Category: Food

Thought the post was ‘Stand by your Man’, did you? .. after the 1968 song recorded by Tammy Wynette?

Sometimes its hard to be a woman
Giving all your love to just one man
You’ll have bad times
And he’ll have good times
Doing things that you don’t understand
But if you love him you’ll forgive him
Even though he’s hard to understand
And if you love him
Oh be proud of him
‘Cause after all he’s just a man
Stand by your man
Give him two arms to cling to
And something warm to come to
When nights are cold and lonely
Stand by your man
And tell the world you love him
Keep giving all the love you can
Stand by your man
Stand by your man
And show the world you love him
Keep giving all the love you can
Stand by your man

Almost, but no : it’s Stand by your Winter Moments.   The little carton is from VitaSoy company and has soy milk in.  So help me figure it out.   The tall red bottle says Vitasoy, then there’s a bowl of cereal next to it.  But what does knitting have to do with the soymilk product? And is that a hot bath in winter time with the three characters are sitting in it?

Finally : don’t .. what? freeze? : )  Very complicated.

We bought this tea at Muji some weeks ago (a Japanese department store in Hong Kong).    Pop it your cup and you have a visual spectacle unfolding.    The flavor of the tea is very subtle.    I still like black tea with sugar best, but I have learned to like Oolong tea and green tea as well.

 

The little spare ribs are from tonight’s dinner at a nice restaurant with my colleagues.  (Mouth-watering and tasted as good as it looks, but the flower is really what made me take the picture).    The fog and a light drizzle has moved in the way it sometimes does here, the picture is from the walk back to my apartment.    It made me think  ‘the subways are sizzling and the skin of the streets is gleaming with sweat’.   That’s from American songwriter Jim Steinman’s  song Out of the Frying Pan (and into the Fire), from the album called Bad for Good (1981).

The most famous of the cola carbonated beverages that was originally flavored by kola nut, and citric acids (now commonly flavored artificially) is of course Coca-Cola.   Invented in Atlanta by druggist John Pemberton in 1886, his original recipe contained alcohol and coca leaves laced with cocaine.    So are the recent reports of the secret recipe (further down)  such a big deal?  Maybe not, since any would-be imitator is up against the international brand which is such a presence,  it is often seen as a symbol of the United States !

I bought these Coca-Colas in Hong Kong last month.  They are from Japan.  So : are these little containers bottles, or are they cans?

The recipe ..

Fluid extract of Coca: 3 drams USP
Citric acid: 3 oz
Caffeine: 1 oz
Sugar: 30 (unclear quantity)
Water: 2.5 gal
Lime juice: 2 pints, 1 quart
Vanilla: 1 oz
Caramel: 1.5 oz or more for color

The secret 7X flavor (use 2 oz of flavor to 5 gals syrup) :
Alcohol: 8 oz
Orange oil: 20 drops
Lemon oil: 30 drops
Nutmeg oil: 10 drops
Coriander: 5 drops
Neroli: 10 drops  .. a plant oil produced from the blossom of the bitter orange tree
Cinnamon: 10 drops

I bought the cute Pandaland biscuits just for fun.  They are made by one of Japan’s major candy and & snack companies.   (Japan also had an emperor called Meiji from 1868 to 1912).

Since the crossword puzzle is too easy, I will throw in one more question.   Where in China does one go to see pandas in the wild?  (Answer below).

Answer :  The city of Chengdu in Sichuan province.

This supermarket is right next to my apartment building and sports new signage made of little LED lights.  (I think I said before that I like the old-fashioned neon signs much better).    I came away with a nice dragon fruit*, guavas and apples.

*Dragon fruit is called huǒ lóng guǒ 火龍果/火龙果 “fire dragon fruit” in Chinese and is also called pithaya or pitahaya.  It is the fruit of several cactus species, most importantly of the genus Hylocereus (sweet pitayas).   The cross-section picture is from Wikipedia.

