Pigs

I hope you still can eat some pork. =]

Baozi!

Ok, I promise this isn't turning into a "cooking blog" but I've had some time to create (literally) some pieces from a couple cookbooks from the far east. I started out with the Chiu Chow dumplings; however, that failed within 5 minutes of mixing the dough (it was a sticky mess), so I turned to the more tame-able baozi. Having never made them before, I was excited to stuff them with whatever I wanted (in this case, Chinese leftovers, eggplant. Also a tomato-based leftover that looked tasty at the time). Stuck em in the steamer and bam! They were awesome! I'm stoked to put some cheese inside one, or even some peanut butter and chocolate. We'll see, if you want to test one, just let me know, we can try it :)

I'll be sure to make some BBQ pork in the near future here, definitely.

Video 196

Definitely one of my favorite videos.

Video 89

Ricer anyone?

Video 88

Just humorous.

My "Dan Tat" Brings All the Boys to the Yard

Goal(s): Create, cook, and discover the perfect method to bake such goodness in a mini-metal pan. Dan-tat (egg tart) is the staple HK treat, hands down (Guy-dan-zai may be tied on some days...) However, this night had a one-tract mind for the simple egg tart.

My instructor and tutor: Youtube! Obviously I would not find another source quite like the old Cantonese grandma shouting out instructions to egg tart (in Cantonese) so I followed her immense tart-knowledge. Also, due to translation barriers, I also found a small tart-Asian girl teaching in quite the British accent. The tart-licious recipe and ingredients are simple: eggs, a stick of butter, flour, milk, and sugar (lots of it, too).

The tat (tah-t): I know it sounds awkward to say in English, but seriously it's worth talking like a 2 year old British baby. But why stop at just plain classic tarts? Why not fill one of those suckers up with, say, raspberry jam?! Well that's what the middle, and while I was looking for chocolate chips (which I didn't discover), I stumbled across some marshmallows. Throw 'em in! Tastes like a fluffed up tart, which was probably the best out of the "creative category" (it's showed to the right). The one on the left...we shouldn't talk about. It looks like either a Russian Palace, or a somewhat-naked volcano that literally tastes like warm vomit. Never try peaches inside the tartrium unless you know what you're doing.

But as for the method and the results, I'm pleased. I have a little piece of HK in my home (actually I have 6 or 7 pieces). However, there is always room for improvement. During our stay at HK we discovered that the best Dan-tat are magically created with a special ingredient called: vanilla. So that will definitely be added to the ingredient list. Also, Youtube failed me (I was shocked that there was something wrong on Youtube!....kidding). The temperature was too low for my HK sized tat holders. So next time, we're kickin' it up a notch! So in the end, tonight was quite a success and might have been a little tartantic for just one home, come eat all my leftovers!

But at least the Pineapple Buns turned out allright =]

Food Fin

You really can't beat food culture. It's definitely one of the biggest aspects of learning, experiencing, and appreciating a new culture, so next time your in a place not so familiar (even the South has food culture...although, unless it's BBQ Nachos, I wouldn't recommend it =), try some local food. It might be a part of the animal you've never eaten before, it may be below your sanitation expectations, and it just might look like you shouldn't eat it, but seriously, millions are scarfin' it down every day, so take a leap into their lives, at least try it.

It's true that I wouldn't want to have a full meal of live baby octopus (Korea), duck or pig tongues (China), pig ears (again, China), stinky tofu (HK), sea urchins (Philippines), or balut (ba-loot: a semi-developed duck egg, boiled, which you can either choose 18, 16, 12 day old baby ducks. 18 (the manliest...whatever that means) has no yolk and you might feel some feathers and some beak action inside...); However, it is true that these "delicacies" really are part of their culture and fun to catch a glimpse of what's special (or more traditional) for them.

