World Vision Hand-Carved Kenyan Olive Wood Serving Spoons Giveaway

Aren't these hand-carved olive wood serving spoons gorgeous? The serving spoons were made to benefit orphans of the Kamba tribe in Kenya, who are known for their wood-carving skills. The spoons are 11 inches long and come in a drawstring bag.

They come as a gift with a donation of $65 or more to World Vision, a Christian relief and development organization dedicated to helping children and their communities combat poverty. Since 1996, the World Vision Gift Catalog has sold 160,000 items, raised more than $33 million, and helped more than 825,000 people around the world.

Last year, the most popular gift was a $75 goat. More than 67,000 goats were given to benefit needy families around the world. Or you can gift two chickens for just $25. Or a pig? Sheep? Alpaca?

World Vision also helps girls and women with education, job training, counseling, and small business loans. A donation of $40, which includes a hand-tied wooden beaded bracelet created in a Thai project to prevent trafficking, will help a sexually exploited girl get shelter, medical care, vocational training, and counseling.

The World Vision Gift Catalog gives tons of options to help combat poverty around the world, and if you give to the Maximum Impact Fund, you also get a free gift so it's a win-win for everyone. To raise awareness, the nice folks at World Vision are letting me give away one set of these Kenyan olive wood hand-carved serving spoons.

Five Things I've Learned From Five Years of Blogging

Five years ago, I started Wandering Chopsticks.

I had no idea then that my blog would last longer than any job or relationship I've ever had.

Who knew time would pass by so quickly these days? Or does it seem like time passes by so quickly because I've been photographing and writing about the past half-decade of my life?

This blog has evolved quite a bit since its inception. And on such anniversaries, I guess it's expected to do a bit of a retrospective. So these are the five things I've learned from blogging.

Princess Party Cookbook by Annabel Karmel and Giveaway

Did you stay up late or wake up early to watch Prince William marry Kate Middleton?

Did you pretend to be a princess when you were a little girl?

That would be yes and yes for me. :)

Several months ago, I received a review copy of the "Princess Party Cookbook" by Annabel Karmel and knew right away that it was perfect for a giveaway.

Oh! Nuts $25 Gift Certificate Giveaway

The nice folks at Oh! Nuts are once again sponsoring a giveaway for my readers. A $25 gift certificate to Oh! Nuts will get you any of the Christmas gift baskets above, or the Hanukkah gift baskets below. Or you could apply the gift certificate toward a more expensive gift basket. Or you could just buy several bags of their nuts, candies, and dried fruits. I've been enjoying the pine nuts, cashews, and pistachios they sent me several months ago so I can attest to the quality of Oh! Nuts' products.

There are three chances to win so make sure you read the directions carefully.

The Berry Bible by Janie Hibler and Giveaway

Earlier this summer, I was contacted by Sarah at AmazonEncore, who asked if I would like to review a copy of “The Berry Bible: With 175 Recipes Using Cultivated and Wild, Fresh and Frozen Berries” by Janie Hibler. She won the James Beard award for a single subject for her other cookbook, "Wild About Game: 150 Recipes for Farm-Raised and Wild Game - From Alligator and Antelope to Venison and Wild Turkey."

I love berries so I was quite excited there was a whole book on just berries. In “The Berry Bible,” Hibler talks about picking berries after she moved to Oregon, which immediately reminded me of my childhood when I sometimes tagged along as my parents picked berries on weekends to supplement their income. Hibler traveled the world to learn about all kinds of berries from the Saskatoon berry found on the Canadian prairie to the best strawberries at markets in Europe.

Pasadena Wine Festival Giveaway

Recently, I was contacted by Nick of the Pasadena Wine Festival who asked if I would like to attend and to give away some tickets to my readers.

The Pasadena Wine Festival, which takes place from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. on October 9, features more than 125 wines, food samples, and live music, all underneath the towering trees of the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden.

I have to admit, admission to the arboretum and a tram tour of the 127 acres were the biggest draws for me. But I figured some of my readers might be like some of my friends, who immediately clamored to be my +1 because they were more interested in drinking wine, eating food samples, and listening to live music. Check out the video on their website for highlights of last year's event.

According to the organizers, what can you expect at the Pasadena Wine Festival?

Oh! Nuts and "Life as We Know It" Giveaway

I was recently contacted by Sam of Oh! Nuts, who asked if I'd like to sample some of their nuts and dried fruit products. I chose pinenuts, pistachios, and cashews, and dried cranberries.


I've always wanted pinenuts to make Italian pinenut cookies or even to top a Korean persimmon drink, but could never justify the expense for myself. So yay! Be prepared for some recipes.

Anyway, so since I got something, I decided you should get something too.

