It's Friday morning! Yay! It's only two more weeks until I'm out of this chapter of my life and moving onto the next. A little sad but more than relieved. I really believe I became complacent and dulled whatever sharp aptitude for learning I had. No more German language learning, no more meeting new people, no more lust for travel. A change of scenery will be good. Not that I didn't get a lot out of it, but in this little corner of the world, my life just sucked.
I bought a whole 1.8L carton of Dole grapefruit juice Monday and now I have more than have of it to finish today. The 'finish within 5 days of opening' label must have hidden away from my morning grime-crusted gaze. Oops. So more grapefruit juice for me today! Yay! I wonder what my high score on text twist will be today.
Oh! I have a rough plan of how I plan to travel.
China
Kunming
Lijiang
Tiger Leaping Gorge
Kunming (transit)
Lhasa
Rhongpu Monastery
Everest Base Camp
Lhasa (transit)
Guilin
Yangshuo
Shenzhen (transit)
Hong Kong
Macau
Taipei
Southeast Asia
Thailand(where?)
Phnom Penh
Angkor Wat
Phnom Penh (transit)
Hanoi
Halong Bay
Hanoi (transit)
Penang Bay
Singapore
Taipei (>Home)
Long Trip eh? Should take a good 2 months or so. I really need to buy all the Southeast Asia airline tickets, but a more defined plan is in order.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Ode to the ZigZag
ZigZag, how I love thee. Let me count the ways... One-one-thousand, two-one-thousand.
Summer life in China has become so much more bearable because of this orange, yellow standard bearer of freezing cold ice. It has a consistency like slushie except it's on stick!
Zigzag is bright and yellow,
Giving relief to this fellow,
Life giving orange band
Almost looking like a contraband.
Quench my thirst in thirty seconds
A pop that my stomach beckons.
Hail to zigzag on this summer day
Hail! Hail to the savior, I say!
Summer life in China has become so much more bearable because of this orange, yellow standard bearer of freezing cold ice. It has a consistency like slushie except it's on stick!
Zigzag is bright and yellow,
Giving relief to this fellow,
Life giving orange band
Almost looking like a contraband.
Quench my thirst in thirty seconds
A pop that my stomach beckons.
Hail to zigzag on this summer day
Hail! Hail to the savior, I say!
Monday, July 14, 2008
How I Eat: Pho
Pho is a Vietnamese rice noodle dish in piping-hot, clear beef broth with thin slices of beef. Other potential ingredients are tripe, meatballs, beed tendon, and chicken meat. A side plate of: bean sprouts, cilantro, Thai Basil, chili pepper, and slices of lime is presented to you to flavor the soup to your taste palette. Hoisin sauce and the Thai hot sauce, Sriracha, are also usually available to flavor the soup.
My first encounter with this hearty yet light Vietnamese dish was at one of my mother's friend's house. It was during the weekend and my mother's friends were having a social gathering. The children played games and watched television together while the adults played games of Mahjong. Usually, the adults would order delivery from the local Chinese restaurant and they did, for most of the guests. However, the children of the host wanted Pho. The Chinese food came first and readily accepted this food. After most of the guests have settled into after dinner relaxation, the Pho came. I still remember the aroma of the beef broth and the plethora of exotic ingredients being put into a large bowl to be harmoniously joined together to create a heavenly dish.
Shortly after that party, I started to eat Pho on a more regular basis. My family's house is actually only a 5 minute drive from a local Pho restaurant. Pho is a dish I consider comfort food. The soup is soothingly hot, the beef is rich and hearty, the herbs give the entire dish explosive flavor highlights, and the rice noodles are still light, easy to chew. I have had my fare share Pho, mostly from this restaurant near my house. For me, the perfect Pho starts with the broth. Good, well-made beef broth can take sub-par meat or less than ideal herbs to deliver a great dining experience. I say this because of my Pho experience in China. They only give you one, count them, one sprig of Thai basil (this is actually my second most important ingredient for my Pho). The Pho was not perfect but acceptable, and I think it has to do with the broth.
