Yangsze Choo's Blog, page 3

So What Do Authors Wear, Anyway?

I’m heading off to NYC today for Page Turner, the Asian American Writers Workshop Festival, and one of the things that has stumped me as a newbie author is “what do people wear to these things?” I never thought about this much until recently, when I had a number of book events to do. Even more alarming were the requests for author pictures to go with interviews. It was then that I realized that there’s a big difference between clothes that feel comfy (like sweats) and clothes that, um, photograph well.

The not-so-fashionable ’90s

Now, I must confess that before I became a stay-at-home-mum I did have another sort of wardrobe. This consisted of corporate-looking suits and their accoutrements. In fact, a leather briefcase was the first thing I bought after I graduated from university and got a real job. In a burst of enthusiasm, I rushed out and got one to signify that I was now one of the teeming, employed masses. In fact, when I was telling my mum that my publisher needed an author photo, the first thing she suggested was “why don’t you wear a nice suit?” I was only able to dodge this by pointing out that the few old suits I had left were boxy-shouldered and made me look like a prosecutor from the 2001 season of Law & Order (we’re talking Sam Waterston here, not Angie Harmon).

Jhumpa Lahiri could wear a potato sack and still look stunning

And then if I went further back in time, there was my college wardrobe from the 1990s. If anyone has forgotten what was “in” during the ’90s in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it was flannel shirts and Birkenstocks worn with socks. Now when I look at old photos, I experience this sense of horror. What was I thinking, wearing those flannel sacks and even green corduroy pants when I was still relatively slim at the time? And everybody had floppy “Friends” hairdos, except for me. I just had a bad case of puffy hair that lasted a decade.

I was explaining this to one of my fashionable friends, when she said “So what did you wear in high school?”

“Uniforms!” I said. This was perhaps the crux of the matter. Growing up in Asia and Europe, I wore school uniforms for most of my formative years. Actually, I think it’s quite a good idea. You never have to worry about what to wear, or whether it’s appropriate.

Jo Nesbø – just your average Norwegian rockstar turned novelist

Which brings us back to what do authors wear for public occasions? A quick perusal of some of my favourite writers, like Jhumpa Lahiri and Jo Nesbø, simply revealed that some people are so good looking that it doesn’t matter what they wear. Unfortunately, that’s not my problem.

The other thing I discovered from years of house-wifery is that I don’t like to wear uncomfortable clothes. After all, if you have to squeeze under furniture to retrieve bits of Lego and Playmobil for your children, you might as well make sure you’re not splitting a seam. This means my wardrobe has been in large part taken over by yoga pants. I’m not joking. The few meager shelves that house my clothes are mostly occupied by stretchy, fleece-like apparel.

“Is it even a little bit cute?” I asked my husband, anxiously.

“It’s not baaa-d”, he said kindly. “But you can’t go and sign books like that.”

Of course, he was absolutely right. Nobody wants to see an escapee from a Wallace & Gromit movie. Not even me (I want to see Jo Nesbø). So I did a personal “know thyself” fashion reckoning:

Don’t wear horizontal stripes all the time. I have a penchant for striped tops, probably a carryover from early Sesame Street fashion influences Earnie and Bert. But I realize, reluctantly, that it’s not the most flattering silhouette.
Wear clothing that’s comfortable, yet professional. This means tailored jeans for me and a nice blouse.
Go out and actually buy a nice blouse. Yes. I had to force myself to go to the mall and look for clothes. This is very difficult because the clothes that you are trying desperately to buy are extremely wily when they know you are hunting them down, and tend to be suddenly “out of stock”.
Don’t leave this until the day before you depart for a literary festival in NY.

If you’re in NYC or Brooklyn on Saturday, October 5th 2013, I’ll be at Page Turner, the Asian American Writers Workshop literary festival, speaking at 6pm on a panel with novelists Justin Torres and Porochista Khakpour. I’m told there will be street food and make-your-own-dumplings. And if you come, you can find out whether or not I managed to give up my beloved Dansko clogs!

Photo credits: Allen Ginsberg - http://www.obit-mag.com/articles/alle.... Jhumpa Lahiri – Elena Seibert. All other photos linked back to sources.

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What do you like to wear?

Terrible or Great? Hand-painted Chinese Movie Billboards

Recently, I wrote a guest post for She Reads about how, when I was a little girl, my grandmother lived in a small town in Malaysia opposite a cinema which showed scary Chinese movies. We children were not allowed to go and watch them, although from the front window we could see people lining up to buy tickets. Instead, we could only stare longingly at the vividly coloured, giant billboard and wonder what the shows were about.

