Shoes to Wear in The Kitchen

Every cook we know is in endless pursuit of the perfect cooking shoe. I'm keeping search for the cosy anti-water shoes that I could wear in the kitchen that are easily washed clean.

As we enter the house through the kitchen door and take off the kitchen shoes and wear slippers about the house. Carpet is as white and pure as before.So we don't often wear the same shoe in the kitchen and the bedroom since kitchen is a place with water and besmirch. But what do you wear in the kitchen? Slippers that anti-water ? I sometimes wear Crocs shoes, i find it not bad for walking in the kitchen area.

Crocs shoes is really a great design and invention, it give me a great choic for walking in the rain days, and also it solved my kitchen shoe choice problem.

Check my Shoe Zone blog for more info.

Cotton in the Kitchen

Cotton collection in the your kitchen add function and flair. They are at home in the kitchen and not just as the cottonseed oil found in products ranging from potato chips to salad dressing. Cotton lends itself easily to home textiles such as kitchen towels and aprons because it is a hollow fiber that readily accepts dyes and promotes comfort through breathability. Beyond these obvious uses for cotton, there are others that get right to the heart of any chef's culinary skills.

Cheesecloth, for example, can be used to clarify butter, strain homemade stock and, when soaked in a combination of broth or wine, butter and herbs, creates a rich lacquered effect on roasted poultry.

Similar to cheesecloth are spice bags. As the name implies, these can be used to hold spices when preparing dishes or sauces in which loose spices and herbs would create an undesirable texture. They are also ideal for steeping loose teas. The drawstring allows all the flavor of the bag's contents to infuse the dish or sauce, but keeps the solids contained. And, if you are frugal and environmentally conscious, they can be washed and reused.

An indispensable item in any kitchen is butcher's twine, sometimes called kitchen string. One roll should last the average cook from one Thanksgiving to the next. Butcher's twine can be used to tie roasts so that they keep their shape, to secure the legs of poultry for roasting and, when tied to a spice bag, makes retrieving the bag a breeze. The advantage of cotton here is that it won't taint the flavor of whatever it is bound to, unlike a synthetic-based twine.

To learn more, check my Cosy Cotton blog: Cosy Cotton for Your Home Cotton Collection

I Have Opened Two Wordpress Blogs

I quite like the wordpress, since it offers many freedom as to the template style and the widgets choice.

Mind Lost in Garden

Garden related ideas for relaxed lifestyle. Fresh air, nice mood, vivid color, go green…. enjoying life in a nice garden.

Chic Apparel and Love Changes You

Apparel Make the Women - Stay Chic. Color, Style, Fabric, Brands, it all counts. Be a Smart Lady. Sharing Your Happiness and Love Story. Life is Beautiful and you are beautiful.

I Don't Care, I Eat Pig Just as Usual

The swine flu has no sign of leaving us, it continues to generate horror feelings around those places where it has verified patient, like hongkong. People are wearing masks just like what we do in the "SARS" period.

The origin and cause of this new kind of viurs is still a mystery. It has makes pig under focus and people would unintentionally eat pig less even if been told by the govenment that it has nothing to do with pig acturally, and there is no dead pig beacause of this until now. When pigs catch up with this new flu virus, they will just endure it like a common flu, unlike humankind, who would be likely to die if go the hospital too late.

I still eat pig as usual, what can I do ? Eat fish everyday, or just be like a vegetarian? I happen to have a vegetable garden in my home. If pig could talk, they would have more complainment than us humans. There is one person that catch this new virus in Mexica, and than got hundreds of pig infected, the fate for these pigs are black.

There is great opportunities for the fish market and those fish dealers, but fish is a little tricky to handle in the kitchen, and nowadays, with water pullution, fish got some kind of smell which I can's describe. It needs many ginger or other condiment to rid off this smell sometimes.

Swine Flu Make Pig Under Focus in Mexican

I used to think pig meat is pretty safe to eat, at least when compared to beef or chicken. Never thought Swine flu desease would cause so much fuss in the world just like now. We Chinese eat the most pig meat than everywhere else, but we seem not too worried about this issue until now, the govenment are taking strict precedures to prevent such things happening and people are very calm, not in panic as I have seen.

Maybe because of that "SARS" experience, Chinese people and govenment are pretty composed when handling such public safety matter. The travelling plan to Mexico and America are banned, and those people who are taking similar trip have postphoned their travel plan recently. Pitty is those Chinese people who are already in Mexica city or those city with Swine flu discoved, they have to be strictly careful.

The Swine flu happens very suddenly and out of nowwhere, it's said to be a new kind of variation of virus, Or it's just rumor since when SARS horror was wildly spreading in China, the sars virus was decribed like a monster and deadly terrible, but in the end, people found out that it's not at all that terrible as people said, So it's possible that the Swine flu matter is some kind of panic caused by rumor, may not be that serious at all, Let's hope it will pass more quickly.

What to Eat in Wuxi

Different cities in China got its own unique eating culture and food delicacy. Sichuan food, for an example, is famous for its pepper ustage, Nanjing, the city where I live, people tend to eat the processed duck more often. So what about Wuxi city, where is a important travelling spot in Jiangsu province, China.

Wuxi diet is belongs to Su style and Suxi alliance which "four major systems and eight style of cooking alliance ", the taste is partial sweet. Best place of Taste Wuxi snack of traditional properties should be regarded as to the Chongan temple of Wuxi.

The traditional Wuxi foods are very sweet and savoury types of food, but there is a wide range of selection of western foods.In some alleys there are different kinds of foods on a stick, it is very poular with a lot of locals going.

Envelope the steamed bun
It is famous snack of Wuxi, has had a history of one hundred years. It is meticulous that it selects first-class flour, materials for use; the small cage is cooked, southern taste. Have characteristic of get up not broken skin, stand up and does not leak the bottom, suck and stew in soy sauce glibly, Steamed bun urgent ferment and skin thin, filling steamed plentiful, tender and delicious, at the autumn and winter, filling the heart go back to enter the boil familiar crab butter, famous " crabmeat little cage ", delicious food in taste.

Three kinds of delicacies wonton
It is originate from Xishan city east pavilion township among the people, develop into traditional famous snack in Wuxi. Wonton with fresh meat, Kaiyang, tuber, make the filling heart, so call "the three kinds of delicacies ". And make the soup by meat bone, bean cured strips, silk of egg as the condiments. The wonton of three kinds of delicacies that the cover is thin, fillings are many, the soup is delicious, is the most popular pastry liked by citizens in Wuxi.

What to Eat in Nanjing

I love the city where I lived for nearly 8 years now, which is Nanjing. Apart from me, many foreiners travelled to China would come to Nanjing and enjoyed its culture and atmosphere very much. It's a great city for living, not so modern and quick rythem like Shanghai, but more got more leisure, peace and green trees with it.

It's a city that pay more attention to the environment. You may notice this when you take a walk in the main street. There is various kinds of green trees everywhere, in some streets with long history, you may not need to worry about the sun damage problem in the deep summer, since the tree leave is so thick as to protect you from the terrible sunshine.

