I have always had a fascination with Asian cooking. When I was younger, I would beg my parents for meals from our local Vietnamese and Thai restaurants and as I got older, any time I had the opportunity to eat out, my preference would be sushi or Pho. Several years ago, I started playing around with learning to cook food that tasted mildly similar to my restaurant favorites (I had particular success with baby bok choy).

If you have a similar culinary obsession to mine, there's a contest going on now that you might want to check it out. It's something of a long shot, but what an amazing trip it will be for the lucky person who wins. Thai Kitchen and Simply Asia are giving away a seven-day trip for two to the winner's choice of one of the following locations: Beijing, China; Shanghai, China; or Bangkok, Thailand. The trip includes air travel, hotel accommodations for six nights, transfers to and from airport and hotel, and even some spending money cash. Sounds like a dream vacation to me.

Even for those who aren't interested in the contest, it's worth checking out the website, as they offer lots of recipes as well as how-to instructional videos with Chef Katie Chin. One of their recipes, for Spicy Pork Noodle Soup, is after the jump.

For some reason, unlike the rest of the free, civilized, tv-watching world, I haven't been able to get into American Idol. Ever.

However, I know there are ravenous fans out there, and if you happen to like ice cream, then you could potentially win a trip for you and your three BFFs to LA for the American Idol finale from Dreyer's. Dreyer's Slow Churned Ice Cream has five new flavors out -- Hollywood Cheesecake, Take the Cake, Triple Talent, Soulful Sundae Cone, andCho n Roll Caramel -- and wants the fans to vote on their favorite. You vote, register online for the sweepstakes, and you're entered! Hey, I just care about the ice cream. If I win, I'll give the tickets away to one of you!

American Idol fans -- or ice cream fans, for that matter -- may want to take note of the new flavors available from Dreyer's that tie in to the popular realty show. Dreyer's/Edy's is the newest partner for American Idol, joining one of the most lucrative media franchises in history, and has five new Idol-themed flavors for fans to choose from. Each is presented on the Dreyer's website with a profile listing its "hometown," "slogan," and other information in the style of the stat given for a real contestant. Tasters can sample the flavors, which will be released to stores on or around Feb. 1, and then vote for their favorite flavor online. Voters will then have a chance to win tickets to the American Idol season finale.

If you're not interested in the show, at least you'll still get to enjoy some new Slow-Churned flavors as long as you can get past the Idol propaganda on the containers: Take The Cake (yellow cake flavor with blue frosting and sprinkles), Choc 'N Roll Caramel (caramel swirls and mini caramel chocolate cups), Hollywood Cheesecake (cheesecake ice cream with graham and strawberry swirls), Soulful Sundae Cone (vanilla, chocolate ice creams with chocolate peanuts and ice cream cone bits) and Triple Talent (triple chocolate).

In honor of the release of the King Kong DVD, Hostess has released some limited edition Twinkies with banana cream filling. The combination of the moist Twinkie sponge cake and banana cream actually sounds like a really good idea. Did you know that banana was the original Twinkie flavor back in 1930? The cream filling changed to vanilla - now the standard - during World War II, when there was a banana shortage. The new banana Twinkies boxes also feature a contest to win a trip to Universal Studios in either Hollywood or Florida.  It is possible that if the flavor is popular enough, it might outlast the length of the sweepstakes.

Has anybody tried these yet? I have not seen them at my local grocery store yet.

[via The Yummy Banana]