Archive for July, 2010

Amy Anderson explains why Asian people are such cheap dates and she has trouble at Chinese restaurants.

Over 2,000 “athletes” who poured into the Beijing Olympic Village in the latest test run of the athletes’ compounds were asked to be picky and choosy.

Mock dwellers, however, gave thumbs-up to the facilities and were impressed with Chinese culture that permeates the village, said the village’s general secretary Wu Jingmin.

Non-Chinese Olympic villagers, if they like, can pick up their Chinese names which use phonetic sounds for foreign names.

Sun Shishu, a Chinese language teacher working in the village, gave dozens of Chinese names in the first several hours of the trial run of the village.

“Let your surname be an, which means peace and safety. And your first name is Taifu, which means peace and happiness,” Sun explained to Typhen Ann, an engineer from Britain, who works at the Main Cafeteria of the Olympic Village.

The village, which is the home to about 16,000 athletes and officials during the Games, sits on the north end of the axis of Beijing. Important buildings of all ages, including the Forbidden City and the Tiananmen Square, are aligned down this line.

Further north lies the Olympic Green. To the south is the National Stadium, popularly known as the “Bird Nest”.

Deng Yaping, the village’s vice mayor and four-time table tennis Olympic champion, believes the biggest attraction for the Olympic Village lies in its Chinese culture.

“For most of the (foreign) athletes I’ve talked with, they are amazed at Chinese culture. They want to try, to feel what the real Chinese culture is,” Deng said.

“The village is a place where the athletes can unwind and get to know Chinese culture. We want to give them a full experience with Chinese culture.”

The Olympic Village is divided into northern and southern halves. In the north, or the International Area, are the Head of Village Office, Flag Square, shopping areas, restaurants, and entertainment and fitness facilities. In the south are athletes’ apartments, whose main gates are decorated with a bronze art panel.

On the lawns around the apartments stand Chinese traditional lamp posts and dragon-patterned stone pillars, while water lilies float on the ponds.

The buildings in the International Area are temporary, except for a Chinese temple compound right next to the Flag Square, which is used as the Head of Village Office where Deng will work during the Games.

Chinese handicraft workroom sits in the International Area, painted with Chinese traditional colors of red, yellow and blue. About 20 handicraftsmen will show their talent in embroidery, woodcarving, painting and Beijing Opera mask making during the Games.

“Athletes can watch the artists finishing their works, and they can buy whatever they like,” said Wang Jinqiang, the workroom manager.

The Beijing Olympics Village will officially open on July 27 and close on August 27. Also as the Paralympic Village, it will reopen on August 30 and close on September 20.

1. Chinese, is a group of different dialects of which Mandarin is one. It is the most widely spoken language on the planet. Today they are around 900 Million native speakers of Mandarin alone, add in the other dialects and you come close to 1 BILLION speakers. Compare this to Spanish, which is the next most widely spoken language in the world with around 400 million speakers.

2. You don’t have to learn Chinese characters to learn to speak Chinese. Pinyin is a method of writing Chinese in the roman alphabet. Hanyu pinyin spells the sound, and includes tone marks to help give the correct pronunciation.

3. Chinese literature. Although the dialects are not interchangeable the written language is shared between them all. Although you do not need to learn to read Chinese characters to speak the language, by doing so you open the door to an enormously diverse and rich literature. Some of the earliest recorded books were written in forms of Chinese.

4. As we all know now, the Chinese economy is the fastest growing economy in the world. . In the work environment even speaking a little Chinese will give you a competitive edge , if your company invests in China or is considering doing so.

5. Culture and language are linked and learning something of the Chinese language will help give an appreciation of the cultural heritage of China.

6. As China opens her borders for business with the West, it has never been easier for foreign visitors to travel the country, but to make the most of this opportunity for travel, it is vital to learn Chinese since very few people outside of major cities speak English. Mandarin is spoken throughout China.

7. China has now been firmly established as one of the worlds superpowers and with her huge population will undoubtedly be one of the worlds greatest economic powers in the near future.

8. Food. Of course, you can eat in tourist restaurants and in hotels but for a true taste of China you need to try local eating houses for a culturally different and sensory eating experience.

9. China will host this years Olympic Games. In 2008 many foreign visitors will descend on China to watch the Olympics. It is an ideal opportunity, if you are lucky enough to be going, to stand out from the crowd by being one of the few who has learnt Chinese.

10. You can get started with a few words and phrases in Mandarin, enough to be polite without spending years in further education

This is a favorite southen Cantonese dish, and as most Chinese restaurants in America.Stir fry pork with blackbean sauce. Why go out when you can make one for yourself.

Joy Luck Fine Chinese Cuisine 559-432-8833 www.yellowbook.com

Since ancient times, the Chinese have been known to be hung up on tradition, especially where cooking methods are concerned. They are equally concerned about nourishing food cooked in proper sanitary conditions. It is with this view in mind that the Chinese cooking wok has found its own niche in every Chinese kitchen around the world. In addition, the Chinese realized that cooking in utensils handed down from ancient times have helped their dishes to retain their exact, original flavors.

With Chinese food being so popular, it is no wonder then that the Chinese cooking wok is making its way into American households and other parts of the world. Many international stores today stock this main Chinese utensil along with others.

Why is the Chinese cooking wok so unique? To get an answer to this question, we will have to delve into its design.

The wok is basically prepared from carbon steel or iron. The round-bottomed utensil is hammered into shape by hand. The wok therefore becomes delicately flared at the edges, enabling food to be thrust inside with ease. When the perfect shape is attained, the wok is flipped from outside or inside. The rounded bottom of the wok helps it fit over the stove perfectly. Bare metal handles are more commonly used for the Chinese cooking wok. Such handles are known as loop handles. Another type of handle is the stick handle which is formed from carbon steel and resembles Teflon. Thus, the vessel is now ready for anything such as stewing, braising, steaming, deep frying, or preparing soups.

