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。