Archive for November, 2013

Amazon Deals for the 2013 Holidays

Ben杰明
Nov 18 |04:08

Amazon.comI’d like to thank all AL.ME fans and followers for their support, comments, and sharing over the years. It’s been a wonderful hobby of mine to share experiences from my life in Asia since 2007 and earlier. I plan to keep the blog going strong even though I’ve moved back to America.

Part of keeping up a self-hosted blog includes server and domain costs that amount to about $100 out of pocket per year. So, any ad visits at all are very helpful to keeping the site funded. The ads you see on pages and posts don’t quite meet the basic financial needs yet, so I’m opening up a sort of Ad Funding drive for the holidays this year.

As an Amazon Affiliate (US market only), AL.ME can earn a small % from sales that originate from clicks on this site. No need to donate to AL.ME but please take a moment to click through today. And I’d also appreciate it if your friends could also click through the Amazon Deals on this page. Just like it, tweet it, or share it. :)

Thank you and have a wonderful holiday season!


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Life for Expats in Polluted Chinese Cities

Ben杰明
Nov 17 |04:10

Over the past few years living in China, the air pollution conundrum (among many development issues) has been a major concern for expats and locals alike. Just last month (October 2013) an “airpocolypse” shrouded the city of Harbin in northeastern China at a level of around 1,000 micrograms per cubic meter! That’s off the charts and about “40 times the safety level recommended by the World Health Organisation” reports the Guardian newspaper.* Obviously this is (and will be) a major cause of lung cancer in the future, along with the effects of circa-1950s attitudes toward smoking.

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Online Asian Markets and Food Delivery

Ben杰明
Nov 8 |04:41

Whenever I cook for friends and family I’m always asked about the ingredients I use and where to get them. And since visiting an Asian market alone can be a little overwhelming for some, I decided to put a short introduction together for buying my most common ingredients online. If you’d like to see some recipes first, here are a few on Asianliving.me.

Let’s start with a few well-known online shops in North America:

Amazon.com’s grocery section is loaded with Asian food options.  If you have Amazon prime you obviously won’t have to worry about the cost of shipping. It’s probably worth visiting Amazon first to see if you can find what you are looking for. For those in select areas, you can try Amazon Fresh which is just like Peapod or FreshDirect.

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All Asian

Asian Food Grocer is a trustworthy shop that provides much of what you expect to find in a standard Asian market. Here are a few products that I commonly use in my cooking:

Lee Kum Kee’s Hoisin Sauce is something I use for a sweet, seafood flavor.

Lee Kum Kee also makes a Black Bean Garlic Sauce which I use for home-style pork ribs. Yum!

Actually, just about everything in the Asian Food Grocer’s “Quick and Easy Asian Cooking” section is delicious and, as the title implies, very easy to use.

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Japanese

Sashimi

Marukai’s eStore is a Japanese food shop online which serves North America. Some of my recipes have ingredients that you can find at their shop. Check out their amazing variety of fish options for at-home sushi making!

Also, one Japanese product that I enjoyed a lot in China was Key Coffee’s Drip On brand singles.

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