I like Naning, and I want to collect some information about dinning here for those who came here for the first time. Just name a few for your reference:

Duck Blood Soup
The name of this dish may sound odd to foreigners who might wonder how the blood and soup is combined. Actually Chinese people do eat the blood of duck, goose and chicken but in a unique way. They collect the blood of a freshly killed duck or goose and stir, then seal and refrigerate until ready to use. The result is blood cakes. The soup is seasoned with salt, pepper, and subtly spicy undertones. Simmer gently for several minutes and serve with eggs, noodles and caraway. This food is the top of all travelers' recommendations. The cheap stalls at Fuzimiao dining street sell the best at 3.5 yuan.

Gan Si (Shredded Bean-curd Sheets)
A refreshing cold dish made of Bean-curd sheets. The bean-curd sheets are cut finely into threads with seasoning of sauce, sesame oil and vegetables shreds of bamboo root, mushroom, chicken or meat. It has fine shreds and a tender taste. It can also be boiled in broth and served with other meat shreds.

Salted Soup Duck
Autumn in Nanjing is a season of scented osmanthus blossom and the best time to make the delicious Salted Soup Duck because ducks at this time are fat. The chef chooses well-bred ducks and smears salt and spice on them to add flavors. The spice ingredients are a secret. Then the spiced ducks are marinated in a sauce for two hours. Just before eating, the ducks are steamed. It should taste fragrant, crisp and tender. The best restaurant to taste it is Jinling Restaurant near Xinjiekou.

Pressed Duck
A legend goes that in China's Southern Dynasties (420 - 589) an emperor was besieged by enemies in the imperial city. Soldiers guarded the city and fought hard in bloody battles. Women made salted ducks and wrapped them with leaves to preserve the flavor. Ducks were packed into a large jar and delivered to the soldiers. When the soldiers unwrapped the ducks, they found the ducks pressed flat, thereby the name Pressed Duck.

Chinese Summer Snack - Cucumber Recipe

Now I feel it's so hard to eat fresh fresh cucumber like in the past when I was living in the villiages where I could easily get fresh cucumbers in the farmland.

We could only bought them in the supermarket or in the food market. You can imagine they are one days early picked at least since they have to be get packaged and transported, then finally get into your bowls.

The best way to eat vegetables is to grow them in the garden yourself. Cucumber is such a great vegetable that contain many Vatamin C and other benefitial elements.

Summer Ice Cream Time is Coming

One of the things I like about summer is that I could store in my fridge a big bowl of ice cream and taste them after a cool bath.

That feeling is great even though someone tell me that ice cream is making people fat. But I don't be afaid of anthing that have big calorie or fat since I was born a natural slim body. Friends says that my genes are so great that I can enjoy month happiness better than those people who are easiliy getting fat.

I thinks for my health, I would learn to make ice cream myself at home. DIY ice cream must be fun and can be more personalized and more healthy since you won't add any potential bag elements into it.

There is many tips for ice cream DIY, and I would contribute some of them in my later posts and won't say anything here today. Anyway, it require that you are a lady who loves kithen work and loves yummy food creation and most of all, not lazy at all. It may not be as easy as you think about, you can encounter many obstacles in the process.

Chinese Wonton as Amazing Appetizer

Wonton is a kind of traditional Chinese food. We can buy wonton easily from supermarkets, Or enjoy them easily at restaurants, or you can make them yourself at home.

The Choices: There’s a vatiety of choices such as the fried wonton, steamed wonton, wonton soup with pork and shrimp filling, crisp-burnt wontons, and the increasingly popular Vegetarian Wonton. There’s also…

The Ease of Preparation: Wontons are seasoned meat fillings wrapped in dough. Compared to the dumplings, they are very easily to made, don't required any techniques. You just put one seasoned meat or other inner ingredient into the thin flower piece and give it a grips to make it stick together, then it's ok to put into the pant.

Whether it’s in an evening snack, or for a delicious breakfast choice, wonton is a great way to fill the stomach or you could call it an enjoyment.

Delicious Jianbing as Chinese Pancake

One of the most common examples of Chinese street food is "Jianbing". There is not actural traslation of it in English since it's totally Chinese traditional food. We could just call it Chinese Pancake as an alternative.

Jianbing is made on the spot. It consists of a thin crepe placed on a hot surface. An egg is cracked over it and quickly swirled around. As the egg cooks, cilantro and spring onions will be scattered around it. At this point the jianbing maker might ask you if you would like a bit of spicy sauce on it. The spicy sauce isn’t that spicy but provides a nice tang.

The last ingredient is a large fried dough crisp, of a similar consistency to the wonton strips that would come with a Chinese take-away back in the States. The crisp is placed in the middle of the eggy, oniony crepe. Finally, the crepe is folded over the whole thing.

At the going rate of 2.5 - 3 RMB for one, jianbing makes for a great and quick breakfast. True, there is nothing healthy about it, but it smells so good in the morning that I usually can’t resist a quick one with a cup of warm soy milk.

The best Jianbing, in my opinion , has two things at make it truly great. One is that the fried crisp in the middle is freshly fried and extremely crunchy. Frankly, a soggy crisp in the midst of the jianbing makes for a somewhat disappointing experience, and once you’ve had the crunchy ones you can never go back to the second-rate soggy ones. Secondly, a good jianbing includes cilantro in the mix. Many jianbing vendors don’t include cilantro, but I find that it packs an added punch with each bite.

Strawberry Made My Stomach Uneasy

Yesterday evening, I had a few strawberry one hour before asleep, and I washed them quite carefully by putting them into the salted water for a few seconds and then flush them. I heard that the salted water may help to kill some of the bacteria.

But when I woke up this morning, I feel very uneasy about the stomach and stayed in the bathroom for too long to even miss the bus to work. And I don't dare to drink the first drink of water this morning in case I Feel like uneasy again on the road to work.

I wonder if the strawberry is containing some pestiside or something that may not be easily get rid of. Oh, the food safety problem, always making us innocent people crazy. What can I do, never eating them or wash them again and again.

So I suggest that when eating the strawberry, don't ever save the time to wash them.You have no idea what it has been absorbed in the process of its growing, I bet they are not grown in the natural wild state, there is seldom any natural food exist today, even there is, they must be extremely expensive.

Induction Cooker is Not So Good in Cooking Chinese Dish

In afraid of the oil mist which may do harm to the body, I bought a induction cooker home, trying to change my cooking style, making it healthy. But after a few monthes trying, I totally failed, I returned to the traditional way of cooking and leaving the induction cooker only to boil water now.

The induction cooker is coming into China from the west, I suppose it may more fit the wester kitchen style, which basically not required any frying or fir control techniques. Talking about cooking techniques, the Chinese people are the number one. We cared about the fire control, which may do a great deal effort to a recipes's flavor and taste. The induction cooker is not so flexible as the heat control, it's more mechanical and computer controlled, so less humanlized to give us free control. That's the biggest bug for a great Chinese Cooker.

And then, another problem lies with the pan it used, it's all flat under the bottom. Acturally, we requried the more sharp bottom, not the flat ones, flat is only great for fring the egg, otherwise, it's no use.

If you can use the induction cooker very well to cook as good Chinese dish as using the traditional way, don't hesitate to contact me.

