I'm not sure these are necessarily limited to east Asia (minus the apple dragons at the end). This reminds me -- entirely orthogonal -- of the big deal made abo

I'm not sure these are necessarily limited to east Asia (minus the apple dragons at the end). This reminds me -- entirely orthogonal -- of the big deal made about the fact that pyramids were constructed on disconnected continents. Seems to me it boils down to geometry and physics -- there are only so many ways to heap stuff. Same with the veggies. These are just the natural permutations for the most part. As for techniques, my favorite is cutting a minimal slice off of round items (think onions) to use as a flat stable bottom before attempting thin slicing.