Christmas Mysteries Review, Gingerbread Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke, Laura Levine and Leslie Meier

Enhance your holiday celebrations with this new trilogy of short Christmas stories. Best selling author, Joanne Fluke, headlines this entertaining, feel-good tribute to seasonal literature. Fifteen mouth-watering recipes complement the story lines; sure to add pleasure to any holiday feast or forthcoming Super Bowl party.

Gingerbread Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke

It’s a month before Christmas in Lake Eden, Minnesota and Hannah Swensen is anticipating the holidays. As owner of The Cookie Jar, a local eatery and coffee shop, she’s already begun her seasonal baking. Continue reading “Christmas Mysteries Review, Gingerbread Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke, Laura Levine and Leslie Meier”

Chongqing – The Capital of Hot-Pot and Beautiful Girls

Chongqing is one of the biggest cities in China with its metropolitan population according to different sources being 5 to 7.5 million people (2010).

If I would have to choose just one word to describe Chongqing it would be “spicy”. This is due to the fact that Chongqing is famous for its culinary specialty – hot-pot… and spicy and beautiful girls!

Many believe that Chinese hot-pot originates from this area where it was popular among boatmen working on the Yangtze River. From here it spread to Sichuan and other neighboring districts and later made its way to the rest of China.

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Pros and Cons Of Vegetarianism

Vegetarianism is defined as “the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat – red meat, poultry, seafood and the flesh of any other animal”. (1)

In my experience ‘going veggie’ can be a double edged sword.

It can lead to massive health benefits – when its done properly.

I have vegetarian meals and entire vegetable days myself and they help me enormously.

The biggest benefits from a plant based diet are: Continue reading “Pros and Cons Of Vegetarianism”

Global Warming – Drought & Chinese Imports Shape an “Experiment in Agriculture” for Colorado

“…THOSE WHO LABOR IN THE EARTH ARE THE CHOSEN PEOPLE OF GOD, IF HE EVER HAD A CHOSEN PEOPLE, WHOSE BREASTS HE HAS MADE THE PECULIAR DEPOSITS FOR SUBSTANTIAL AND GENUINE VIRTUE. IT IS THE FOCUS IN WHICH HE KEEPS ALIVE THAT SACRED FIRE WHICH OTHERWISE MIGHT NOT ESCAPE FROM THE EARTH”. Thomas Jefferson, 1789

Ethno-Agriculture

According to the book “The History of Agriculture in Colorado” the primitive plows used to break the soil in Colorado’s first agricultural settlements (San Luis Valley) were made of piñon wood for its superior strength. The Piñon was life to our agricultural communities, and more than a few early exploration parties in the Rockies, both Spanish and American, were saved from starvation by Pinyon and its nuts. The Piñon Pine, the Piñon Nut and the settlement of humans in Colorado have a history that traces back to the Basketmaker Culture Continue reading “Global Warming – Drought & Chinese Imports Shape an “Experiment in Agriculture” for Colorado”

The Very Best Chinese Teabags I Have Ever Tasted in the World

I went back to Hong Kong and I discovered something call Luk Yu Tea. It’s on sale everywhere, all the supermarkets, teahouses, fast food stores, offices, you name it. So I was tempted to try it. I mean, I am a tea lover myself and I know quite a lot about Chinese Tea, so I gave it a try, didn’t expect too much. So I bought a box of Luk Yu Chinese Teabags from Hong Kong and I was astonished by the flavour and the quality of the tea they use. It is certainly not the low grade tea that most of the well known brand uses. It’s got a mouth-watering taste to it. Not too weak, just the right strength, and now I know why. This is because they put more Chinese tea in their teabags than most other teabag companys. Continue reading “The Very Best Chinese Teabags I Have Ever Tasted in the World”

Important Message for Baby Boomers, “Don’t Retire Yet … Refocus”

As an early “Baby Boomer” ie, one of those human beings born in the period after World War II and until the early 1960s, I’ve been giving a lot of thought during the last few years about how much longer I will work and what I’ll do after I retire. It could be a dilemma; on the one hand, after 46 years at work, I’ve had enough working for an employer 8am to 5pm every day except Saturday and Sunday. On the other hand, I’m in good health and don’t want to give work away just to spend the remainder of my days pottering about in the garden. So what’s the solution?

