#Asian Travel

[lotusinjadewell]

Illustrations of Vietnamese food. Credit to Le Rin.

[ginaraemitchell]

Book Review: Pacific Dash: From Asia Vagabond to Casino King by Chet Nairene | Fascinating Autobiographical Fiction

Book Review: Pacific Dash: From Asia Vagabond to Casino King by Chet Nairene | Fascinating Autobiographical Fiction PACIFIC DASH is the colorful new novel tracking the vagabond life journey of Dashiell Bonaventure, a young American who roams Asia for decades, visiting beaches, vice dens and casinos, all in pursuit of thrills and truth. This vivid work of gaudy fiction transports readers to exotic worlds and is designed to satisfy all fans of armchair global travel, adventure fiction or romance. #BookReview

Book Review: Pacific Dash: From Asia Vagabond to Casino King by Chet Nairene Book Details ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Purchase Links for Pacific Dash Amazon-OneLink for all countries    BookShop/IndieBound ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My thoughts on Pacific Dash PACIFIC DASH offers readers a glimpse into the colorful back alleys of Asia, providing a rich tapestry of festivals, cultural practices, and vice…

[elinerlina2]

Rice fields in Bali, Indonesia 🌴

[taiyouvt]

ラーメン ２０２４年７月

[iko66]

Bagan, Myanmar

[theneondreaming]

[haedalkoo]

Are You Sure!? Trailer Thoughts

jikookers how are we feeling after this trailer? personally I AM UNWELL

I wanted to talk a little about the catchphrase they used on Twitter: "청춘 아니가, 낭만이지!" which they translated as "This is what I call youth!", but in my humble opinion it loses A LOT of the actual meaning (and it will drive you crazy.)

The literal translation is: "this isn't youth, this is romance!"

NOW DON'T PANIC. I had the same wide-eyed reaction until I pulled my years of Korean learning out of the back of my brain and remembered that, although the literal way to translate 낭만 (nangman) is romance/romantic, it leans into the meaning of "romanticizing something". I'm romanticizing this moment right now, this is ideal, perfect, beautiful. Not so much related to romantic love, but still pretty different from "youth."

The concept of youth, in Korean literature/media/culture/society, as well as in other Asian cultures, is related to what all of you must recognize as the most beautiful moment in life. Both in Japanese and Korean, the word for youth can be picked apart to mean "blue spring" (靑春). It's also an incredibly romantic term to describe an idealized view of youth, that sense of freedom.

For them, this trip was more than a reminder of the freedom of youth. It was romantic– it was ideal. It's such a powerful statement.

I can't wait for August 🖤🤍

[saphmiu]

/mexicanfaerie in Japan

[lotusinjadewell]

Huế, Vietnam. Credit to itscthinh (Instagram).

[tygerland]

Fan Kuan Travelers among Mountains and Streams. c. 1020. Ink and slight color on silk: 206 × 103 cm (81 × 40 in).

[elinerlina2]

Ban Gioc, one of Vietnam's most beautiful waterfalls

[ecoharbor]

📍Tadehara, Fuji Shi, Shizuoka, Japan 🇯🇵

[slavic-roots-western-mind]

Chinese Desserts

There's quite a large variety of treats and desserts in China (more than you can imagine), so here are some of the most common ones!

Almond jelly/tofu - 杏仁豆腐 - xìngréndòufu Despite the name, almond jelly doesn't actually have almonds in it. Almond jelly is made from gelatin and almond milk, although some recepies use dairy milk instead.

Glutinous rice balls - 汤圆 - tāngyuán These rice balls are made from glutinous rice balls with a sweet filling, such as red bean paste (a pretty popular filling in desserts, I've been fooled more than once when purchasing what I assumed to be a chocolate filled pastry).

Red bean buns - 豆沙包 - dòushābāo One of my favorite desserts so far. These are steamed buns with a sweet red bean paste filling that I'd definitely recommend.

Egg custard bun - 流沙包 - liúshābāo A sweet and savory bun, with a lava-like egg yolk filling. A pretty interesting dessert, as it's both sweet and savory.

Pumpkin cake - 南瓜饼 - nánguābǐng I haven't tried this yet, but it definitely looks good. A fried and crunchy cake with a sweet filling such as red bean paste.

Eight treasure rice pudding - 八宝饭 -bābǎofàn This is a pretty popular dessert, especially during the Lunar New Year. It gets this name becase of the toppings, which are eight or more different types of dried fruits and nuts arranged on top of the sweet rice, with (once again) red bean paste.

Hawthorn stick/ Candied Haws/ Sugar coated haws/ Bingtanghulu - 冰糖葫芦 - bīngtánghúlu This treat has quite a few translations and you may have probably already seen it. This is basically candied fruit covered with a sweet, crunchy and sugary syrup. Traditionally, Hawthorn is used but other fruits such as grapes, strawberries and oranges are also popular options.

Sachima - 沙琪玛 - shāqímǎ I haven't tried this snack yet, but it looks quite fascinating. Sachima is made from fried batter stuck together with a sugary syrup, with an interesting texture.

Sesame balls - 芝麻球 - zhīmaqiú Similar to the rice glutinous balls, this treat is also made from glutinous rice flour with varying fillings including lotus seeds, mung bean and red beans, and sesame seeds.

Water chestnut cake A sweet pan-fried cake made from chinese water chestnut, with a unique semi-transparent appearance.

Wintermelon puff/ Wife cake/ Sweetheartcake - 老婆餅 - lǎopóbǐng This cake has many names, mainly because it has several different origin stories, each more fascinating than the next. This dessert is a flaky pastry with wintermelon, almond (not red bean this time!) paste and sesame filling.

Fortune cake - 发糕 - fāgāo Not a fortune cookie! This is a spongy steamed cupcake cake commonly made for the New Lunar Year celebrations and occasionally other events. They're usually a white-ish or brown-ish color, but they're often dyed bright colors to add extra festivity.

Mooncake - 月饼 - yuèbǐng This is a pretty well-known dessert, commonly prepared for the Mid-Autumn Festival. Mooncakes are smallish steamd/fried (depends on the region) cakes with a sweet filling that can also sometimes have an egg yolk inside.

Osmanthus cake - 桂花糕 - guìhuāgāo This is a unique traditional pastry made from glutinous rice flour, honey and osmanthus. This cake has a really interesting texture, as it's quite dense but also airy in a way? I'd definitely recommend trying it, as it's not super sweet and goes really well with tea.