To describe a good Pho experience for me, let us start from the beginning. Once I am presented with the soup, I separate the beef slices so they are not clumped together. This is to try to ensure that all pieces of the meat have been cooked thoroughly. While the meat is cooking, I quickly throw in the cilantro and mix it into the broth. Now comes the part where time is critical. The soup comes out pretty hot so that it can cook the raw slices of beef. While the soup is still hot, pluck out Thai basil leaves from the sprigs and cook them in the broth. This allows the basil to cook and release its flavors. The color of the basil leaves will change to a dark green. Take the lime wedge and squeeze the juice out. I usually use about two lime wedges. It brings out a brighter citrus flavor, which I think goes really well with the basil. Toss in some bean sprouts for good measure. Not a lot as the previous preparation already took a long time and the bean sprouts won't cook quickly because the soup would have cooled down a little by now.
Enough with the preparation foreplay and dig in. I take the hoisin sauce and put it into a side dish to dip my beef slices, briskets, tendons, tripe, and meatballs into. As a filling Pho experience, I almost always polish off the soup. Soup is still the main ingredient and there is nothing more satisfying slurping up that last drop.
My first encounter with this hearty yet light Vietnamese dish was at one of my mother's friend's house. It was during the weekend and my mother's friends were having a social gathering. The children played games and watched television together while the adults played games of Mahjong. Usually, the adults would order delivery from the local Chinese restaurant and they did, for most of the guests. However, the children of the host wanted Pho. The Chinese food came first and readily accepted this food. After most of the guests have settled into after dinner relaxation, the Pho came. I still remember the aroma of the beef broth and the plethora of exotic ingredients being put into a large bowl to be harmoniously joined together to create a heavenly dish.
Shortly after that party, I started to eat Pho on a more regular basis. My family's house is actually only a 5 minute drive from a local Pho restaurant. Pho is a dish I consider comfort food. The soup is soothingly hot, the beef is rich and hearty, the herbs give the entire dish explosive flavor highlights, and the rice noodles are still light, easy to chew. I have had my fare share Pho, mostly from this restaurant near my house. For me, the perfect Pho starts with the broth. Good, well-made beef broth can take sub-par meat or less than ideal herbs to deliver a great dining experience. I say this because of my Pho experience in China. They only give you one, count them, one sprig of Thai basil (this is actually my second most important ingredient for my Pho). The Pho was not perfect but acceptable, and I think it has to do with the broth.
To describe a good Pho experience for me, let us start from the beginning. Once I am presented with the soup, I separate the beef slices so they are not clumped together. This is to try to ensure that all pieces of the meat have been cooked thoroughly. While the meat is cooking, I quickly throw in the cilantro and mix it into the broth. Now comes the part where time is critical. The soup comes out pretty hot so that it can cook the raw slices of beef. While the soup is still hot, pluck out Thai basil leaves from the sprigs and cook them in the broth. This allows the basil to cook and release its flavors. The color of the basil leaves will change to a dark green. Take the lime wedge and squeeze the juice out. I usually use about two lime wedges. It brings out a brighter citrus flavor, which I think goes really well with the basil. Toss in some bean sprouts for good measure. Not a lot as the previous preparation already took a long time and the bean sprouts won't cook quickly because the soup would have cooled down a little by now.
Enough with the preparation foreplay and dig in. I take the hoisin sauce and put it into a side dish to dip my beef slices, briskets, tendons, tripe, and meatballs into. As a filling Pho experience, I almost always polish off the soup. Soup is still the main ingredient and there is nothing more satisfying slurping up that last drop.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Programming and Me
Why am I attempting to program again? Web apps are probably easier to handle than I think they are. The problem with programming is that I was never great to begin with. The fondness and the interest is there but the skill ain't up to snuff... It is a puzzle that I was never able to fully finish.
For the past few weeks I have been playing around with Flex and Actionscript. Pretty simple stuff actually. Actionscript is not very hard at all. Everything is fine except for the big picture. The deployment part of it is the question. How do I connect to the database? What are 'pages' in a flash application.? Questions I hope to answer very soon.
In other news, the weather in Beijing has been surprisingly good. I should be in a Starbucks somewhere writing this and just chill-axing. Trauma Center 2 on the DS is fairly addicting and, might I add, a beaten game (whoohoo!)
For the past few weeks I have been playing around with Flex and Actionscript. Pretty simple stuff actually. Actionscript is not very hard at all. Everything is fine except for the big picture. The deployment part of it is the question. How do I connect to the database? What are 'pages' in a flash application.? Questions I hope to answer very soon.
In other news, the weather in Beijing has been surprisingly good. I should be in a Starbucks somewhere writing this and just chill-axing. Trauma Center 2 on the DS is fairly addicting and, might I add, a beaten game (whoohoo!)
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