Mongolian Grills

Mongolian Grills

The idea is for each guest to help him/herself from a selection of ingredients in a bowl and stir-fry the combination all together on a hot grill.


Meat/Seafood Choices:

Pork (cut into 1"x3" strips)
Beef serloin (cut into 1"x3" strips)
Chicken breast fillet (cut into 1"x3" strips)
Fish fillet (cut into cubes)
Shrimps (peeled and deveined)
Squid rings
any kind of meatballs


Vegetable Choices:

Cabbage (cut into 1/2 inch thick slices)
Carrots (julienne strips)
Turnips (julienne strips)
Any vegetables

Bell peppers in several colours (julienne strips)

Minced spring onions
Celery stalks
Ginger
Garlic
Finger chili
Toasted ground sesame seeds


Choice of rice-noodles:

Steamed rice 
Soaked and drained glass noodle
Blanched and drained noodle or egg noodle


To serve:

Place ingredients in separate serving dishes and arrange on buffet table. Set griddle pan and grill pan (better yet a terriyaki grill) at the end of the table. Guests will fill up their bowls with their choice of vegetables, meats, rice and/or noodle and sauces and cook them all together in hot  grill pan or wok.


Did I forget about the sauces?

Sauces for the Mongolian Grill (allot 1/4 cup per person)


Chili sauce

Combine 1/3 cup chili sauce with 1 cup pork broth, 1/3 cup rice wine, and 2 tablespoons seasoning sauce (chili favour).


Teriyaki sauce

Combine 1/2 cup soy sauce (use kikoman brand)with 1-1/2 cups water, 2 tablespoons grated ginger, and 1/3 cup brown sugar.


Mongolian sauce

Combine 1/3 cup oyster sauce with 1 cup water, 1/3 cup rice wine and 3 tablespoons of seasoning sauce (chili flavour).
Mix throughly.


Satay sauce

Combine 1/3 cup peanut butter with 1 cup water and 3 tablespoons of ordinary seasoning sauce. Mix throughly.


All ingredients for the sauce can be found at your nearest Asian grocer. Or you can order online at our sponsor's link above.


Enjoy partying ;-)

Female Circumcision

(First published in Small World Ezine on 29 September 2003)

You must have already heard the good news... If not, the 
Nigerian appeal court has overturned Amina Lawal's death 
sentence last Friday. 

In March 2002, Amina Lawal was sentenced to stoning to death 
for having had a child while divorced. People all over the 
world, including our subscribers had sent messages to the 
Nigerian government protesting the sentence. Thank you all
for helping the world save another life as well as defend 
human rights :)

Read more about Amina and other human rights issues at
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/ctt.asp?u=407908&l=6839

 

More and more cases like this occur everyday in the world. 
The ones in power "claims" they are following religious 
teachings. We have been searching and could not find 
anything to support such claims. I think it's some leaders' 
discrimination (and craziness). If adultery is wrong, how 
come the guys who co-committed this sin had never been 
punished?

Same as the practise of female circumcision (FGM -- Female
Genital Mutilation)... 

I used to think that it's done by clipping the tip of the 
clitoris... but when I did the search, I have found this
shocking fact... 


FGM is being done in three forms:

- Sunna circumcision in which the tip of the clitoris 
and/or its covering (prepuce) are removed. 

- Clitoridectomy where the entire clitoris, the prepuce 
and adjacent labia are removed. 

- Infibulation (a.k.a. Pharaonic circumcision) which is a 
clitoridectomy followed by sewing up of the vulva. A small 
opening is left to allow urine and menstrual blood to pass. 
In some cultures, the woman is cut open by her husband on 
their wedding night. She may be sewn up again if her husband 
leaves on a long trip. 


This is being done in several countries in Africa. In some
countries, the practise is a tradition -- a way of life.
Something women may not like it but they'll do it to their 
own daughters anyway -- just because their grandmothers had
it, their mothers had it, and they had it.

Here's what I've found...

- 90% or more of the girls in Djibouti, Ethiopia and 
Eritrea, Sierra Leone, Somalia, and Sudan (North) have been 
mutilated. 

- over 50% of the girls in Benin, Burkina Faso, Central 
African Republic, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, Gambia, 
Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria and 
Togo have been operated on. 

- There are over 30 million mutilated women currently living 
in Nigeria, and about 24 million in Ethiopia and Eritrea. 

- Various groups estimate that from 114 to 130 million women 
worldwide have had the operation. 


Where the practise is outlawed, the girls are in even greater
danger because it would be done in a basement with household
equipment such as scissors, razor blades, or kitchen knives.
And when there are complications, parents are reluctant to
seek medical help for fear they would be convicted. This 
only leads to severe infection, keloids, and even bleeding
to death in some cases... not talking about the physical 
and emotional pain in those who survived.

