another kind of To-fu

Have you see this kind of to-fu before? This is to-fu,too. To-fu which was fried before you buy. This to-fu is in a cube shape. But, the middle part of it is hallow. You can add meat or other kind of food inside.

See my 2nd picture, my mother is adding meat into that to-fu cube. :) What is in that bowl? Meat, carrot and my mother's special flavor & food materials. :)

My 3rd picture is semi-well done product. Why? because this still need to be cooked. Usually, we steam it or add it in soup. Of course, add it and re-boil soup. Otherwise, you will eat raw meat. :)

Usually, my mother prepare her food from her homwtown, my father prepare his from his hometown. We kids eat all. ha ha ha~~

Special dish to eat at New Year's Eve in my mother's hometowm

There are ten kinds of vegetables in that dish. Every year, my mother will prepare this for New Year's Eve dinner. Same as I said before, families shall come back and eat together for New Year's Eve dinner. This is our Chinese tradition.

Why 10 kinds of vegetables? Because 10 this number is good in Chinese. We have nice idioms from 1~10. (of course, there are nice idioms in other numbers) There are special meaning of what we eat in New Year's eve dinner. 10 means enough, means you will have everything enough & good. Each family will have a dish of fish in the New Year's Eve dinner. You can cook that fish in different way, as you like. Why fish? cause the pronuciation of fish is same as you will have money left in Chinese. That means you will have money left and you can save it.

Do you think that there is too less food in that dish for whole family to eat? Of course, that's for me, only. I will fly to Korea tomorrow. Maybe I will eat that big dinner with my families or not. Depends on the time they will have dinner. If I need to catch my flight, can I eat with them? Of course, no. So, I eat today. How can I do not eat my mother's food? NO way. I won't let those nice food to be eaten by my elder sister only. ha ha ha~~~

Sushi train? ?

Have you seen this before? Sushi train? This is invented by a Chinese in Japan. Interesting? The price of each plate on the railway is 30 NTD. Or waiter will tell you how much does a dish cost by the color of that plate.

What is in front your table? Chopsticks, tea bags & hot water tap. Usually, Japanese eats with a hot cup of tea. That's the reason for tea bag & hot water tap in front of you. :) Of course, there are also wasabi & soy sauce.

There is not sushi only, there are also sashimi, steam egg, soup & etc. All 30 NTD for 1 plate. Thet put those food on plates. :) Of course, if the food is expensive, they will put a liitle in a plate. :) 30 NTD? yes, still the same. So, how much in quanity do you think you can eat for 1 plate? Of course the owner won't put too much food on a plate. :)

Chinese Gods

I know, they all look the same to you. Yes? ha ha ha . Sometimes, they all look the same to me, too. The one whose hair is white, I know him very much. Because he is the one who take care of your marriage. His duty is to make matched couples. His name in Chinese is the old man under moonlight.

The middle one is charge of study.(See, he is holding a pen in his hand) So, if you will have a very important exam need to take days or months after, you can go bai-bai and ask him to give you a help or a good luck.

The left one is similar to a city guard God. His is charge of our safty. His is a small God, I mean in God's society. But, he is the one who is related with us very much.

Fortune God

The guy who with beard and in the middle of my picture is we Chinese so called "fortune God". He can give you fortune, but, you need to earn money in right way, not in wrong way. If you want money and do not want to work, you can go bai bai for other Gods or Ghosts. Not this one. This picture as taken by me in front of a shop. As you can see, you can buy decroation for new year in this shop. Sometimes people will buy the picture or decroation of this fortune God home. Maybe it can bring you good luck in making money. Usually, those people who have a shop their own.

In our tration, we will need to go bai bai to welcome this fortune God at the fifth day in Jan. Of couse, according to our trational lunar calendar, not the one we use now. Or most people in the world use now. :)

According to our tradition, we have a lot of things to do in the end of a year and in the begining of a new year. We need to send those Gods back to heaven at the end of a year and welcome them back at the begining of a year. So, we need to clean our homes and kicthens. (We need to do different things on different days) It will be very interesting to stay with a traditional Chinese family during the New Years. But, now, most people do not follow those traditions.

