Eeee! CNNGo has just officially launched!

You may recall that I landed a new writing gig for an Asia lifestyle/travel/culture/AWESOME site spearheaded by CNN (see this post). The site focuses on six cities — Hong Kong, Mumbai, Shanghai, Tokyo, Singapore, Bangkok — and has some seriously awesome content. I’ve written over 20 articles so far, which will be rotated in (I’ll link to them from here so you won’t miss out). And the lead article featured on the front page — Green Asia — is by yours truly!

To quote my editor, Chris Anderson: “This isn’t the same old travel website people are used to. You won’t find any cliches like “hidden gems” or phrases such as “the divine gastronomic experience at the divine little restaurant tucked away down a cozy alley.” What you will find is smart, engaging and well written articles by the locals that know their cities and the writers that know Asia and Asia trends and culture. We don’t play down to our audience.”

What are you waiting for? Let’s go CNNGo! (www.cnngo.com — you can sign up for an account to leave comments and receive newsletters.) You can also keep in the loop via the Facebook fan page and RSS.

In other exciting news… Basil Farrow won a cute pet contest in a Chinese newspaper! Thank you to everyone who voted for him — you rock my socks off. My Scottish Fold wins a giant bag of cat food and $25. But his aunt Malone says, “There was no contest! Basil was already the cutest!” (More Basil Farrow photos and videos on his blog.)

Finally, a couple of media mentions of my cookbook inspired by the Japanese bento decoration trend — Cute Yummy Time. The ModCloth blog mentions my book (more info here — signings and media dates TBA). And Abby Glassenberg of the adorable blog, While She Naps, received an advance copy and wrote a glowing review! Abby was inspired by my Panda seaweed/shrimp/brown rice recipe and put her own creative spin on it, using healthy bulgar and snap peas. Her daughter Stella even got into the action; she customized her design with raisins and Teddy Graham crackers. Love it.

If you find inspiration from the pages of Cute Yummy Time, please send me photos to share, and I’ll put them on my Cute Food blog. I’m also eager to hear what you think of CNNGo — comments about content, layout, or suggestions for articles are always welcome!

Look what Ronan digged up! It’s a photo of our Scottish Fold son, Basil Farrow, as a kitten!

He used to be skinny and gawkish (now he’s a round Garfield). Basil’s foldy-ears were larger (he grew into them, I guess.) And his fur was lighter colored with pronounced tiger stripes. Today, he’s a solid cream with a few subtle ripples. Awww!

More photos of our baby on his Scottish Fold cats blog. (You can submit pics of your own earless cat for inclusion.)

The Village Voice also did a write-up on Cute Yummy Time.

Cute Yummy Time is available from Amazon and other online retailers — my pig bread video is now on retailer sites too.