Soup Noodle or Fried Noodle

I talked about some quick noodle recipe in my last post, and I'm still going to talk about noodle in the post. There is generally two kinds of noodles, soup noodle and fried noodle, which one do you favor ? Acturally, I like them both. If I wanna bring noodle home from a restarants, than I have to choose the fried noodles.

The Chinese like their noodles long and slippery, the better to slurp down noisily. They're especially fond of wheat noodles, which they use in soups, and wheat and egg noodles, which they use in stir-fries and chow mein, their famous fried noodle dish. Rice noodles and bean threads are also popular.

I had Chinese fried rice noodles (aka chow fun and kway teow) for dinner tonight which are stir fried rice noodles served in a meat sauce with beef, fish, prawns, fried fish cake and Asian vegetables. Usually, thick rice noodles are used for this dish.

Which one is simple to make. I think both is simple, but the soup noodle may be more healthy to cook, since the fried one need more oil and more fry work, which may emits oil mist, which ladies would be hate. When fried, the noodle tastes better, when in the soup, the soup is great together with the noodle.

Quick and Easy Noodles Recipe

Now we are living a fast life, and spending lots of time in the kitchen preparing food is sometimes easy said then done. We may feel too tired after a long days work or just too starved to endure a long time waiting for a soup or something. The simple choice is to go to the restaurants near home and just make go of another dinner again, but the living price would be too high if you went to the restaurant too often.

I have figure out an alternative way, and simple recipe that only require half a hour at most, and still can fill your stomach full at a cheap cost. The answer is noodles. I'm not taking about the Italian noodles or the instant noodles, which could be classied into the trash food catagory. I'm saying the Chinese noodles which is a famous representative of chinese food culture too. It comes so many choices concerning the varitety of the noodles. I personally like the hand made noodles, that is one kind of noodles very common in the market. It won't be preserved a long time and you need to buy it fresh, so it tasted greater than those processed noodles which could be placed a long time.

The recipe is so simple, the most lazy way is too boil it ripe in the water ( 5 minutes) and than put in a bowl, than add some vinegar, some salt, some pepper juice, some onion. Better if you got some green leave vegetables, then add them too, first boil them ripe too.

The key of the complicated ones lies in the soup accessory, you can make it complicated as possible if you got enough time, you can prepare the soup ok, any soup you like.

My Favorite Fruit Shop is Gonna Expand

I often go to that fruit shop near Nanjing university. The fruit there is very fresh since it's near a university with so many students around. The shop owner operates this fruit shop with great effert, and always gives us the fruit with great quality and reasonable price, so day by day, it got reputation and a bunch of regular customers just like me, who would go a long way to buy fruit there.

The fruit shop around my home is not in the same level like that one, the priority thing I cared about is freshness, and fruit breed. There is many evil seller who solds the common fruit breed as a price for the better breed, I look down upon those action. In this way, it will drove customer away after the first trying. Honest fruit seller would win in the end.

The second thing is variety of the fruit. The shop got all those fruit I want, from common to uncommon ones such as yellow peach etc.Good news is that the fruit shop is going to expand in the next week because it's neighbor shop is closed and transfer the shop area to him. The fruit ship may turn out a new look and offer us many more variety in the next week. I was looking forward to that.

Old Classic Chinese Song - Wine with Coffee

Album: My Music
Genre: Pop
Language: Chinese
Artist: 邓丽君

Lyrics:

美酒加咖啡 我只要喝一杯 想起了过去又喝了第二杯

明知爱情像流水管他去爱谁
Knowing well that love is like running water Who cares whom he/she loves?

我要美酒加咖啡一杯再一杯(music)

我并没有醉 我只是心儿碎
I am not drunk. I only have a broken heart.

开放的花蕊你怎么也流泪 如果你也是心儿碎 陪你喝一杯 我要美酒加咖啡 一杯再一杯

明知道愛情像流水我並沒有醉

Wine with coffee , is called "Russian Coffee" as a cocktail drink.Russian Coffee recipe:1 oz vodka1/2 oz Kahlua® coffee liqueur1 tsp amaretto almond liqueur5 oz hot black coffee1 1/2 oz whipped cream1 tsp sugarMost popular name for coffee flavored liquoer is call "Kahlúa". Kahlúa is a well known Mexican coffee-flavored liqueur. It is heavy and sweet, with a distinct taste of coffee.

Chinese Overview: 美酒+咖啡，美丽的歌词，邓丽君用歌声感动了整整一辈人

A Love Story in The Kitchen - No Resevations

Simply, it's a movie about love between two chefs.

No Reservation -- a movie talking about a punctilious and confused chef, Kate regains her love for life and changes to act as herself in & out the kitchen.

Also Known As:
Mostly Martha (Remake)
Production Status:
Released
Genres:
Comedy and Remake
Running Time:
1 hr. 45 min.
Release Date:
July 27th, 2007 (wide)
MPAA Rating:
PG for some sensuality and language.
U.S. Box Office:
$43,097,652
Filming Locations:
New York, New York USA

Some Classic Lines here:

No Reservation -- (Kate)

I wish there was a cook book for life, you know, and do recipes telling us exactly what to do. I know, I know,you're going to say how else have you learnt.

(Kate's phychologist) Kate, no, actually I wasn't gonna say that. You wanna guess again.

(Kate) No, no, go ahead.

(Kate's phychologist) But I was gonna say was you know better than anyone. It is the recipes you created yourself that are the bests.

(a dialog between Kate and her phychologist in the end of the movie)

Anyone Can Cook - Fun Chef Movie "Ratatouille"

Ratatouille -- a story about a talented chef,a mouse named Remy,who help a passing execellent chef's son to acquire his father's restaurant and conquer the carping critic.

Classical lines

Ratatouille -- (EGO)In many ways the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and theirselves to our judgement.

We thrive on negatitive criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designatint it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something and that is in the discovery and defense of the new. The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations. The new needs friends.

Last night, I experienced something new, an extraordinary meal from a singularly unexpected source. To say that both the meal and its maker have challenged my preconceptions about fine cooking is a gross understatement. They have rocked me to my core.

In the past, I have made no secret of my disdain for Chef Gusteau's famous motto:"Anyone can cook."But I realize only now do I truly understand what he meant. Not everyone can become a great artist, but the great artist can come from anywhere. It is difficult to imagine more humble origins than those of the genius now cooking at Gusteau's, who is, in this critic's opinion,nothing less than the finest chef in France. I will be returning to Gusteau's soon, hungry for more.

Food That Can't Be Preserved in the Fridge

When taking about the best way to preserve food and keep it fresh, generally we would turn to fridge for help. But fridge is not so versatile as we thought. There is certain food or fruit that cann't be put into the fridge and sometimes the fridge environment offers the best condition for bacteria to grow in some food.

So we need to pick out those food that wasn't the fridge type. The most common one we often buy is tomato, which would be ok if just put in the normal temperature with good wind circulation. Orange is also not suitable to put in the fridge, so bring them out.

Fridge offers us great convenience to preserve food, but the best way to keep the nutrition is to buy fresh vegetable or fruit very often. Fruit or left-over food put in the fridge may lost their original taste and flavor, that maybe a little upset.

We know Chinese people are fond of making the salted meat, which has been processed with the salt to absorb all its water, and bateria may die too. In this case, the salted meat is not needed to put in the fridge.