But no matter how crazy you get, there will always be the basics for every day meals. Yes, Asia consumes seriously every part of the animal including the feet to the testicles to the tongue (or snout), but it's always accompanied by the typical bowl of rice or sometimes a bowl of noodles. Chinese food is vastly different than that of "American Chinese" food, but I would advocate the authentic is far superior (obviously). There's more flavors, distinctions, and all around love into your meal, even if it is in a Styrofoam bowl wrapped in plastic. But before you head over to Asia, learn to use some chopsticks, because it will build bridges like you never imagined two sticks could.

This video is just a glimpse of what we experienced during the 7-months over there. I felt slightly responsible for everybody's appreciation of food culture, so we went to some pretty local joints. Among my favorite are the Fish-head Curry (seriously scary, but seriously delicious), Singapore Crab (if you go, just ask around and you'll get some, you just pick your crab when it's alive, perhaps name him, then eat him when he's been lightly boiled and fried), egg-tarts are HK's best, the eel in Korea was probably the craziest preparation I saw over there, and the final scenes in the video are the only meal that made my intestinal tract hate me. I was out for a couple weeks, but it was worth having everthing, I mean the worst food can do is make you sick if you just try it =] But on the flip side, it can make you love the people, culture, and all for the price of a dollar-menu burger. Where's the downfall?

Jilin, The City

It's finally time to solidify (in words) the final 2 months of my stay in Asia. I flew up to Jilin City (in Jilin Province...but it's not the capital of the province...???) with very little knowledge about "North China". I heard that they don't eat rice (they replace it with the "bun") and they speak funny; however I found that China is still China and everybody eats rice, and also, everybody speaks funny in "Asia" as a whole, so it didn't matter much =]

But this entry will only give context to the city of Jilin, not the place where I stayed and worked and made awesome friends. This entry is about the "small Chinese city" of 5 million people. I thought I was going to the "countryside", but wow, I was mistaken. This place is a pretty big city, while it's undergoing even more development. It will grow like crazy in the next 5-10 years for sure. But the dynamic of the city is centered with the SongHua River which bends through the metropolis about 4 times, making room for a number of bridges. The bridge pictured above is the most Southern (and the coolest of all the bridges), which was a 5 minute walk from our hospital.

The river brings life to the city. It's a cultural, environmental fusion that really was my favorite aspect of the city. The river is bordered by several series of walking paths that attract all the citizens. So watch out, when 4PM rolls around (works ends), everybody and their mom (literally) comes down to the river and flies kites, skate, play MahJong, or just hang out and eat munchies from all the vendors selling anything from corn on the cob to popcorn to popsicles (even pea flavored ones). The River really does attract everybody for good reason. It's beautiful and the temperature drops a good 10-15 degrees when you're on the walkways, phenomenal natural AirCon, especially when running. Another attraction is the "water show". It's seriously beyond huge. There's this one spout that blasts water up about 100-145 feet! Crazy! But it's hooked up to music and everything, so it's legit (but it's weird, because we speculate that it's on the weekends, but they turn it on just whenever they want...So it's a spontaneous event, like everything else in China) The river itself runs from a dam, so they control the levels; however, recently there has been huge flooding in China so the river has flooded the nearby parks, even up to the road in some cases. [The floods have really taken a tole on China. Many rural people have lost homes, even died, so the amount of relief work is in high demand].

The city also has a Night Market and a couple other main shopping streets, where one could buy anything from phone charms to matching-couple T-shirts (yes, all relationships aren't complete without matching t-shirts). There's even a strip that sells pets (or animals) such as rabbits, turtles, and every type of dog imaginable (the most popular and expensive, Siberian Huskies...However, our favorite are the "mini-lions" that roam the streets =). Furthermore, the food culture is bangin' in Jilin. There's a huge Korean population here (30%) which brings great Korean cuisine, and of course there's awesome Chinese food. I feel like the cuisine needs a new post to do it justice though. =] I'm definitely miss just walking down the road about 10 minutes and finding some of the most awesome joints serving fantastic food. =[

