Recipes from "China Modern"

It is my first time borrowing this book from the library but it looks great. It is "China Modern" by Ching-He Huang.

Again here is the list of ingredients from some recipes I haven't tried yet but want to remember.





 

Taiwanese-style Pepper Steak and Egg on Steamed Rice (page 64)
- steak
marinade: - light soya sauce
               - chinese five-spice powder
               - brown sugar
               - black pepper
- vegetable oil to fry the eggs
- eggs
- steamed rice
Put rice on plate, put steak on top, than the eggs!!!!

Ground Lamb  Eggplant and Chili Stuffed Roast Red Pepper (page 82)
- vegetable oiil
- chopped garlic
- grated ginger
- ground lamb
- eggplant chopped in small pieces
- rice wine or dry cherry
- garlic chili sauce
- light soya sauce
- black pepper
- red peppers cut top off and deseeded

Once all is done put in the oven at 200C (or 400F) for 20 minutes

Recipes from "Beyond the Great Wall"

I really like "Beyond the Great wall" by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. It is a great cookbook. I normally have a rule that if I have borrow a book more than five times from the library I get it for myself... but I can't find a copy (without going on line). Anyway I am about to take off and I have borrowed it from the library once again. I just want to post some basic stuff on some recipes from this book. I am just posting the list of ingredients (and mostly without quantities) because this is all I really need to remember. If you want more information I recommend going to the book. As I type this I have not yet tried any of those recipes.




Hui Tomato-Lamb Noodle Soup (page 59)
- vegetable oil
- minced ginger
- minced garlic
- lamb or goat meat cut in small pieces
- tomatoes chopped (not too many)
- hot water
- chopped spinach or other green


Ginger and Carrot Stir-fry (page 96)
- vegetable oil
- minced garlic
- pork meat cut into small strips
- hot peppers
- carrots cut into tiny match sticks
- ginger cut into match stick tooo, about half the quantity of carrot
- Sichuan peppercorn
- soya sauce


Noodle with Sesame Sauce (page 149)
Sauce: - tahini
           - warm water (a little less than the volume of tahini)
           - cider vinegar
           - soya sauce
Garnish: - scallions
             - crushed hot peppers
Noodles: the book recommends home made noodles or linguine type of noodles.


Beef and Green Chile Stir fry (page 287)
- beef for stir fry
- green chiles
- vegetable oil
- onions thinly sliced
- minced ginger
- tomatoes (not too many)
- water, or beef or chicken broth
- Sichuan pepper
- equal quantity of ground cumin and ground coriander

Tibetan Pork and Spinach Stir-fry (page 305)
- boneless pork
- lots of spinach
- vegetable oil
- minced ginger
- minced scallions
- Sichuan pepper
- salt
- water

Beef-Sauced Hot Lettuce Salad (page 67... you should see the photo for it on page 69)
- vegetable oil
- minced garlic
- minced ginger
- ground beef
- soya sauce
- black rice vinegar
- warm water
- corn starch
- roasted sesame oil

Monitor Lizards of Melaka

Monitor lizards, which I had already seen on Tioman Island, where also in the river in Melaka.

Wesak Day in Melaka, Malaysia

Wesak Day is Buddha's Birthday. I happened to be in Melaka for Wesak Day.
It was fun to watch the long parade go by.
Here are some random photos. Again I am not trying to do it justice or represented fairly.

Random Photos of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

I am not even remotely trying to do KL justice or to have somewhat representative pictures.

Little Indian an area of KL also known as Brickfields.

Of course the Petronas towers

Random urban view.....KL is a big city

Near Central Market

Skyline with a temple top

KLCC (Convention Center) a huge very modern mall

Also a very busy mall

Random cat

From the train platform near Central Market

 Monsoonal rain but I am well covered on the train platform

P. Rich's recommendation for India

P. is just back from India and came back absolutely thrilled and enthusiastic about Ahmedabad, Gujarat. He says that it is the best place in the world. P. travels a lot and is a very knowledgeable person so I am taking his recommendation very seriously.
He also strongly recommends the Kutch District (or Kachchh)north west of Ahmedabad, a desert area.
And in a totally different area he recommends Kochin (or Cochin) an old Dutch area of India.

This post is obviously just so I remember since I am about to leave South Africa and be a nomad for a while, though the original plan is to be a nomad within North America (from Alaska, Canadian Arctic to Texas, California and Newfoundland). Though I may not be able to afford life in North America in which case Asia is the next possible destination.

Malaysia - part 3 - some random animals of Tioman Island

This is not meant to be a fair survey. Those are just random shots of animals I saw.

 These big monitor lizards were amazingly common.

Fish in the clear water

 Just off the side of a small boat: clear blue water and colourful fish

Also flying foxes

 This one saw me take its picture

 ..and walking across the island (you saw in the previous post how mountainous it is) I always saw those giant black squirrels which are meant to be very rare. Just from their behaviour you could tell that they were not monkeys though in all other respect from far they appeared to be monkeys. They were large enough to be monkeys for sure. Wikipedia says that "Head and body length varies from 35 to 58 centimetres (14 to 23 in) in length, and the tail is up to 60 centimetres (24 in) long, with an overall length of up to 118 centimetres (46 in)."

Malaysia - part 2 - Tioman Island

I spent a bit of time (2 weeks more or less) on Tioman Island. I originally went there for no other reason that they are on the East side of the Malaysian Peninsula which was supposed to be monsoonal. Since it was the school holidays the West coast, not monsoonal, was very busy. But once I got there I somehow never left until it was nearly time to leave Malaysia. I had a great quiet time there. I ate great food. I hiked across the island which is an amazing hike. I snorkeled, swam and generally enjoy a lovely quiet time. Here are some photos...and trust me I have quite a few photos of sunsets, tropical island etc but I'll keep it to a minimum.

Flying into Tioman the water was so clear (the monsoon had not started) that you could see the reefs from the plane.

 The first place I stayed at was SO reasonably priced. In fact it was closed. But I called them from the airport when I landed and when I told them that i was there they just said "if you are here already then just come over".

We all know I love trees.

...did I mention it was a tropical island...

A blue fern. This is not Photoshopped or anything. This fern was indeed blue.

Durian fruit: the king of fruits....and not as bad as it reputation leads one to beleive.

The movie 1958 "South Pacific" was film on Tioman

 The mangostene: queen of fruits. Something I had never had eaten before. But I made up for it. I absolutely loved them and ate a lot of them.

 Not a sunset (though pretty close) but I did say I was going to spare you.