Monday Meme 22: One Food.
1.  What is your favorite food in your state or country? Please give some information about the food and add pictures.
So Nicole tagged me with this one. I looked over this meme 3 times, and all the meme says is pick one food that I love from the place I’m currently in.
One.
One?
ONE!??!!!!!!!
Is she kidding me? I’m in Hong Kong right now. The supermarkets here have magnum ice-creams, coconut macaroons, redbean popsicles next to the cha shiu, sticky rice, and other dumplings.
It might be easier to ask me to pick what is the best dish among foie 
gras on steak, crispy duck with flour wrap, the lobster fresh with drizzling clarified butter, or the Chinese succulent roasted pig.Â
Choosing amongst those four would be alot easier than just picking out one food that I love.
Then I thought - ok, how about one food item that I can’t live without and helps me concentrate?
That helped narrow down to around 20 items.Â
Sticky rice 糯米飯, BBQ pork buns, juicy duck made in two ways, shanghai dumplings, vegetable dumplings, fried wantons, turnip cakes, turnip pastries…
(I can hear some of you gagging right now at the word “turnip”, but you must, for once, entrust your tastebuds with me when I say this stuff is delicious, especially when it is done well at the Crystal Jade. Or the fabulous shanghai dumplings at Din Tai Fung.)
Anyhow, back to picking out one food.Â
One.Â
What a laugh.Â
So my mind began to wander, how about the one food that you will always eat no matter what mood, what situation, whatever diet, and whatever temperature is out there?
And then I got it. It’s so simple.Â
 
Rice.
Yes, I know it sounds boring - plain and simple.  Here’s the thing.  The genius of rice is its versatility and flavor… porridge, paellas, leaf-wrapped sticky rice dumpling, sushi, rice and beans, rice cakes (sweet and savory)… I’m not even getting into the rice flour papers, rice paste, and other rice sweets and treats. It’s delicious, nutritious, and unique in its own way.
We have an entire series of cookers which its one singular function is to cook rice - and only rice. And practically every family has a rice cooker in their kitchen.
I mean, which culture would have the parents warn their children of wasting food with, “Every grain of rice you waste would present more dimples on your future husband face.”
No matter what cuisine I’m savoring and tasting, by the end of the trip, whether I be starving or just hungry, I need a good plain bowl of hot steamy rice. Just white jasmine rice, no bells or whistles. From my carnivorous tastebuds to my vegan moments, I love rice. It’s a miracle food.
God bless rice.
Sorry Nicole, no surprises, no mind-blowing recipes or combination of tastes. This is what I believe is timeless and perfect in every grain.
2. Post link and add to the list below.
Mybabybay loves Asam Laksa from Penang, Malaysia
JustMyThoughts loves Penang Char Koay Teow
My Lil Venture loves Laksa Sarawak
Monterssorimum loves Teluk Intan Chee Cheong Fun
Chinnee loves Melaka Wan Tan Mee
PeimunLeah loves Hakka Lei Cha
Hui Sia
Jonamum
Karen loves Pan Mee
Something about Lai loves Crispy duck skin from China
Simple American loves Cheese Enchiladas
Nicole Tan loves Char Tau Kueh
CuriosityKiller
3. And tag 5 people.
JellyJules
Christine
Ms.Mamma
Wreckless
Waz
I have to go and steam some rice right now. Excuse me.
May 21st, 2007 at 8:55 am
haha are you kidding me??? I’m writing this place down on my list of places to go to try already!!! wooo that pig looks so good!!!! yummy!! can’t wait to go HK now!!! well done!!
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May 21st, 2007 at 10:13 am
You mean Rice Krispies, right?
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May 21st, 2007 at 1:30 pm
Nicole — I tried to include a bunch of stuff that’s not so plain… glad you like the honorable mentions.
Diesel — Rice Krispies included.
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May 23rd, 2007 at 4:41 am
Good point. Rice is delicious - even as simple as it is. But you got me so hungry with all the previous honorable mentions!!! My stomach is growling. Thanks alot.
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May 23rd, 2007 at 5:45 pm
Boo — I haven’t even gotten into the dim sum dishes. We should go dim sum.
xoxo — Thank you for vouching for the turnips, I feel so bad for them.
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May 24th, 2007 at 6:07 am
thanks for the tag! i’ll try to do it by next monday, promise!
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May 24th, 2007 at 9:09 pm
Should be easy enough for ya, Waz… I’ll look forward to reading it next monday.
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May 26th, 2007 at 11:11 am
[...]Curiosity Killer tagged me and asked me to come up with one food from my area. I immediately thought of a hiking trip I took with my brother in the Upper Peninsula and we ran into a pasty shop. I never had one and decided to try it. I fell in love. I didn’t know anything about them and had some wrong assumptions until this post. I went to Wikipedia and did a little research. I found out a wealth of scruptious info on my beloved pasty.
Read the following and find out what the devil, knockers, and canibalism have in common with my paradigmatic pasty!
Pasti, Hoggan, incorrectly written as pastie) is a type of pie, originally from Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is a baked savoury pastry case traditionally filled with diced meat, sliced potato and onion.
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May 30th, 2007 at 2:28 am
[...]Wow! Long time since there has been any meme around here!
I’ve promised and here I’m keeping me word. This is me blog response to Killer’s Monday Meme #20: One Food and Monday Meme #21: Find Yourself Score.
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