The city lies about and hour away from the airport (or 2 hours, pending who's driving :) but not terrible, so go visit it, but be sure to stop by the Bo Hua Hospital and see the light show. Oh, and don't worry, Wal-Mart's being built as I write this so you'll have a little taste of home there =]

"I Got Seoul"

As much as I would have liked to find a shirt with this post's title, I couldn't locate one in the country's capital. Seriously, I'm going to start a business that simply sells those shirts, cuz who wouldn't want one??? =]

Right now, I'm going to break the "chronological-trend" of this blog and skip to the homecoming trip, a trip that took a very intentional pit-stop in a little city called Seoul. It's among the top 3 most metropolis regions of the world and if you look behind Hanki (pronounces more "Han-gee), you'll see just a sliver of the city. Seriously it's huge, so be sure to spend more than just 2 days and 3 nights ><>

I met Hanki in Hong Kong and he's definitely one of the most positive people I met there (most Koreans have this awesome attitude in life and it makes me want to be happy). Korea definitely is a friendly country, and luckily for us Americans, they know quite a bit of English, at least compared to other parts of Asia. Korea is definitely one of the most American-like countries in all of Asia. It's politics and economics have definitely shaped and formed Korea to be this heavily Western influenced place, yet it's still super Korean. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but Korea has one of the strongest national prides I've ever seen. They love Korean stuff, from cars to celebrities to phones to people to anything. If your Korean, you've got friends....they're just going to be Korean too. Ha, that's a little hyperbole but some of it's true ><>

Finally it was back to the airport for a 11-hour flight back to Chicago, not terrible. Korea's Incheon airport is boss. It's easy, simple, and there's information kiosks that have "cookie-cut" Korean women who can speak better English than I can. =]

Cup Massage

During my semester in Hong Kong, I attended an elective "Traditional Chinese Medicine" class where I not only met some of my very good friends but also learned about some crazy, effective medical procedures performed primarily by the East. It wasn't until I reached Shanghai, when I actually participated in such "procedures".

I may call them procedures; however, they are part of every day life. Herbal nutrition, moxibustion (take a stick of herbs and burn one end near your body), acupuncture (infamous needle piercing), and, as the picture shows above, cupping. All the practices are based off a few theories ranging from Yin and Yang to the belief that the body holds a separate channel which allows the flow of "Qi" (Chee), which really influences the body as much as blood vessels or nerves. If your flow of Qi is messed up, whereever it's blocked is the point of damage. Following?

So massage therapy really helps get the Qi flowing properly again. It may take awhile, but it is quite affective (I mean, who doesn't like getting massages). But also paired with the massage is cupping, a process where they quickly insert and remove a flame into a glass bowl and then push/twist the bowl onto ones back. It's actually quite fun and I recommend trying it if you're in the position. It hurts, tickles, and makes you feel almost paralyzed while the skin is sucked into the bowl (it goes in about a good 1-2 inches, leaving hefty sized welts after the 20-30 minutes of "relaxation").

Needless to say, my back definitely experienced some removal of bad blood and my Qi should hopefully be flowing properly once again. Somehow I doubt it, but I'll still respect the people who get cup massages (in their own homes) on a regular "twice-a-month" schedule.

Philippines.

So here's the Philippines video that failed a couple months ago. Sorry for the delay.

Babies, Butts, and Bathrooms

If you come to China, you'll see, taste, smell, and feel things you've never imagined existed. Seriously. The topic we'll dive into (hopefully not literally) today: babies, butts, and bathrooms.

I'm not a huge sanitary snob; however, I have to admit that Chinese toilets, bathrooms, and waste sanitation in general has some serious room for improvement. From the country outhouses to the city's public restrooms, there needs to be some serious public health movements. First of all the infastructure could use a serious makeover, replacing the holes in the floor (which you can see straight into the piles of "you know what") with toilets and installing some soap and sinks into public facilities. Secondly, people, and men in particular, have no problem just turning their back and letting loose in the middle of the street. There's just no restraint, as though, if the urge comes, no matter where you are, just do it! An absolute mindset of "why wouldn't I just go?" So I'm not sure if I'm struggling with a personal preference of human cleanliness or if this is an actual public health problem, from education and all that jazz (don't get my sister talking ><), but I'm just recording observations.

