Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Kowloon Factory Is The Best Source For Soy Sauce
"People tell my father he's crazy," says Ken Wong, who manages the factory's day-to-day affairs for his 82-year-old father, Wong Hung. "You need an enormous amount of land to make soy sauce. And land is very expensive in Hong Kong. You might as well build on it." However, according to his son, Mr. Wong senior always says: "We must do things the traditional way." And for the Wongs, the traditional way has paid off. From the family's scruffy-looking Yuen Long compound comes what may be the world's ultimate soy sauce...The difference is the natural fermentation, a process almost totally abandoned elsewhere.
Story HERE
Picture from MY WOK LIFE
Story HERE
Picture from MY WOK LIFE
Monday, February 27, 2012
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Thonet Tisch n°9304
c.1860. Vienna. Michael Thonet. Great collapsible inexpensive dining table. Early example of sustainable design.
Friday, February 24, 2012
The Story Of A Suicide
Last year Tyler Clementi, a gay 18 year old student at Rutgers University, jumped to his death at the George Washington Bridge. The criminal court case begins today for Dharun Ravi, Clementi's roommate, who is being tried for a series of misdeeds that led to Clementi's death, including homophobia. The full story is HERE. According to the accounts, the discrimination from Ravi and his circle seems to be both for sexual orientation and class (Clementi comes from middle-lower class while Ravi is middle upper-class). In the detailed story, Dharun Ravi seems like a boy struggling with living in an un-open home but his blithely unaware achieving Chinese-American friends and potential cohorts basically come across as wastes-of-space. I may be hard on these Chinese-Americans but these aspiring scientists and entrepreneurs will never amount to anything close to a James E. Burke or Henry Ford.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
EBAY AUCTION: Original "Cocoon" Lamp for Flos
c.1959-1961. Achille Castiglioni. Italy. €122.00. Sucks. Congrats to the winner.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Generation Sell
I think the times when you walk into a restaurant or store, only to be treated poorly by staff are coming to an end.
"The small business is the idealized social form of our time. Our culture hero is not the artist or reformer, not the saint or scientist, but the entrepreneur. Autonomy, adventure, imagination: entrepreneurship comprehends all this and more for us. The characteristic art form of our age may be the business plan...
Today’s polite, pleasant personality is, above all, a commercial personality. It is the salesman’s smile and hearty handshake, because the customer is always right and you should always keep the customer happy. If you want to get ahead, said Benjamin Franklin, the original business guru, make yourself pleasing to others."
Column HERE
"The small business is the idealized social form of our time. Our culture hero is not the artist or reformer, not the saint or scientist, but the entrepreneur. Autonomy, adventure, imagination: entrepreneurship comprehends all this and more for us. The characteristic art form of our age may be the business plan...
Today’s polite, pleasant personality is, above all, a commercial personality. It is the salesman’s smile and hearty handshake, because the customer is always right and you should always keep the customer happy. If you want to get ahead, said Benjamin Franklin, the original business guru, make yourself pleasing to others."
Column HERE
COOKING RECIPE: Uighur Chicken Pilaf With Pumpkin
A favorite dish of mine for winter. It's a dish from Islamic China. Note: You will need a big heavy pot. That, or you'll have to do this a couple times.
Ingredients.
2 1/2 cups medium-grain rice.
about 1 tablespoon of salt.
about 4 1/2 pounds of whole chicken legs and breasts.
1/2 pound daikon radish.
1/4 cup vegetable oil.
2 medium onions, chopped up.
2 medium tomatoes, chopped up.
4 cups of water.
about 1 pound of peeled pumpkin, cut into 1-2 inch cubes.
Chinese black rice vinegar.
1 cut lemon.
Black pepper.
1. Soak the rice in a bowl with lukewarm water an inch above the rice.
stir in 1 teaspoon of salt and set aside to soak.
2. Remove excess fat from the chicken. Finely chop about 3 tablespoon of fat and set aside. I left the skin on but you can chop off too. Use the cleaver Hong Kong style to chop the chicken into 2-3 inch pieces. Rinse and set aside.
3. Peel the radish and grate it until you get about 2 cups. Set aside.
4. Heat oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat. Add the chicken fat from 2. and render it. Remove the fat cracklings. Raise the heat to high. Once the pot is smoking, add 1 teaspoon of salt. Put the chicken in the pot and start to brown them. After 10 minutes, add the onions. Once the chicken is thoroughly brown on all sides, add the daikon and tomatoes. Stir. Lower the heat slightly and cook for about 5 minutes.
