Fish is a big deal in Asia. The older generations can tell, at a taste, if the fish presented to them was wild caught or farm-raised. More remarkably, they can tell if the fish had been gaily swimming just prior to being cooked, or if it had been bottom-up for hours. This super palate can be quite the annoyance, especially when everyone else around the table is starving. A highly exacting uncle of mine has a reputation for sending fish that’s not screamingly fresh back to the kitchen with a caustic “Please, have some.” I love him dearly, but I make it a point of having a pre-meal meal before dining with him. My stomach has rumbled through one... More

SF Gate's Jeff Yang and his wife are trying to have a second child, so they're thinking about fertility and reproduction all the time, but "nothing prepared us for what we've dealt with since the coming of Lunar New Year: a nonstop barrage of stories about the fact that giving birth to a child this year, the year of the so-called "Golden Pig," is like hitting the astrological Lotto. Golden Piglets are destined for fortune and prosperity, because pigs are a symbol of wealth, and the "golden" designation puts lipstick on this pig, or makes a silk purse out of a sow's ear, or, well, insert your preferred porcine pun here. And because of that promise, Chinese, Korean and... More