However, all of us over here have a theory as to why this trend exists, and the answer is simple: development. Babies. Everybody loves babies, and if you asked anybody, Asian babies are pretty cute (you can't deny that). But take a closer look and every child is equipped and armed with a pair of pants or shorts with a healthy sized slit near and around the crotch area. This hole is a very functional part of the clothing and has entirely replaced the need for diapers. Children, when they need to "go", just walk down to the curb, squat (which I'll describe in a second), and let it flow or fall, seriously! In public, no privacy, and no one drops any J's (judges). It's a phenomenal thing, and this squatting takes "pop a squat" to a whole new level. First of all, Heels are on the ground, butt is literally inches off the ground, hands are free to do whatever needs to be done. And the troubling matter is that they think it's comfortable! I challenge you to squat (keep you clothes on) and just see what happens. Later in life, this position serves to not only relieve oneself in the "squatty podies" but also to comfortably sit whether it's waiting for the bus or just hanging out in a park. It's seriously a skill and can be a workout for those unfamiliar with its deceptive nature.

In the end, I've accepted and appreciated the trend of babies' butts and bathrooms, but personally, if I had a child with slit pants, I would not put them on my neck....just saying.

Vietnambodia

Rewind with me about 2 months ago and see where we were. School was finished, exams were questionable (my immunology exam was worth 80% of my grade....snap), and itineraries were up for grabs. I had options inlcuding trips to Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Through a series of events, primarily airplane fares, Vietnam and Cambodia were the destination. I accompanied two girls, Vy and Rebecca, Vy being a Vietnamese American while Becca is a Chinese American, so here we are a jumbled American-Asian mess (if I even count ><). Fortunately (and what I enjoyed most about the trip) was that Vy has tons of family in Viet from Ho Chi Minh, where we landed, to central Vietnam, where we stayed in her aunt's hotel....ballin'! However, once we landed, Becca and I took off for Cambodia which was hilarious. Imagine sitting in the back of a bus for 15 hours, sitting Indian Style catching air off the bumpy roads. It was quite a trip, and we practiced genocide on the family of flies that decided to take refuge in the slightly Air-Con bus. Needless to say, Cambodia is the most tourist friendly place on earth, at least Siem Reap. Seriously we got off the bus and met "Ruin" who drove us around the whole 4 days for a minimal price. It was legit, he had a chariot rigged up to his freakin' motor bike and though we had no "plan" except see the world-renown temple ruins, Ruin showed us the city including his home and a school he worked at. Although we enjoyed sweating through every pair of our clothes seeing temples from Ankor Waat to temples with gigantic trees blasting through the temple's foundations (hands down the hottest place on earth I've ever been), we rode the bumps back to Phnom Penh and saw some genocide grounds which will bring a heavy day to anyone. Basically the genocide that occurred all over Asia (thanks to the Japanese) is very underground and masked by the Holocaust but millions of people were murdered in every way imaginable. Read it up, but it's heavy stuff. So once back in Viet, we feasted on some "Bang me nows" (inside joke but hilarious), their these French baguettes stuffed with awesome sauce and meat and veggies. Hands down fantastic for a dollar. Then spring rolls, pho (pronounced "fu" as in "fun" or another word), and we even had some dog meat (tastes pretty normal...oh well). Vietnam houses the best skies I've ever seen in my life (perhaps Colorado competes) but seriously, the country is gorgeous.

We visited Dalat (where the picture is), a very touristy place, but it was a mountain get away from the heat where we did everything from seeing the Vietnam-renown "Valley-of-Love" to repel down waterfalls to dress up like traditional Viet. Kings and Queens. Hilarious, thanks to Vy.

