1 . By now, most people know they should be eating more vegetables. But are there ways to get more from the vegetables you already eat? A research shows that when it comes to vegetables, it’s not only how much we eat, but also how we prepare them, that decides the vitamins and other nutrients that enter our body.

Many studies show that people who eat lots of vegetables have less heart disease, and eye problems and even cancer. But raw vegetables are not always best. The researchers found that 198 Germans who eat raw food were short of lycopene, the matter found in tomatoes and other red vegetables. “There is an idea that raw foods are always going to be better,” says Steven K. Clinton, a professor at Ohi o State University. “For fruits and vegetables, sometimes a little bit of cooking can be helpful.”

A number of factors decide how the vegetables do good to people’s health before they reach the table, including where and how they were grown and stored before being bought. No single cooking way is best. Some nutrients are easily lost in cooking if they are cooked in different ways.

Vitamins C and B are often lost. In January, another report said that boiling was better for carrots than frying or serving them raw. Frying was the worst way to cook.

What cooked with the vegetables can also be important? When the vegetables were cooked with fat, the diners can get more nutrients. Fat can also make the taste of vegetables better, meaning that people will eat more of them. Putting on some other things that make it taste better—a little salt—can make the food taste better.

2 . Craziest Food Festivals sounds like a joke topic, but once you start looking into it, you’ll realize they’re everywhere — the crazier, the better.

1. Bibimbap Festival

In the South Korean town of Jeonjuloves, their “mixed rice” dish is a hearty serve of rice topped with raw beef, a rainbow of vegetables, a raw egg and gochujang sauce so much. They take four days out of October to celebrate it.

Like any festival there’s music, entertainment and magic, but making it that little bit different is the bibimbap that’s whipped (搅拌) up in a big bowl by dozens of chefs and served to over 400 people.

2. Waikiki Spam Jam

Who knew this canned meat had so much love? Well, it turns out that a can of Spam is the go-to item in Hawaii, along with a grass skirt and garland (花环). The people of Hawaii love Spam so much that they even spend a day in May giving out the best Spam, a type of cheap canned meat made mainly from pork.

3. Bessieres Easter Egg Festival

At Easter time, for those in the French town of Bessieres it’s all about an egg far less sweet.

Here they celebrate the holiday by getting dozens of chefs to make one large omelette (煎蛋卷) — 15,000 eggs strong — for the townsfolk (市民).

4. Potato Days Festival

This festival actually takes place in Barnesville, Minnesota, the US. Over the last Friday and Saturday in August the town celebrates its potato-growing skills by hosting potato picking and peeling contests, as well as a Miss Tater Tot pageant (盛典) for five- and six-year-old girls.

★ #ChefsChallenge!

Love cooking? Join famous chefs with this online challenge—cook, have fun and share your best healthy recipes!

When it comes to food, it’s difficult to match East Asia & Pacific in terms of variety and tastiness. From wontons to dumplings, from spicy fish to noodle soups, East Asia & Pacific’s amazing food culture is a central part of life for millions of people and indeed tourists from across the world.

However, changes in diet and lifestyle in recent years have sadly destroyed traditional food cultures, and the health of millions of people. Cheap “fast food” and unhealthy snacks that are high in sugar, salt and fat are now all too common but offer little nutrition.

★A new challenge

Today, there are more than 25 million of malnourished children living in the region, but the picture is changing. While the number of stunted (发育不良) children is slowly falling in many countries, overweight and obesity are growing, and at a much faster rate.

In many countries, three forms of malnutrition—undernutrition, hidden hunger and overweight-co-exist. A family may have an overweight mother and a stunted child. Or a child may be both stunted or too short and overweight. Unhealthy diets are a major cause of all forms of malnutrition.

★Join us!

One way to slow this tide is to reconnect families and young people with food. That’s why chefs from across the region are taking part in the #ChefsChallenge, asking you to show off your cooking skills. Get involved today by sharing your recipes with videos, photos or any other creative ways on social media using #ChefsChallenge and tagging UNICEF East Asia Pacific on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

9 . Now the reason cooking has become so popular, especially among men, is that the kitchen is the new workshop. Deprived（剥夺）of the requirement to practice his hands-on skills in wood or metal, the modern man turns to the chopping-board worktop instead — previously this was more likely to be the woman’s area. It involves tools, process and planning, and satisfies a natural desire to produce something.

I like fooling about in the kitchen, to be honest. Last night, tired of too many visits to over-priced restaurants, I tried to do something a bit clever with meats and vegetables. It was all right, I suppose. I mean, my guest and I both ate it, but in a slightly awkward sort of way. It was all a bit brown. More to the point, it took hours and hours that could have been spent on something more constructive, such as mending the cooker. There are also three dead motorcycles in the garage, and they’re not going to repair themselves. I therefore recommend the “Strength Through Simplicity” cooking style-the new stage of culinary(烹饪的) progress shall be the garage.

I’m hoping to introduce the idea of garage cooking in a new TV series and, as usual, would welcome any suggestions; anything suitable for consumption by a man who has one reasonably clean hand and one coated with machine oil he’d rather not put near his face. This is not, in fact, without precedent(先例) I’ve been in a factory in India where the workers baked breads on the tops of hot machines, and they somehow tasted better for being a by-product of industrial effort.

Tonight I’ve had an oil change with a side of chain adjustment accompanied by beans and sausages.

I believe anyone can make themselves something good to eat. Cooking is a lot of easier for us than most of us think. Last Sunday my parent were away on business. I left alone, with no one to cook for me, as I had a good chance to cook myself a wonderful meal. Early in the morning I went to the market, buying some beefsteak and tomatoes and then came back. Before cooking, I put a few oil, salt and sugar on the steak and mixed it together. When the pot was hotter enough, I began to fry the steak. Then I cooked some tomato soup with the egg in it. The food tasted deliciously!