Taste of Old Beijing

I love Beijing. The city is always abuzz with vibrant energy and never ceased to amaze me with her sights and sounds, and in my latest trip, taste!

Strolling along the street late in the morning I stumbled upon a lot of empty porcelain jars in front of some shops and roadside stalls. I asked around, found out that those were the local yogurt. To be exact, it's called old Beijing yogurt! I'm so used to yogurt being associated with the Western food so learning about old Beijing yogurt really was such a surprise!

How does it taste? I made it my mission early the next morning scavenging the streets nearby my hotel for those little jars of yogurt. Came up yogurt-less after asking and searching in the convenient store, the fruit stall, the florist, the restaurant. Finally the noodles stall lady told me to try in the wet market. After more asking around the vegetable lady and the meat butcher, I found it!

Two little cup size porcelain jars sealed with a piece of paper tightened around the brim with a rubber band. Inside, the creamy milky goodness of yogurt, silky smooth and feather light, no lumps no curds. The taste was absolutely delightful, the zingy sourness from the milk and faint sweetness after taste of the honey, very refreshing in the morning. Oh and the light scent of the honey was almost intoxicating too. It's healthy and tasted great, definitely the breakfast for the champion!

And have I mentioned that they were dirt cheap? One yuan a jar! Three yuans if you have them taken away, two for the deposit of the jar.

Yeah, I'm taking them jars home as my souvenirs from Beijing, a lovely taste of old Beijing.

Pray and Learn

Today, while Japan is mourning the loss of lives from the horrific episode a year ago, and still rebuilding after the Fukoshima nuclear meltdown, and still recovering from the terrible aftermath, the Malaysian government is still stubbornly pigheaded, insisting to proceed with permitting the operation of Lynas rare-earth refinery plant in Kuantan.

Let us pray for peace for those departed and strength for the people of Japan. While we are at it, let us also pray for wisdom for the idiotic powers that be in Malaysia.

Smarten up, you dim wit!

Save Malaysia, Stop Lynas!

Beijing Sweetness

This is Bingtang Hulu (冰糖葫芦), a very popular sweet treat along the Beijing street during the winter time. Traditionally, it is done by dipping skewers of hawthorn in sugar caramel and let that cooled and frozen in the wintery air. Now they also come in other fruits such as grapes, tangerines, strawberries and black dates.

I stumbled upon this Beijing sweetie coming out of the subway station heading to Jingshan Park. I bought a strawberry bingtang hulu. I took a huge chunks of the strawberry with the frozen caramel, it lodged in my throat and almost choked me to death! I guess I've bitten more than I could chew.

But OMG! It was super duper delicious!

Being lethal aside, the sweetness from the caramel balanced nicely with the sourness of the strawberry, shocking my tastebuds with the tangy zing then soothing them with the gentle sweetness. So that's was amazing, so amazing. Then the crunchiness of the frozen caramel contrasted incredibly with the juicy soft texture of the fruit. Yummy!

That near death experience certainly will never deter me from getting more of this lovely sweet treat. Well in fact I can't get enough of it.

I already googled online on how to make them at home!

Record Time Fusili

I haven't been cooking for quite sometime. It'd be nice making something new and quick and tasty and warm for dinner for the weekend here in Khartoum. So I made the lazy man meal, pasta! Oh, all done in a record time of 12 minutes!

While the fusilli boiling in the pot and bacon strips frying in the pan, a couple of button mushrooms and garlic were sliced. As the bacons got crispy, out they came from the pan and in the garlic and mushroom sizzling in the rendered bacon fat. Then sprinkle of pepper, dash of OJ and balsamic vinegar added. By then the pasta was drained and ready to be returned into the sauce for a quick swirl and then on to the plate. Crispy bacons roughly chopped and sprinkled over the pasta.

Voila, chow time!

Bridges

Build them bridges well. Don't burn them down. There are just too many crocodiles in the river.

Note: Photos of bridges spanning across the Nile in Khartoum, Sudan.

City Center

"I'm back!"

I exclaimed (in my heart) giddily, after climbing up hill in the middle Jingshan Park (景山公园). I was feeling a bit like Rocky jogging up the Philadelphia Art Museum steps, but without the jogging lightly on the spot at the top and the fist pumping in the air. There were just too many tourists around.

The park is located to the north of the Forbidden City in Beijing, a little oasis in the heart of the city. This hill in the middle of the park was actually man-made, erected from the accumulation of the soil dug from the Forbidden City itself. Five intricately decorated pagodas were constructed on top of the hill, each poetically named. The picture above is the center and the biggest of the five pagodas, name Pagodas of the Eternal Spring (万春亭). Emperors during the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasty were said to order various beautiful trees they've seen elsewhere to be uprooted and replanted in the park, for landscaping. The park used to be the playground for the emperors to admire the beauty of his palace, now it's opened to public to enjoy a little peace and quiet of green space in the middle of the bustling city.

Atop the hill it offers the splendid vista of the Forbidden City and the Beijing skyline and cityscape. Unfortunately it was a cold and hazy and gloomy wintery day during my visit. While the sweeping view of the Forbidden City was nonetheless impressive, but the same couldn't be said about the cityscape. It was a blur into the horizon.

Dang!

Newton's 3rd Law of Motion

Amidst the festivity and merry-making over the Lunar new year, words got out that Singapore is planning to file claim to UNESCO that yee sang, a raw fish salad with crackers and julienne of vegetables, popular during Chinese new year, as an intangible cultural heritage of Singapore. Of course, this then sparked a heated dispute between the Chinese and foodies communities of the two countries.

While it's extremely difficult, if not impossible to ascertain the origin of the dish, I applaud both the courage and pro-activeness of the Singaporeans in their efforts to preserve and promote this culturally significant dish to such extent. The Malaysian? We do what we do best: crying fowl! That's it! That's the reaction from Malaysians.

Let's face it, we are not even that good and determined in preserving the tangible cultural heritage in the country. Cases in point, look at what had happened to the century old Pudu Jail and the majestic Bok House. Or look at what soon-to-be happened to the pre-war shophouses along Jalan Sultan. We do not appreciate these beautiful historical structure at all, demolishing such heritage treasures for the building of offices and shopping malls and parking arcade. So who cares about the intangible heritage? Aside from Singapore, Indonesia, as UNESCO had given them the intangible cultural heritage of humanity listing for keris (the asymmetrical wavy dagger), batik (the hand dyed cotton or silk garment) and the wayang puppet theatre (the shadow puppet story telling), as they claimed.

Newton's third law of motion states that for every action there's a reaction with equal in magnitude but opposite in direction. Unfortunately, we the Malaysians are always the reaction, opposite in direction and generally less in magnitude, significantly less in magnitude.