A prime example of the kind of lurid film we were not allowed to watch.

While I was writing my She Reads guest post, I thought of lots of additional things I wanted to share about old Chinese movies, and so I decided put them into this companion post instead.

In those days cinema billboards (or hoardings, as they were called) were an art form. They were so gigantic that they were hand-painted, using the old “copy by squares” method. The most thrilling part was to watch as an old billboard was taken down and a new one put up and painted in place, usually within a day. I always marveled at those billboard painters, who took great pride in their work.

This is THE Chinese ghost movie with Leslie Cheung and Joey Wong that later spawned several sequels.

Of course, not all of it was good. Sometimes film stars ended up looking rather squashed and distorted. And the colours were often quite garish, which somehow added to the allure. To this day I can’t look at this kind of cinema poster without feeling a certain nostalgia and powerlessness. It reminds me of late afternoons, when the smell dinner cooking would permeate my grandparents’ shophouse, and that feeling of childhood boredom and despair when you and your siblings/cousins are all reduced to hanging out of the upstairs front window and staring at the movie billboard opposite.

The classic open door pose. We kids used to copy this stance when entering the front door. (I don’t know why their hands look like camel toes).

For some reason, that cinema showed a lot of B-rated Chinese horror movies, and the ensuing lurid billboards were both fearful and enthralling. One of them, I recall, was about a ghost who removed one eyeball and rolled it down the corridor. At least that’s what I surmised, since we never got to see it. It also showed a lot of kung fu movies, gangster flicks, and romantic comedies.

Before Chow Yun Fat did all those John Woo movies, he also appeared in films like this…

While looking for examples of movie posters from that era, I was struck by the bouffant hair and soft looks of many of the stars of my childhood. People like Chow Yun Fat 周潤發, Leslie Cheung 张国荣, Cherie Chung 鍾楚紅, Anita Mui 梅艷芳, Maggie Cheung 張曼玉, and Do Do Cheng 鄭裕玲 (wow, this really dates me!). In contrast, celebrities today sometimes resemble impossibly slim, muscular cyborgs.

If you’d like to read my guest post for She Reads, they’re also sponsoring a giveaway – a signed copy of The Ghost Bride. Hop over to check it out and enter to win!

What to watch:

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Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui in “Rouge”. An arthouse take on the Chinese ghost story.

“Rouge”, the 1988 Hong Kong ghost movie starring Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui, two of the biggest Hong Kong stars at the time. This was one of the first arthouse Hong Kong ghost movies (as opposed to B-movies and horror comedies), and I remember being struck by its sense of nostalgia for a time that I never knew. Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui sang and cross-dressed, which in retrospect, held a lot of nuances (Cheung had not come out yet about his bisexuality at the time). I wonder whether the movie was more meaningful to me then because of the Cantonese background, and whether someone from a different culture would merely find it slow moving and unintelligible?

What to eat:

Won tons in soup – the classic Cantonese little soft dumplings made of pork and shrimp, that are often compared to swallowing clouds.
Hong Kong milk tea (奶茶) – very strong black tea sweetened with condensed milk.

Photo credits: All movie posters from http://hkmovieposter.blogspot.com/, with the exception of “A Chinese Ghost Story” (http://mutantville.com/blog/a-chinese-ghost-story-1987-sien-nui-yau-wan) and the movie still from “Rouge” (http://www.apessimistisneverdisappointed.com/2011/04/leslie-cheung-1956-2003.html).

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What old movie posters do you particularly remember?

5 Things To Do in Los Angeles

Whenever I’m in Los Angeles, there are a few things that I secretly put on my to-do list. “What secret?” says my husband. “You know you’ll make us all do this anyway!” I have to admit that he’s right.

When I married a Chinese-American guy from Los Angeles, I didn’t realize that I was also gaining an entree into the alternate world of the San Gabriel Valley. A world where supermarkets, restaurants, dentists, churches, chiropractors, and foot massage parlors are all casually Chinese. A friend of mine confided that his parents don’t even need to speak English. They get Hong Kong cable TV, read Chinese newspapers, and wander off to eat in various holes-in-the-wall where the daily specials are scrawled on a white board – in Chinese.

