Trying new foods

I grew up eating certain foods. As far as fruits and vegetables, our family stuck with very basic things like carrots, cucumbers, celery, carrots, onions, and potatoes. We had canned corn, peas, and green beans. The fruits we ate were red apples, cantelope, oranges, and bananas. There was also alot of canned peaches, pears, and fruit cocktail. Back in those days, our grocery stores were not as abundantly supplied with variety like they are now. Every time I go to the grocery store I see new foods that I've never had before and wondered what they would taste like. Up until now I've avoided buying new foods because they made me nervous. New things can be intimidating, but lately I find that I am more compelled to just jump right in and try them since I am trying to eat more vegetables and fruits these days.

One area of cooking that has always mystified me is asian cuisine. It was always something you went out to eat, or got it as take out and ate it at home. When we moved to Germany, I was very happy that several restaraunts here serve asian cuisine. After searching the menu for my absolute favorite chinese dish, beef with broccoli, I was completely bummed out! That's what started my search for recipes for asian foods. I have been happily surprised to find out how simple many of my favorite dishes are, and now I just want to learn more! My good friend from Japan is going to help me figure out new flavors and dishes that I will be trying out.



I don't know about you, but that video really made me want to try some soup dumplings. After some research on Amazon.com, I found a great book for dim sum using the ratings to guide me. The irony is that the amazing book that I bought was written by...the SAME lady in this video!!!
Here is her book:
http://www.amazon.com/Asian-Dumplings-Mastering-Spring-Samosas/dp/1580089755/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1303986506&sr=8-3

You can look inside it with Amazon.com, so take a gander. I will be posting pics when I do get a moment to try my hand (I'm guessing it will be half disaster and half success) at making my first asian dumplings. So fun!