Category: Food

Monday’s mission was to find some doughnuts and bagels in Hong Kong for the SAP go-live here in Daya Bay.    So here are the highlights of the events that led to the delightful sight of pink-sprinkly and chocolate-with-nuts frosted doughnuts.     The doughnut shop in Lan Kwai Fong we found on the internet went out of business some time ago.    So, off to the nearest Starbucks.   It had all of 8 doughnuts (we needed forty-8!).   Well – we’ll take all 8, we said.   Something is better than nothing.    And would they know where to get more?  Or when is the next delivery?  There is a factory in the city but they only deliver again at 3 pm.   It would have been best to order one day ahead.   But the barista was very helpful, offering to call other Starbuckses and tracking down more for us.   Well – we didn’t have time to go to 6 other Starbuckses in the city!   So we remembered a Marks & Spencer store down on Queens Rd., and off we went.   The store’s food dept was in the basement.   As we made our way through the underwear department which was also down there, we went .. hmm, what are the chances of any doughnuts down here?   But sure enough, they had a bakery and there they were,  in the display case (pictures).    And they had plenty more in the deep freezer.   Turns out they keep them there and defrost them a dozen at a time – otherwise the frosting goes gooey in the humid Hong Kong atmosphere.    Alright! we said.  4 dozen frozen ones, please !   Mission accomplished.    (Soon after that we learned of the news of the big mission from the US Marines that had been accomplished as well).

What’s for dinner in the hotel room if one is too tired to go out?   Why – instant noodles, of course!     Add boiling water, let it steep for 3 minutes and it’s ready!   Tonkotsu flavor is pork bone broth flavor (or an imitation of that? doesn’t matter, it’s tasty and good).   My research shows that instant noodles were invented in 1958 by Momofuku Ando, the Taiwanese-Japanese founder and chairman of Nissin Foods (same as my noodle  cup’s brand), now run by his son Koki Ando.   

A final note :  instant noodles was named the greatest Japanese invention of the 20th century in a Japanese poll.    (Source : Wikipedia.   It did not say which other inventions the instant noodle competed with).

A colleague of mine working here on the project brought out some biltong from South Africa.   Biltong is South African ‘beef jerky’ but comes in many many more incarnations than just beef.    So in South Africa one would find bilong made from beef, kudu, eland, wildebeest, even ostrich.      Blue wildebeest is a very common antelope found in Africa and has a ‘least concerned’ status on the endangered species list (see panel from Wikipedia), which made me feel better – it being Earth Day and all on Friday  !    There are about 1 million of the ‘beasts’ roaming the plains of the Serengeti.

I bought the ‘bee-hive’ honey bottle in a fancy grocery store in Hong Kong some time ago.   Check out the French-engineered ‘valve’  on the bottom that allows honey to be squeezed through with no dripping.   Quite a feat, huh?     My cereal bowl* for use in the hotel room is melamine and from the local grocery store.   It is the perfect shape for me to mix my sloppy Pronutro cereal in.  (It’s like instant oatmeal).    If the bowl is too shallow, the milk and stuff sloshes out to easily – very annoying !

*go ahead and ignore the little pooh-bear, I didn’t buy the bowl for that : )

We went out to dinner in Shenzhen last night, not too far north of where I stayed this weekend.   The area had plenty of restaurants, many decorated with festive red lanterns.   The first picture is of a traffic jam made by an inept driver maneuvering in the middle of the street OR trying to park right there on the corner!   We were at the Victory Restaurant (the sign is from the restaurant right next to it).    Their signature dish is “The General Crosses the Bridge’ : a whole pork rib served upside down to look like a bridge.   We each had a little piece and it was delicious.    The horse is from the restaurant lobby.

‘An Erdinger beer, please’ is what I said tonight in the Dameisha Sheraton hotel.   Three of us had a beer and dinner there.   Below is what landed on the table in front of me.    The server painstakingly poured the beer into a glass and it formed a thick white foamy head.    The beer is a golden cloudy color (the fine unfermented yeast one finds in heffeweizens) and has citrus-sy notes in the taste.   I liked it.    Cheers !

No, it’s not a recipe, it’s the name of a restaurant in the Queen Anne neighborhood that 5 of us went to last night.  The outside is very low-key, as is the inside : it looks like a wood-slatted den.   The dishes on the menu are all served family-style with small plates for everyone.  It could be cold starters, pastas or meats or fish.    We had roasted beets(*), sea bass(*), sturgeon, potato gnocchi (*), speck (thin-sliced cured ham, really a prosciutto I thought) and a pasta with a spicy meat sauce.   The food was delicious, but with 5 people sharing one plate we had to share carefully to make sure everyone got a bite!     (*)  I liked these best

I stopped on the way back to snap the Space Needle from Denny Way (it’s nice to be a tourist in one’s home city), and the Starbucks pictures are from earlier in the day.  That’s a brand new logo on the cup (supposedly making the coffee goddess more accessible overseas without the Starbucks text around her, and implying like Nike’s swoosh that the brand is so recognizable that it does not need text).   I also stocked up on my favorite instant coffee (Columbia Medium Roast), which also has new packaging.

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

The recipe ..

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

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

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

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

Answer :  The city of Chengdu in Sichuan province.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

云         yún      (classical) to say

天         tiān       day; sky; heaven

美         měi       America; beautiful

食         shí       animal feed; eat; food

坊         fāng     subdivision of a city

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

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

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

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