Homesick as I was for SE Asia, I was thrilled. But besides some very good Chinese restaurants, the San Gabriel Valley has a few other hidden gems. Here are some of my favourites:

1. Golden Deli

My love affair with Vietnamese food is all due to Golden Deli, a restaurant that has lines of people standing outside it day and night. I like their pho with tripe and tendon, as well as their rice plates (91A gets you broken rice, grilled pork, shrimp cake, and steamed egg. The rice is dusted with peanuts and shredded pork skin). Also, their fried egg rolls are to die for. Rolled up in a lettuce leaf together with mint, cilantro and cucumber, it’s like a salad with a deep-fried secret. Don’t forget to order a soda chanh – lime juice, sugar, and sparkling water over ice.

2. Half & Half

This recent addition to my list is the best bubble tea I’ve found in N. America to date (although I’m always open to trying new candidates), so much so that I wrote an entire, besotted blog post about it.

3. Senor Fish

Ok, this is actually a picture of the Little Tokyo location…

Soft corn tortillas stuffed with a generous helping of tender fried and battered fish, topped with shredded cabbage, salsa, and crema. Nothing really says Southern California like a fish taco paired with an icy cold Coca-Cola (regular, not diet) on a burning hot day.

4. Euro Pane

A dreamy, Japanese take on a European artisanal bakery, Euro Pane serves the best open-faced egg salad sandwiches around. Although they’ve opened a chic new location further south on Colorado, I still prefer the original because that’s where you can get a smoked salmon sandwich with dill mayonnaise on their signature sourdough bread (the new location only serves it on a kind of hard, crunchy biscuit). An unsung star is their ham and cheese sandwich, as well as all of their baked goods. There’s something about Euro Pane’s ambience and excellence that reminds me of Hayao Miyazaki’s movies – specifically, “Kiki’s Delivery Service”, which takes place in a vaguely European town.

5. Vroman’s

One of the best indie bookstores in the country, Vroman’s is a place that I always end up at. I’ve discovered so many good reads there, as well as gifts, pens, calendars etc. I could easily go on a giant shopping spree there every day of the week. And so, when I heard that Vroman’s would host me for a book reading, I was incredibly excited.

“Wow!” I said to my long-suffering husband. “Vroman’s!”

“Are you still planning to eat 4 meals tomorrow?” he said. I told him I would think seriously about it. Especially since Half & Half’s bubble tea is probably 1000 calories per cup.

I’m in Los Angeles for the next few days to do an author event at Vromans, on Tuesday Sept 10 at 7pm. I’ll be giving a talk about ghost marriages, signing books, and giving away collector’s cards. Please sign up and share on Facebook here.

And if you’re on the West side, I’ll be doing an informal meet-the-author event on Monday, Sept 9, from 6-7pm at the Funnel Mill coffee shop, where I’ll just be sitting around to chat, sign books, and answer all your burning questions.

Please come join me – I’d love to see you! And please share!

Photo credits (thanks to Flickr!): Euro Pane, Issac Hsieh; Senor Fish, Mentat Kibernes.

Recording My Audiobook

Happy Publication Day! The Ghost Bride was (finally) published on August 6th!!

In a burst of optimism, I auditioned to read my own audiobook and was actually approved. I was very excited about this, as reading aloud is a favourite activity with my kids and brings back happy memories from my childhood when my father read all the Chronicles of Narnia to us.

Apparently, audiobooks are more popular than ever. In fact, a number of people have told me that they hardly digest books in any other form nowadays. The reasons for this ranged from “I don’t have any time” to “I like to listen to books when I’m driving”. And of course, there was the Big Caveat. “I can’t stand it when the narration is horrible”. Uh oh.

Now that reality was upon me, I suddenly realized that I should have been spending all my free time preparing character voices, practicing pacing etc. Instead, I had been doing things like cooking crustaceans and wondering what kind of snacks to serve at book readings.

Before the studio recording session, I had a phone conversation with Susan Stone who was going to direct me. Yes, it turns out that studio recordings are directed much like plays are, in terms of pacing, emotion etc. After going through the logistics of the 4 days booked for studio time, she gave me a number of pointers. Such as avoiding dairy for a few days before recording as it tends to stuff you up. Also, consuming apples/apple juice in between takes helps because they contain pectin that coats your mouth and makes things sound smoother. “Oh, and don’t wear any noisy clothing”, she added. Apparently they’d once had an aging rockstar come in to read his memoirs and the sensitive microphone had picked up the squeaks from his leather pants.

Yes, I am wearing yoga pants. This is my dream job.

“How about yoga pants?” I said hopefully.

“Perfect!” she said. I was already smitten with Susan and this only cemented my high opinion of her.