The scary fact is, when these people migrate to other 
countries, they bring the tradition with them. In countries 
where locals and authorities are not aware of this 
tradition, there is no law to prevent it. When a case is
brought to attention, they don't know if they should 
consider the practise "child abuse" or "cultural
toleration".

England and several other E.U. countries were the fastest to 
take action. Yes, they have laws against FGM. Yet, these 
people still fly their daughters back to their home town to 
circumcise. Canada and U.S.A. used to grant asylum to women 
who did not want to return to their country and be forced to 
circumcised later. Clearly, prohibition by regulations is 
not going to work... U.N., WHO and several International 
non-profit organisations have been trying to educate women 
in/from these cultures about the risks and consequences of 
FGM. The problem is how many of them these organisations 
could reach, and how many of those who have been educated 
will agree that this tradition is something they should not 
support.

I agree that education will help open the eyes. At least 
those who do it because they believe...

- if a baby's head contacts the clitoris during birth,
it will die

- it is a poisonous organ, that can cause a man to sicken or 
become impotent or die if touched. 

- Bad genital odors can only be eliminated by removing the 
clitoris and labia minora. (This one is easy to prove
false, I guess)

- it's the only way to protect girls from men... reserve her
virginity, and so and so...

- it prevents cancer, makes girls more beautiful, etc...

- If FGM is not done, older men may not be able to match 
their wives' sex drive and may have to resort to illegal 
stimulating drugs (duh...).

There was a case in the U.S. that one immigrant did it to 
his 3-year-old daughter because she was too active and loved
to play outside too much! He believed it would tame her.
They do it to babies, toddlers, teenagers and pregnant 
women... If you were born with a critoris, they will 
remove it.


Fundamentalists also try to justify the tradition by linking 
it to the religion. Fact shows female circumcision was 
practiced in the region thousands of years before Islam.
Today, it's being done to girls in all religious beliefs --
Muslims, Christians, Animists, and Jews. To my knowledge, 

No-one can refer to anywhere in the teachings of any religion 

that female circumcision is mandatory.

Other argument made to this perversive act is that 
circumcision is done to prevent girls from going out and 
doing bad things... (because they won't enjoy it). Okay, are 
these girls being punished for something they 'MAY' do? How 
about cutting everyone's hands off so that people won't 

steal. Better remove their tongues too so no-one lies! 

How about preventing men from raping as well?

I think everything has its pros and cons... including being a 
virgin. But if you really need your daughters to remain ones 
until they are married, teach them well. Tell you 
something... Most of my girl friends in Thailand were still 
virgins when they're married (at about 30 years old). One of 
them had been seeing the guy for 10 years and the only such 
experience they had was a peck on the cheek on their 
engagement day (in front of the parents). It's love and 
decent teachings from our parents that prevent us from
fooling around.... you see.

More:


FGM supporters also said Western women go through plastic
surgery to enlarge their breasts so what's the deal of 
them circumcise their daughters? I was like, "duh..." 
Pamela Anderson had it done because she wanted to... after 
talking pros and cons with her doctor. And when she was not 
happy with them anymore she went to her doctor to have them 
removed (or made smaller). Nobody straps a baby girl to the 
floor for breast implant with a knife, or were there any?


More information on this matter...

One woman's story at BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1171359.stm

If you want to cry, read the story of activists in America -
"c Comes to America" 
http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/fgm/fgm.htm

Female Circumcision: Rite of Passage Or Violation of Rights?
http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/2313097.html

A Muslim scholar's summary and point of view on FGM...
http://www.minaret.org/fgm.htm

The Blue Mountain

(This article was first published in Small World Ezine on 30 April 2002)

I love to travel in autumn. It's not too hot, and the sun is not 

too strong. I love the colors of the leaves (it's boring here 

where I live because leaves are always green). And sometimes 

the cold breeze :-) 

Now it's Rainy Season down here, and Spring up there. 

How do we enjoy the fall? Yep... Down Under... Let's go to one 

of  Australia's most visited National Park... The Blue Mountains. 

Once upon a time, there was an old witchdoctor with three 
beautiful daughters. One day the daughters were playing on 
the edge of the cliff while their dad was in the valley 
hunting for food. One of the sisters, Meenhi, threw a stone 
at a little lizard, and it missed and went over the edge of 
the cliff. She had broken a cardinal law of the bush. NEVER 
throw a stone over a cliff. 