Modern Dinner at Chinese Lunar New Year ' s Eve

Couple days before, I went to a convenient store to buy some thing cold to drink. I found this catalog. Maybe it is interest for you. There are pictures of dishes for new year's eve. You can order it before 1 month and will get it 3 days before new year's eve. You can choose to send to your home or send to the convenient store you filled this order list, then go to the store to get it while you off your work. Convenient? Yes. You just need to stew, steam, microwave or put the semi-well done food into oven. There is also a brief instrution to tell you how to cook or I shall say to heat those foods in the box. See, my 2nd pic, the chef who standing next to those food is the one who cook those food. Of course, he taught those people in the central kitchen to cook those food first and flavored first. Then, frozen those semi well done food. You can simple "heat " those food before dinner. Then, you can have a nice dinner at Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve.

Why I say "modern"? Because in old times, maybe not so far, only couple years before, people still need to cook their own big dinner at Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve. In acient time, this will be very tired thing for a wife. Big dinner for whole family, big family, not only parents & kids, maybe grand-parents, grand-kids and unmarried brothers & sisters. Big family. To cook for them? of course tired out.

Today, things seem to be easy. You can just fill a order list in a convenient store around the corner.

The Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve will be on 28th Jan. this year. Usually, this dinner is for families to come back to their home to eat together. Married sons need to bring their wives & kids back to their parents home and unmarried sons & daughters shall go back to their parents' home, too. But, now, more & more people choose to go abroad for traveling. Same as me. ha ha ha ~~ I did not have this " habit" before. Last year, I went to my sister's home in Shang-hai. This year, I will fly to Korea with my roommate in university time.

Do you know what did I see last year in CKS airport? "People mountain & people sea". That means a lot of people in Chinese. We usually say this kind of Chinese -English for fun. :)

Extremely hot & spicy hot pot

I like hot & spicy food. Cause, is there ant hot & spicy handsome man here in Taiwan? or in the world? No hot & spicy man , so , the only choice I can choose is hot & spicy food. ha ha ha~~ of course, standard joke of meiyunn's style.

Ususally, I can not find really hot & spicy hot pot here in Taiwan in normal small hot pot restaurants. The standard of their hot & spicy is not hot & spicy for me.

See my 1st pic, the soup is red. Color of spicy. ha ha ha~~ Usually, the deep red color means very hot & spicy. The deeper , more hot & spicy. :)

Usually, we add vegetables first. Usually, we add cabbages. Casuse, is can be stewed for longer time and there is a little bit sweet flavor in cabbage. This can make soup better to eat. :)

What you will feel when you eat this ? Your throat (right away) & ass (few hours later) can tell you. You ass can feel this hot & spicy feeling while you go to toilet. ha ha ha~~~ you can try yourself next time.

It's normal for people here in Taiwan to eat this hot & spicy hot pot in winter or in cold days. Sometimes, people eat this in hot summer days with air condition. Funny & strange? :)

My cute "daughters" ~

My cute "daughters" ~~ ha ha ha ~~my baby sheeps & a cute monkey. One is 14 years old & the other one is 8 years old. Of course, my stuffy toys. Cute? yes, so I sleep with them every day.

Today is my parents' wedding anniversary. 37 years. oh ~~quite a long time. No oral arguments in those 37 years. HARD TO FIND THIS KIND OF MARRIGE NOW.

New opened shop

This is our tradition. If your shops, not only resturants, but also all kinds of shops, of course, companys are included (Companies are a kind of shops, too ^~ ^ ) , you will need to bai-bai. Similar to my pic.

Not only need to bai-bai. Time & position also need to be chosed. Special time, depends on our lunar calendar. :) Usually, shop owners go bai bai on the 2nd & 16th days, of course, by our lunar calendar. :)

Now, people prepare simple things to go bai bai. See, there are apples, pineapples and a bottle of tea. What are inside those silver cups? rice, not cooked rice.

All those foods are for Gods and ghosts. To Gods, hope Gods can give the owner good luck and make a lot of money. To ghosts, hope them do not make troubles.

Candy fruit?

Of course, this is for kids. But, I still like to eat this. A little bit too sweet to me, now. But, when I was a kid, I like it very much.

First, you can choose the fruit you want. I mean, if you want to make this by yourself. Boil the sugar to become "liquid". Then, put the fruit into that syrup and get it out of syrup fast. The out layer of "candy fruit" will become harder in room temperature.