We finished the trip with a handful of days in Central Viet where Vy's aunt lives and we enjoyed just local life. There's an old town portiona with a river running through it where they hold a traditional night. Everybody goes out and the city shuts electricity off so we could only see fire lit lanterns floating on the river as we slid through the water on our personal wooden longboat. It was surreal and quite membrable. We wrapped the trip up with a 12-hour train down to Ho Chi Minh but laying down was quite more enjoyable than a seat, though still in my opinion, a little janky (I have had to teach that word to quite a number of people here, very enjoyable.)

Conclusion: Vietnam is quite a nature get away and get ready for some ballin' food, it's up there with Thai food and, for me, that's something. Hope you like that shout out Vy. Peace!

It's "Time"

If there ever was an epic fail of a blog, this is it, so please accept my humble apologies. I've only recently downloaded some software to bybass the Chinese-censoring-creeps out here. However, with only 2 weeks left on this crazy continent, I'll try to fill you in on the past summer events, process some ideas for melding back into American culture (yikes), and hopefully make you smile in the process. And of course, I'll try to put as much eye-candy as possibe on this so called blog.
So here's to entry one: It's time to come home! Seriously. I've enjoyed my 7 months here, but on July 30th, I'll gladly walk on that 15 hour flight home! The kid in the picture was on our Vietnamese tour (which was ballin') but the kid was definitely the definition of cute and was quite a poser for our cameras. He's got some great expressions that sum up my travels over here:

Absolutely bangin', crazy delicious, extremely fun, gorgeous, hot, incredibly janky, kickin' lil' munchies, nasty observations, pretty queezy restrooms, stupendous trips, unreal vacations, wicked xylophones, and yappy zoos.

Seriously 2010 has been filled with everything from beginning to end and all that good stuff in the middle. But if I could rearrange the alphabet, I'd put "u" and "i" together. So look out for some posting sprees here in the near future!

On the Fly

Our hostel is in the mountains of a Vietnamese city called, Dalat. I'm sitting in basically a hall with a couple computers in it (getting charged by the hour) but it's worth catching you guys up on some of my life.

School finished on May 14th and a trio of friends, Vy/Becca/myself, left for Vietnam and Cambodia. Both of which are extremely hot. We've sweat through several sets of clothes, seen many temple ruins, eaten far too much food, and enjoyed every bit of it. Bus rides in Cambodia are not the greatest, yet smashing flies against the window and getting airborn (while sitting crosslegged) from the "paved" roads is quite enjoyable.

Language barriers are common nowadays and it's a fun part of life, and I would argue to say that it's less frustrating now (just because there really is NOTHING I can do about it!). Now in Vietnam it's cool to see the French impact (yes, bagettes and crepes are plentiful) and the architecture is quite impressive. We're in a place called Dalat and it's like perfect weather encompassed by mountains, waterfalls, and valleys with cliche names as in "The Valley of Love". Vy is a picture maniac, which is good for her cuz Becca and I are rockin' some Canon action to meet her "needs". We even dressed up as traditional queens and king (yes, it was pretty much the epitome of tourist). These are just some of the fun memories we've had in Vietnam, but we still have a week here so let the fun begin....again. =]

Love you guys. Be back in August. XP

Which Way Are We Going?

A "study slump" is the only way to describe the current times in HK. Basically, the school gives us 3 weeks to "study" for our exams (which I have three...though some have 7), so naturally, we do everything expect study. We've spent the days throwing some frisbee (and getting kicked off every field we threw it on...3 total), I got to run again, and most importantly, spend some last days with those we've come to love here (including a trip to Macau and spending far too much money on dinner events XP)
Personally, I'll miss the locals here the most, no offense to the Americans I've met. It's just different knowing that they're in another continent (even though it's really the same for my California friends). But I'll miss the different backgrounds and the different upbringings that make my local friends so fun to be around. They really know what positivity and selflessness looks like, something I've been trying to learn.
But also, I'll miss the questions they ask about not only American culture and our traditions/upbringings, but about Christianity. I've rarely been in a position where I've been asked such honest questions. They aren't taught the fun, real, powerful, unbelievable (literally) stories of the Bible, yet they probe and wonder about such things (or the opposite spectrum, and hate it). But I recently had one of my better friends ask some genuine questions that I'll never forget. We basically stayed up to 2AM going over the basics/profound-ness of Christianity. Youth group definitely paid off in those 4 hours, thanks William Savell (wow, that's formal) but seriously, it was pretty fun to have answers to the questions she had (or some, she freakin rocked me with a few...) But I just wanted put up one of my favorite questions...

