Nucha's Chinese Food Recipes

Seaweed and Shitake soup

Ingredients:


100 gm. Chicken breast (cut to very small pieces)
1  Big Onions, cut to quarters
1/2 cup Fresh Shitake, cut to strips
1/2 cup Straw and/or Oyster Mushroom
1/2 cup Seaweed strips
2 tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
Some Salt, Pepper, and Sugar (to taste)
3/4 litre  Water


Instructions:


Put water in a soup pot. Add chicken and onion. Bring to 
boil. 

When the chicken is cooked and tender, add mushrooms (not 
shitake yet) and soy sauce. Continue simmering in medium
heat for 10 minutes.

Add shitake. Simmer for a few minutes. Add seaweed. Stir.
Turn off heat. Add salt, pepper and sugar if needed. Leave 
to simmer for 5-10 more minutes.


Serve as soup (cook it lighter), or with rice (could be 
more salty).


For vegetarians, omit chicken and add more straw mushrooms.


Note: If you cannot find fresh shitake, you can use dried
shitake instead. Before cooking, soak it in water for 30
minutes. Then squeeze the water out, remove stems, and
cut the umbrella part to strips. Now it's ready to cook.

 

Fake Shark Fin's Soup

Okay, shark is endangered. Don't eat shark. We can 
substitute the shark fin with glass noodle.


Here're the ingredients... for ONE.

1 small pack of glass noodle
2 cup chicken or pork broth
1/2 cup oyster mushrooms
1/4 cup shitake mushrooms without stems 
(if dried, soak them in water for 20 minutes)
1 teaspoon black soy sauce (Chinese)
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon seasoning sauce
Some white pepper
2 tablespoon corn starch in 1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon coriander leaves, cut to smaller peices
Some water
Some crab meat (optional)


And here's how...


Put broth to boil. Add noodle, mushrooms and sauces. Bring
to boil. 

When boil, put to low heat and slowly add in the corn
starch in water. Keep stirring. Until it look like what 
you've had in a restaurant. If too thick, add water.

Pour into bowl. Top with crab meat, coriander leaves and 
pepper. Ready to serve.

 

Prawn Fruit Salad

(Um.. not sure if it is Chinese food but I got to eat it first tie in a Chinese Restaurant.)

Ingredients:

400 gm. small prawns or large shrimp
1 apple, diced to bite size
1 cup melon, scooped to bite size
6 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons skimmed milk
4 cups frying oil

For marinade

1 tablespoon white wine
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 egg (white? How's it called? The part which is not yolk)
1/2 teaspoon spring onion, chopped
1 teaspoon ginger, chopped
1 tablespoon corn starch


Instruction:

1. Peel the prawns, also remove the tails and de-vein. Mix
them with salt and wash in cold water. Drain. Set aside.

2. Marinate in the mixture of marinade ingredients for 15
minutes. Put mixture in refrigerator.

3. Prepare apple and melon. Set aside.

4. Mix milk and mayonnaise. Set aside.

5. Heat oil in pan. 

6. One by one, dip the marinated prawn in corn starch, and
fry until golden brown. Not to golden, just yellow :-)

7. Mix hot fried shrimp with salad mix in 4.

8. Mix in fruits. Serve on plate decorated with red apple or
strawberries.

 

Sweet and Sour shrimp with fruits and vegetable


How to:

Just fry the shrimps as directed above (third recipe), and
set aside. Heat a little oil in another pan and fry some 
chopped onions. When cooked add red, green yellow bell pepper
(julienne), pineapple (diced), and tomato. You can put diced 
apples as well.

Put sweet and sour sauce, light soy sauce, and water (if too 
dry). Add corn starch (diluted in water) to thicken the 
sauce. Pour the sauce on the fried shrimps.  

The Untouchables

The Untouchables

(First published in Small World Ezine on 28 July 2003)

 

In a caste system, a person normally belongs to a caste by
birth and will be there for his/her life.

In India, caste system (varna) has been practiced since 
before time. There are 'Brahmans' (the priests/teachers), 
'Kshatriyas' (the warriors/rulers), 'Vaisayas' (the 
merchants), and 'Sudras' (the labourers). Each varna still
contains hundreds of sub-castes -- also with higher-lower 
orders.

The fifth verna, which no-one does not want to talk about, 
or count as a varna, is the 'Achuta', or 'Untouchable' in 
English. They are the people considered impure or polluted
because of the job their ancestors did -- cremating and 
burying the dead, cutting umbilical cords, removing dead 
animals from roads, sweeping gutters, cleaning latrines, 
and such. Since this thing is hereditary, the descendants 
within this caste would have to do the same things forever.
Trying to upgrade to another caste is not acceptable. 
Changing caste is impossible (and punishable).