See, there are small tomatoes. The black one between tomatoes is sugar & acid pickled prune. :)

Hot & spicy soup with dumplings ^ ~ ^

Days ago, a dumplings loving person told me that he thought it's polish and russian speciality. Well, I can not say dumplings originally from China. But, the only thing I can sure is dumplings must from some places where people can grow wheat there. : ) It's nice to know more people from different coumtries. :) Especially by food. :)

Here in Taiwan or in China, we have another way to eat dumplings. Put them in soup. :) Soup dumplings. :) Usually, we have beef soup with dumplings or sour & spicy soup with dumplings. But, this one I ate is hot & spicy soup with dumplings.

The one in my spoon in 1st pic is dumpling, it goes without saying. Most people know. The one in my spoon in my 2nd pic is duck's blood pudding. The one in my 3rd pic is to-fu with bad smell. The soup is extremely hot & spicy. Of course, they added a lot of kinds Chinese herbs to make that soup. :)

U-xi pork

This is I brought back from Shang-hai. See, vacumn pack. There are a lot of famous traditional Chinese food now are processed in this way. You can buy it and bring back to your country.

This U-xi pork, you can put in in microwave for 3 mins. Then you will have a very delicious dish. :) Next time, I shall put it into a beautiful plate. I do not do this time. Why? I am hungry and want to it right away. So simple~~ ha ha ha~~

The mouth feel of this u-xi pork is very soft. The added a lot of sauces & stewed pork for a long time. That's the reason for this meat to have soft mouth feel. :)

Next time when you go to Shang-hai, you can order this,too. Not bad, but a little bit oily. Of course, we have this dish here in Taiwan. But, I need to tell you, u-xi is a name of a place in China, not far from Shang-hai. Maybe 2 hours driving. :) This place is famous for this dish. Also, there are many nice views to see.

Cheese

I bought this in the supermarket in the 101 building mall. (supermarket is located in B1) How much does this cost? 69 NTD, equals to 2 USD or around 2 Euro.

There are a lot of werstern food & Japanese food in that supermarket. More than other supermarket. Also, the bakery there is nice.

The one I bought is from Austalia and is salmon flavor. Nice to eat. There ought to have 8 pieces in one box, why ony 7 in my 2nd pic? Of course, I ate~~~~ :)

Cheese is not bad for me, but, a liitle bit too high in calories. :)

My breakfast in the first day of 2006

This is my breakfast today, the first day in the year of 2006. Nice begining with nice food. :) This halva was sent by alien in Hellas. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halva )I forgot to eat. No, I shall say, it does not look delicious to me. White one? Not colorful? only Greek words on it ? ha ha ha~~ So, I "forgot" to eat. Yesterday, when I was cleaning my room, it fell down to my floor. So, I have to eat it. Why? the outer plastic package was broken. If I do not eat them, the only choice to me is to through it away. Otherwise, ants & roaches will "come " to my room & eat it.

My choice is right. I eat it and do not let ants & roaches to eat. It tastes similar to a kind of peanuts candy I liked to eat vey much when I was a kid. I like this. But, the calories of this halva is a little bit too high to me. Ha ha ha , forgot ? I majored in food science. I know calories well, too. How can I not to count this? Especially when I need to lose weight to let myself dress in a beautiful dress to attend my vegetarian roommate's wedding in April. Well, tell you a joke, the first thing when I talk to my roommates in MSN or phone call is "do you lose weight? ". Well, this wedding is a big thing to us. She is the first one who will get married in our room. We were roommates in university time. How many years do we sleep together? Not only four, until now, we still sleep together. (sometimes, to go on a trip together, or I go to their places) So, how can we not to pay more attention to her wedding? That's girl's friendship. We planed to invite her to go to Guam, but she has no time. Why Guam? Because according to our friends, there is "men power show" . Boys can have "the last single day party", why we can not have "the last single day party", too? ha ha ha~~~ I like fair, do not forget this. :)

I also like that small cup very much. It looks very cute & girish. It's really my style. :) But, I do not know how to make Turkish coffee. So, my breakfast is Chinese tea & halva.

Do you know why we Chinese like to have desserts with tea? Because desserts are oily, or there is high fat hidden. It will be good to drink tea with oily desserts. The function of tea is to lower the oily mouth feel. According to papers, tea can lower content of cholesterol & fat in blood. Nice drink, right?

Have a nice day in the begining of 2006. :)