Cabbage for PR

Well, as I roll through my photos from Taiwan I came across one I took for PR.
I know you love cabbage. So, here you go. A cabbage farm I saw in Xin She. Just for you, my friend.

Cold weather??? Hot Buttered Rum!!!

Well, this is my second attempt at this post. I lost the first one to my switch to the NEW blogger.
So, let's see if I can recapture the emotion.
If you are not in So. California , let me fill you in.
It's windy here. Really windy. I thought I would go down to the closest bevmo.com location and check the beer selection. I saw some Boddington's and smiled. "Hey there old friend, long time no sip", I said. But, then I saw Boddington's neighbor, Bass Pub Ale and my eye wandered. "You, doing anything tonight. I am not really with Boddington tonight", I wispered. I put Bass into my cart and headed toward the door. But, just then, I saw my old mistress from the Orient, Harbin. Yes, after more than a decade, out of nowhere, she just appeared. Harbin had not touched my lips since 1994 in China. My friend PR and I were travelling in China. It was at a now forgoten eatery on a small row in a working area of an industrial town.
Here she was. She whispered to me: 嘿， 先生， 你看起来很面熟。 你想跟我喝一杯 吗 ？
Oh... That old temptress.
Well, that was all it took.. I decided right there that I was dumping Bass and taking Hharbin for a ride.
Nothing is a sure thing. And opportunities come when you least expect it.
Suddenly, I saw a fling I had in Oregon. HOT BUTTERED RUM!!! Nothing is like Hot Buttered Rum. Oh... When it is cold and you want to feel warm inside.. Nothing is like HOT BUTTERED RUM. I dumped Harbin faster than you can say " 对不起 ". I was already hopping into that tub of HBR mix in my mind. I got home and heated a fine mug. Added 2 spoons of HBR mix and some piping hot water and an ounce or so of rum. Oooohhhh... That wafting aroma hit my nose like cheap perfume mixed with the sweat of a young woman in a dance club when she sits down to talk after a long set. This was going to be good. And when she hit my lips, I was not disappointed. She warmed me to the core.
Cold weather??? No problem. I am spending the night with Hot Buttered Rum.

Cooking for family... OR... something different for everyone.

Well.. My sister Judy and her husband came over for dinner tonight. I like hanging out with Judy a lot. I felt like cooking dinner for everyone. The problem was that no one could agree on anything. I did not want to eat any meat as I had fish and pultry 2 days in a row. That's a lot for me now.. Judy was on board with veggies but likes her food very plain. Her husband Brian won't eat vegetarian unless he is tied up or you trick him. My Dad was in the mood for fish... So... I was off to Trader Joe's.
Here's what I made (sorry, forgot to take photos).
Judy and I got steamed brown rice, sauteed carrots and yellow squash in olive oil with a little salt. Stir fried Kale and other greens （青炒) and yellow cord (I tried roasting one piece in my little toaster oven for fun.. It was pretty good.
Also, I made myself a curry bean stew.
For Dad, fish and chips. But, I supstituted hash browns for the chips.
Brian got chicken taqitos with cheese, guacamole and salsa.
How's that for a family dinner? My mom was too sick to eat or I may have
tried to recreate the wonderful sesame tuna steaks I made a couple days ago. I used a sauce I brought back from Taiwan called 生菜涼麵醬 made by 綠主張 brand. I added some soy sauce, garlic and a little wine. Then broiled them to perfection (well, I over cooked them just a tad). I am also enjoying the 麻油辣椒醬 my auntie gave me to bring home. MMMmmmmmmm.....

Taiwan Food: Deep Fried Egg Tofu 炸蛋豆腐

興利小吃
無骨雞 。 炸蛋豆腐
台中縣新社鄉中興村中興嶺71-1號

Well, I was here once before and loved this place. So, Mom decided to take me on the day I left. Xin She is right in the heart of mushroom country.
Of course, we had the fried egg tofu and it was great. The tofu is one of the best I have had. It was well worth the drive. It's crispy on the outside and oooohhhh so tender on the inside. While they give you a dipping sauce, I would suggest trying the tofu without the sauce first. Trust me, the flavor is delicate and ... well, it's hard to describe. 


We also had fried local grown mushrooms, a stirfried veggie I have to get the name of from Zoe and mushroom soup. Did I mention this is mushroom country? 

So we had a great meal then headed to a relatives house nearby.


On the way there we stopped at a local temple and Mom made some offerings.
They live in a farming area and neighbors grow fruit and raise chickens.
We had a ton of fruit and some pineapple cake 鳳梨酥.