As if this is not enough...

Discriminations arose because one day, thousands of years 
ago, somebody (of course -- from the highest varna) wrote 
a book telling how people of each varna group should behave 
-- what to eat and wear, etc. And according to them, since 
the untouchable are considered polluted, touching them or 
sharing facilities with them also pollutes you.

If you are a 'Dalit' (Untouchable), you cannot drink or use
water from the same well as others (you will be assigned to
the poorest quality one), your kids have to sit at the back 
of the classroom, and very few doctors agree to treat you
even though you have the money. 

The jobs you can do are only the ones assigned to your 
caste. Or you will have to serve only your 'people'. There 
are also a few scholarship and school/university quota 
spaces for the Dalits. But it is not easy to get one. In 
1981 mobs rioted for 78 days in one province only because a 
high-caste student was denied entry to a medical school to 
make space for an Untouchable... Oh this is however, much 
better than the time before WWII -- when an Untouchable 
would be punished if his shadow touched the shadow of 
somebody in a higher caste.

On August 6, 2001, in the north Indian state of Uttar 
Pradesh, an upper-caste Brahmin boy and a lower-caste girl 
were dragged to the roof of a house and publicly hanged by 
members of their own families as hundreds of spectators 
looked on because they refused to end their inter-caste 
relationship (HRW). 

This practice against the Untouchables is now illegal in 
India. And the Indian government denies its existence. Yet,
it is still practiced by many people... and more intense
in certain areas. According to National Geographic's Tom 
O'Neil -- in his article 'Untouchable' -- " During the 
winter I spent in India, hardly a day passed that I didn't 
hear or read of acid thrown in a boy's face, or a wife 
raped in front of her husband, or some other act whose 
provocation was simply that an Untouchable didn't know his
or her place." (NGM, June 2003)

Not only the law has not been well-enforced, but the 
government itself often shows the prejudices... During the 
2001's big earthquake in Gujarat, the Untouchables were 
also given worse shelters and facilities than the 
upper-castes.

If you are a Dalit, you will look and dress like others, but 
somehow you cannot hide where you are from. People (who 
practice this) won't feel comfortable making any contact 
with you if they don't know you family background. 

Nowadays... Thanks to globalisation and the International
Human Rights Treaties -- Untouchables received better 
education. There are Untouchable's representative in India's 
Parliament. There are Untouchable doctors -- M.D. and Ph.D. 
There are Untouchable journalists, teachers, etc. People in
the world have heard more about them. And one day we hope
the practice will vanish. Caste system is not bad if it 
does not come with discrimination.

References:

Human Rights Watch on Untouchables

National Geographic Magazine, June 2003 -- Read about it...
http://nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0306

Oh do you know that this caste system also exist in Japan?
Similarly, this is a group of people called 'Burakumin', 
whose ancestors used to do jobs others considered dirty
(such as cleaning the toilet and sewer system) centuries 
ago. They are also considered polluted and dirty. If you
are a Burakumin, you cannot apply for a job in companies
(most of them hire private investigators only to check the
family background of applicants). If you attempted to cover
your background and get a better job or marry someone, you
will be socially condemned and divorced or fired. Thus, 
Burakumins live in poverty, less education and hope.

One of my friends who used to live in Japan told me that
there was no privacy there. Anyone can retrieve you family
backgrounds or find out where you live easily. Authorities
give your information to anyone who ask for it. Local police
knows who else lives in your household... You will be safe 
but not privacy-protected. If you have been to Japan, you
won't believe this exists as everyone acts as if it didn't.

 

More:


Not only in these two countries, caste system also exists 
in many places in the world... Asia, Middle-East, Africa...
With the research I have found too many of them that I did 
not know how and where to start. So I just write about the 
two groups I know best about.

Let us teach our children about equality and how we should 
treat others right. Caste system is not too bad if the 
people from different classes are treated equally. I think
the original purpose of this system might be just to 
classify people or assign them to their responsibilities to
the society. But through time, priests and preachers put out
more and more rules until it turned out this way...


If you want to take action, Check these sites...

Human Rights Watch
http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/caste/index.htm

International Movement Against All Forms of 
Discrimination and Racism (IMADR)
http://www.imadr.org/tokyo/ishikawareport.html

The Rice Terrace of Banaue

(first Published in Small World Ezine on May 28, 2002)

 

 

Actually Rice Terrace is common in South and South East Asia. What's so exciting about the Rice Terrace of Banaue? 

