I have a relative called Tool. (Hey, he gave himself the nickname, not me. I just go with it like a supportive cousin-in-law would.) Tool is married to a cousin whom I like to call The Asian Martha Stewart (TAMS). TAMS can make Tarragon Chicken Sandwiches with herbs from her garden, turn a seed from a two-pound SlimCado into a six-foot plant, and knit delicate baby booties. She’s who I wanna be when I grow up, nevermind that TAMS is only two years older than me.

When Tool is not busy being a tool and TAMS is not doing her domestic-goddess thing, they’re professional wedding photographers. (Do you hate them just a little bit? I do. With a big dosage of love.)

I went to dim sum with Tool the day before my road trip, so he could show me how to take (indoor) food photos. (He’d gifted me with the DSLR camera he first used as a wedding photographer. I was all sorts of excited, of course, and hope that my food photos taken with the DSLR will make y’all cry like his photos have done with brides. Yeah…that doesn’t make sense to me, either.)

One of my first shots with the DSLR. Uh-oh, my focus on the Shrimp Dumplings (Har Gao)  seems to be a bit off.

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So…the gravel pit, the one I used to play in when I wasn’t harassing jellyfish, is no longer. It’s now something safer but much more boring, a gravel parking lot. The change is okay, though, because the gravel pit will live on in my memories, just as fun Japanese candies exist in my present.

Choco Baby! Um, baby.

This candy’s colors and cute font caught my eye, prompting me to pick it up at the Japanese supermarket.

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While starting this Web site, one of the few things that came easiest was the tagline, “Asian Aisle…where the familiar meets the not-so-familiar.” I knew that I wanted to feature both things, in terms of Asian items, and I feel especially delighted when it’s the latter for many of you. And fortunately, another good thing that has come from this blog is that a lot of you dear readers have introduced items to me, as well…

I’ll return to my above tease later in this post, because I’ve actually previously mentioned these type of mangoes. (Manila Mangoes are from Mexico.)

A box of Sweet Tamarind from Thailand.

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Look, Kitties (and Toms—male cats), I’m going to be straight with you because we’re all friends here: The way to my food-loving heart is to, um, feed me.

Real-life friends and family know this, bless them, and so a member of the former bought me this Li Hing Powder while he was vacationing in Hawaii.

I like to think that this friend (hey, Jesus!) was passing along this message, too.

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This post will have the predictable, a wonder, and a miracle. Um, in that order.

The predictable: Chicken Pad Thai.

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