First, I’ve changed my mind about the idea of retirement. To me retirement is a dirty word. It means leaving work and hanging around waiting to die. After all, isn’t that what people do? They leave work and after a few years pottering about, die. The certainty of death is very good at creating focus. It’s not that we morbidly focus on it all the time, but that we know it’s getting closer and need to make the most of what time we have left. I’m thinking more and more each day of “refocusing” instead of “retiring”. Continue reading “Important Message for Baby Boomers, “Don’t Retire Yet … Refocus””

A Silk Road Trip, or I Gobbed in the Gobi, China, 1992

In August 1992, myself and my wife, Caroline, arranged a trip to post-Tiananmen China. It was in the days when the London China Travel office was on Cambridge Circus, opposite the Palace Theatre on Charing Cross Road. It took me at least twenty books, a late-night Japanese television series and several months to plan and arrange the trip from what was then our base in Balham, south London. In those days, you could arrange the visit via China Travel and then, as long as the itinerary was lodged in advance, you could travel absolutely independently. Everything was pre-paid, but on setting off, we had no tickets or confirmed reservations apart from our air tickets in and out of Beijing. As ever, I kept a journal of the trip, which ran to more than fifty pages. A few years later, I condensed the experience to two sides of A4, ignoring rules of grammar and syntax, and produced the following ramble, a perhaps poetic impression of nearly a month of travel. Continue reading “A Silk Road Trip, or I Gobbed in the Gobi, China, 1992”

Chinese Vegetarian Recipes: How to Make Gong Li’s Favorite Spinach Tofu in Raise the Red Lantern

There are many Chinese vegetarian recipes. This one became even more popular after Gong Li’s movie Raise the Red Lantern. In the movie, Gong Li plays a 19 years old girl that’s force into marrying a much older wealthy man. The man already has 3 wives, so Gong Li is wife number 4. At the dinner table for the first time, she doesn’t see anything that she can eat because she is a vegetarian. She tells the servant I do not eat meat, can you make me some spinach tofu. Being the newest and most favorite wife, the servant obeys her request and made the dish just for her. Here’s the recipe for spinach tofu Chinese style. It’s takes about 15 minutes from start to finish.

This is a fast recipe, so prepare all ingredients before beginning.

Continue reading “Chinese Vegetarian Recipes: How to Make Gong Li’s Favorite Spinach Tofu in Raise the Red Lantern”

Chinese Sugar Fried Chestnuts

The “Liang Xiang” chestnuts are well known. Here “Liang Xiang” refers to the old “Liang Xiang” county, which is equivalent to part of the mountain area of “Fangshan” district of Beijing, and is not the “Liang Xiang” village county. “Liang Xiang” chestnuts really are “Fangshan Chinese chestnuts”. It is kind of confusing, even to many Chinese.

There are many ways to eat chestnuts, but the most popular one is the sugar roasted chestnuts.

As soon as chestnuts are harvested in autumn, you’ll see cauldrons are set up at every corner of the street. Mix chestnuts with sand, sprinkle plain sugar syrup, fry it till the sand becomes pitch-black. The chestnuts will then look shining and bright as if a layer of oil has been applied to the shells. The burning smell flutters all over. People like me who are craving chestnuts would come to buy without seller’s calling out. People used to use shovel to fry, now the process is electrically operated. Continue reading “Chinese Sugar Fried Chestnuts”

Viva Singapura

Sipping the Singapore Sling (a cocktail of gin, Benedictine, cherry brandy and club soda) aboard the Singapore Airlines flight, I started planning my Singapore trip. Rachit had promised that there was a lot that I had to see and experience. My mind conjured up images of high-rises and Chinese men in business suits. Would Singapore be any different from Mumbai? Perhaps. It would be much cleaner and devoid of slums, for sure. My grand-aunt had told me about the malls and Chinatown where I could buy cheap porcelain goods. I hate shopping. I wondered if there was anything else for me to do. As the plane landed at Changi International Airport (definitely the best I’ve seen thus far), I drew in my breath. This was the longest flight I had undertaken, the farthest I had gone. Continue reading “Viva Singapura”