND your mans incredible food when you dish it up to them yourself in a brand new restaurant. "How do you like them lightly sautéed apples!"

Love
Coco

I'm posting this on behalf of Gut Feelings contributor Coco Solid (pictured) who's just jetted off from the land of the long white cloud: read below and watch this space for further culinary updates from NZ's first lady of rap in South Korea!

Oh god the 'gut feelings' element of Korea is making the whole administrative horror to get here totally worthwhile. The food! Good god. The pop junk food expert gangsta in me is as appeased as the intrepid culinary thespian. Lotteria prawn burgers (my fuckin FAV), kimchi in every radishy soaked cabbage form and familymarts corner-stores for days. Last night I went to a raw fish restaurant where I had every single seafood in every single way ever. Jellyfish noodles, frozen tuna cakes and eel dessert were the only thing I went wae gook over and declined, but otherwise my Korean workmates met their very Maori match. There were caviar rice balls served like scoops of ice cream in a sushi seaweed cone shape, big sardines with a crunchy shell, sashimi of every pale shade, mussels with mustard and pumpkin served in honey.... everything here tastes great. A bowl of noodles the other night had me thinking "oh well you can't win em all" but then after adding sesame oil and a bunch of spicey and pickled condiments I found out you could. When could noodles be juicy?

I have yet to bomb the sprawling and steaming skewer stand downstairs from my work, but I am coming for you my pretty. Even the crummy airplane food served a better Bulgogi than I've had in some decent joints back home and a club sandwich I had at the bus station took me to a whole new place - don't you love non-western interpretations done better? Eggs, mustard, bacon and pickle are now gonna be in every toastie I make half-drunk. No more faux-camping laziness. I feel like I'm just getting started, so lets keep those scales exclusively for the kaimoana I swill, I'm off to eat some sesame bean-sprouts and Pocari Sweat lol - Asia I'm back!

Following hot on the heels of their last dope music video for Turtle Pizza Cadillacs,

Here is the brand new music vid release from our dear friends Bobbi Sox and Coco Solid (who is an occasional Gut Feelings contributor), aka PARALLEL DANCE ENSEMBLE (a Denmark/New Zealand coproduction). Look out for a crunchy sweet sour creamy album from them in the near future.

Last weekend Coco had lunch with the Black Panthers' minister of culture Emory Douglas - I'm looking forward to hearing about that particular meal.

I'm re-blogging her recipe for disco rap sconez, which, says Coco, are "SO awesome slash CABBAGE!"

I have an awesome fool-proof recipe for scones, which I will now rename sconez so yous don't tease me but they are so sweetheart I have to share. If you got someone to impress, half an hour and $5 this is you man.

1 300ml bottle of cream
1 can of 7up
4 cups of flour
Dash of salt

Put it together. Cut it in squares and bake it for 15 minutes at 250 degrees...I mean degreez. Me and my baby sister Claire baked these today being broke babe buddies and watching movies. Note the jam and leftover whipped cream on the side, plus a fistful of raisins were thrown in (pimp I was def pushing the $9 mark).

My food photography needs work but trust me these rule. Oh my god when did I turn 60 in the 60's.

Check her scone photo porn and buhloon crème brulée mindstate reflections at http://www.jessicoco.blogspot.com/

Only available at Shin-Chitose airport, Hokkaido.


And bento's from other airpots throughout Japan.

I saw them years ago in Tokyo, and alas, the Furaisu closed its doors in 2002.


What I remember is Ebi-furai (deep fried breaded shrimp) in a hand-roll, but seems like they also had Hire-katsu (deep fried breaded pork fillet) version as well.

Maybe it's better be called a mutant onigiri (rice balls) than hand-roll rushi... since it's probably rolling regular plain steamed rice, not sushi rice (with vinegar & sugar).
But surely the idea must have come from hand-roll sushi.

The name Furaisu comes from furai (deep fried stuff) and raisu (rice), of course.

Sorry for bad quality pictures... it was very dark and my camera sucked.