Williams-Sonoma The Art of Preserving Cookbook Giveaway

Did you catch my cookbook review of "Williams-Sonoma The Art of Preserving" by Lisa Atwood, Rebecca Courchesne, and Rick Field? Please read that post for more information and pictures of this lovely cookbook on pickles and jellies.

Roy's Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine Giveaway

Mmm. Doesn't that chocolate lava cake look scrumptious? The desserts were the only things I liked from my visit to Roy's Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine - Newport Beach four years ago. I'd love a chance to revisit Roy's myself, but instead, you get to go.

That's right!

The PR folks at Roy's are generously giving me a $50 gift certificate to give to you so that you can experience chef Roy Yamaguchi's Hawaiian fusion cuisine for yourself.

McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant Giveaway

Wandering Chopsticks turned three years old!

My, how quickly time flies! Deep thoughts (Ha!) will come later. For now, thanks to Liz, on behalf of McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurants, she's letting me give away to one TWO lucky readers, a choice of the McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant Cookbook or a goody bag with a T-shirt, pencils, foam stress-relief fish, and lunch box, or a $25 gift certificate.



I haven't actually seen or read the cookbook, but I'm a big fan of McCormick & Schmick's happy hour specials. :) If you're a fan of the restaurants, need to add to your cookbook collection, or want the goody bag, leave a comment in this post.

Terrible Twos!

Wandering Chopsticks turned two today!

Thankfully, the blog, and I, are fully potty-trained. I make no promises about temper tantrums though. ;) Last year, I reflected upon how and why I started blogging. This year, I feel like I should write something deep and meaningful, but I'm really not in the mood! Maybe I'll be reflective later, maybe I won't.

Instead, I'll quickly point out some of the changes I've made to the blog in the past year. I finally created a "proper" About and FAQs page so please read that if you haven't yet done so or if you're a new reader. On the top of my sidebar, you'll find the "Directory" with links to all major categories. The top of the sidebar also includes links to the Recipe index with (as of now anyway) more than 250 original recipes by yours truly. The recipes are arranged by category, cuisine, and Vietnamese recipes now also have a separate page of Vietnamese recipes by category, which you can also find at the top of the favorite recipes list.

The Restaurant index, with more than 140 posts, is separated by city, county, and cuisine. Random musings are separated by thoughts on blogging, family, food, and travel. Coupons and Discounts contains special discounts for Wandering Chopsticks readers. Gardening, is broken down by month with a list of what's growing in my garden or my uncles' gardens. I also recently created Weekend Wokking, so come play if you're a blogger. The main directory link, however, also includes other categories such as Copyright and Attribution Requirements, Explore SoCal, Fun Food, Guides and How To's, Quilting (and Some Crocheting and Knitting Too), and Readers Cook Wandering Chopsticks' Recipes. I literally spent months and months organizing everything so please have a look around.

Now, on to the festivities, yes? Afterall, it is my blog-birthday. And coincidentally, I got two packages in the mail today! How did they know? First, Christine of Holy Basil sent me some of her candied tangelos and pomelos. These are really yummy so head over to her blog for the recipe because I'm not sharing. :P Thanks Christine!


Second, the good folks at Asian Supermarket 365 sent me a whole slew of Malaysian and Indonesian goodies to try out!!! Just look at what they sent me!!!

Wandering Chopsticks Turns 1!

Happy blog-birthday to me!
Happy blog-birthday to me!
Happy blog-biiirthday dear Wandering Chooopsticks...
Happy blog-birthday tooooo meeeeee! :)

Wandering Chopsticks turns 1 year old today! (OK, that's really my last birthday cake but we won't quibble.)

My adventure into food blogging started by accident. While I knew about blogs in general, the few I had stumbled upon read like online diaries. Opening up my personal life to strangers? Nah, not for me.

But last year, while searching for a recipe for cha ca Thang Long (Vietnamese Hanoi-style sizzling fish with dill and turmeric), I found this post by Noodlepie. I began lurking on his blog because many of his street scenes of Saigon brought back lovely memories of places I had eaten at or passed by the summer before.

Later he had a post referencing Kirk of Mmm-yoso, and a rather lengthy discussion ensued of Vietnamese food in Vietnam vs. Vietnamese food abroad. In the comments of that post, I discovered Elmo of Monster Munching, who had a rather disappointing experience with bun rieu (Vietnamese crab and shrimp rice vermicelli noodle soup) in Orange County. Well, that post finally spurred me from being a lurker to a commenter because I actually had a recommendation for him -- Vien Dong Restaurant in Garden Grove.

But let's backtrack a little. For years, my friends knew me as the go-to person if they wanted to try new places to eat. In fact, I kept a list of restaurant recommendations and mailed it to anyone who asked. Same goes for my recipes. So you'd think I would have realized the wonders of food blogging earlier, but I really didn't.