Food Thrill Movie - Deadly Delicious

The best way to a man's heart is through his stomach, but these women aren't after his heart. In this tale, a man's wife and his lover conspire to slowly kill him by offering him various foods which are delicious on their own but, according to Chinese tradition, antagonistic when combined in the stomach. An interesting way to go.

Food can sometimes be deadly delicious if you are careless about the collocation of different food and make the wrong and deadly mix of them. That's would be extremly dangerous just as the movie have been showed. So in the movie, there is a lot of food collocation knowadge that we could learn to avoid those same mistake to happen again in our life.


It's a great thrill movie and at the same time, you could watch all those delicous food and recipe. Maybe the next time, a variety of gourmet putting in front you, you may want to spend a minute to check if they are anti each other.


Chinese Overview: 这部电影里面有很多关于食物搭配禁忌的知识

Movies about Food & Love - Chocolat

Juliette Binoche is a magic actress. She has made her name playing a series of melancholy women but now the French woman is enjoying the sweet taste of success with a lighter role in the love story "Chocolat".

Nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actress, "Chocolat" is a wonderfully sweet film with an outstanding cast. "Chocolat's" an amusing romantic comedy/drama, filled with love, life, and, of course, chocolate.

"Chocolat" is a beautiful story, told with love and acted with passion. While it may not have been the most commercially successful release of 2000, it was definitely one of the best.

If you haven't seen it, it's a fairytale story about an extraordinary chocolate shop that opens in an ordinary town and soon turns the prosaic village upside down. Even if you have seen it, watch it again and see how it inspires you. Your dish doesn't even have to include chocolate, maybe the movie will inspire you to make some Mayan, Gypsy, or French fare.

Chinese Overview: “浓情巧克力”是一部不可多得的关于巧克力和爱情的故事。

Do You Eat Fruit Everyday

Currently, healthy lifestyle is what people want to keep. There is a simple saying as: eat less meat, eat more fruit and vegetables. So do you keep the habit of eating some fresh fruit everyday ?

I bring a oringe to office these days. It can be preserved a long time, so I bought many everytime. It's heavy to bring to home, but it may bring a happy mood to me everyday.

I don't quite like to eat apples, even though I know it's the king of the fruit. It's too cold to eat in the winter and make my teech ache when eating.

Banner can't easily preserved, it will be rot in 2 or 3 days, since I don't live near to the fruit shop, so I don't quite often bought it.

There is many seasonal fruit, like strawberry in the summer, pineapple in the spring. You don't want to miss them since they have a short life, you would only seen them another year, So eat as many as you can when they are in season.

Don't be lazy, go to the fruit shop more to bring more fresh fruit. The more fresh, the better, we all know that.

Chinese Overview：你每天都吃水果了吗

The Most Famous Barbecue Spot in Nanjing

I used to live in Nanjing sanpailou several years ago. I often recall the time we eat barbecue there outside. Yestoday evening, we went there again. I was totally amazed by the big change happened there. The barbecure booth all being lined in a straigt line and the seller are all wearing the same apparel. It seems that the goverment has put more admistrative effect in this district, and make it more clean, yet preserve the local famous barbecue culture there, not just cancel it to upset the local people.

People like the evening barbecue culture. Bought some beer and order some barbecue items, virtually everything you can ordered there. Enjoy the happy time with your family, and I like this simple yet happy lifestyle very much. When the summer comes, we can went there more often. The food quality there is good and the eating atmosphere is also great.

Anyway, it's a famous spot and a big representative of Nanjing evening lifestyle. If you are in Nanjing, I strongly recommend you to experience it yourself.

Chinese Overview: 三牌楼烧烤烧烤风情，你不得不体验的南京夜生活。

Chinese Fast Food - Malatang from Sichuan

Malatang literally translates as "hot hot hot" which really has no real meaning in English beyond expressing somthing spicy.

It's like ordering from a canteen, you tell the person what you want - extra this, not too much of that - and then you choose what type of noodle you’re interested in. The spices and various sauces are then put into a bowl lined with a plastic bag. Then the noodles and veg are mixed up and boiled in a basket like contraption especially for the job. Wait about 30 seconds and the veg is done ready to be mixed with the sauces in the plastic bag, it’s all very simple and fast.

It's acturally a very healthy way of eating, since you may order many kinds of vegetables, which got such a great tasty flavor, you may not want to miss the doufu, the mushroom, the potato...blablabla. To tell you the truch, the variety of the vegetables may amaze you.

Malatang is originated from Sichuan, but soon enjoyes a national wild popularity as soon as it enter into other cities. Many people got rich because of this business. I even dreamed of operating one matalang shop myselves, than I would satisfy my stomach everyday and at the same time stuff my pocket. What a dream.

Women especially like it, since they can got full and happy without meat - :) When I was in colleage, I often have a snap with my friends in the afternoon or in the evening outside, Malatang is our common choice with its cheap price and rich choice.

Chinese Overview: 如果我能拥有一家麻辣汤小店，那是多么幸福啊。啧啧....

Men That Cooks The Best Looking Fried Eggs

Fried eggs sounds like one simple recipe, but it is not the case to me. When everytime I cook the fried eggs, the egg never got the desirable shape that I wanted it to be. So it's no that easy at all.

My dad used to cook fried eggs for me in the morning when I was living in the home with him, I remember the taste, and the great shape. But now no one cookes them for me, and time is so limited to do such a thing in the morning. He is the men that cooks the best looking fried eggs in the world --:)

In fact, I find the fried eggs the most tasty among all the eggs recipe, (I mean only use eggs in the dish). Add a little onion, I would be perfect.

I think I have found the reason why I always encounter failure. It just that I was not using a flat pan, but rather using the tipical chinese pan. My dad, he was also using the pan just like me, but he got good skills, which is never going to comanded by me andyway after so many failure.

I wish someday I could make a great looking fried eggs that with the very tender inner side.

Chinese Overview: 煎的鸡蛋最好看的男人

How is Your Cooking Knife Skill Goes

Knives are the most important items in your tool kit. A chef can accomplish a number of tasks quickly and efficiently with a good, sharp knife. High quality knives are expensive, but will last for many years with proper care.

It is because high quality knives obtain and keep an extremely sharp edge, one capable of slicing off a good part of a finger in a split second, that knife skills are a critical part of a cook's training. If you are going to spend a lot of time preparing food, acquiring superior knife skills for gourmet cooking is the single most important thing you need to do.

Tips for Buying a Chef's Knife
Buy the best quality knife that you can afford.
Make sure there are no gaps at the joint where the blade and handle meet.
Sizes range from 6- to 12-inch blades, but an 8-inch blade is standard.
The blade should curve toward the tip to allow a rocking motion.
A hefty bolster (the metal part between the blade and the handle) will help balance the knife and give you more control.
The tang (metal extending into the handle) should extend to the butt of the knife handle.
There is no rule on how heavy the knife should be. Some people like a weighty knife while others like a lighter one. It’s important to hold the knife before you buy to make sure it feels right for you.