The falling stone woke up THE BUNYIP, a mythical creature of 
the bush, who angry that his sleep had been disturbed, 
lumbered toward them, making a terrible noise. The 
Witchdoctor, hearing all the fuss, ran toward his daughters 
to save them, but he was too far away, and so he pointed his 
magic bone at them and turned them into stone. The Bunyip now 
turned on the Witch Doctor, who turned himself into a 
Lyrebird and ran into a cave to escape the Bunyip dropping 
his magic bone. 

You can still see the Three Sisters Meenhi, Weemala, and 
Gunnedoo, trapped in the rock, and the Witch Doctor still 
searching for his bone scratching in the soil to this day
in the Blue Mountain National Park. They are also called
as the Three Sisters of Katoomba.

Here's how the stones look like today.

 

In the year 2000 over one million hectares of land was listed 
as the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area. The Blue 
Mountains are magnificent at this time of the year. Superb 
mountain scenery with outstanding geographical features, 
beautiful gardens, great tourist attractions and a reputation 
as a gastronomic centre make the area a favourite destination. 

The City of the Blue Mountains is located, primarily, along 
an east-west ridge between the Grose and Coxs river gorges. 
The Blue Mountains National Park is in 2 sections; one north 
and one south of the main string of towns which follow the 
Great Western Highway and railway. This is the most 
accessible park in the region. It covers dissected 
sandstone plateau, forested river valleys and deep gorges.

While there, you can rest at any of the Blue Mountain towns 
of Blackheath, Glenbrook, Katoomba and Lithgow where you can 
find any kind of hotels/hostels, restaurants, tourist 
information, trekking services, etc.


Do not miss Katoomba's Scenic Skyway. There you can take a 
a seven minute scenic ride on a cable car 350 metres across a 
deep gorge, 200 metres above the valley floor. 

Oh and the Railway at the old coalmine (it's just beside the 
cable car station). The railway was built in 1878 for mining
purpose. It's said to be the world 's steepest railway. The
facts and figures are Here.  


It's a fun ride. No seat belts. When it starts you'll be in
a kind of half-lying position, but when it's travelling down
the valley, you'll be somehow in a standing up position 
because of the 52 degrees gradient of the rail and the cliff.
 
At the bottom of the railway you can enjoy short or long 
bushwalks through a temperate rainforest area. If you buy a 
round trip ticket, do not come up too soon.

This can be a one day tour from Sydney (without hiking). But 
you need to check the weather forecast before travelling. I 
went there in June. It rained that day, and after the rain it 
was so foggy that I could not see anything from the cable car. 
It 's like we travelled into the mist. It was boring but 
became scary when some boys started to scare their fellow 
passengers for fun. The cable car went only half way and the 
operator decided to return to the station. I missed the great 
scenery of the Three Sisters from the cable car, but on the
way back in the coach, I've seen it more than enough.

 

 

More:

How to get there:

Sydney is the closest big city (90 minutes drive). From any 
of the major big cities in the world, you can fly to Sydney 
International Airport. Stay there. Sydney has lots of fun and 
interesting places to visit. 

I remember I bought the Blue Mountains Day Tour from Sydney's
Circular Quay (discounted for students, juniors and seniors). 
If you want to enjoy more of the National park and explore 
the place yourself, you can go there by a rental car (drive 
to the left side of the street), train from any major railway 
station, or coach from any large terminal (as well as 
Sydney's Circular Quay). Here're details and map.


Once you are there you can rent a mountain bike to get around
too.

Infanticide in China

Nucha's Note:  I wrote this story long time ago. It was what happened in the past until late 90's and no longer there now (or very few). I decided to keep the article so we know what used to happened and learn from it -- specially law makers -- make sure you foresee culture-related problems before implementation.

(This article was first published in Small World Ezine on 29 April 2002)

 

The story we are about to discuss is not a pleasant one.
I have been thinking since the beginning of our publication
if we should talk about it. This weekend I came to the 
decision that we should publish it. If we realize what is 
going on, we probably can help one way or another. 

 In some cultures, men are considered prime creatures, and 
families will be disappointed if their newborns are girls. 

In China, you'll be considered a bad descendant to your 
ancestors if you do not have a boy to carry the family name.
It's also a culture that when a girl is married, she'd move 
to the groom's house. That makes parents prefer boys because
the boys are supposed to take care of them when they grow 
old.
 
For hundreds of years, if poverty attacked because of floods, 
droughts, famines, locust invasions, or anything... the 
peasants in these areas, who were dependent on the land and 
the crops, did the only thing they could think of to survive 
under these conditions--they killed their female babies.
 