On the first day of recording, I staggered off to the studio with the book script that my publisher had sent me. This was a stack of paper roughly the size of a 15 lb sack of rice, printed in a large font for easy reading and organized so that every page concluded with the end of a sentence. It turns out that digital studio recordings allow you to seamlessly cut out things like the sound of flipping paper, coughs, and things like elevator rumblings. In the old days, as Miik Dinko, the friendly sound engineer, told me, they used to cut out sections from spools of recording tape. Now, it can all be done on a computer.

I was very impressed, especially when Miik took the time to settle me in and adjust the microphone and seat. He did this every day of the recording, in case the mike had been moved in the interim. Apparently it was a rather sensitive and expensive microphone.

“How expensive?” I asked.

“About $700,” he said. “So don’t throw up on it.”

Gingerly, I sat down. A professional recording booth is basically a sound proof box with a glass window and a two way microphone, rather like a high-tech hamster cage. The outer room is where your director and sound engineer sit, together with computers and boards with lots of terrifying dials and switches.

The view from the recording booth/hamster cage (you can see the reflection of my script in the glass window)

And then we started recording.

I’ll never forget the words on the first page that I read. “Harper Audio presents: The Ghost Bride. By Yangsze Choo. This is the author.”

Aaaahhhh! I almost let out an undignified squeak, but there was no time. Also, a squeak would have to be edited out. In any case, there were lots of pages to cover and many many characters. Once again, I felt like kicking myself. Why were there so many people? And why were so many of them old men? Opium-addicted old men, grouchy old men, cunning old men… I tried my best to give them all different voices. Susan kept a log of the characters and what they sounded like, so that she could remind me by replaying previous dialogue with them. She did this every day of the recording which was extremely helpful.

It was surprisingly exhausting work. We recorded for about 6-7 hours a day, with breaks for lunch and snacks (many, many snacks – I ate lots of cookies to prevent stomach rumblings and doused myself with apple juice “for the sake of art”). But it was so much fun. Although I was terrified every time a new character appeared.

Every evening at home, I would hastily look over the next day’s script and practice the voices, all the while berating myself for not prepping months in advance. This kind of carefree attitude was sure to get me into trouble, I thought, conveniently forgetting that I had done this at school too. In addition to old men, there were several old women too. And young people, Dutchmen, and ox-headed demons… Susan’s deft direction kept me in character. Sometimes she and Miik would tell me to do things again. “He’s dying. Make him sound like he’s dyiiiiiiinng!!”

My 5″ thick recording script.

When we were halfway through the recording, Susan remarked, “It’s so nice that you’re doing different voices for characters. Many readers don’t, you know?”

What? I had clearly missed this option. Never mind that (thanks to my kids) I had been listening to a steady diet of books like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and had mistakenly assumed that this was the normal way to read an audio book.

But in that dim, underground studio, I fell into the world of the novel. All I could see was the words floating on the pages in front of me; it was such a small, intimate space that it felt as though I was speaking directly to a listener, perhaps somewhere driving in a car, or lying on a sofa with earphones on. Telling them a story in the most old fashioned way.

Thank you so much, Karen Dziekonski (Executive Producer in NYC), Susan Stone (Director), Miik Dinko (Engineer), and the team at John Marshall Media and HarperCollins who made this happen. It was an amazing experience, and one that I will treasure for the rest of my life.

Here’s Chapter One:

Suggested Book:

The Ghost Bride, by (ahem) me!  ;)

Suggested Snack:

Chocolate chip and dried cherry cookies, with lots of apple juice
Malaysian food mentioned in the book, including kaya toast, begedil (fried croquettes of mashed potato and minced meat), pie tee, and curry laksa.

Do you prefer reading or audio books?

Guest Post: Food for Thought – Immigrant Fiction

Today’s guest blogger is the talented Alison Klein, who combines a keen eye for literature with an equally discerning palate. Alison lives in Amsterdam and likes to read in the plane or on her roof terrace, or wherever else books happen to be. She prefers historical fiction, science fiction and mysteries. Her favorite food is ice cream and her dietary restriction is organ meats.

Guest post:

This summer I’ve read two excellent novels that I would like to recommend to the readers of this blog. One of them was recommended by a friend, and the other was written by a friend. In the first case, I had no idea what the book was about (well, given its title was Ghana Must Go I did suspect it might have something to do with Africa). This is actually my preferred way of reading a book: you just open it up, start reading, and see what happens. Of course you have to trust the person recommending the book somewhat. But in this way I’ve come to read several books I wouldn’t otherwise have read. Last year, for example, I read The Tender Bar, which was recommended to me by my mom (and by “recommended” I mean she left me her pre-read copy last time she came to visit). If you’d told me what the book was about, I probably wouldn’t have bothered. But it was a good read, and I ended up recommending it to another friend (and by “recommended” I mean depositing it on his dining room table when I visited just after finishing it in the train).

