Asian food, Asian lifestyle

Been getting some very concerned e-mails asking if I was sick or if I had lost interest in maintaining this blog. It appears that there are readers who think that this blog will become nothing more than a Readers’ Gallery. I love having the Readers’ Gallery — I do, I do! — and it will always be a part of this blog but it doesn’t mean I won’t continue posting recipes and photos of dishes I’ve cooked.

So, no, this blog goes on. Ad infinitum if I can have things my way. In fact, I’m baking a chocolate cake tonight and the recipe and photos will be posted right here. The reason there’s been a slowdown in posting is because I was busy with a new project. It’s called Feast Asia and it’s about Asian food and Asian lifestyle. I’ve moved some of the Asian recipes from this blog to Feast Asia and about a dozen more will follow.

But Feast Asia is not just a new place for old things. I’ve more than 40 blog entries there now (3 still in draft mode) and more than half of the 40 34 out of the 40 published entries are actually new — either new recipes or new takes on old recipes or new entries with additional and better information about Asian ingredients, herbs and spices. And most of the food entries are photo intensive. But Feast Asia isn’t just about food. It’s about a lot of other things. It hasn’t taken shape fully yet but it’s getting there faster than I had hoped. Take a look to understand what I mean.

The question I’m already anticipating — why not just post all of them here? Two things.

First, this is basically a food blog. I’ve experimented in the past by posting more than just recipes. There were some introspective articles (republished articles from my newspaper column and magazine articles I’ve written) and they never really sat will with the audience of this blog. They just seemed lost in Home Cooking Rocks!. But I really have this urge to write about food from a cultural context and I just don’t think this is the right place for that.

Second, the blogging technology in 2003 when I started this blog was not what it is today. There is so much more that a blog can offer these days that just weren’t possible over six years ago. And I want to utilize all these new tools. But if I were to reformat Home Cooking Rocks! to turn it into how I want it to be if I were just starting out today, I may have to shut it down for a month in order to complete the transition. I’m not really up to it.

So, I have Feast Asia.

But it’s not like Home Cooking Rocks! readers need to get lost to find all the new things in Feast Asia. The Google search bar on top of every page has been configured to include search results from both Home Cooking Rocks! and Feast Asia, and even my personal blog, House On A Hill. And it’s not like Home Cooking Rocks! readers will be getting 404 (error) pages when they look for Asian recipes that were originally published here. All the old entries have been retained — it’s the main text of the entries that were moved and all the old entries have links that point to the new ones.

So, to answer those concerned readers. The Readers’ Gallery will go on. New recipes in this blog will go on as well. It’s all good. And it’ll get even better.