Brown rice & veggie nigiri:


Also, tofu quiche.


Both from Gaya-Aoyama, Tokyo.

I've been there in good old days when they were still a regular (i.e., not claiming "organic") izakaya.

It was a pleasant surprise when they turned into a healthy beige food capital.

They actually have both strictly macrobiotic veggie and non-veggie menus, so it's actually quite handy. A good variety of shochu and sake too.

You can also smile at the Japangrish introduction:

Since The GAYA restaurant originated in Yoyogi-uehara in Jun.28 1987,we've been struggling for our wishes that all guests get full of vitality and more healthy day and night．We've been branching out having hope to offer Delicious cuisine,Good drink, and Pleasant talk.

What is the TRUE TASTY?
What is real necessary for vitality of guests?

Since mad cow disease problem occured,we've thought of safety of food seriously and considered what our restaurant should be like.In truth,we had made an effort to purchase ingredients as low price as possible and hardly thought about the environment in which vegetables and meat grew.We started to concidered the importance of food deeply and we must change the stance of our restaurant.

We resolved to try opening up ORGANIC IZAKAYA!!

“All dishes the guests have build their bodies．”We'll always keep this in our mind and decided all ingredients and seasonings are natural. We call this “REAL FOOD".
Please have dishes,drink happily and laugh heartily．
Both a healthy mind and healthy body are true vitality．All of us try as hard as possible to help all guests with their vitality from now on.

My favorite line... What is the TRUE TASTY?

Brown rice sushi roll with tofu & veggie filling:


From a macrobiotic conference in Vermont a few years back.

I will not apologize for ordering a melted cheese-topped shrimp tempura roll; I have no patience for sushi purists. Wrap some seaweed around some pork floss and birthday cake, sprinkle salmon eggs and glitter on top: you have made legitimate maki. A "cheese-topped shrimp tempura roll" sounds good; this partially-combusted slice of wanksta petroleum loaf was just a carcinogen. It tasted like ashes.

America's Next Top Model alum Elyse Sewell continues to eat adventurously in HK & Mainland China
(Source)

A few syndicated photos & quotes today from China-based almost-top-model Elyse Sewell, whose Live Journal blog yields tasty tidbits from time to time: rather like a bowl of mystery congee.

I had dinner at a popular fast food restaurant. There was a picture menu; I recognized the character for "porridge" and ordered this stuff thinking it was going to be yumi zhou, corn porridge, northcountry cousin to my good friend congee. Dismay! It was regular rice congee, just wack and sweet with pieces of lycheeish fruit in it. Not satisfying. I saw a savory congee on the menu doe, so XiNet.Life and I will definitely tangle again. ("XiNet.Life"? Also today I saw a shopping center called "Email Fashion.")

For Christmas, Elyse says she'll take "pretty much anything from Aisle 21"

If you're one of the few brave souls who've been following this blog for while you'll know that some Gut Feelings contributors spend quite a lot of time around musicians. Meanwhile others amongst us just really enjoy having the noodle-blues.

Even Gut Feelings muse Robert Sietsema started out his career making a food zine which he distributed to musicians and chefs, and he played in a band called, I think, Mofongu (a misspelled version of the Dominican dish).

Today I found a fun post by Hugh Powell on the Smithsonian Food & Think blog. Inspired by two somewhat similar books about indie bands and their favourite dishes, he posted a list of song-inspired dishes that he'd like to sample.
As you might be aware, no music lover can resist a themed top ten.. so below are six more.

The books Powell refers to include offerings from a few decent bands like Black Dice, They Might Be Giants and Animal Collective. And, as I would have totally guessed, many of the offerings are of the 'vegetarian while on tour' ilk. Being on the road seems to preclude fancy preparations. So what you end up with is much ado about a little bit of french fries, peanut butter, and if you're lucky, vege hotdogs.