Chinese Overview: 刀功也是考验实力的重要指标

Heat(Fire) Control in Chinese Cooking

The fire control ability is what makes your a plain cooker or a professioanl cooker. Chinese cuisine keeps the priority focus on fire and you can notice that when a great cook is do the frying, the fire would even jump so high to reach the food, which is so impossible to happen in our own kithen. Besides, we don't have the strength to lift the heavey pot up and then shake it up and down.

No alone the frying, the other way of cooking such as boiling is also a matter of taking control of the fire. The general tips for boiling is that, you need to use big fire to boil it up, than use little and steady fire to boil it flavor out. Simple yet full of wisdom.

As so many Chinese, especially Cantonese, dishes depend on super-fast stir-frying and instantaneous heat control, a gas cooker is undoubtedly the best equipment. Use of an electric cooker necessitates a lot of practice in gauging when to adjust the heat level, and an electric place cannot caress a round-bottomed wok in the way that gas flames can. Yet, with practice, an electric cooker and flat-bottomed frying pan can turn out very passable Chinese dishes. If possible, have a range with at least two rings.

Chinese Overview: 火候控制的本事是大厨和小厨的分水岭。

How to Made the Most Nutritious and Delicious Egg Recipe

Egg recipe is very common food in our kitchen. Keeping in mind the following tips would not do a great help.

Tip one: Soak in water

Before poaching eggs,you'd better lay the eggs under the cold water for a while and place them in the pan of cold water for cooking,after that doing,the egg isn't liable to be broken down.Of course,it's only one of the methods for holding the complete shape of egg.

Factor two: Heat control

If cook the egg by using the hard fire,it easily induce the air expand sharply within the egg causing the shells into crash;or using the opposite will prolong the duration of cooking even hard to control the degree of eggs.According to the experiments,it's most appropriate to use the moderate fire for cooking the eggs.

Factor three: Duration

After ensuring the extent of fire,you can control the degree of maturity of eggs as you wish only if acurrately you master the time of poaching eggs well.For instances,it's fit for poacing the soft-shelled eggs for three minutes after the water is boiling when the egg white solidify ,the yolk is in the form of fluxion;cooking soft eggs for five minutes after the water is boiling when the egg white solidify,the yolk is in the form of thick liquid,soft and smooth;cooking hard eggs for seven minutes after the water is boiling when the egg white solidify,the yolk is dry.The note for poaching hard eggs is that not prolong the duration arbitrarily for when cooking the eggs too long in the boiling water up to ten minutes thereby happen a serie of chemical reaction in the internal eggs and low the nutritious value of egg.

It's best to poach eggs for five minutes

Chinese Overview: 不要折腾了，白煮蛋最营养，简单。

How I Like Baked Potato

Baked Potato, it may be included in the risky food range since it's baked, which is not considered as a healthy way of cooking in most cases.

Risky food is the kind of food that is tasty enough to drive out your previous bad thoughts about them in an instance. Baked potato is just like this. Because you know it will make you fat, it contains too much oil and bad stuff, but when you taste it, you can't drop it.

I acturally don't think baked potato is such an unhealthy food like other people thought. If baked in a proper way, and put less oil and salt, it maybe good anyway, since potato itself is a terrific food that has a lot of benifits.

There is once a true story about a villiage, where people all live long life, they share the same habit as eating potatos eveyday. There is various way of cooking potatos, the most delicious one I think is baking it. Chinese people often like to fry it, but the slicing process is too hard and time taking.

The most healthy way is to use it into making soup, it may keep the nutrition well in the best state.

Chinese Overview: 煮，炒，烤土豆，哪个是你的最爱？ 我爱烤的。

How to Keep Your Egg as Fresh as Possible

Egg is an important friend in our kitchen. We often buy a dozen of them and keep them randomly in the fridge. Do you stop a second and carefully place them in order to keep the fresh for a longer time or just never spare any time to consider those details in life only to find some of them been not that fresh when eating.

Keeping eggs fresh is an important part of maintaining their taste and nutritional value. Eating fresh eggs can keep you healthy and provide you with essential daily nutrients. Follow these tips to ensure a fresh egg at your next breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Top one: keep the bigger header of the egg to the down side. That's the best way to place an egg.

Ensure that the eggs in the carton do not have any cracked shells. Check the carton for any breaks, too. Whole cartons help protect eggs from absorbing unwanted smells or tastes from surrounding food. Consider replacing the carton if big cracks or tears are present.

Check your refrigerator's temperature. Eggs need to be stored at 40 degrees F or 4 degrees C or lower to retain freshness.

Those above are just some details in life, but overlook them is not what a good housewife should do. Life is just a bunch of plain details being together. So comand the more, the better you would be living.

Chinese Overview: 鸡蛋大头朝下放置

Understanding Sichuan Food Culture - Pepper Part

In general, Sichuan cooks specialize in chilies and hot peppers and Sichuan dish is famous for aromatic and spicy sauces.

You may ask, what so special about spicy pepper, the best it can do is just make you sick? And yes, you are correct. However, Sichuan pepper does not grow with the intensity after you eat it (I cannot say the same with Atomic favor at Wing Stop restaurant).

What it does is gives you a burning or tingling sensation when it touches your lips. It could scare you at first (or worst pee your pant), but shortly after that the pepper will leaves with a numbness feeling.
If the hot is unbearable to you, eat something sweet to cool it down. Cake can be a perfect solution.

Characterized by its spicy and pungent flavors, Sichuan cuisine, with a myriad of tastes, emphasizes the use of chili. Pepper and prickly ash are always in accompaniment, producing the typical exciting tastes. Garlic, ginger and fermented soybean are also used in the cooking process. Wild vegetables and meats such as are often chosen as ingredients, while frying, frying without oil, pickling and braising are used as basic cooking techniques.

Chinese Overview: 川菜解密之- 辣椒篇

Ginger is Such a Amazing Food

Ginger is my everyday friend, ans is one of the basic item that you can't miss in your kitchen. Nearly every food recipe needs ginger.

Nutritional Effects of ginger: the main ingredients of pungent taste in ginger include zingerone, ginger alcohol and ginger hydroxybenzene which are volatile to some extend. Therefore, eating garlic can strengthen and accelerate blood circulation, stimulate the secretion of gastric juices, assist digestion and protect stomach. Ginger also can stimulate secretion of sweat, warm innards and stop vomit. To drink some ginger soup when catching cold can play a very good role of treatment. I tried Ginger Soup for Fighting Flu and it really works.

In traditional Chinese medical sense, eat more ginger can do more helpful benifits to your health.Using GingerFor a cup of fresh ginger tea, one should steep about five or six thin slices of ginger root. A teaspoonful of the dried root may be used in a pint of hot water. Cover and let steep for 30 minutes. Herbalists have recommended hot dried ginger root tea, in wineglassful doses every couple of hours, to help allay symptoms at the onset of a cold, relieve mild nausea or mild diarrhea. Ginger tincture (in which the root is soaked in a menstruum of alcohol and water), sometimes labeled as "drops" or "extracts," are available in health and natural food stores.

Herbalists recommend ten to twenty drops of ginger tincture in a little water with meals to counteract indigestion or help fight early symptoms of cold or flu. Some people, however, may not be able to tolerate the burning sensation caused in the stomach. Capsulated dried ginger root products, and capsulated products with standardized amounts of gingerol are also widely available. Read the product label for dosage and use information.