I got my red envelope at work today from the project manager (known as Hóng Bāo).   It is a small monetary gift for the New Year and the red color of the envelope symbolizes good luck and is meant to ward off evil spirits.    The amount of money usually ends with an even digit,  as odd-numbered money gifts are traditionally associated with funerals.  HOWEVER – a widespread tradition holds that money should not be given in fours, or the number four should not appear in the amount, such as 40, 44 and 400.   The pronunciation of the word four resembles that of the word death, and it signifies bad luck for many Chinese.

The spicy pork was part of dinner tonight with my two colleagues at the local ‘Spicy Restaurant’ (our name for it).   Believe me, you will need that ice-cold Tsingtao to wash it down with – and even then your lips glow with a numb fire for a while!

I tried the tea this morning from the Ying Kee Tea House in Hong Kong but it just doesn’t taste the way I expected it to.  Much earthier and some other flavors my untrained palate cannot identify.   I followed the instructions of putting tea in the pot, pour boiling water over it, swill it quickly and immediately pour off the water (it washes the tea leaves); then refill the pot and let it steep for 3 minutes.    So .. I will try it again a few times and see if I get used to it.

My colleague Will and I made it into Hong Kong at 8pm, and went to an Italian restaurant called Pubblico.  It’s on the left in the picture, in the Soho district.  The mozzarella is made on the premises and the mozzarella served with basil and tomato is excellent.  I travel out to Seattle via San Francisco in the morning and I look forward to it very much !

Just two grocery store items for today.  The sun-stenciled symbol on the apple means ‘fortune’ or ‘good fortune’.   I don’t know what the two red symbols in the newspaper heading says!  I will ask my colleague at work tomorrow to translate it.  Any guesses?   We sat in the cafeteria last week as they showed Mr Hu Jintao’s reception at the White House with the band playing the Star Spangled Banner.   It felt great !

Although tales exist in regards to the beginnings of tea,  Wikipedia tells me no one is sure of its exact origins.   But with tea plants native to East and South Asia, its use must have originated in what we know today as northeast India, north Burma, southwest China or Tibet.     Tea was already a common drink during the Qin Dynasty (around 200 BC) and became widely popular during the Tang Dynasty, when it was spread to Korea and Japan.    Trade of tea by the Chinese to Western nations in the 19th century spread tea and the tea plant to numerous locations around the world.

SO – all this preamble to say :  I think any purveyor of tea in China should not call itself Teabucks after the coffee company from the USA that has been around for only a few decades !   Both pictures from the weekend in Shenzhen.  Yes.  I like the  Elegant of Tea : ).

Here is a picture of a local grocery store called Yun Tian Mei Shi Fang.  I can use the name to illustrate how difficult it is to read Chinese.  I first used the pinyun (second column, the written pronunciation) to look up the Chinese characters on-line.   But that only got me halfway there.

云         yún      (classical) to say

天         tiān       day; sky; heaven

美         měi       America; beautiful

食         shí       animal feed; eat; food

坊         fāng     subdivision of a city

So then I combined the 5 Chinese characters and pasted it into Google Translate from Chinese to English, and that gets us a little closer :

云天美食坊  translates as ‘Sky Gourmet Food’ .. so maybe the translated store name is ‘Heavenly Gourmet Food’?

The majority Han Chinese have long followed the tradition of eating Laba rice porridge on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month.   This year it falls on January 11th.   Laba rice porridge contains glutinous rice, red beans, millet, Chinese sorghum, peas, dried lotus seeds, red beans and some other ingredients, such as dried dates, chestnut meat, walnut meat, almonds or peanuts.   Much more than just rice !  Picture from http://traditions.cultural-china.com.  

Since this is the start of the Chinese New Year celebrations, I’m posting two pictures from my desktop calendar here at the office.   Hmm, yes – sailing on a brilliant blue summer day.   The January picture is of course of the Daya Bay nuclear power plant here viewed from the water.

