Wednesday, April 29, 2015

For The Love Of Asian Food

Having lived in Japan for a few years, it took a while for me to get accustomed to the food. Coming from the Caribbean where we cook with lots of flavorful ingredients like thyme, lots of it, seasoning peppers, basil, and other spices, there is no need to add a lot of salt. So being introduced to Japanese food, one must imagine the absolute shock to the taste buds. I found the food bland. Needless to say I lost weight within the first few months of being there. Not being able to identify certain foods, going to restaurants and ordering was a disaster as nothing on the menu was written in English. When you finally got the dish it would not be what you thought it was. More often than not, there would be a partially cooked egg on the top. I can't eat eggs. Not the white, not the yolks, not fried or boiled. No Eggs!

As the months passed by the taste buds adjusted themselves and I finally settled into the culinary delights of the country. Now, the food is one of the things I miss most about Japan. Any opportunity or family gets, we go to a country in Asia, and the first thing we do is seek out a Japanese restaurant. That's exactly what we did when we got to Saigon, and we were lucky. There was one in the hotel.

A hot bowl of miso soup is so comforting, and it always reminds me of the cold winter evenings when we would stop at a little restaurant after our long road trips.

What is your favorite comfort food? Tell me, in the comments below.

Sunday, April 26, 2015

Project Saturation

Since my last blog post, I've been working on quite a few projects. Anyone else like that? I need to work on more than one project at a time. It's the only way I stay motivated to finish what I started.

First came the poppy project were a few ladies from our art/craft group got together to make over 400 paper poppies for a memorial day event. Let me tell ya that project brings new meaning to the term "seeing red".

Then there was the Vietnam spring break trip where my family spent a week in Saigon. It was this time that I took the opportunity to start a travel art journal. I don't know why I never thought of it before but now is a good time as any. I will post a few of those entries from time to time.

I have just started a new project. A commission piece to be done on a 24 by 36 inch canvas. So far the biggest canvas I have ever painted on. So far the background is done, and I am waiting for it to speak to me to tell me what to do next. Yes me an my canvases talk.

              Here are the first two layers of the canvas.


 There seems to be a fish emerging below. Let's see how it goes.
Want to see what happens next? Click follow in the side bar, or subscribe via email to get notified when the next post gets published.