飲茶養身 攝影養心
Tea is good for the body and photography is good for the soul. The tea happens to be the new 2010 Spring Dragon Well. Absolutely wonderful with great and lasting aftertaste. Photography is still mamafufu.
酒逢知已千杯少
有人說 “過去酒逢知已千杯少，現在酒逢千杯知已少”. 可有同感 my friend? Cheers …
Cheers Beijing
Getting drunk could be expensive these days but certainly not that time. It was a warm evening in Beijing. I was having spicy beef noodle at 马兰拉面 (東安門大街) and drinking 燕京純生. There was a small convenience store across the street and I bought myself some peanut to go with the beer. It may not be the best but certainly was one of the most memorable meal I had there. Cheers Beijing!
Are you hungry yet?
If you are not hungry, perhaps these two pictures will make you think about food. I was hungry that afternoon and also had oysters and dessert. Yes I ate it all and they were so good. Good that I can now bring my E-P1 with me to take more snapshots.
DIY Sushi
Finally decided to make Sushi at home this afternoon. Something I always wanted to learn and to do myself. From time to time I wonder why Sushi is so expensive in many places and it sure “looks” easy. It is actually not a bad experience considering it is my first time. The taste is pretty good. Presentation needs to be worked on. Also a bit too big for a single bite with too much rice. So what is needed to make good Sushi? Here is what I learned so far:
- The rice: absolutely important. The type and brand of rice, how much water, the type and mix of rice vinegar for mixing, and how long to cool off and how to prepare.
- The ingredients and tools: buy the best quality available. Yes this could add up if you are picky about your Sushi.
- The HOWs: this is the hardest part since the real tricks of the trade won’t be available from the Internet, books or how-to videos. Experience will take time and practice.
- Presentation is as important as the taste. Sushi cannot be good unless it both looks and tastes good.
Now I understand why Sushi can be expensive in many places.
Tea Time
Life has been so stressful lately for many reasons. Perhaps taking the time to enjoy a cup of tea in a quiet afternoon will help. The keyword here is “taking the time”. The pictured gaiwan is one of my favorite general purpose tea brewing and drinking cup. It is simple and does a pretty good job for most types of tea. The tea is 2009 Spring Long Jing (Dragon Well) from San Wan Chang in Suzhou. A very good Long Jing and hope I will be able to get some of the 2010 Spring tea when it becomes available. I am at my last 200g of green tea now. (hint hint)
dinner for one
i enjoy cooking. i dream about being a chef in a top, preferably my own, restaurant one day. in this wonderful saturday evening, i had an opportunity to cook for myself. i decided to keep it simple with grilled steak, sauteed baby mushrooms, a good bottle of wine, and some strawberries with ice cream.
the steak was angus dry aged rib eye. rib eye is one of my favorite cut of beef. it was grilled to medium and it went quite well with the baby mushrooms. the wine was a tougher choice. i was debating between a 2004 joseph phelps or a 1999 turnbull cabernet sauvignon. i knew either one couldn’t go wrong. i went with the turnbull and it was good. not great but good. for desert i had fresh strawberries with Häagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream. it was a wonderful way to complete a meal.
since it was so nice outside i decided to enjoy my dinner in the patio. brought out my macbook and listening to music as i wrote this blog. so, what did you have for dinner tonight? when can i cook for you?
do you want your sake cold or warm?
okay, that is not sake. i lost the sake picture when i was moving my blog. but the story is:
most sake i had before tasted like rubbing alcohol. i drank it warm to mask out the flavor from low-quality sake. the first few sips were always hard to swallow. it took a few more sips to get used to. i was cheap when it came to sake comparing with my other bad habits. i guess i was willing to pay more for grape than rice.
but things do change. i had a very good sushi dinner paired with good chilled sake a few weeks ago. the sake was crisp, cool, fruity, soft, sweet and it went very well with the fatty tuna and salmon sashimi. the waiter said the sake was “osaka premium”. not sure it was a brand or just a premium sake from osaka. either case that cup of sake taught me a few things about sake and a few things about life.
whether you drink your sake cold or warm, cheers …
as good as it gets
hungry for a good bowl of wonton noodle in middle of the night? if you happen to be in where i live, you are out of luck even during anytime of the day. there is just no good bowl of wonton noodle in the area. the one pictured above was from the belligio hotel in las vegas. the wonton was pretty good but the noodle was below par it costed $13.95 USD or a bit over $100 HKD excluding tax.
over the years i have found the following frozen or instant choices that fill the craving gap pretty well. they are as good as they gets between trips to hong kong, beijing, or china towns in london, vancouver, toronto, new york, los angeles, san francisco, melbourne and many other places. here is my short list:
CP shrimp wonton soup – available from costco in 8-pack
壽桃牌生面皇 – available from local chinese grocery stores. this goes very nicely with the shrimp wonton when served “dry” with oyster sauce
ling lings potstickers – available from costco in value pack
weichuan mini buns 味全南翔小籠包 – available from local chinese grocery stores
do you have other recommendations?