 

My
relatives wanted us to try a local favorite. BBQ giant mushrooms 杏鮑菇。 
The mushrooms are done like Taiwanese BBQ corn, kind of.. And they are almost as big as corn. I was not sure of how to eat these things. So my aunt, who is only 5 years older than me, demonstrated for us.
It was a great time. I was nervous that I might miss my flight when we hit traffic on the way back. But that was just me being paranoid. We were fine. And I saw many spots on the ride home I want to visit next time.
I will skip back in time and review another restaraunt we visited earlier this coming week.
Search for this place on Google in chinese and you will find other posts.
Cheers,
Ahdoga

Taiwan Food: Ma La Ren Jia 麻辣人家

I met my friend Witty one night after he got off work for food and libations.
It was late and most of the stir fry places were closed but we saw the sign for this hot pot place and decided to try it. I know PR and Spicy Girl will weigh in on this one....

Now, I went to Chong Ching on vacation once and had the real deal.
Thankfully, this was not it. It was Taiwanese style but I say that in a good way. Usually, I don't like Taiwanese style Ma La hot pot that much (Si Chuan style spicy hot pot). But, this place was very nice.

It was not outragousely expensive either. More than you want to spend for the average meal. But not bad. With beer for Witty and soda for me and plenty of food for 2 - 3 it was about NT$600.
They had a good variety of dipping sauces, veggies, meats and tofu.
It made a great meal and a great memory. Cheers David. Next time I am out there, lets find another new diner to try.

Taiwan trip part II: Dinner with PR and gang.

I saw PR's post on this little tepanyaki joint and thought I would weigh in.


I had a great time seeing Eric, PR and Spicy Girl. Too bad my trip was not more flexible allowing me to spend more time with them.




The Chef PR and Spicy Girl chose was good. But I felt bad for the poor kid that was asked to leave the station when they requested their favorite chef. Bet he was not happy. Anyway, I thought it was a good yet common tepanyaki place. The Tofu was very good and the cabbage was good. But, it was the company that made it special for me.

I even got to meet the famous Poa Gao. My wife loves that knickname, by the way.
Anyway... I have more to report.. I will be posting on all the places I enjoyed on this trip. So stay tuned for more.

Trip to Taiwan, Part 1: The dentist.

OK.. I had to justify my trip to Taiwan in a financial way to make myself happy. So, I figured I could get my teeth fixed. They were hurting and I needed them fixed. I know the dentistry in Taiwan is good and a lot cheaper than in the states... So...

I had two root canals, 4 crowns and a cavity filled in two weeks. 5 appointments in all and 3 of them were 3 hours long. Damn is the only word I can think of to describe it. I managed to stay away from pain meds, mostly. I have to say that Dr. Liu did an outstanding job. I can now eat without pain.

We got some better photos of the work being done, but they are on Zoe's camera.

Tang Wei Zhong's Xing Yi

One more clip of my teacher and friend Tang Wei Zhong.

'Paris Syndrome' leaves Japanese tourists in shock - Travel News - MSNBC.com

OK... I had to laugh at this. Every Asian person I know who lived in Paris lost a lot of weight. Upon leaving Paris, they all gained weight really fast.



'Paris Syndrome' leaves Japanese tourists in shock - Travel News - MSNBC.com

My teacher at a demo....

My friend and teacher, Tang Wei Zhong doing a demo earlier this year.




Master Tang is from Shang Hai, China and is a former member of the Shang Hai Worker's Traditional Martial Arts Team. He was on the team with people such as Master Wen Mei Yu who was recently honored at the 6th annual Martial Arts History Museum Ceremony.
I will try to upload a clip soon of Master Tang performing Luo Han Chuan,which he does very well.
Cheers,
ADG.

Vegan Plate.

Went to the Vegan Plate restaurant in Studio City tonight. It turned out to be great.
Thai style vegan food with a smattering of western dishes mixed into the menu.
Parking is a pain. Have to park around the corner or valet. But it's worth the trouble and the price. A little high for lunch. But not too bad for a nice dinner.
Yum is all I have to say.

Native Foods Restaurants: Menus

If ever a restaurant defined Los Angeles, this is it.
Check out their menu.. If you are vegan, or just curious, this is a good read. I am going to try it soon.
Waaaaaaaa

Native Foods Restaurants: Menus

Nick's documentary "Kali Means to Scrape"

My friend Nick finally releasaed his documentary on Kali. I have seen it and it is very well done. Check it out.