So I recommend you read both books, without reading the rest of this review. However, since I probably can’t get away with writing a book review and NOT saying anything about the books, I have included a few words below.

Ghana Must Go

Ghana Must Go is the story of a Ghanaian-Nigerian family making its way in the upwardly-mobile world of Boston, its medical-academic establishment and associated schools — and their forays, some chosen, some coerced, back to the world they left behind. Primarily a family drama, written with prose that melts into near-poetry at times, it traces the paths of six lives as they intertwine, diverge and reconnect before and between two moments of crisis. Heartbreaking and hopeful, with just enough historical context to give the reader a sense of knowing something about those countries’ post-colonial histories. Can’t-put-it-down good with a satisfying finish.

A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea is written by an Iranian immigrant to America, imagining what post-revolution life in Iran would have been like for a young girl imagining what immigrant life in America would be like. The main character wrestles with privilege and prejudice, religion (as a child of covert Christian converts who frequently host the local Muslim cleric in their home), sexuality and friendship, against the backdrop of the revolutionary guards and the loss of both her mother and her twin sister. As her adolescence blends into early adulthood, we see her coming to terms with her losses, her choices and finally her own freedom.

Recommended for anyone with any curiosity whatsoever about other people and their lives, or anyone who loves a great novel.

Click through for a Persian halva recipe!

Suggested snacks:

Ghana Must Go – leftover slice of birthday cake
A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea  - black tea with cardamom, almonds, cucumber with salt, halva, dates

Halva photo and recipe thanks to http://www.aashpazi.com/halva

Thanks so much for this lovely guest post, Alison! What’s your favourite immigrant food or fiction?

Boba! Boba! Boba!

Some foods are so addictive that they raise the suspicion that they’ve been adulterated in some way. Like the 215 restaurants in southwestern China that were shut down by narcotics police for adding opium to their food.

I don’t have any reason to believe that a bubble tea chain in Los Angeles is similarly inspired, but I do know that their product not only caused me to gain 5 lbs in 5 days during a recent visit, but also caused severe withdrawal symptoms.

What is bubble tea anyway?

Bubble tea is a Taiwanese invention which involves adding spheres of boiled tapioca to a milky sweet drink. It’s also known as “pearl tea” and “boba”. The “pearls” of tapioca are sweet, chewy, and delicious when sucked up through a jumbo-sized straw along with an icy slush of milky tea. If you don’t like tea, there are plenty of other choices, such as almond milk, taro milk etc. in pastel hues of pink and purple. Clearly, this is a drink for the Hello Kitty crowd.

I was very resistant to add bubble tea to my list of addictions. I had a bad feeling about it, even as my gourmet brother-in-law extolled the virtues of Half & Half – the bubble tea chain that had taken the San Gabriel Valley by storm. If it was so good that people were standing in line three doors down, then it would surely be my doom (by the way, this is the cardinal rule of thumb for choosing Asian eateries. If there is a line, go and stand in it and find out).

The den of iniquity

The line moved very slowly, but this was mitigated by the ecstatic expressions of the people who came out, sucking on what looked like large tubs of ice cream. I was struck by the size of these containers, which were easily 1.5 times larger than the usual bubble tea container. And that, I was told, was only the “regular”.

Certain that the “large” would also make me large, I studied the menu suspiciously. There, I discovered the differences between Half & Half and your average bubble tea store.

In addition to honey-soaked tapioca pearls, you can also add black grass jelly and custard pudding. I would never have thought about putting chunks of pudding in a slushy milk drink and telling customers to imbibe it through an oversize straw, but it’s a genius idea!
The texture of the drink itself is very rich. “I think it’s real milk!” (as opposed to powdered product) said my brother-in-law. But I’m convinced it’s actually cream. Hence the name, “Half & Half”. I should have put my drink down and run away when I realized this, but it was too late. Glassy-eyed, I had chugged half of it and was already planning my return trip.

I must confess that I stood in line every day until our trip was over to get my fix. My husband asked me several times where I was going with the car keys and I could only mumble “I need a drink”. Taking pity on me, he actually drove me there a few times, thus becoming an enabler but avoiding the perils of drinking boba while driving (the container is too fat and wide to sit in a cup holder, so you end up holding it between your knees. Also, there’s so much ice and pure sugar in it that it gives you jitters).