Although vegetarian hotdogs and other fake meats are the international language of indie rock, most touring American hip hop artists will eat nothing but chicken (preferably with rice) or lamb, and if you go to an Italian restaurant they will take pizza or try to order Pasta Alfredo, though in some rare cases they may be brave enough to try the penne alla salsiccia.

English musicians can be quite adventurous. Almost as a rule, though, when it's very late at night they are very happy if confronted with a plate of chips, a curry (korma or vindaloo) or a döner kebab. And of course endless cups of tea.

Italian electronic musicians are not impressed with Asian-style noodles, in fact they will become restless and perturbed if served soba. They are quite willing to try new things, and in a few cases even enjoy sushi, but after two days they will secretly be craving spaghetti carbonara or Sicilian pesto with almonds. If you serve soft ricciarelli marzipan cookies, they will intone 'bene' (good) a few times as they chew.

In other words, in my experience, musicians conform to national stereotypes just like everyone else.

So anyway, here are my additions to Hugh Powell's top ten: things we'd like bands to cook for us.

11. die Goldenen Zitronen's soup, even though they won't eat it ("Meine Suppe Ess Ich Nicht")
12: Cat Steven's doughnut (as long as it's not made of dog)
13. Fela Kuti's Palm Wine
14. Milton Nasicmento's spicy christmas cookies (with "cloves and cinnamon")
15. Any baked goods by the Stranglers (if they turn out "Golden Brown")
16. Bernard Wright's "Bread Sandwiches" (especially if he spreads the love on them)

According to the Melbourne Age

FOUR days spent steering a motorbike north from Chiang Mai along the Burmese border along dangerously snaking roads must have made food blogger Phil Lees challenge his actions. Surely, he questioned the madness of making a white-knuckle, eight-day return trip through bamboo-covered mountains to slurp one bowl of khao soi soup? In a word, no.

"I think, at some point, in the trip it just tipped over the edge," explains Lees, creator of Cambodia's first street food blog, http://phenomenon.com.

After three years in Asia, he recently returned to Melbourne and now writes a food blog, Mouthful, for SBS online. "Suddenly, we weren't going to see anything any more. We were just going to eat."

So when a Cambodian friend tipped him off that some of the tastiest khao soi came from a nondescript joint near the entrance to Mae Hong Son's market "a few lazy days on a motorcycle away", well, what choice did a culinary crusader have?

To this day, Lees says, that bowl of coconut creamy curry served over flat egg noodles and melting-off-the-bone-tender beef, with a tart complement of pickled cabbage, stands uncontested as the best bowl of noodle soup he's eaten. Welcome to the world of the food warrior. No dish too abstract, no taste too challenging and no geography too impassable, these obsessives hunt out the best of the regional, the seasonal and the unusual in their journey to uncover the heart of foreign cuisines. Leave the guide books to the masses, they say, donning their metaphoric khakis - there's a whole world of food experience out there and we're going to hunt down every delicious bite.

I wonder if this is the same as Hock dragging me half way across town to eat a crappy diner breakfast at Joe Juniors in NYC just cause he's read about it being good by some hack on the intertubes....does half an hour on the subway and digesting half a pound of pure fried American fat at 9 am in the morning count as hardcore? Can we join the food warrior club too?

Ok, so yes...I've been watching all the posh noshes.....this one is brilliant....

While Gutfeeling's own Maytel has broken the bonds of Bangkok into the welcoming arms of my hometown Melbourne, I've seamlessly slipped into her place in Thailand and have been abusing the Chef privileges. Witness: above fleischwurst platter. Count those mustards.

The Thai-German meat connection scares me. Two disparate cultures coming together to make sausages generally ends in disaster rather than deliciousness. I'm not sure what it is about Bangkok that makes it work, but I suspect that it is a man named Otto Duffner. Otto arrived in Bangkok in 1981 at the behest of the Boonroad Brewery where he worked in their bierhaus before branching out into his own brewery/bakery/butchery store in 1984. Since then, he's been churning out the above wurst and bread at Bei Otto of exemplary quality.