Chinese Overview: 简单而又神奇的生姜

Ginger Soup for Fighting Flu

Spring is a flu season with temprature in such a unstable state. I was hit by flu this past weekend. I had a pretty heavy head until now, and my nose nearly going nuts. To give it specific, I got a fever that is 38.6, not very high but is enough for me.

So I was heard that if there is not anything wrong and is just a pure fever, then we should not always go to the hospital and take the antibiotic, that's what the doctor tipically tells you to do. In fact antibiotic is not very good for health and totally unnecessary in some cases, but we now can seldom meet any doctors that really cares for you.

So we need to take care of ourselves. I google how would I do to make a little better. So I find a great one. Giner soup with a little red sugar in it. Pefect soup for fighting flu because it can helps you to drain your sweat out, that's the key point when we need to cure the fever due to catching cold.

It's extremly impotant to remember that ginger soup is for cold type fever only, not for heat type fever, most happen in summer. That's two totally different thing.

Chinese Overview: 发烧分风寒和风热型，如果是前者，大可服用生姜红糖水哦。

My Special Hobby Towards Eating

I like girls with slim body, but eat with big mouth, never pretend to be full when just after a few chewings, because eating by itself is a great enjoyment that you would be regret to be missed.

If I was sitting near a man with good eating manner that improve people's appetite, then I would feel my food in front of me be even more tasty. ~(╯▽╰)

I like the men who really into slowly chewings, and sedomly ask for soup or water when taking in the food. Every food must go though 30 chewings after went to the stomach, one lunch unusally take 30 minutes or more. That man would not hurrish you when you are still in the eating.

I like the men who cherich every little rice, don't ever squandered his money in eating. He would leave no waster food in a dining room. I like the man who don't have a very big stomach, but could really last long.

One's eating manner would reflect his or her temperament, hobby and his way of people skill. One meal to get know one man, then deciding its for the second or for a lifetime friend.

I wish I'm the pefect girl to my own satisfaction.

Chinese Overview: 我喜欢食量不大、战斗力持久的人。Other men live to eat, while I eat to live. 别人为食而生存，我为生存而食。-- Socrates 苏格拉底

Raw Carrots vs Cooked Carrots - Choose The Latter

Young ladies who wants to keep fit would virturally eat vegetables as their everyday food, and carrots is a common one to take as the recipe choice.

Women often eat raw carrots instead of cooked ones, time passed, and it turns out raw carrots may do harm to their health. The carrots contains many knowlege that we would like to learn to better assorb their norish.

Do not overdose - your skin will turn yellow!

- It's called Carotenemia! Consume too many carrots or drink too much juice and your skin, mostly the hands, will turn yellowish-orange. There are two possible reasons why your skin turns orange. Either your body is unable to process all the carotene properly in the carrot juice you are drinking , or your liver is toxic. Either way, the colour shows up in your skin. If you are having difficulty processing carotene: You may be drinking too much carrot juice at once. Your body can't really assimilate more than 8-10 oz. of carrot juice at one time (taken on an empty stomach).

Cooking also increases antioxidant power

High temperature is usually not the best thing for many of the sensitive compounds that are contained in our food and new research from the University of Arkansas indicates that for carrots, at least, cooking may in fact increase their goodness. Carrots are one of the best sources of carotene which is a strong antioxidant. But carrots also contain other phenolic compounds that are antioxidants. Many people do not realise that numerous phenolic compounds are located in the skin of fruit and vegetables, many of which are removed by peeling prior to processing.

Chinese Overview：胡萝卜的营养是脂溶性的，生吃不但不利于吸收，还会把你吃成黄脸婆的哦

Natural Cereals and Whole Grain

Cereal and whole grains contain more benifits than we could think about. It's a pity that morden people now skip these food in our main diet, sedom eating them, for the alternative, we eat too much refined rice which may not supplement enough mineral and nutrient our body needs.

Consume whole foods, not supplements. Strong evidence suggests that people who have high blood levels of certain nutrients—selenium, beta-carotene, vitamins C and E—age much better and have a slower rate of cognitive decline. Unfortunately, there's no evidence that taking pills with these nutrients provides those antiaging benefits. "There are more than 200 different carotenoids and 200 different flavonoids in a single tomato," points out Ferrucci, "and these chemicals can all have complex interactions that foster health beyond the single nutrients we know about like lycopene or vitamin C." Avoid nutrient-lacking white foods (breads, flour, sugar) and go for all those colorful fruits and vegetables and dark whole-grain breads and cereals with their host of hidden nutrients.

Don't take those so-called pills for granted. They are just eating your money and your trust. Turn to natrual cereals and whole grains, it will improve your health if you persist.

Chinese Overview: 吃吃五谷杂粮，完全胜过任何补充剂和营养品

Try to Add More Green Vegetables in Your Breakfast

What's your typical breakfast been like. Are you too busy to care too much about the quality of your breakfast even you know that it's your most important diet for the day and for your health too.

Is your breakfast contain too much oily stuff or fat, which won't do any good to your morning work spirit. Never skip green vegetables, expecially in the morning.

Green vegetables such as cabbage, celery, they can be added into porriage to make it more delicious and yet more nutrient too. Good idea and recipe for a simple breakfast. There it is, a traditional chinese way of porridge.

When I was growing up, nearly every night my family ate dinner together. No matter what else was for dinner, there was always a green vegetable. On the rare occasion that we'd have breakfast for dinner, my mom would serve apple slices and tell us to pretend that they were green (cauliflower and all squashes counted as green). Because of this early conditioning, I have a very hard time feeling like my dinner experience has been complete if there wasn't a green vegetable on my plate.

Chinese Overview: 多吃蔬菜要放在行动上

Don't Eat Too Much Before Sleep

I'm at the moment quite regret my night snack action last night. My stomach feel very tired and unseasy right now. It's really not a good idea to eat again in the night after 11 clock.

My boyfriend and I went out to eat the fried bullfrog last night. For this late only because it may got the price cut half during the night time. But it turns out the saved money could not compensate for the suffernig my stomach now undergoing. And after I eat too much oily frog at night, I left so little time to give the stomach to consume them and digest well by going to sleep after a short bath.

So when I get up the next morning, I got a vomit and don't have any appetite. I think I would never go out to eat at nightm, no matter how tasty or how cheap it is. It hurt my health.

Chinese Overview: 很后悔昨天半夜出去吃了牛蛙，没来得及消化，很suffering.

Pure and Wild Mushroom Soup

My kitchen often features mushroom food. As is known to all, mushroom is considered as the top healthy food. Traditional Chinese way of mushroom soup is welcomed by people from home and abroad and it obtained a patent for the discovery of the 21th Century healthy food in the world.

Flavour and health, all in one, so what are you waiting for, trying learning the mushroom recipe now.

I've often prepared this soup simply with cremini mushrooms. But, to tell the truth, I enjoy it the most when I use a variety of "wild" mushrooms (which are now cultivated), such as cremini, shiitake, chanterelle, and oyster, each offering its unique flavor and texture. At the supermarket, select the freshest-looking mushrooms to create your own signature combination.