Fortunately, our trip only lasted a few more days, but if Half & Half ever opens a store near my house, please don’t tell me.

Book Suggestion:

For something cold and addictive (but not sweet), I suggest Jo Nesbo’s “Harry Hole” series. One of the best of the new wave of Scandinavian crime novelists, Nesbo creates chilling scenarios that will keep you reading late into the night.

p.s. Los Angeles friends, on September 10, 2013, I’ll be doing an author event at Vromans bookstore in Pasadena – dangerously close to a Half & Half location. If you see me wandering off with a glazed look, please feel free to intervene.

What are you addicted to?

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It’s a Giveaway!!

No, it’s not a special sale on vegetables (although I must confess that I’ve participated in some of those crazy Asian supermarket runs).

But as a countdown to the upcoming publication of my book on August 6, I’ll be giving away some ARCs (advance reader copies of the book) and an iPhone 5 case!

What’s your book about again?

In 19th century colonial Malaya, a young Chinese woman receives a marriage proposal for the son of the wealthy Lim family. The only problem is, he’s dead…

“Choo’s clear and charming style creates an alternate reality where the stakes are just as high as in the real world, combining grounded period storytelling with the supernatural.” (Publishers Weekly)

“Choo’s remarkably strong and arresting first novel explores the concept of Chinese “spirit marriages” in late-nineteenth-century Malaya through the eyes of the highly relatable Li Lan…With its gripping tangles of plot and engaging characters, this truly compelling read is sure to garner much well deserved attention.” (Booklist)

A Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Fall ’13 pick, Indie Next List pick, The Bookseller Editor’s Pick, and a Library Journal Barbara’s Pick, The Ghost Bride takes you from historic Malaya to the elaborate Chinese world of the dead.

What’s Shanghai Tang, and why are you giving away an iPhone case from them?

Shanghai Tang is a luxury Asian lifestyle brand, guaranteed to feed feverish dreams of yourself wearing slinky (yet tasteful) cheongsam or, alternately, escorting a fascinating lady wearing said cheongsam. I do not personally own any clothes from them as they are, er, not in my budget, but I have wandered into several of their stores from NYC to Singapore and sighed over their offerings.

Ok, I’m sold! So what’s the giveaway?

From June 27th to July 8th, you’ll have a chance to win 1 of the following 3 prizes!

2 autographed Advanced Reader Copies of The Ghost Bride
1 Shanghai Tang iPhone 5 case

This is an international giveaway for the books. The iPhone case is unfortunately limited by store shipping to US addresses only. Winners will be announced on this blog and via email. To enter, simply do one (or more!) of the following – follow me on Twitter, like my Facebook page, join a mailing list, or retweet this giveaway. Use Rafflecopter to enter here so I can track your entry, and good luck!

Dungeness Crab is Delicious

At every single aquarium I’ve visited, from San Francisco to Singapore, I’ve seen Asian people pointing at endangered specimens and saying things like “Ooh, I love this in black bean sauce” Or “I remember when your uncle went fishing and we ate SO many of these things.”

I believe this is a classic Asian dilemma – if you love something enough, does it mean you want to eat it?

Now I must confess that I am personally guilty of such behavior. In fact, when we went to the Monterey Aquarium and my five year old was happily petting a sea cucumber, I couldn’t help mentioning that sea cucumbers are delicious served with mushrooms. As much as I appreciate them, however, they pale in comparison to crab.

The classic Cantonese way to cook crab with ginger and scallions is to deep fry the crabs in a scorching wok (preferably over a roaring gas inferno), then toss the glistening pieces in a ginger scallion sauce. But despite my love affair with pressure cookers, I’m secretly terrified of woks of boiling oil. So I’ve come up with a quick and easy way to steam-fry this dish. It’s not quite the same as the original, but it’s less frightening and won’t leave you and your kitchen covered with a thin, tenacious film of grease.

