Jul 13 2008
.. Under a cerulean blue New York Sunday sky (I’m corny) .. Bastille Day 2008 was essentially a street fair, but I found Four Seasons Hotel had a booth there .. neat. There were many food booths, but don’t recall seeing burger joints. Oh lord, I’m dying to try a wagyu beef burger with black [...]
Jun 16 2008
Two weekends ago, a couple came to dinner and presented us this handsome percurment: a 1992 collector’s edition’s dry red from China. The English label reads Grand Dragon Cabernet Dry Red. It grew and produced in Yantai in Shandong province by Weilong. The little booklet claims that Yantai has similar soil and climate to the famed French region, [...]
Jun 04 2008
Wine drinkers would no doubt knew the name Mondavi. There are average table wines and there’s Opus One, his joint venture with Baron Philippe de Rothschild.
Matthew Garrahan credited Mondavi (1913-2008)for not only putting California’s Napa Valley on the map, but changing US attitudes to wine: America in his youth was a beer and whiskey-drinking nation. Wine was [...]
May 28 2008
The tallest girl I’ve seen
One of the BBQs over the weekend was cancelled, so when someone offered free tickets (Bachiana Chamber Orchestra, conducted/piano by João Carlos Martins. It cost only $2 in the box office anyway; corp sponsors picked up the bulk of it), we ended up going to a concert at Carnegie Hall [...]
May 21 2008
Help .. Help .. prospect .. my past, my present and my future .. oh lord hairy toothy decaying, how many dentists do I need to fix those? I think I’ll need to start to floss and brush maybe every other week? Tea and wine have stained my teeth, ok, I’ll increase the brush to every other [...]
May 16 2008
I enjoy Saké with my sashimi. But don’t really know about it, other than it’s a rice wine, fermented. The ingredients are few to make Saké, rice, water, yeast. The degree of polished rice (milled) determines the grade:
Junmai, pure rice wine 纯米酒, (without added alcohol), 30% milled away
Ginjo, with added alcohol 吟酿酒, [...]
May 16 2008
Nova is short for Nova Scotia salmon that my kids love. The lox (salmon fillet cured in salt) is thinly sliced, served on bagels with cream cheese (they don’t like capers). Mine like to have it for breakfast. Few years ago, it’s only $28 per lb now $34. The other day I went to Murray’s on Broadway at 90th Street, one [...]
May 09 2008
A girls’ night out at Louie’s. A friend of mine recently said that a massage parlor in Singapore has few look-a-like masseurs, not the he-she street. For an hour, the actual massage, plus a happy ending or home run, it cost only $200.
“Who did you get?”
“Shu Qi.” Sugar, I have no iota who the [...]
May 05 2008
Ferrara cafe in the Little Italy is an institution, sort of. Established in 1892. I would always stop by when I’m in the area. It’s only two blocks away from Canal Street. Their tiramisu is sublime, cheese cake is fine but not as good as Veniero’s (est in 1894), but it cost double, 6″ $23 [...]
Apr 16 2008
A fascinating research study from the California Institute of Technology has shown that there is a direct correlation between the price of a wine and the degree of pleasure it induces in the brain, using fMRI: the more expensive the wine, the higher the levels of neural activity in the medial orbitofrontal cortex, the area [...]
Mar 31 2008
We had our club meeting yesterday with largest showing ever, 8 of us (two more girls!!!), needed time out to get a chance to speak, great rapport and enthusiasm. San Diego Chapter’s Josey Wales’s record was 26. I might have to enlist my fellows from China to beat that number,
Megan is cool, a fast talker and [...]
Mar 26 2008
Carrot + Ginger + Apple - Boost and cleanse our system.
Apple + Cucumber + Celery - Prevent cancer, reduce cholesterol, and improve stomach upset and headache.
Tomato + Carrot + Apple - Improve skin complexion and bad breath.
Bitter gourd + Apple + Milk - Avoid bad breath and reduce internal body heat.
Orange + Ginger + Cucumber [...]
Mar 26 2008
國際會議上定出了6種保健品
第一 綠茶；
第二 紅葡萄酒；
第三 豆漿；
第四 酸奶；人家不提牛奶，您注意啦；
第五 骨頭湯；
第六 蘑菇湯。
一個中國人寫的 , 一定要耐心看完，並傳給您的朋友
不重視保健，而且不聽保健。現在絕大多數是病死的，很少數是老死的。
聯合國提出個口號﹕”千萬不要死於無知”。死於無知很冤枉。
維多利亞開會有個宣言，這個宣言有三個里程碑，
第一個叫 平衡飲食，
第二個叫 有氧運動，
第三個叫 心理狀態。
平衡飲食
也許有人早就認為保健有什麼好聽的，還不是早起早睡身體好。 所謂平衡飲食，有飲、食二大類。
先說飲食的第一個問題，”飲”的問題。
什麼叫保健品，大家要知道，它得是能治療疾病的。
到現在我們中國人絕大部分都不知道什麼叫保健品。
為什麼提蘑菇湯？ 因為蘑菇能提高免疫功能。
那為什麼提骨頭湯呢？ 骨頭湯裏含琬膠，琬膠是延年益壽的 ，
為什麼提酸奶？ 因為 酸奶是維持細菌平衡的。
所謂 維持細菌平衡是指有益的細菌生長，有害的細菌消滅，所以吃酸奶可以少得病的。牛奶本身我們不否定它的作用，但跟酸奶比起來差得很遠。
綠茶為什麼有保健作用呢？ 原來綠茶裏面含有茶坨酚，而茶坨酚是抗癌的。
日本普查 40 歲以上的人沒有一個體內沒有癌細胞的。如果你每天喝 4 杯綠茶，癌細胞就不分裂，而且即使分裂也要推遲 9 [...]
Mar 12 2008
Who hasn’t used/tasted it before? Monosodium glutamate, not Madison Sq Garden, apparently, we all did. Few maids who’s passed my door had all asked for MSG, when I said no, I don’t use it, they asked for chicken broth that made with it. No, I don’t have it either. Either I have no taste in food or [...]
Mar 06 2008
As I was writing about siheyuan and hutong, thought about Marketman I once visited for ube, because his pictures are great, I envy his ability when it comes to taking pictures, like the Hutong restaurant in Hong Kong. Every time I wipe out my little Casio, my supportive family would moan, object and turning their backs to me - thanks a lot. [...]
Feb 24 2008
Tanglewood 1997
Peter Newton (1926-2008), a Brit, the founder of this vineyard had just passed away. He’s credited with putting the vocabulary of Merlot and Chardonnay into ordinary Americans who otherwise only knew wine as red and white. We falling in love with Sterling’s Chardonnay at the Lexon when we attended the BSO at Tanglewood that summer [...]
Feb 23 2008
Or as Schnaps in German, is a type of distilled beverage, usually refers to unsweetened. But there are flavored (sweet, fruity) Schnaps, in and out side of Germany. The other day at dinner I was talking about qiang hu, one of my favored delicacy of Shanghai. It’s raw shrimps from a particular lake (forgot which one). They are small [...]
Feb 15 2008
Shopping at the grocery store, came up on the monstrous durian, 爱恨交集 -I love it very much but having trouble opening it. So I don’t buy it often. But it tastes sooooo yummmy .. so I lingered. Then there’s a family walked over. The Mom looked very knowledgeable. SO I asked .. “.. .. what’s best [...]