"Kali Means to Scrape" is available. 2 years of work went into this project. AFI graduate, Nick "Pappydog" Papadakis went to the Philippines to document this art called Kali. With the help of Canadian filmmaker Ron Gabriel, they were able to capture the atmosphere of the art and the culture. Nick travelled to the Barrios and Jungles of Negros Occidental and met the masters of the art. He was also able to compile several stories of real life confrontations using the art. The music in the piece is all original music gathered bu our Music Supervisor Phillip "Fish" Fisher, drummer extraordinaire, of Fishbone and Justin Timberlake fame. Along with Helios Jive, Deploi and many others. The music spans from traditional guitar pieces, To Hip Hop, to Jazz, Classical to Trip Hop


Kombat Instruments, Ltd.

Check out Zoe's Jiu Jitsu. Jack gets hog tied.

Big George.

I am not fond of this music.. But, I love Big George.
Enjoy.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6045286431650106346

Eastern Europe part deux

OK.. I am back for the second round of posting photos from my trip to eastern Europe. First, I need a beer. All this posting can work up a thirst, you know?
This beer was a Czeck beer called Budwiser.. Yep, they got sued and have to call it Budwar for sale outside Czeck Rep. It's better that the US Bud, but that's not saying a lot.
I another beer in Prague that was really good. Called Krusti??? Can't remember.. Should have stopped earlier, I guess.
Vienna had great beer.. Had one called Hilfer in Vienna that was great. Also, I had a hemp beer.. Will post on that later.

The subways in Prague were interesting. You have to go down these very steep, very long escalators. They move really fast and I was worried for the seniors who often had to stop just before getting on the thing and judge when to leap on...


In Prague, the most reasonable food and drink was at the local bakery/pastry shop. It was quite nice actually. The sandwiches were great and the pastries quite nice. Well, the apple strudel was not very good after Vienna. But, the rest of it was really good. Coffee was good too.





We wanted to get out of Prague, so we got on the train to see the Fairy Tale Castle at Karl?tejn. The town was very quaint. Beautiful river as we left the train station and headed to the little town where we found this imagination inspiring castle.



Now, I also saw this truly awe inspiring and imagination inspiring porn shop just across the street from a Vodka vendor. So, a shot of vodka later, Zoe let me know what she would do with the swords for sale in this other shop if I went into the porn shop... Oh well.














I settled for having my photo taken with this incredible owl. Feeling the power in it's talons I understood immediately why they use leather gloves.. Amazing.

Eastern Europe !!!

Well, big trip for me. It's been a long time since I travelled much.
But, I am back now.
I met Zoe in Paris before flying out to Vienna to start our big vacation.
Her host mother Michelline made dinner for us and some friends before we left. It was a great time.
I still don't believe Michelline's over 60. She is a very active and vibrant lady. Most of her friends are in their 40's, I think. Maybe due to her personality. Cool lady.

Being a veg-head, Zoe looked up veggie digs in most of the places we planned on seeing. In

Vienna, we hit the Bio-Bar and have good things to report. The food at this joint is very good. I was surprised. Also, they had some really good bio (organic) beers. My favorite was called Hilfer. But they had a Hemp beer that was very interesting. Made me hungry for some reason.

The Bio-Bar is located in the Stephanplatz area. It's right next to the Judenplatz museum. So look that up and you will find the Bio-Bar.












The architecture in Vienna (Wien) was clean and powerful. We both loved this city. There are some areas which are better than others. But, overall the city is very nice. The prices are about the same as Prague. However, the food and accomodations are light years better. The old town area and tourist areas are almost spotless. None of the graffiti we saw in other countries.






This is one of the museum areas. Around the corner was the treasury museum which was very nice. We saw a butterfly exhibit, like an atrium of sorts. I wanted to go in until I saw the price. I am such a cheap bastard. 5 Euro turuned me away.

We paid for the treasury museum though. I am glad we did. It was worth it. A lot more to see than I thought.



This is the smaller of the two Jewish museums in Vienna. It's right next to the Bio Bar restaraunt between the Stephanplats and Swedenplatz subway stations. The other Jewish museum is bigger. But, this one is located in a really cool area.

There is an interesting monument outside the Judenplatz museum to all the people who died in concentration camps.



The shopping and tourist areas like Marketplatz and such had many musicians playing for the crowd. There were some with accordians and some with guitars. Still others were four piece brass jazz groups and even the string quartet pictured to the left.