Since 1979, when the "One-Child Policy" was introduced by 
the Chinese government to control spiralling population 
growth (Couples are penalized by wage-cuts and reduced 
access to social services when children are born "outside 
the plan."), infanticide rates has rised dramatically. If 
they'd be allowed only one child, it had to be a boy.

If the girls were not killed, they'd be abandoned. Some 
were made crippled by their parents because, according to 
the regulations, if the first baby was disabled, the 
parents were allowed to have another baby.

This is sad that the government's planning has resulted in 
a slaughter of the innocents. 

Even nowadays, many of the girls were killed while still in 
the womb -- the victims of ultrasound technology that 
revealed the baby’s gender. Others, were starved to death 
after birth or not treated when they became ill. 

Since 1980s World Health Organization (WHO) is looking 
seriously into this problem. And the Chinese government has
allowed couples to have a second child if the first born is 
a girl. 

 

Here're the facts from a web site called the Dying Room 
(the site is no longer on line).

- Every year there are around 30 million babies born in China. 
- Many thousands, possibly even up to a million, of these new 
borns are abandoned when they turn out to be girls. 
- Many of those abandoned die of exposure. Others are picked 
up by gangs and used for begging. The lucky ones go to the 
State run Orphanages. 
- Under-funded, understaffed, the levels of care in these 
orphanages range from barely adequate to downright inhuman. 
- In some Orphanages, death rates among the babies can be as 
high as 1 in 5. 

There are more to read if you are interested in the issue:
Gendercide Study (also have cases in India)


This is an old issue, but the problem is still there. 
However, I would also stress that not ALL Chinese are doing 
this. My Chinese friend said it happens in only some parts
of the country where the people are very poor. Now that the
One-Child Policy is "relaxed", we just hope poverty does not
continue. How about this kind of cultures/beliefs? Should it 
be discontinued too? How?

More:

As a result of the 1979's "One-Child-Policy" and the killing 
of baby girls, Chinese population at the age of 20s consists 
of more men than women. It is said that to get a good girl
to marry nowadays, a man has to pay a good deal to the girl's 
family. Now parents probably like to have girls already?

Kimono

(This article was first published in Small World Ezine on 20 May 2002)

   

Though we are kind of using the term "kimono" for bath robes
(or bedroom robes), it is actually the Japanese word for 
"clothes"... Well, at least originally it was. Nowadays, the 
term is being used to refer specifically to only traditional 
Japanese clothing. 

Kimono-making technique was successfully developed in the 
Heian period (794-1192). It's the straight-line-cut method, 
which involved cutting pieces of fabric in straight lines and 
sewing them together. With this technique, kimono makers did 
not have to cut the fabric to fit the body. 

Straight-line-cut kimonos offered many advantages. They were 
easy to fold. Thus, They became suitable for all weather. In 
winter, they could be worn in layers. And in summer, people 
wore kimonos made of linen. Kimonos, therefore, become part 
of Japanese people's everyday lives in all occasions.

Over time, as the practice of wearing kimonos in layers came 
into fashion, Japanese people began paying attention to how 
kimonos of different colors looked together. The combinations 
of colors also represented either seasonal colors or the 
political class to which one belonged. 

During the Kamakura period (1192-1338) and the Muromachi
period (1338-1573), both men and women wore brightly colored 
kimonos. And warriors dressed in colors representing their 
leaders. Later it bacame a form of uniform for Samurais.

During the Meiji period (1868-1912), Japan was heavily 
influenced by foreign cultures. Soldiers and Government 
Officers were ordered to wear western-styled uniforms. But 
ordinary citizens still wore kimonos on formal occasions.
Using garments decorated with one's family crest would also
identify his or her family background.

 

 

More:

Nowadays, Japanese people rarely wear kimonos in everyday 

life, reserving them for such occasions as weddings, funerals, 

tea ceremonies, or other special events, such as summer festivals. 

They change their kimonos to fit the seasons and occasions. 

Wearing a wrong kimono to an occasion is an unacceptable manner.

Ebook:  Kimono in the Boardroom

Whale Watching -- Kaikoura

(This article was first published in Small World Ezine on 3 December 2002)

This is a nice time to visit New Zealand. It's spring going
to be summer there, perfect for one of New Zealand's most
visited spots -- Kaikoura. 

 

"Kaikoura" ("crayfish food") is an old fisherman's town on
the west coast (Kaikoura penninsula) of the South Island of 
New Zealand. What makes it famous is that there are two 
strong ocean currents from the pacific which converge in 
the deep water canyons which result for a very unique 
ecosystem including a number of marine wildlife and birds
not far from the shore. It's a good diving spot too.