The Banaue rice terraces in the Central Cordillera of Luzon Island in the Philippines are probably  the longest continuous project in human history. Construction began perhaps 3,000 years ag and is still going on. Banaue (pronounced "Ba-Na-We") is a small community inhabited in the Central  Cordillera. The entire mountain range has been home to different hill tribes, including the Ifagao, the largest and most well-known.

Besides being known for their military success against the Spanish troops during over 300 years of Spanish colonial rule, and their ruthless practice of head-hunting, the Ifugaos are famous for their agricultural prowess -- the product of which -- stairs of rice fields that cover an area of over 3,000 cubic kilometers at 1,500-3,000 meters above  sea level. It is said that, stretched out to the length of  an incredible 23,000 kilometers, the rice terraces is equivalent to half the distance around the earth, or ten times the length of the Great Wall of China.

The rice terraces were declared one of the "World Heritage"  By UNESCO in 1996. Archeologists believe these are the  world's first rice terraces before Indonesians, Chinese, or Japanese had developed the similar (but much smaller)  terraces of their own.

It is incredible that the Ifugao, the ancient hill tribe without their own writing script, have developed these skills of cutting and carving the whole mountain with their hands and prime-aged tools until they had beaten the challenges of the nature. Even several earthquakes during the 3,000 years of history could do no harm to the so-called  "Stairways of Heavens". 

What made this "Wonder" special is, unlike the World's other Wonders, the Rice Terraces of Banaue have never been  constructed by slave labour. These are hard-working,  freedom-loving people with faith in nature.


Though Spaniards failed to conquer the land, the Ifugaos have been converted to Christianity by American missionaries.  In spite of being Catholics, they still worship the same  spirits and ghost as their ancestors did. "Manomnoman", the  old priest of the village will schedule the exact date of  when to start the activities e.g. ploughing, harvesting,  building up the terraces according to the ancient calendar.

According to the 1995 statistics, there were 150,000 ifugoas in the Ifugao province with birth rate of 2.23%. But the number is rapidly reducing because new generations are  selling their ancestors' lands and moving down to the city  for a better (or more comfortable) life. Unable to migrate, elders put on their big ceremonious costumes on a daily  basis in order to take pictures with tourists for some extra  cash. 

We cannot blame them for not continuing the works, can we?  Growing rice in a lower land is already a hard work. Who would want to work the terraces on a mountain if there is no  sufficient return? It's probably selfish of us to just want them to keep taking care of the rice terraces only for us to  have something nice to see, or only for them to just  maintain the 3,000-year-old world's heritage... 

Just hoping we can do something about it.

 

How To Get There:

 

From Manila, just take a domestic flight or a coach from the bus Northern terminal (Cubao) to Baguiao (which is also another tourist spot of the Philippines). From Baguio you can take another bus (or Jeepney -- the local public transporter) to Banaue. It takes 8-9 hours to Baguiao (45
minutes flight), and 3-4 hours from Baguio to Banaue. Actually it's not that far, just mountainous. Prepare Dramamine if you tend to get sick on mountainous roads. Oh  and it's like 1,500-3,000 meters above sea level. Not for  you if you have problem breathing.

Though it is HHHHOOOOOTTTTT in Manila and other cities in the Phlippines (like 35 degree C up), the weather is colder  up there. Bring thicker jacket. 

Arirang

(This article was first published in Small World Ezine on 25 June 2002)

South Korea, miraculously, has come to the semi-final round
of 2002 World Cup! They are going to meet with my favorite
German national team today. I am having problem taking side
now... my favorite German, or my fellow little guy Korean.

Whichever team I am cheering, this is the best time for us 
to talk about South Korea, the culture, the people, and of
course... places to visit.

When the economy bloomed, I used to go there... like... I 
don't know how many times in a month, but in all those trips 
I had never spend a minute outside the shopping streets of 
Seoul!

Anyway, the first thing I thought of when I decided to write
about South Korea was not "Where else to go?" but "What does
Arirang mean?"

It is not easy to define the "meaning" or "Arirang". Let's 
start with an old legend...

Once upon a time, there were a man named "Rirang" and a girl
named "Songbu". They were servants of a landlord in a 
village in a mountain.

After a year of heavy drought, the village encountered 
shortage of rice. Farmers were having hard time getting food,
but the landlord had no mercy. He still forced them to paying
the rental/taxes. Finally when there's no more money, the 
landlord took the last of the seeds the farmers had. Farmers
decided to fight back. But the landlord sent the troops and 
they killed all farmers who took part in the rebellion.

Rirang and Songbu, who had also joined the rebel, managed to
escape from the massacre. Rirang decided to take revenge by 
joining farmers everywhere fighting against feudal officials 
and landlord's exploitations. At this time, Songbu so sad 
parting with her husband, started singing a song named 
"Arirang".