In an attempt to copy the Chinese cooking wok, yet make it more suitable for Western styles of cooking, Westerners have developed woks looking like flat-bottomed frying pans. For more compatibility, woks with double handles are more popular than those with single handles. The bottom of the wok is fitted with an adaptor ring. This helps to retain the wok’s grip over the top of the stove (western ranges).

The very design of the original Chinese cooking wok itself should be enough to convince anyone that it is better than a frying pan any day! Oil intake is very less, food can be tossed properly, and best of all, there is uniform distribution of heat. So copies can never take the place of the original.

In conclusion, the size of the Chinese cooking wok is designed to suit the purpose. A small family can make do with a wok measuring 36 centimeters, while a still larger one is suitable for a bigger household. The largest-sized ones are used only in restaurants for large-scale cooking.

Another Mike Cunt video featuring two Chinese restaurants in Malibu and Beverly Hills. We got them both in a three-way call trying to order from each other!

Chinese cooking recipes for the American homes are just an adjusted recipe of the original Chinese recipes. They taste good and marvelous. The original recipes are favorites for many across the world as they taste delicious. For example, let’s consider the process of making Chinese recipes. They are seasoned with a combo of sugar and chilies to produce a dish with a real flavor. The addition of few more nice spices and the cooking of the recipe over the flame are the specific characteristics of the Chinese cooking recipe and this has brought fame to it thought America. It is very easy to prepare the recipes and they are generally made in pieces as per the Chinese manner of food preparation.

There are various elements or ingredients in the list of the Chinese manner of food preparation. Chinese soups, noodles and rice are the most popular among them. One can easily point out the Singapore Noodles as the most popular of the Chinese cooking recipe when it comes to talking of the famous recipes across the world. It is prepared by roasting shrimps or pork with noodles. Bean sprouts, noodles, steamed rice, garlic, shredded Napa cabbage and Soy sauce are the important contents of the recipes and they can added with ingredients of their choice. The vegetables and the ingredients are cooked in the flame and the noodles are fried deeply in oil. Then they are both mixed in the end. Chinese food lovers throughout America prefer the Szechwan and Shanghai type of noodles.

A Chinese green fried with shrimps is the other popular recipe that is made by the combination of Chinese mushrooms and greens with marinated shrimps. The preparation of the recipe details the deep frying of the fish along with the vegetables to get the particular flavor. When they are served with rice it can be considered as full meals for two persons. The Manchurian recipe is the other well known of the Chinese cooking recipe. A mixture of chicken, noodles and vegetables constitute the Manchurian. Extra care should be taken in adding the correct quantity of vegetable, sauces, spring onions, and spices for the preparation of the Manchurian. The vegetables and the chicken are well mixed and made rolled into small balls which are then fried deeply in oil to get a crunchy product. The fried balls are provided with gravy to get the exact flavor. Spring onions are decorated alongside to make it colorful.

Making of the dish and adding spices alone does not sum up the Chinese cooking recipe. In truth these recipes are nutritional and healthy too. The recipes involve the cooking of both the vegetarian and the non vegetarian items. These recipes have attracted a lot of food lovers because of the addition of various kinds of spices. These recipes are listed in almost all restaurants. The Chinese culture is very well propagated to the foreigner as well.

Good stuff

The world we live in is full of varied cultures & traditions, each one featuring their own unique way of cooking & hence offering a diversified taste. Chinese cooking is one among the most followed ones.

As a nation, China has several festivals and traditions. Accordingly they have varied dishes for each event. In America, Chinese skills of cooking are looked upon as an art. For centuries together, their delicious delicacies are tickling the taste buds of the Americans.

Here are a few key features of Chinese cooking:

1. Chinese cooking is relatively quite easy and quick.

2. The specialties in Chinese items are categorized as per the nation’s culture, festivals & districts.

3. Some examples are steamed fish, Doufu, dark vinegar rice served with ginger, din sum, etc.

4. Cooked tea is the most preferred drink with the Chinese cuisine. In china, different varieties of tea are planted, hence, it becomes a part of their daily routine.

5. The basic ingredients of Chinese food are water and/or oil.

6. Chinese cooking takes care of everyone’s personalized tastes as the food items that can be added to these dishes are quite optional and can be modified as per an individual’s choice.

7. The recipe centers on – simply mixing the right items to match up to one’s taste.

8. The Chinese recipes do not involve lot of spices. They rather focus on the use of flavorings like cloves, aniseed, ginger root and Sichuan peppercorn.

9. Most oft, the Chinese chefs prefer using more of soy sauce, Shaoxing wine and oyster sauce. These add to the flavor and make the food more presentable.

10. Cooking the ingredients mainly involves some enlisted cooking techniques. These are shallow frying, stir-frying, roasting, deep frying, steaming, red cooking and stewing.

11. Stir frying implies frying the food at a very high heat in very little oil. In this case the food is cooked quite quickly as it is necessarily sliced in very small sized pieces.

12. In case of steaming, Chinese cooking traditionally involves the use of bamboo steamers. The bamboo steamers consist of a stack on their top so as to steam several items simultaneously.

13. To cook the larger pieces of meat, red cooking is the trick used in Chinese cooking.

14. Last but not the least, Chinese food features two key ingredients that are noodles and rice. People across the globe identify the Chinese culinary with noodles and rice. They are not only fast to cook but are also quite good to taste.

From being an indispensable fraction of the restaurant industry worldwide, to the households across the globe, the Chinese cuisine is loved by one and all.

It is quite simple to cook and with some tips and tricks, all of us can learn this cultural cooking.