There are crayfish, blue cods, and others that have 
attracted fishermen (commercial and recreational) to the 
place since the beginning of time. But for sightseeing 
tourists, it must be the Fur seals, Dusky dolphins and 
several kinds of whales that live not very far away. On a 
nice day, we can even see dolphins and seals from the 
shore.

This is not just a mere over-exaggerating ad. While we 
(I and 2 friends) were driving from Picton (the port town) 
south toward Kaikoura, we emerged (from a tunnel) to the 
breezy sea-side highway (highway no.1 if I remember it 
right) and saw a tourist bus park on the side of the street 
with all passengers out on the stony sea shore. So we 
stopped our car and went to see...

You won't believe it. There were seals sunbathing on the 
shore... just on the side of the highway. Not one, but more 
than ten of them, big and small. There was a sign on the 
side telling us to be quiet and refrain from giving food. 
That means the herd has been there for at least quite a 
time. The other sign said it was one of the preservation. 
That's amazing!

We stayed in the Kaikoura Youth Hostel (YHA). There are 
numbers of other hostels, inns and hotels in Kaikoura. The 
Youth Hostel is on the beach road just a minute drive from 
town. If you keep driving southward along the black-sanded 
beach until the end of the penninsula, you'll get to another 
seal habitant!  You can see them in their natural home 
without having to pay an entrance fee. Rough map here 
http://www.whalewatch.co.nz/ .

Oh and you can see a snowy mountain range in a distant while 
standing on the beach looking up north. 

Anyway, the reason we put Kaikoura in our travel plan was 
its famous whalewatching activity. There is a "Whaleway 
station" you can get to find several whalewatching tour 
operators.  There are also more of them in town.

The day we went out (in a tiny engined inflated raft - how
is it called?), there was no Sperm whales nearby. Our guide
pulled out a long metal stick (said to be the sonar 
detector) and put it in the sea. He listened from his 
headphone for a while and said there was a chance to find
some killer whales. If we were lucky we could get to see 
them. But throughout the three-hour trip we were lucky 
enough only to see some hard to find sea birds, seals, and 
New Zealand's Dusky dolphins (at this point my friend said 
the plastic whales must have been out of order). Now the guy
said if we saw the dolphins, we won't see the Killer whales
because they were natural enemy.

Actually seeing the dolphins was not too bad. They (about 12 
of them -- dark, with a lighter stripe on each side, much 
smaller than Flipper) swam with us for about almost an hour. 
I got all in my handycam. This is one of my most memorable 
trips. And not that there're no dolphins in Thailand. I used 
to go out in the sea with dolphins before (they like to swim 
with us). But somehow... the weather and the atmosphere 
were just right. And they were so close to us. (My friend 
still thought they were plastic :-)). 

There is also helicopter tour, but I think going in this 
tiny raft is much more touchy. (Oh one thing I like about 
this place, they gave me the "small" sized life vest LOL.
In the Philippines I am a giant, can't even put on an XL 
shirt sometimes).


This country is great for those who love nature, the sun 
and sand, mountains and lakes, etc. I did not talk about 
their flowers, herbs and the unique plants yet. 


The people were also friendly. Whenever we approached 
someone on the street with a map, they'd be, "You are lost,
aren't you?", and would not hesitate to help when they
could. 

Oh and the sheep... they are so cute!

 

More:


New Zealand is also the gateway to the South Pacific Island
(and the South Pole). The largest airport is in Auckland on
the North Island. On the South island, Christchurch Airport 
handles some International flights. You can even go there
with cruise lines from Australia and even U.S.A. Don't
forget to check if you need to apply for a visa. Those from
Australia, U.S.A., Canada, E.U., and Japan do not need to 
have a visa, but you need to have a valid passport (at 
least 6 months beyond the expected time of departure) and
a confirmed return ticket... If you are not staying for 
more than 3 months.


From the North island there is a big ferry service you 
can take from Wellington (the capital city) to Picton (the
northern port of the South Island). Everything comes with 
this ferry line; cars, motorcycles, buses, and even trains.

Two thing you might need to know... 

- If you are planning to drive, it's so convenient... but
you will have to study the traffic code and signs (all the
car rental services will give it to you together with the 
map). And remember they drive on the left side of the road.
Do not exceed the speed limit. My other friend had came 
back for a week when he received a ticket (one NZ dollar 
per an exceeded kilometre per hour). In the attached letter 
they said they'd send his photo taken by the hidden speed 
camera for NZ$7 !

- Electricity... The power current in New Zealand is AC 230 
volts, 50 cycles, and most power sockets accept only 
three-pin, flat plugs. If you do not have your own
adaptor, you should buy one at the airport upon arrival.