 

My colleague Will and I hopped into a taxi to Shenzhen to buy some food items tonight.  The first picture shows the mall where we shopped, next is a giant apple from Japan all wrapped up; then fruit juice made from excellent pineapples and you should drink it everyday for your health, Happy Fruit Drink in orange, and pomegranate juice from Korea;  and finally some Dian Hong black tea that I couldn’t resist after I opened the lid and smelled it.  Map and tea picture from Wikipedia.    Check out the last picture with the freeway on-ramp.  That building in the background is the China Customs building I showed on a previous post, the one at the Luo Hu railway station.

Over the hump!  Two work days to go.  The honey is tasty! It’s viscosity* is quite lower compared to what I’m used to at home.  (I always think of the word viscosity when I see honey).   The tins of canned fish I bought in Hong Kong last weekend.   (Confession : I buy the ones with the pretty pictures on the outside, like the Indian guy presenting his curried mackerel).

*Viscosity is a measure of the resistance of a fluid which is being deformed by either shear stress or tensile stress.  In everyday terms (and for fluids only), viscosity is “thickness” or “internal friction”.   Thus, water is “thin”, having a lower viscosity, while honey is “thick”, having a higher viscosity.

 

 

Since I got back after my two-month absence here on the project I have had to catch up on a lot of discussions that happened outside e-mails and teleconferences.    We still live in the real world, and there will always be a need to be physically present and look someone in the eye to understand exactly what is going on.

Ready for today’s treat from work?  Selection of high quality ingredients create fantastic taste and strong feelings of softness and happiness .. : ).

Here’s last night’s dinner .. my stand-by New Orleans style chicken sandwich from KFC with fries and a little custard pie.  Then it was on to the grocery store for a few items.   Check out the ‘unusual’  cereal flavors from Heinz :  Fish and Vegetable, Black Rice & Date.   Yes .. Heinz makes much much more than just tomato ketchup!   (No, I didn’t get any to try!  I brought some Pronutro cereal from South Africa).

This little African picture sewn up with scrap cloth (my mom was the artist) was the cover for my book bag for the first year I went to school.  I’m taking it back to Seattle to frame it or to use as a pillow cover.  And doesn’t the Cape Gooseberry jam look yummy?  The big jar of Marmite might not appeal to everyone.  It’s similar to the Vegimite in the sandwich that Men At Work sing of in their 1982 song Down Under :

Buying bread from a man in Brussels
He was six-foot-four and full of muscles
I said, “Do you speak-a my language?”
He just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich
And he said,
“I come from a land down under
Where beer does flow and men chunder
Can’t you hear, can’t you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover.”

Starbucks now offers their Via Ready Brew coffee (ground coffee bean) with vanilla flavoring, which I thought I’d try.  (It’s not bad, but I think I will stick with their instant coffee sans vanilla).  Vanilla is a flavoring derived from orchids of the genus Vanilla native to Mexico. The majority of the world’s vanilla is the Vanilla planifolia variety, more commonly known as “Madagascar-Bourbon” vanilla, which is produced in a small region of Madagascar and in Indonesia.  The ‘bean’ is part of the stem ending in the flower.  According to Wikipedia vanilla is the second most expensive spice after saffron, due to the extensive labor required to grow the vanilla seed pods.

I stopped at the gas station last night after going to the gym. The Honest Tea iced tea-lemonade drink was the one I picked from the 300+ drinks on offer.  Some time ago on TV there was a business profile of the entrepreneur that started up Honest Tea.  At that point Snapple and Lipton manufactured iced tea with tea ‘dust’ – the inferior left-overs from the leaves.  Hence, Honest Tea that was brewed from tea leaves.  (Snapple and Lipton now offer full leaf iced teas).   And since I mentioned television, at this point there is no escape from all the political ads for the election on Tue Nov 2.  Now that’s I’ve taken the time to brush up on the propositions on the Washington State ballot, all the ads look like half-truths, partial truths or twisted ‘truths’ presented to favor the sponsor’s viewpoint.   Yes, the truth is hard to find – and maybe hardest of all in TV ads and TV commercials.