hello world : February 2016

Sunday, February 28, 2016

A Passionate Explorer

I went sailing today. It has been a long time for me to wake up early in the morning. However, in order to participate in the sailing class, which takes place from 9am-12pm, I was able to get up at 8am today, so I am extremely happy about my decision, which made the extra four hours possible.

My friend and I never tried sailing before, so it was a refreshing experience. We met our coach in the register office and his name is Sasha. Sasha dressed very professionally and looked absolutely serious to me at the first sight. I was having a muffin and a cup of coffee in the register office when we met and he started to say that the class is probably never going to take place since I’ve been eating. I was shocked and then I realize he was joking.

Then we went to the sailing boat, which was parked at the dock. The boat is quite small and is of about 20 feet, but it’s certainly sufficient to take 3 people and navigate the unknown.

Sasha introduced us to the terminologies used on the boat and the names of different objects. For instance, he told us that the right hand side of the boat is called starboard, and the left is called port, so it’s easier for sailors to communicate efficiently.

Following the instructions, we immediately raised the major sheet and went into the open sea, trying to operate the sailing boat solely depending wind. In fact, we didn’t seem harvest huge winds at the beginning. However, we were able to gather some winds when we had sailed very far away from shore side.

It was a fascinating experience. I am glad that I was able to try something new every week and meet people with different backgrounds. It’s always inspiring. I learned the basic sailing skills and met Sasha, an experienced and passionate sailor. Sasha, even at the age of 72, sailed in the ocean with his friends from Spain to Catalina islands, which took him a couple of weeks. To me, it’s quite an adventure.

I’m not sure if I can do the same thing when I get to age of 72, but one thing for sure is that I want to remain passionate and never be afraid of exploring new things.

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Growing a Farmer - Comment 2

With the desire to seek more detailed methodologies of raising livestock and how Kurt eventually enjoys his fruit, I read the other half of the book during a sunny weekend in company with a cup of Grande latte and some jazz.

The second half book serves as a continuation of the previous one, which shifts the focus from crops to more humane objects – livestock. Kurt talks about the specifics of raising fowl, pigs, and cows. He also confesses his feelings when butchering the animals that are raised by him.

This is an interesting part of the story. When farmers eat the crops they raise, they are happy and satisfied since they achieve self-sufficiency as they are feeding themselves with food collected from their own farms. However, when it comes to livestock, more nuances arise due to the fact that these livestock connects with human to a deeper level, especially pigs. Kurt himself mentions this in the book that he feels pigs are thinking when he looks at them. Kurt spends a long time contemplating whether to kill the pigs or not since he does not to feed himself with the pigs and is capable of thinking more rationally as hunger is no longer a burning factor pushing him to take an immediate action. Although it takes a long time, Kurt eventually decides to butcher the pigs, coming to another level of understanding of the rules and logic of nature, which he seeks to unravel from the very beginning.

At the very end the book, Kurt starts to serve his guests and himself with food strictly from the farm - the cheese, the meal, and the meat. While they are enjoying the feast, they also start to discover the connections they have with the land, the climate, and the nature.

The author also points out that the food only reflects the essence of his own farm, which to himself, means self-sufficiency, despite of the implications that the food could be dull due to lack of diversity. However, he therefore reinterprets his relationships with the nature and regains his identity as the descendant of the land.

In a modern society today, I agree with the author that it’s necessary to discern the relationships that human beings have with nature and the urgency to reach a peaceful mindset, to embrace nature, and to create our own self-sufficient life. However, the sign of a more civilized society is that everyone engages in more specific and sophisticated work, therefore allowing more technological breakthroughs to take place and the society to move forward. This division of functions also means individuals are given the opportunity to taste a broader spectrum of food.

People no longer need to live like Robinson, who raises all the crops and livestock on a barren island, thusly they are liberated to engage in more meaningful activities and to build more holistic experience. I am sure the guests Kurt invited go to other styles of restaurants on the other days. Still, we should celebrate Kurt’s self-sufficiency while keeping in mind that there are myriad of avenues to get there.

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

More Than Just Spice

A Food-lover’s Insider Guide to the Mysterious Sichuan Cuisine

It’s in the middle of a freezing winter. You want to eat something warm, or something stimulating, to excite your stomach and fuel your mind to finish up the seemingly endless homework. You never lack food choices, but the hard thing for you is to decide what to get to fill the ravenous stomach. One idea jumps into your mind – “What about Japanese food? Nah, it’s too cold, and always just sushi and sashimi. What about Italian food then? Nuh-uh, it’s nothing stimulating.” - Yes, it’s time to go for something that’s more stomach-friendly - the Sichuan Cuisine.