5. Add water and the remaining 1 teaspoon of salt and raise the heat and boil intensely. Lower the heat to medium and boil gently with top partially covered. Taste and add vinegar, squeezed lemon juice or pepper as you wish.
6. Drain the rice and put it in the broth. Add water if rice isn't comfortably submerged. Bring to a boil, then cover tightly, and lower the heat to medium. Cook for 5 minutes. Now put the pumpkin pieces over the rice. Cover tightly, lower the heat to medium and cook for 30 minutes.
Ingredients.
2 1/2 cups medium-grain rice.
about 1 tablespoon of salt.
about 4 1/2 pounds of whole chicken legs and breasts.
1/2 pound daikon radish.
1/4 cup vegetable oil.
2 medium onions, chopped up.
2 medium tomatoes, chopped up.
4 cups of water.
about 1 pound of peeled pumpkin, cut into 1-2 inch cubes.
Chinese black rice vinegar.
1 cut lemon.
Black pepper.
1. Soak the rice in a bowl with lukewarm water an inch above the rice.
stir in 1 teaspoon of salt and set aside to soak.
2. Remove excess fat from the chicken. Finely chop about 3 tablespoon of fat and set aside. I left the skin on but you can chop off too. Use the cleaver Hong Kong style to chop the chicken into 2-3 inch pieces. Rinse and set aside.
3. Peel the radish and grate it until you get about 2 cups. Set aside.
4. Heat oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat. Add the chicken fat from 2. and render it. Remove the fat cracklings. Raise the heat to high. Once the pot is smoking, add 1 teaspoon of salt. Put the chicken in the pot and start to brown them. After 10 minutes, add the onions. Once the chicken is thoroughly brown on all sides, add the daikon and tomatoes. Stir. Lower the heat slightly and cook for about 5 minutes.
5. Add water and the remaining 1 teaspoon of salt and raise the heat and boil intensely. Lower the heat to medium and boil gently with top partially covered. Taste and add vinegar, squeezed lemon juice or pepper as you wish.
6. Drain the rice and put it in the broth. Add water if rice isn't comfortably submerged. Bring to a boil, then cover tightly, and lower the heat to medium. Cook for 5 minutes. Now put the pumpkin pieces over the rice. Cover tightly, lower the heat to medium and cook for 30 minutes.
In Korea, a Boot Camp Cure for Web Obsession
There are lots of lazy people on the Hong Kong MTR stuck on their smartphones.
"...these young people are not battling alcohol or drugs. Rather, they have severe cases of what many in this country believe is a new and potentially deadly addiction: cyberspace. They come here, to the Jump Up Internet Rescue School, the first camp of its kind in South Korea and possibly the world, to be cured."
Story HERE
"...these young people are not battling alcohol or drugs. Rather, they have severe cases of what many in this country believe is a new and potentially deadly addiction: cyberspace. They come here, to the Jump Up Internet Rescue School, the first camp of its kind in South Korea and possibly the world, to be cured."
Story HERE
Monday, February 13, 2012
Exploits, Now Not So Daring
"Adventurers of my generation, who started exploring in the 1960s, used the phrase “out there” as a term of highest praise. “Man, Bonatti was really out there on the Dru.” The two words capture it all — out there, near the limits of what is humanly possible, out there where nobody can save you. Nowadays very few adventurers are truly out there as Mr. Bonatti was. I would argue that it’s their psychic and experiential loss."
Story HERE
Story HERE
Monday, February 6, 2012
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Angelo Dundee R.I.P.
Muhammand Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard's amazing trainer finally passes away.
"In his 2007 autobiography, 'My View From The Corner,' Dundee said his job was 'a mixed bag combining certain qualities belonging to a doctor, an engineer, a psychologist and, sometimes, even an actor...When the bell rings ending the round, that's when the trainer takes over."
Story HERE
"In his 2007 autobiography, 'My View From The Corner,' Dundee said his job was 'a mixed bag combining certain qualities belonging to a doctor, an engineer, a psychologist and, sometimes, even an actor...When the bell rings ending the round, that's when the trainer takes over."
Story HERE
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