Culinary Adventures with Camilla

After reading - and loving - The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane (my thoughts here ) - a couple of years ago, when I saw that Lisa See was releasing a new book this year, I ordered it. The Island of Sea Women: A Novel .* And I'm so glad I did. I was coming off of a really disappointing read; this was quite the opposite. I devoured this book in just two days. And I am definitely going to read it again before I lend it to anyone! It is that stunning. If I had to pick a favorite genre, historical fiction is it. This is the story of two friends' lives erected on the framework of the historical matriarchal society where the women in Korea work as haenyeo divers. These women free-dive and harvest the ocean's treasures including abalone, urchin, and octopus. You see how their bodies have adapted to withstand the cold and the hardship when they are medically studied and tracked. The men stay home and watch the children. However, despite the matrifocal structure of the dive...

When I was preparing for our annual family camping trip last month, I started asking friends for book recommendations because between the hikes, the canoe rides, and family meals, I tend to spend several hours of the day in my hammock! And someone recommended  Pachinko by Min Jin Lee.* So, I bought a copy. On the Page I really enjoyed this book - so much so that I slowed my pace of reading towards the end because I didn't want it to end. There were so many threads of stories from a fishing village in Korea to Japan and to America and back to Tokyo. However, I also found the story incredibly tragic. Pachinko is a sprawling saga that spans almost eight decades. It begins with Sunja, a teenager, who runs a boarding house with her widowed mother. She meets a fish broker who seduces her, gets her pregnant, and, then, tells her that he has a family in Japan. Her reputation is preserved when a missionary staying in the boarding house offers to marry her and raise the ch...

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Michigan Asparagus  in conjunction with  #BBQweek.  All opinions are my own. Welcome to #BBQWeek. But, first, I need to offer many, many thanks to Ellen of   Family Around the Tabl e for organizing this week. These events are fun, but they are also a ton of work for the folks on the back end. Kudos, Ellen. Let’s fire up the grill, serve up some burgers or steaks or chicken and some delicious sides and desserts! Follow #BBQWeek on social media so you don’t miss one delicious recipe. There are more than 20 recipes planned this week from some amazing bloggers. So, please check back on Wednesday and Friday as well. Today, our event kick-off, we also have a special treat as one of our sponsors -  Michigan Asparagus  - is giving one winner two grilling baskets and $50 gift card. Wowza! Enter at the end of this post. Fresh asparagus is definitely a harbinger of Spring and Michigan is one of th...

While North and South Korea are listed separately in our Cooking Around the World Adventure list, I did some reading and decided that I would make only one Korean meal. It seems that the differences in Korean cuisine are not so much aligned via north and south, but more between the eight distinct provinces. I decided to make bibimbap with kimchi . With the plethora of restaurants in Berkeley, whenever my parents came to visit me during college, we ate at a hole-in-the-wall Korean restaurant just off of Telegraph Ave. And each time, my dad ordered bibimbap . Until tonight, I had never made it. Bibimbap means 'mixed up rice' and  is served as a bowl of warm white rice topped with namul (sautéed and seasoned vegetables) and gochujang (chili pepper paste). A raw or fried egg and sliced meat - usually beef - are common additions. Since recipes I found were not very specific with what vegetables - though I seem to remember carrots, bean sprouts, and spinach - I went with w...