As I said, the architecture in Vienna is stunning.




This is the church at Stephanplatz. I shot this from many angles. But, this is the only one I have with the horsies in it... Yeah..

We got to Prague and started wandering around. We stopped for Gelato and looked up to see the building. It turned out to be the new Synagogue. We were in the Jewish area. It was a small Jewish area and some of the English speaking guides had a very whacked explaination of what Jews were like. Oh well. Anyway, it was a beautiful building.




This was the oldest of the buildings I saw. It was the original meeting hall and bordered the old Jewish cemetary.
I found the architecture quite nice.









Zoe (the boss) at the river bank in Prague.
Did I mention Prague was surprisingly expensive for the region?




The old town was a nice area to stay. Very touristy but less expensive than other areas. Still, we got soaked. Around US$70 for a double in a hostel with a single shared bathroom for the entire floor. It was not that clean, but we got some sleep. It was behind the church in the photo and to the left.



This celetial clock was quite the attraction. It kept track of time, months, daylight and even the constalations. Man, I thought is was made by Swatch. But, it did not have a stop watch or a gps.

Well, that's all for today.. I will add more pictures and comments from the trip later.

K-PAX

Well, I rented K-PAX. For some reason I decided to watch it today, July 26th.
Funny, the main character named Prot, played by Kevin Spacey, left on July 27th at 5:51AM. That's tomorrow.
Hmmm. Coincidence?
Maybe.

Ted Mann Cancer Center Presentation.

My friend Henry Fair came down from Canada to visit. He was in the audience while I gave a presentation on Qi Gong and Qi theory and it's use in illness prevention and recovery.
I followed Dr. Kenneth Conklin and that made me a bit nervous. However, the feed back on the presentation was very positive. My teacher Master Tang Wei Zhong gave a wonderful demo of Hua Tuo 5 animal qi gong and Michael Sieverts led a small group of cancer survivors in a demo of Lian Gong 18 form and Guo Lin Qi Gong. Guo Lin Qi Gong was developed by a cancer patient in China. She was able to live 20 years longer than expected and created a strong movement that allows cancer patients to be an active part of their fight against this horrible disease. Thanks to all who participated tonight. I will add some links on the Guo Lin style later.
Notice my name was not on the UCLA web advert for the event. Smart of them...

Acupuncture and Qi Gong as Complements to Cancer Care (Calendar of Events)

UCLA integrative oncologist Kenneth Conklin, MD, PhD,
will explain the usefulness of acupuncture as an adjunct
to conventional cancer treatments. Martial arts Master
Wei Zhoung Tang will discuss and demonstrate QiGong,
the ancient Chinese art for restoring health, fitness and
prolonging life.

Jul 11, 2006 07:00 pm to Jul 11, 2006 09:00 pm
Auditorium at Stein Plaza, UCLA

update

Well, just planted some new things in the garden this week. More carrots, raddishes, habanero peppers and cucumbers. The sweet potatoes look to be doing really well. We will see what happens.
Jenna (niece) was in a little play and improve thing last night. Cool. She did well for a 7 year old.
cool beens.

Mother's Day lunch at Lori's

Gabby turned into a rabbit when I pulled a carrot from my garden. Nothing like fresh from the ground veggies....

Well, we had a great Mother's day party at my sister's house.

I took the last of my Leffe beer (brought back from France)

for Marc and I just in case the wine I brought back was not too great.
Well, I was pleasently surprised that the wine was way better than I thought it would be... Everyone who tried it, loved it. I encluded a photo of the label (peeled off the bottle).

If you are not into the hard to drink wines, but want to enjoy the nectar of the glorious grape, give this a try. It's between a red and rose in color, almost like porto but not quite. the taste is very fruity and easy to drink.
Not a lot of tanin.

The cheese I brought back was powerful. Funny story about the cheese. I brought it back in my luggage, wrapped in a ziplock back and another layer of plastic around that. When I got home my clothes all reaked of that cheese smell so bad I had to wash them twice to get it out.. But well worth the trouble. Should have brought more cheese back.
Some dared not try it. For those who did.... Wow. It went great with the wine. I got some fresh bread and mixed olives from Whole Foods to go with the wine and cheese.



Others brought Spinach and Strawberry salad, Mixed greens, Tuna salad, brochetta and a couple other things. It was great. Loved that wine. I have to other bottles I brought back. Not sure when I will try them.. Be assured I will keep you informed.
Desert was my homemade cookies, sweetened with maple and full of chopped nuts and dried fruit.

Dan.