Mushroom hotpot which is crispy, mellow, fresh and slippery and moreover, its effect is the same as medicine. Many species of mushrooms and fungi used in folk medicine for thousands of years are being studied by researchers. Maitake, shiittake, chaga and reishi are prominent among those being looked at for their potential anti-cancer, anti-viral, or immunity-enhancing properties. Psilocybin, originally an extract of certain psychedelic mushrooms, is being studied for its ability to help people suffering from mental illness, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Chinese Overview: 煲一碗纯杂菌汤，为你，为家人。让健康和美味共存。

Taking Cooking as a Way of Relax

Many housewives may thought cooking as a tedious routine that they have to do. While I don't think so, I take it as a good way of relax, preparing food, investigating recipe, enjoying the efforts by yourself. Why not?

Maybe it's just different attitudes. For those housewives who needs to figure out what to eat everyday, cooking surely couldn't be a fun thing. In fact, I'm suggesting not cooking everyday, just once in a while, for example, every weekend when you have time, or the other days to satisfy your stomach.

Cooking so frequently would hurt its fun, just like working everyday, not any interest. So skip it a day or too, relax outside for the sake of making the cooking more fun the next time. A flexitble time schedule is needed to keep the fun with it.

Be a lady who loves cooking and cookes well, then your husband would love you more, since there is an old saying as: keep a man, you should keep his stomach first. " Very to the point.

Chinese Overview: 下厨其实很享受，隔三岔五，给自己找点乐子。

Understanding Sichuan Food Culture - Geography Part

To understand the lavishness of Sichuan food, you first have to understand Sichuan's geography. About three-fourths of the province is mountains, and the mountains that divide the lower elevations to the east and the Tibetan plateau to the west hold the richest temperate ecological habitats on earth.

It is that abundance of species that has bequeathed Sichuan's food with copious variety. I reckon that Sichuan's cuisine makes use of more ingredients than any other cuisine in the world; I also think that the profusion of tastes and textures is the most extensive in the world.

Generally speaking, Sichuan dishes are also oily and spicy. Representative of this is Spiced Fish Stew. Sometimes sauces are submerged in oil and this is due to a history of poverty. According to local wisdom, the deprived locals couldn't afford meats and as a result oil became a substitute for meats—that way, the oil gave vegetable dishes a rich texture and consistency, making up for absence of meat. This then led to another development: the imbibing of tea.

Many locals carry a tea thermos everywhere they go, taking gulps every few minutes, apparently out of necessity—the tea is supposed to neutralize the oily density of the food. (Now people can afford meats, and this, coupled with increasing health consciousness, is leading people to use less oil—although this is relative, as people who tell you they have used little oil in a dish would still have used half a cup.)

Lets go on in the next post.

Chinese Overview: 了解川菜，先从了解其地理背景开始

Crazy in Love with Spiced Fish Stew

Spiced fish stew, in strict sense, is originted from Sichuan cruisine, but now it's really been a fashion trend in our city here to eat spiced fish stew. Its flavour is a bit spicy and not so mild, but for the sake of it's great smell and taste, just putting those healthy related talks beside me for a second, because I want to taste happiness with the smoothy fish slices.

My way of cooking:

1, Rinse the fish fillets and cut each into 3 pieces. Dry the fish well with a clean kitchen cloth. Combine the fish with the marinade in a large bowl and set aside for about 30 minutes.

2, Prepare the salad base in a bowl.Heat up some oil in a wok or heavy skillet and slowly stir in the marinated fish. Cook until fish just starts to turn white, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to drain.Pour off the frying oil, leaving about 2 tablespoons in the pan. Add in hot bean sauce and stir until fragrant.

3, Stir in ginger, garlic, half scallion sections, chilli flakes, half of each Sichuan peppercorns and dried chilli. Stir over the medium heat until their fragrance is fully released. Drizzle in rice wine and light soya sauce. Continue stirring. Pour in stock, adjusting the heat to high, and bring to a boil. Season it with pepper, salt, chicken powder and white sugar. Return fish to the skillet and cook for about 3 minutes.

4, Turn off the heat and pour the fish stew into the prepared bowl with salad.Heat up 200 grams of oil in another pan. Add in another half peppercorns and dried chilli. Stir till fragrant over the slow heat. Pour over the fish and garnish with the curled, drained spring onions or coriander leaves.

Cooking Tips:
1. Please do not eat the dry chili pepper and flower pepper. It is just for the flavor. 2. Serving with a bowl of white rice can reduce the spicy for you if this dish is so spicy for you.

Chinese Overview: 水煮鱼，什么都好，就是费油

Tasty Vegetables that Fits Morden Healthy Lifestyle

Nowadays, people are conscious about the healthy food, which is no MSG, No artificial colouring, and nutritious food. There is ever-increasing trend to add more vegetables to our dinning table in China. Healthy food recipe now favor and stressed on natural and fresh, which is expecially loved by those who like to consume light flavour food.

It's a healthy life habits with consume less sugar and less meat. People should change their long hold prejudice about vegetables that they are just too ordinary and can't made to be delicious.

That's just prejudice, since if be cooked in creative style, the vegetables could turn out to be outstandingly tasty. The most common material we utilize when making vegetable recipe is dofu, mushrooms, and carrots... Those are my favourites and they are very good for our health, and besides, they are very tasty.

Mushrooms is often made to have the tasty of fish, or even better than fish. Dofu is a most famous representive of chinese food that make foreigners wonder and run at the mouth. Carrots is often been carved to make any styles and shape.

So, taste more vegetables and learn how to cook them in a way you previously didn't know, enjoy them and embrace a better lifestyle that with less meat. Anyway, it also can help weight control, good news for the women.

Chinese Overview: 中国人讲究，素菜荤作，美味又健康

Orange Juice To Prevent Sun Damage to Face

With nice and brigh colors, orange juice is so wildy loved and fun to make.

Orange juice is supposed to be good if you have a sore throat. It helps it get better (so they say). Some fast facts about the refreshing drink for all those juice fans out there:

-Also known simply as "OJ"
-Even more refreshing with crushed ice and Sprite
-High in vitamin C

My Mom used to do it in the summertime to erase and prevent sun damage, but I feel it can be used in winter time, too, to revive glow and lightly exfoliate a dreary winter skin.

The recipe is simple: an orange juice. That.'s right. Plain orange juice. My Mom rubbed half the orange or half the tangerine (or clementine, or even satsuma) all over her face, avoiding the eye area.

And it makes perfect sense: orange juice contains alpha hydroxy acids, and just the right type for your skin. Even the most fragile skins are safe with most fruit juices, apart from lemon and lime. Still, you can use them diluted.

Chinease Overview：VC 之王哦，夏天到了，新鲜的橙汁还可以帮助美女们防晒哦！

Eat Bullfrogs Contains Anti-ageing Substance

A bullfrogWhile it only turns into a handsome prince in fairy tales, but it may face a new life in the human world, since it is researched to have contain anti-ageing substance that humans thirst for very much.

The striking good news was decared by South Korea life scientists. No wonder since Korean people are so much delicated to the body and face care, face reconstruction field, so the achievement should be theirs. The homely bullfrog may harbour a valuable anti-ageing substance for humans, South Korean researchers say.A team led by Professor Kim Se-kwon of Pukyong University in Busan says it isolated a peptide with antioxidant properties from bullfrog skin.

