Absolutely Fobulous

We generally expect to see raw fish on top of rice when it comes to sushi  But what if you take an animal that eats fish, and put it on top of rice?! Mind. Blown. Japanese company Tange & Nakimushi Peanuts has brought that intriguing concept to the masses by selling prints of neko-sushi for $407 each on their site.

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It’s been four years since the fateful trip Suzie took to Chicago to visit me while I was at graduate school and Absolutely Fobulous was born — perhaps out of drunken brainstorming, but at this point, I’m quite hazy on the details. All I know is, after her visit, boom, AbFob came into creation. And soon after, our dear middle school chum, Amy, joined on board to become part of our family.

So much has happened in our lives in the past four years, but no matter how much we’ve changed and grown, AbFob remains unchanged. It’s a place where people from all walks of life can go to at the end of the day for some lighthearted fun. We hope we’ve brightened your day in some way.

Not going to lie, it’s takes self discipline to run this site, because sometimes after a long, hard day at work, I just want to curl up in front of the TV and watch some good ol’ trashy reality shows. AbFob what? But all jokes aside, I’m proud of what we’ve built, and I feel blessed that I’m working with my two best friends on this. We can all be hard on each other, but at the end of the day, I wouldn’t want to do this site with anyone else.

Here’s to many more years of fobulousness to come!

Flashback time! Here are the best of the best of 2012:

• Amy’s awesome BB cream review — the Asian beauty secret to glowing skin.
• This photo of US Olympic gymnast hugging her Chinese coach epitomizes the diverse melting pot that is America. And it warms our heart.
• Let’s not forget our coverage of Gangnam Style, the new “shuffle.”
• And perhaps we’ve stumbled on an answer to the age-old question of why more Asian guys aren’t dating white girls.
• Don’t forget the weird beauty trend from Japan which had women injecting silicon to their foreheads and forming it into a shape of a bagel.

Never thought I’d see 3D latte art. This coffee kitty was created by Kazuki Yamamoto, a 26-year-old from Osaka, Japan. He posts his latte art creations regularly on his twitter account and he’s apparently far from the only one to surface from Japan. Although we do have latte artists here in the US, the Japanese designers take it to another level with the 3D features and the intricate designs.

Check out more of his cool work!

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I don’t know how cameras made its way into our culture, but we Asians have some sort of obsession with taking and being in pictures. We love all forms too — sticker photos, webcam pictures, phone snapshots, and more — you name it. Check out this YouTube video that kinda sums up our love of photos:

(Thanks, Lu!)

Chopsticks are such versatile objects, you can use them to eat food with, pin your hair up, and, yes, pick someone’s pocket. This Chinese guy takes it to another level though — not only is he pickpocketing with chopsticks, he’s also stealing a phone from someone who is cycling!

The thief, who hails from the Henan province in China, turned himself in after pictures of his chopstick theft surfaced in the media. He apparently admitted that he resorted to stealing because he was struggling to raise his 12-year-old kid.
See the pictures below to watch him in action.

Picking up speed.

Reaching out with chopsticks.

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Never thought mixing the styles of hip hop and an Asian rice farmer would look and sound so cool. Norwegian dance group, Quick Crew, definitely did a good job in their interpretation of combining the vastly different worlds. There isn’t much information on the crew so I’m not sure what ethnicity these dancers are, but their names sound Indian.

I was at the Haneda airport in Tokyo, Japan last month when I stumbled upon some really cute candles at the gift shop. One of them caught my eye in particular because I’ve never seen a candle modeled after a cup of Nissin instant ramen. I even bought one for Suzie for 714 yen ($7.31) as a gift from Japan.  It would be awesome if the candle smelt like MSG goodness when ignited, but I don’t think Suzie wants to test it out — she says it looks too cool to burn!

We think we just found the best red marriage equality photo floating around on Facebook. Introducing, the Sriracha Rooster Sauce logo! Pure genius.

(Thanks, Thai!)

Link

I’m crazy about all things Hello Kitty, so imagine my delight when I discovered the plane I was flying on from Tokyo to Taipei was the famed Hello Kitty plane we talked about two years ago. Just so you can have a glimpse of what it was like, I took photos from start to finish!

Check-in counter:

My airplane ticket:

The tail end of the plane as I was boarding:

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Excuse me while I wipe the drool off my face from gazing at this cool looking lamp called Lumio designed by San Francisco-based architect industrial designer Max Gunawan. What’s awesome about Lumio is that it can unfold into different shapes, turning itself from a portable and ordinary book into interesting lighting for your home.

Gunawan, who grew up in Indonesia, says the lamp’s inspiration came from origami. Just like the folded paper art, Lumio can be folded and opened into beautiful creations.

It’s currently a kickstarter project, so help fund it if you want your own!