Sichuan Cuisine, originating from Sichuan Province located in southwestern part of China, is the most popular Cuisine in China. Ranking the top of the four major cuisines in China, Sichuan Cuisine presents numerous famous dishes that are characterized by their hot-spicy taste along with the flavor of Sichuan pepper that is rare to be found in other regional Cuisines.

When and How Did It All Begin? - History of Sichuan Cuisine

Sichuan is colloquially known as the "heavenly country" due to its abundance of food and natural resources. While it does not have seafood as it’s located in the Sichuan basin, surrounded by sublime mountains, it breeds copious domesticated animals including poultry and duck, freshwater fish, as well as variety of crops.

Among all the gifts bestowed by nature, the chili pepper originated from Mexico, brought to China by Portuguese traders in the 16^th century, accustomed to the Sichuan weather fairly quickly and gradually replaced the spicy peppers of ancient times during Song dynasty, and ultimately complementing the Sichuan pepper to create a unique identity for the Sichuan Cuisine. The explanation for the dominant use of chili pepper along with pepper oftentimes is that the province's climate is brutally humid and steamy during the summer, while damp and chilly in the winter, so local people tend to eat peppers to facilitate the metabolism and to dispel dampness inside their bodies according to traditional Chinese medical science.

As a unique cooking style of food characterized by the spicy flavor, Sichuan Cuisine has been famous for more than eight hundred years since the Southern Song Dynasty marked by the opening of Sichuan restaurants in Lin’an, the capital city of its time, which is now called Hangzhou.

Hot and Spicy? - Flavors of Sichuan Cuisine

Do you think Sichuan food is just all about spice? You are the majority and you are wrong.

Don’t get frustrated though since a lot of food bloggers get this wrong as well. As a native who was born and raised in Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan province, I learned how to cook authentic Sichuan Cuisine in a professional cooking school for three months, and only through that experience I was able to advance my understanding of Sichuan Cuisine - and it turns out, the flavor of Sichuan Cuisine is far more complicated that it seems.

The experienced Sichuan Cuisine cook at the professional cooking school told me that people tend to have impressions that Sichuan Cuisine are spicy and hot, which held true until the 1970s, but nowadays it has evolved to satisfy more nitpicky stomachs.

Along with the spicy flavor, the numbing taste of Sichuan pepper also matters, and it’s the very special sense that differentiates Sichuan Cuisine from dishes that are simply spicy.

While chilies - fresh, dried and pickled, hold significant positions among all the flavors, Sichuan Cuisine is more than pure fieriness. What makes Sichuan Cuisine truly outstanding is its remarkable variety of flavors, where you can find every dish has its own style, and a hundred dishes have a hundred different tastes. This enormous diversity results from creative combinations of different ingredients and distinct ways of cooking methods.

What Are The Must-Eats? – The Most Famous Dishes of Sichuan Cuisine

While Sichuan Cuisine is famous thanks to its diversity and the unique identity, it also features some must-eats for the first-time eaters to create their memorable Sichuan Cuisine experience.

Rather than immersing my readers with pungent, hot, and fragrant homemade feasts, the must-eats I selected encompass a wide spectrum of flavors and I guarantee they are going to make your gourmand stomach fulfilled – their names are Mapo Tofu and Kungpao Chicken.

Mapo Tofu

Photo courtesy to nipic.com

Mapo Tofu is bean curd served in a chili-and-bean-based sauce, which is a thin, oily, and bright red ingredient, stir-fried with minced meat, usually pork or beef.

Seasonings vary according to different households’ preferences, but oftentimes they include water chestnuts, onions, and other flaky vegetables. The taste of Mapo Tofu is exceptionally nuanced since it maintains a perfect mix of numbness, spice, and freshness along with a pungent aroma, which excites your taste buds to secrete saliva. It fully represents the typical taste of Sichuan Cuisine - spicy-hot and numbering.

Click on Mapo Tofu to learn how to cook the dish at home.

Photo courtesy to visitbeijing.com.cn

Kungpao Chicken

Kungpao Chicken is cooked by stir-frying diced chicken, dry red pepper and golden peanuts altogether at a strong heat. Kungpao Chicken is usually less spicy than Mapo Tofu, and you can even find it at Panda Express, although it doesn’t inherit the essence of traditional Sichuan Cuisine. However, click on Kungpao Chicken to learn to cook the authentic ones!

I Don’t Want To Cook! Where Can I Get a Bite? - Restaurants To Go To in Los Angeles

I understand you are a college student and you already have so much on your plate, so you probably don’t have time to cook yourself, but you still really want to try this amazing cuisine. Well, the good news is Sichuan Cuisine is exceptionally famous around the world, so you can easily find a Sichuan restaurant within 1-hour drive from wherever you are.

Although the most authentic Sichuan food is still to be found in its hometown, you can still get a pretty decent bite of Sichuan Cuisine by going to these food places in Los Angeles because their owners are from Sichuan.