Do angels cook in heaven?

Answer: I really hope so, cuz I'm sure it'd be great! (kidding...but seriously).

Philippines.fin..avi

I want to focus on modes of transportation here. We rode at least 8 different types of machines that transport you from point A to point B (or in some instances, C and D). However, even with so many modes of transport, they all had the common variable of limited space and becoming quite personal with local strangers. The tricycle was definitely one of the more unique makeshift machines, while the Jeepie (it's an elongated bus with 2 benches in the back for passengers) was straight from the land of hippies. Straddling Jason, who himself was stradling the driver was another "fun" experience, while the plane ride home with screaming babies was appreciated as well. Only when we rented our motorbikes did we enjoy the comfort of space and freedom from hot sweaty Philippinos, a day I'll always remember. It reminds me of how nice it is to not have a car....unless you're at Samford. ><>

Like No Where Else

I overloaded the other Philippines post with info, so here's some eye-candy:

Video 218.MP4

Late post. Riding elephants. Easy as Jason makes it look.

Philippines

I think they should change the name of this series of 7000 islands to "Absolute Vacation". This place is ridiculous. We arrived in Cebu City at 4:30AM (cheapest flight) and jumped in a cab with Welly. Super sketchy guy, who offered us a number of girls (just talking about it, not actually doing it...don't freak out Grandma ;) and we arrived at the pier at about 5am, in time for sunrise on the harbour.

Our boat to Tagbilaran wasn't bad, and we were immediately harrassed for taxi services to the super touristy places like the chocolate hills, tarsier zoos (smallest monkey in the world...very pitiful actually), and this floating restaurant. We met some honeymooners, family vacationers, and just about everybody was Philippino. This island is a very big vacation place for the Philppinos, so that was weird/cool/interesting. Stayed in "Nuts Huts" in the jungle and it was very nice, good food (Spaghetti..haven't had that in 4 months).

Our next destination was the beach, which was beyond beautiful. I take that back, this whole trip's enjoyment level is like an airplane. We got there and the enjoyment was pretty low (airplane''s still on the ground) but as we kept going, this place got better and better, similar to the airplane going higher and higher (awful analogy, but go with it. Ask Maddie for some good metaphors, she's full of them ;) But seriously, the beach changed. At first it was high high tide, so very little beach. The next day, TONS of beach, and ultra awesome sand/water.
We took a day trip to see some dolphins and go snorkelling. I've never seen an ocean dropoff into a black/blue abyss so that was incredible to see, not to mention the ungodly amounts of fish we saw: small to big, colored to plain. But all fish like bread, which we held in our hands and they swarmed all around us! Had some seafood and we went off to our favorite place of all: Virigin Island.

Seriously, beautiful. No one lives on it, cuz it's a sandbar shaped like a crescent moon. Very small. We walked to the other side, after picking up some sea urchin (tastes like phlegm) and then we arrived at paradise. This place was like a square mile of pure white sand, sprinkled with starfish. Then the purest water was about ankle depth all over the sad, so it was a field of water, sand, and just beauty. Amazing. It's the second best nature thing I've seen in Asia (Tiger Leaping Gorge being first).

Then on our last day we rented motor bikes (manual) for about 4 dollars. Incredibly fun, we learned first of all to ride, then we tore around the island. Sunglasses, V-neck, and open road on a bike is definitely going into my long term memory.