Ingredients:

Cleaned, freshly killed crabs. If you’ve never done this before, there are lots of good how-to videos on Youtube. Alternately, you can ask your fishmonger to kill and clean your crab for you. The body should be broken into 4 pieces, and the gills cleaned and removed. If you choose this route, make sure to rush your cleaned crab home on ice as soon as possible (raw crab spoils very quickly), then rinse all the pieces with cold water, drain and keep in the fridge until just before you cook. Buy the crab as close to cooking time as possible, certainly no further ahead than the morning of the day itself. For this recipe, I used 3 Dungeness crabs (about 5 1/2 lbs total), but you can make it with just 1 large crab as well.
Scallions/green onions – I used about 8 scallions, but if you only have 1 crab, you can get by with 2-3 stalks instead.
Fresh ginger – a 2 inch knob (less for fewer crabs)
Oil for stir-frying. Peanut works well, but I’ve also used olive oil and it’s been fine as you’re not going to have it over high heat for too long.
Rice wine – I prefer to use Japanese sake (the drinking kind). Don’t buy the cheap Chinese “cooking wine” from the grocery store, which is heavily salted and tastes terrible. Just buy a bottle of sake, which you can either drink or keep for all your Asian recipes.
Fresh cilantro to garnish.

How To:

Steaming the crab

Cut the scallions into 2-3 inch lengths, and peel and slice the ginger into fat toothpick-sized slivers.
Put about 2 Tbsp oil in a large pan. You can use a wok if you have one, but I’ve found that a flat-bottomed chef’s pan does a great job over my comparatively staid gas stove. When the oil shimmers, add the scallions and ginger and stir fry until fragrant and slightly coloured (but not burned!).
Add the crab body pieces and stir fry gently, turning them a couple of times in the ginger/scallions. Don’t do this too vigorously or the crab roe and all the other tasty stuff will fall off the pieces.
Pour in a generous splash of sake, then arrange the crab shells on top, cupped upwards so that the juice will collect inside.
Cover with a lid and finish steaming. Depending on how cold your crab is and how much you’ve loaded into your pan, this can take anywhere from 8-12 minutes. Check if you’re not sure. The crab shells should change colour, and the meat should be white and no longer translucent. If you’ve included the crab shells, the liquid inside the crab shells should just begin to gently bubble. Do not overcook! If you’re not certain, pull out pieces to test.
Serve the crab with a generous handful of fresh cilantro and this dipping sauce below.

I ran out of shallots, so this was made with garlic oil instead.

Shallot Oil Dipping Sauce:

Make a little shallot oil by slicing 1-2 large shallots thinly, then putting about a centimeter of vegetable oil in a small sauce pan. Heat the oil till it just shimmers, and add the sliced shallots. Remove from heat when the shallots begin to turn brown, but don’t wait too long as they will continue cooking even after you take the pot off the fire and will easily burn. This shallot oil is very handy to keep in the kitchen and can be used as a dressing for all sorts of things from boiled chicken to steamed eggs. 
If you don’t have any shallots handy, you can make garlic oil (which tastes similar) by mincing 2-3 large cloves of garlic and repeating the process above.
When it’s time to serve the crab, put a little soy sauce in small dishes and drizzle some shallot oil on top. Serve with a squeeze of lime or a dash of Sriracha hot sauce.

Have you ever pointed out something tasty at an aquarium?

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Doing Author-Type Things

As the publication date of my novel looms ever closer (August 2013), one of the things people have asked about is if I am going on a tour.

“What sort of tour?” I said, wondering if I could possibly repeat the first and last time I joined a real sight-seeing tour. It was back in 1998, when I accompanied my mother on her lifelong dream to visit Beijing. We joined a Chinese-speaking tour that embarked from Malaysia with lots of elderly people and a flag-waving guide. Scenes from the past flashed before my eyes as I recalled wandering around the Forbidden City looking in vain for a toilet.

“No, no – a book tour!” they said.

Then I had to explain that unfortunately, due to the changing nature of the publishing industry, very few authors go on tour anymore, especially unknown newbies like myself. It’s apparently much easier to connect with people on the internet via Tweeting and Facebooking and going on things like blog tours, where you show up on someone else’s blog. Best of all, these can all be done while sitting in front of your computer even if you are wearing elastic-waisted clothing. I tried to tell this to people, but they inevitably looked disappointed, rather than delighted, at the option of sweat pants.

“How about a book party then?”

“Oh, ah. Yes. I’ll be doing a few readings at bookstores with some snacks.” I carefully explained that I wanted to serve some local Malaysian delicacies but couldn’t figure out how to smuggle them into the country. I might have to make complicated things like pineapple tarts and kuih lapis myself. Horror!

“Why are you talking about cooking for your book reading? You should be thinking about what to wear instead!!” said a glamorous friend.

Of course, she was absolutely right. I was too excited about sharing some of the backstory behind this novel and hadn’t spent enough time thinking about logistics and some definite no-nos. Like showing up at a book reading smelling like fried bananas.

