On Sunday April 10th, Chef Arnold Wong is hosting a Special Benefit for Japan Night at E&O Trading Co. 314 Sutter Street in San Francisco to aid Japan following the country’s devastating natural disaster. This amazing evening brings together San Francisco’s finest restaurants, wineries and mixologists to raise funds for the victims of the Earthquake and Tsunami that hit Japan on March 11th.

Liam Mayclem of Eye on the Bay will preside as emcee from 5-9pm, live entertainment will feature local favorite Chef Joey Altman & The Backburner Blues and burlesque dancers, and the Bon Vivants will be mixing up amazing cocktails during this evening of great food, wines, spirits, live music, entertainment and a silent auction.

Tickets for the event are priced at $75 and 100% of proceeds from the evening will be donated directly to Give2Asia. …Representatives from Give2Asia will be in attendance to speak about their involvement with the Japanese community and outreach underway. Click here to purchase tickets. Tickets will also be available at the door based on capacity!

http://www.give2asia.org/documents/Give2Asia-JapanTsunami-HowToHelp.pdf

Participating Restaurants:
Betelnut
Butterfly
Contigo
Range
Slanted Door
Grand Cafe
StarBelly
Beast & Hare
One Market
Tres
Citizen’s Band
Live Sushi
Le Soleil
Basil Canteen
& More

Desserts:
Cocotutti
Kara’s Cupcakes
Nash Baker’s
Raison d’etre Bakery
Pinky’s Bakery
Namu Restaurant

Beverages:

September 11, 2013 - Hairy crabs are a popular delicacy in China. They are in season from August to October. A new vending machine has popped up in Hangshou, China reported by writer Gwynn Guilford of The Atlantic.com similar to this live hairy crab vending machine which debuted in a subway station in Nanjing, Jiangsu province December 17, 2010. The crab dispenser was designed by Shi Tuanjie, Chairman of the Nanjing Shuanghu Crab Industrial Company  Photo Credit by Sean Yong Reuters

Hangshou, China

The owner of the vending machine which just opened in Hangshou in September, 2013 is Mr. Liu who owns a live crab shop. He hopes to cater to crab buyers who come after hours when his crab shop is closed for the night.

11pm at night and hungry for live hairy crab? No problem, just head over to Mr. Liu's live crab vending machine!

Chef Susur Lee in the lobby of Shang, in the Thompson LES Hotel. (Photo by Lia Chang)

The inaugural 2010 Festival was 100% sold-out; this year’s festival expands to one week from May 2-8, 2011 at various locations throughout New York City. Participants of the LUCKYRICE Festival include members of the LUCKYRICE Culinary Council – Daniel Boulud, Susur Lee, Anito Lo, Masaharu Morimoto, amongst others, to include some of the world’s top restaurants, chefs, and mixologists. Tickets can be purchased at www.luckyrice.com. Proceeds from the festival will again benefit City Harvest.

“We are thrilled to be joined by BOMBAY SAPPHIRE and again by Conde Nast Traveler for the LUCKYRICE Festival this year,” said Danielle Chang, Founder of LUCKYRICE. “I am excited to share Asia’s rich culinary culture with so many New Yorkers and honored to be supported by our esteemed Culinary Council.”

ABOUT LUCKYRICE
LUCKYRICE is an integrated experiential marketing and media company that was launched in the spring of 2010. LUCKYRICE has quickly become the definitive guide to the Asian culinary world, which represents sixty percent of the world’s population. LUCKYRICE understands these cultures and creates a common denominator through the lens of food.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS*

Friends and family honored Shirley Fong-Torres' life at memorial services in San Francisco on July 24. Her life and vivacious personality touched people worldwide with her books, television appearances, and her Wok Wiz company's daily guided walking and culinary tours of San Francisco's Chinatown and North Beach.   

Shirley was born November 16, 1946 in Oakland, daughter of Connie and the late Ricardo Fong-Torres, and was a graduate of U.C. Berkeley.

She was a teacher in Texas and California, a chef, and after working in marketing for Levi Strauss, she created Wok Wiz in 1985, offering tours, as well as cooking lessons.

Her business drew rave reviews and quickly grew, and she built a staff of tour guides to meet demand. She wrote such books as San Francisco Chinatown: A Walking Tour, The Chinese Kitchen, Wok Wiz Chinese Cookbook, and The Woman Who Ate Chinatown. Shirley wrote articles for many food and travel publications and frequently appeared on radio and television including The Food Channel, History and Discovery Channels, and inflight for Hawaiian Airlines, Qantas Airlines and JetBlue.

She was active in many community groups and often served on the board of the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau. She had homes in San Francisco and Pacifica.

Today, January 1, 2012 marks the day that a major hotel chain, The Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels, Limited (HSH), owner of the Peninsula Hotels finally made it official - no more shark fins will be served. We hope many more hotels, restaurants, and fishermen will also stop killing the millions of sharks for their fins for soup.  

Let's make 2012 a year that you also take measures in your own hands to help our world become a better place. 

This is one of the most important stories of our lives, our Earth.

Not only is banning shark fins from menus one tiny step forward (and not ordering shark fins if it is still on other menus), eating fish, particularly the larger fish is not necessarily healthy.

Dr. Sylvia Earle, 75, scientist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence has been studying our oceans for more than 50 years. Dr. Earle urges everyone, "We have the power to make a difference and its time that we use that power positively not just for the dolphins, not just for the whales and the fish. It all comes back to us. We all share space on this little Blue Planet."

Earle told AsianConnections' Steven Joe at a Greenbuild Conference for GreenPlanet.TV "What we are doing to the oceans, we are doing to ourselves."