Because of the properties, the material is useful in removing free radicals -- molecules that hasten the ageing process of human cells.Alpha-tocopherol, also known as Vitamin E, is traditionally considered as the most active antioxidant in humans and widely used in medicines and health supplements.But its price keeps rising because of surging world demand."The new substance can provide an economic alternative to tocopherol," Kim told reporters Tuesday, referring to another antioxidant.

The team's discovery was published by Bioresource Technology, an international journal, last year."Because it is water-soluble, the substance may be consumed in much more diverse ways than the oil-soluble tocopherol. You may put it in soft drinks, for example," he said.The newly found material is also 10 percent more efficient than tocopherol in curbing oxidisation, he added.Definitely it's a good news for humans, but I was unclear about whether it's great news for the bullfrogs themselves. They will be enter into our dinning table more often now.

Chinease Overview: 牛年吃牛蛙，牛蛙营养又美味，还抗衰老

Eating Hot Pot as a Social Event to Share and Enjoy

We Chinese Fancy "Hot Pot", which is a famous representative of Chinese food and eating culture.

Wherever you find Chinese people, you'll find them enjoying "hot pot." It is popular everywhere in the Chinese world, from Beijing to Canton and from Western China to Taiwan. It can also found in overseas Chinese communities all over the world. Hot pot has been popular in Korea and Japan, as well.

Hot pot is kind of simple enough to prepare, you just need a big boiler and soup, the key is to prepare all the vegetables and meat ready and clean for the hot pot. Nowadays, people often use induction cooker, which is very convienient to use and quite fit the hot pot style of eating. The basic soup in the hot pot had better to be bone soup or chicken soup to make it most nutrient and tasty, or you can just put ordinary water and then add some hot pot sause, which has lots of options in the supermarkets.

Almost any kind of food can be used to make hot pot--all kinds meats and vegetables are used. Also, tofu and noodles and other special foods can be added. The soup may become even delicious after all the different stuff has been put into it. I like tofu and bamboo shoot the best, and as to meat, I prefer mutton slice meat.

Eating hot pot is not just about the kind of food or a method of cooking. Eating hot pot is an expericence to be favored. It is best enjoyed as a social event, in the company of friends and family. Eating hot pot together builds friendships as people share the cooking and eating of the food. In other words, good company is another of the " ingredients" in hot pot.

Chinese Overview: 吃火锅吃的也是一种感情和气氛

In a Perfect World of Chocolate Fantasy

Forrest Gump: My momma always said, "Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."

Soon will comes the Valentine's day to send gift chocolate to your loved ones. No one could resist the flavor, the smell of it.

The Chocholate Song for you

When you feel like you're hung over,But you didn't drink last night,And your eyes are like a road map,And your underwear feels tight;Gravity seems to multiply,And your organs are on strike,You're in sudden-death overtime,And the wheels are off your bike.

You need some chocolate,Soft creamy chocolate,Some chocolate ice cream,And chocolate mousse... mousse... mousse...Some chocolate cheesecake,Bavarian chocolate,Bring on the chocolate,We need a boost!We need a boost!

Now, they say it gives us pimples, it's addictive and it stains,It makes us fat and hyper, and clogs up all our veins;It puts migraines in our noggins, and it's worse than cigarettes,But all those things are easier than having a chocolate fit.Now there's lots of medical evidence to support our point of view,It's not all psychological, good news for me and you;It affects our seratonin, which reduces aches and pains,And does all kinds of cool things to the chemistry of our brains.

Chinese Overview：阿甘：生命就像一盒巧克力，充满未知！

The First Cup of Water in The Morning is Crucial

Good habits keeps our health in the long run, the key is perseverance, today my life perserving suggestion concernes a water drinking habit, that is, you'd better drink a cup of water every morning when you wake up, cause it's extremely crucial for your body health.

It supplements water for you body. You body really lost a lot of water during the long night through metabolism.

It prevents constipation feeling, since the first water wash your empty stomach and relieve the harm to it, to keep it the perfect shap and function for a brand new day.

The first cup of water is also good for the braind refreshment, it's said that the first water would do something to the blood, promotesblood circulation, to give you a refleshed brain.

Besides; for the women, you need to cultivate this habit since it really can do emination of toxicant stuff and good for face care. All you should remember is that the first cup of water needed to be taken when you are are with empty stomach, and taken slowly, because speedy drinking may do harm, may cause vomit. Then you gotta take notice that the water should be warm not hot or cold to relieve the stimulate to the stomach.

Chinese Overview: 早餐第一杯水是救命水

Eat Alone not as Bad as You Thought

Lonely when you are alone, eating alone, take a walk alone, tasty the loneniness alone.

There must be a time when you are along, when the family is not around, so what about the dinner.

When it comes dinner by yourself, don't always give it a random eat. You could treat yourself better by having a great dinner yourself.

Add some grape wines would be nice and music is also good to add the feeling and tone when you are eating alone.

Are you a sensative and smart lady that manage to live your lonely dinner day full of tones ?

Chinese Overview: 一个人吃饭，一个人漫步，一个人尝试着寂寞，一个人懂得了孤独的滋味。

Eat More Mushrooms as You Could

Mushrooms if cooked in Chinease way into yummy dish, it would tast like heaven.

Whether it's been fryed with vegetables or made into soup with chicken, the finest cookers would made it taste similar to the most expensive fish, or exceed its flavor with its unique flavor words hard to describe.

You would feel so lucky if you are tasting the wild wild mushrooms, happiness is so easy to reach then. You could eat as much of it as you could since it's so good for your health.

Antioxidants

Mushrooms contain antioxidants, the Zena-Warriors in the fight against diseases like cancer and heart disease. The antioxidant specific to mushrooms is called l-ergothioneine. Shiitake, maitake and oyster have the highest levels of this powerful antioxidant followed by portobello and crimini and then white or button mushrooms following.

Immune System

Mushrooms contain beta-glucans, a complex carbohydrate glucose molecule or polysaccharide, which is a type of soluble fibre. These appear to not only have anti-inflammatory qualities but they can help rev up your immune system by creating disease fighting T-cells. With the flu season here we need all the help we can get. Wash your hands often, eat lots of fruits and veggies, and eat mushrooms regularly.

Chinese Overview： 野生菌菇，天堂般的感觉

Smile at 2009 New Kitchen Adventure

Everthing got a new start for 2009, so does my life in the kitchen.

Life's beauty requires a sensative eyes to catch with, so don't let those little magic passing around you with no record.

I need to continuously refresh the food recipe that I followed and make any better changes possible thus to make life full of surprise and joy. Life needs change once in a while.

I would also choose kitchenware that with cute designs, which can pass me great mood when cooking.

Food, Clothing, Housing, Playing

That's the four basic elements which makes our life. Food is the most important things of all. So if you can learn yourself a good skill of cooking, then so lucky for you and your families since you can enjoy life everyday, happiness is so close to you with those yummy food you made.

Love your kitchen, love your family, love your life.

Chinese Overview: 充满爱，充满期待，开始2009的味蕾之旅吧