Arirang is a melody which name derives from its letters' 
meaning---parting from my dear husband and has another 
parlance---from Songbu's husband's name. Later it had become, 
as stated in arirangtv.com -- "a great significance to 
Koreans...

If you happen to travel in Korea, you'll be amazed at how 
many different types of shops use the name Arirang. The word 
Arirang cannot be defined exact to the point, but to this 
day, Arirang evokes in many Koreans a powerful reaction. They 
say it resonates with a message, suiting their Confucianist 
sensibility. Namely, that a hard life ultimately leads to 
good... For this reason, Koreans overseas find in Arirang a 
source of hope and common comfort, uniting Koreans (wherever 
they may be)." 

Well... We still don't know what it means, do we?

 (North Korea Flag)

The country of South Korea is located on the southern part of 
Korean Peninsula (with North Korea on the Northern part). See 
the map and facts/statistics Here 

It was said that, some 3,000 years ago, Altic peoples (from
The Altai Mountain) migrated south into the Korean peninsula 
and integrated with the indigenous population. These Altic 
people were responsible for bringing Bronze Age culture to 
the peninsula, and the rise of Korea's ancient kingdoms began 
shortly thereafter. 

The Japanese invasion of the peninsula in 1910 ended the 
Dynasty. Korea remained under Japanese colonial rule for 36 
years until the end of World War II. On August 15, 1945, 
Japan surrendered to the Allies and withdrew from the Korean 
peninsula. Since then, the Korean peninsula has been divided 
into two: democratic South Korea and communist North Korea. 
The Korean War began on June 25, 1950, when North Korea 
invaded South Korea. An armistice agreement was signed 3 
years later, in 1953. 

Koreans are known as one of the hardest-working people in the 
world. The Korean people struggled successfully for millennia 
to maintain their cultural and political identity despite the 
influence of several invasion in the old time. They are a 
proud people with one of the longest national history in the 
world. 

More:

Where to go:

Changdok Palace (no.1 must) had been a royal residence until 
1910, Chongmyo was the Royal Ancestral Tablet House, 
Chogye-sa (also must) is the chief temple of Korean Buddhism 
and one of the largest Buddhist temples in Seoul, and 
Kuonghoe-ru are the royal tombs of the last 2 Yi Dynasty 
Rulers. Nature-lovers can enjoy the gardens, mountains, 
lakes, and beautiful beaches too.

From now to July 1st (government declared 'World Cup' public 
holiday), the traffic to South Korea must be heavy (though
the final match is held in Japan), but after that it's still
a nice time to visit. Still summer. 

To get around:

In big cities like Seoul or Pusan, taxis are most convenient. 
If you'd like to try... the underground tubes are fastest, 
but the most crowded also. Watch your wallet. And don't 
travel within rush hours.

Ebook:  Korea Versus Korea 

Polyandry in the Himalayas

Polyandry

(First published in Small World Ezine on 27 May 2002)

 

Polyandry is a form of marriage in which a woman has more 
than one husband at the same time. 

The Encyclopedia Britanica (1972) has stated criteria in 
identifying a polyandry society as followings. 

1. Children recognize more than one man as having the status 
of father, 
2. A woman bears legitimate children to several different 
fathers in succession, 
3. A legitimately married woman regularly cohabits with 
several men, none of whom rate as father to her children, and 
4. A single legitimate husband allows other man for sexual 
access to his wife 

In most countries, polyandry is illegal. However, Two 
principal forms of polyandry exist today. Among the Nair 
people, who inhabit India's Malabar Coast, where a woman may 
marry several men of equal or superior rank; and in areas of 
the Himalayas where a woman may marry the eldest brother of 
a family and then also take his brothers as mates.

While the Nair's Polyandry seems to be rooted from religious
belief, the Himalayan's Polyandry is more interesting because
all brothers in a family will be having the same wife!

I believe this was at least originally from a rational 
explanation. Socio-economists say this tradition/behavior 
occurs when resources/land are scarce and/or difficult to 
work with, so there is a need for brothers to stick together. 
According to socio-economic point of view, through this 
cultural complex, division of labour is being channelized, 
social security to woman and children is being systematized 
and the unity of people and property of a family also 
remained secured. Birth rate is pretty low as well.

It can be a good solution IF girls can make her choice 
whether to accept the next brother or not. But in some 
tribes, girls do not have such privilege. 

