New Year, New Perspectives, January 3, 2006 — It's been a long break, but we're back. Finally. With each year that tastingmenu gets written we try to improve so that there's reason to keep coming back. Two years ago we did our first cookbook. Last year we helped put on the tasteeverything awards and put out our second cookbook. We knew we had to top ourselves this year so we've got quite a bit of excitement planned for the year. More publications, the second annual tasteeverything awards, some new accessories, and of course tons of detailed writeups and closeup photos of the best food experiences we can find from all over the planet.

While we rely primarily on our taste buds to decide which of those food experiences to share, perspective does count. And while we feel reasonably well eaten (the culinary equivalent of well read), we often feel that we're lacking enough perspective and experience to really understand the quality of some of the food we're eating.

Here on tastingmenu we're starting a new series of posts called "Tastingmenu gets schooled". This is going to be a three part series, with each part consisting of multiple entries here on the site. In each major part of this series we're going to try and personally broaden our experience so that ultimately the entries on this site get better. The first part involves broadening our culinary palate... in Asia.

It's hard to bring authority to the table on a particular type of food when you've never eaten it in its native country. And while we certainly know which food tastes great to us, it would be better if we had a baseline to compare. Asian food has always been a favorite of ours, but while Japan has been visited many times (with one stop in South Korea as well), we've never been to some of the other countries in the region - and there are many.

For part 1 of Tastingmenu Gets Schooled we're spending a few weeks in Asia - Hong Kong, Bangkok, Phnom Penh, Angkor Wat, and Tokyo to be specific. Starting with our next post we'll be reporting on all the exciting food happenings that we were able to manage in our relatively short trip. It's not exhaustive, but hopefully it gives enough of a sense of the food in each country - especially China, Thailand, and Cambodia to which we've never been.

As for future parts of Tastingmenu Gets Schooled we'll reveal those as time goes on. Let's go!