Do not attempt to make this right before a book reading.

“Maybe that will make me popular!” I said, recalling the time my personal charisma soared thanks to eau de bacon. After all, I had been warned by many people, including booksellers and other authors, that a good crowd for an unknown author is about 10-20 people. But regardless of how many people show up, I’ve come to realize that this is an odd moment for me, when writing moves from being a personal passion to a more professional space.

I was particularly struck by this today, when I received news from my delighted editor that The Ghost Bride has been chosen as a Barnes & Noble Fall 2013 Discover Great New Writers selection. I was absolutely bowled over. First, I ran around the house shouting unintelligibly. Then I jumped up and down while ecstatically eating a piece of cake (please don’t do this, it’s not safe).

For all the people who might pick up a copy of my book in future, or possibly show up at a reading or festival (I’ll be at the AJC Decatur Book Festival in September, and the Singapore Writer’s Festival in November), I will not fry pisang goreng right beforehand. I will wear real clothes (not yoga pants) and try to speak intelligibly. And I am truly grateful for the support and encouragement I’ve received on this journey.

If you’d like to win an autographed ARC (Advanced Review Copy) of my book, there’s an international giveaway running on GoodReads right now!

Book Suggestion:

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running - I love Haruki Murakami, and his memoir about writing and running is a wonderful peek into the mind of a writer.

Snack Suggestion:

On p86, Murakami suggests a meal made out of leftovers (“An apple, an onion, cheese, and eggs”). I vote for a cheese omelette with a side of sliced apples. 

Photo credits: Photo 1 – Ernest Hemingway, from the Los Angeles Times/Handout. Photo 2: http://thestar.com.my/

Have you ever contemplated the change from a hobby to a profession?

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Embracing Your Inner Auntie (or Uncle)

I have now reached the age when I am regularly addressed as “auntie”. Widely used across Asia to refer to a middle-aged lady, this is supposedly a term of respect – or is it?

Friends who were not raised in this culture often have difficulty reconciling themselves to the sudden appearance of previously unknown relatives, such as “Taxi Uncle” (your taxi driver) or “Cafeteria Auntie” (the lady who serves lunch). Our schoolbus driver insisted on being addressed as “uncle” and at Chinese New Year, he would even give out hong bao, or red packets, to us with 50 cents in it. But first, we had to greet him respectfully and say “Happy new year, Uncle” and various other lucky phrases like “May 10,000 things go according to your wishes” (this is a direct translation).

Now that I am older, I can see how attractive this prospect is. A line of small children, bowing and wishing me success for the new year? Definitely worth 50 cents per child. As you can see, the term “auntie” or “uncle” is used to denote respect. But it is a double-edged sword.

Don’t do this if you are single and want to change your status.

For example, being told that you dress so “uncle” means that you probably like to wear plastic sandals (the orthopedic kind), shorts pulled up to your tummy, and glasses without the anti-glare coating. If you put a seat cover made of wooden beads on the driver’s seat of your car, then you are even more “uncle”. It turns out that the average Singaporean taxi driver falls into this category, although surprisingly, they love being addressed this way. Perhaps it’s a quirk of the transportation industry.

So what does being called “auntie” mean? Take this easy test to find out:

1. An acquaintance runs into you on the street. You are carrying:

a. A Prada bag

b. A gym bag

c. A plastic bag stuffed with groceries

2. When asked if you would like to join them for a meal, you say:

a. “I’d love to, darling.”

b. “I can’t, I have to go back to the office.”

c. “I can’t. My favourite Korean soap opera is on tonight.”

3. When you finally do get home, you:

a. Take a leisurely bath and have a glass of wine

b. Take a quick shower and have a cold beer

c. Drink some warm water and make sure that the electric fan is switched off, because if you let your head get cold while you’re sleeping, you will surely die.

If you answered “c” to any of these, then unfortunately, you’re heading towards auntie territory. However – there is a certain class of person who will never, ever fall into this category. For example, Gong Li. Despite turning 47, she remains immune and I’m sure even if she were caught boiling a large pot of red bean soup while wearing a fanny pack, she would manage to make it look alluring.

Reading Suggestion:

Reader’s Digest

Snack Suggestion:

For the Asian “uncle” in you, Guinness Stout or black coffee, preferably drunk in a coffee shop with big posters of Miss Chinatown stuck to the walls.

Photo credits: Photo 2 - http://www.admiringgongli.com/

How do you embrace your inner auntie/uncle?

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