Nowadays, with the development interventions and modern 
education, the practice is rapidly losing ground to the 
monogamist. Polyandry, as a cultural institution is still 
found in various pockets in Indian Himalayas i.e., Ladakh, 
Lahaul & Spiti, Kangra, Sirmaur in Western Himalaya, Jaunsar 
Bawar in Central Himalaya and Siyang district in Eastern 
Himalaya. 

More:

Isn't it difficult to be a woman? 

In places that men are allowed to have more than one wives,
we said that's bad for girls. Now we are talking about places 
women are allowed to have more than one husbands. But we 
still think it's bad for girls.

In China, men will have to beg the girls parents to allow
her to be his bride. And we say this makes girls secondary
gender. In India, it's the girls and their families who have 
to ask for men to become her groom. Yet, female is considered
secondary!

I don't think it's the culture or religion that have been 
taking advantages on women. The communities where men are 
allowed to have more than one wives were probably countries 
in war (where there were few men, and it was dangerous for 
women to live by themselves) or places where resouces were 
scarce. They probably did not really prohibit women to work, 
but originally said it's the men's responsibility. Later 
generations just interpreted it the way they wanted it to be. 

 

In this case, Polyandry was just naturally formed in the 
area it suited. Nothing deviled or sexist in it. It's not 
even a group-rape as regarded in some books. But now, 
centuries after, some religious or village leaders could 
have made it so just to serve their perversive needs.

 

The Temple of Abu Simbel

(first Published in Small World Ezine on May 14, 2002)

 

Abu Simbel is a set of two temples near the border of Egypt and Sudan. It was constructed (rock-carved) for the pharaoh Ramesses II who reigned for 67 years during the 13th century BC (19th Dynasty). the temples were unknown until their rediscovery by J. L. Burckhardt of Great Britain in 1813 (they were deeply buried in the sand by then), and first explored in 1817 by the Egyptologist Giovanni B. Belzoni. 

If you want figures (I really hate them)... Abu Simbel is located 282 km (175 miles) south of Aswan, Egypt, on the west bank of the river Nile. The two rock-hewn temples consist of four colossal statues of Ramesses (Ramses in some books), measuring about 20 m (65 ft.) high as the facade of the larger temple; and other four 10-m high (33 ft.) of his statues of and two of his principal queen's -- Nefertari as the facade of the smaller temple. Some sources say the statues are of Ramesses's, Nefertari, and some gods and goddesses of ancient Egypt. 

The inner walls of the larger temple bear painted reliefs of the king in some religious ceremonies and fightings. The most amazing thing is, at the end of the hall (55 m. or 180 ft. from entrance), there are statues of the gods Ptah, Amon-re, Re-Karakhti, and King Ramesses II himself. on which the direct rays of the SUn shine at sunrise only twice a year -- on February 20th, and October 20th. But those are not what made the place the second most visited site of Egypt (after the pyramids). In the 60s, the Government of Egypt decided to construct Aswan dam on the Nile. As a result, the water of the Nile will be reserved for agricultural and electrical generation purposes in an artificial lake -- Lake Nasser. The problem is here... The temples of Abu Simbel are located just where the proposed Lake Nasser will be! Between 1964 and 1966, a project sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Egyptian government disassembled both temples and reconstructed them on top of the cliff 200 feet above the original site. The project was finished in 1968 at a cost of $40 million. The two temples were dismantled and raised over 60 meters up the sandstone cliff where they had been built more than 3,000 years before. Here they were reassembled, in the exact same relationship to each other and the sun, and covered with an artificial mountain. Most of the joins in the stone have now been filled by antiquity experts, but inside the temples it is still possible to see where the blocks were cut. You can also go inside the man made dome and see an exhibition of photographs showing the different stages of the massive removal project. It is, until date, the largest rescue ever done to an endangered historical site.

More:

It is too late to see the miracle light of October, but you can plan ahead for February 20th. 

You can get to Abu Simbel by air, bus, or boat. The nearest big city is Aswan, so we recommend you visit the Aswan High Dam and the ancient sites nearby and stay the night there to take an early morning bus (about 5am) to Abu Simbel. It's worth getting up that early. With this bus, you'll arrive at Abu Simbel at around 7am. The view of the four statues in the morning sunlight will make you forget about the sleepless night. You can spend the day there and take the afternoon bus back to Aswan.

To take a boat, it'll be a three-day trip. But then you'll experience one of a romantic cruise in the Nile. Not a bad idea, if you have time.

Only one thing you have to be careful is -- somehow the terrorists of Egypt like to attack tourists to make a statement! Tourism is probably the big income of the government, so it remains almost the only target. However, 

there was no attack for a while. Let's just go, but be alert and careful. Don't go somewhere unnecessary such as casinos  or bars. Egypt is a one-in-a-life-time destination for travellers. Don't miss it.