User Comments - auntie68
auntie68
Posted on: China Fruit and Pre-Marital Sex
June 22, 2008 at 3:44 AMtvan, that was one brilliant video! Thanks so much. It was my Thai lesson of the day, haven't had so much fun in yonks. Again, thanks.
Posted on: Instant Noodles
June 22, 2008 at 2:58 AMHi. 方便面 (fang1bian4 mian4) is quite a mouthful to say. Here in Singapore, instant noodles are marketed by the noodle companies as "快熟面" (kuai4shu2 mian4). Literally, "quick-cook noodles". Writing the characters is a pain -- that 熟 ! --, but I think it's easier to say!
Posted on: China Fruit and Pre-Marital Sex
June 22, 2008 at 2:45 AMHello Bill. I'm afraid my neighbourhood -- Chancery Lane -- isn't quite as swish as Dalvey Road. I wish! Top Ten is alive and well:
http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides/asia/singapore/attraction-detail.html?vid=1154654660070
Happy weekend!
Posted on: China Fruit and Pre-Marital Sex
June 21, 2008 at 3:29 AMHi penang. I live in Singapore; the house with the two durian trees is about 3 minutes -- by car -- from Orchard Road/ Scotts Road. During the days when I used to run for "exercise" (hahaha!), I would hit Scotts Road within 10 minutes (there are shortcuts!). It's a bit unusual to find durian trees in this part of the island!
I've never seen durian nets before, it sounds like a great idea. But they would have to be steel nets, right? And we'd need to be able to lower them easily so that the squirrels don't get at the fruit. My nonagenarian Amah (the lady in my avatar) shields herself with an old cast-iron wok when she goes out to collect the fruit; it's quite a sight!
Posted on: China Fruit and Pre-Marital Sex
June 21, 2008 at 2:10 AMHello everybody. I really enjoyed this Dear Amber, thanks! We have two mature 榴莲 (durian) trees in my garden. Only two? But each tree yields 100 -- 150 fruit per season. And it's not uncommon to have two growing seasons in a calendar year.
What Amber didn't mention is that those spikes are rigid -- with very sharp points --, and that the fruit are approximately the size and weight of an human head when they fall to the ground. Not only that, durian trees grow very tall, so most of these armoured missiles will free-fall (--> and accelerate) through at least 30 - 40 metres before the terminal "thunkk!". We were replacing a certain section of zinc roofing every year before we shelled out for reinforced steel sheets (the vendor thought we were joking!).
Hmm... growing your own durians is not for the faint-hearted. The main taproot of a mature tree goes straight down to a depth of 50 metres, and the buttress roots grow out so far from the tree that they can damage sewage pipes 30 metres from the tree (we have the bills to prove it).
Still, durians are delicious! Our trees have different "parents"; the fruit from one is more "XO", the other is more "vanilla". Both of our trees are fruiting now, and I can't wait for the fruit to start whizzing down in a few days. Yay! My mother uses an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of the "Durian List", which is like a "VIP list" of family friends who look forward to receiving 4 - 6 of our durians every season.
P/s: Our next-door neighbours are a young Dutch family, enjoying their first posting outside the Netherlands. The husband LOVES durians so much that he ate 4 all by himself the first time we sent some over. His poor wife, however, doesn't like the smell, though, and so durian season is really hard on her...
Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Hong Kong
June 20, 2008 at 5:58 AMHi joannah. If you're very sure that you're not allergic to MSG, a "taste test" might be something that you can do for your friend.
MSG has a pretty distinctive taste... if you train your tastebuds. Just try eating a few grains of pure MSG off the tip of your finger a few times... the "saltiness" has a definite tang to it. It's the "Lay's (or Pringles) Potato Chips" taste... sort of sweet and "meaty" on top of the saltiness. Seriously, if somebody can eat a bagful of highly-processed potato chips, they probably aren't allergic.
Well, that's how fussy diners like me decide whether we're eating MSG in additive form! The chemical components of MSG occur naturally in so many traditional Asian foods -- Eg. shiitake mushrooms, wakame, soybean products (including soy sauce in ANY form) etc -- that it's going to be difficult to avoid MSG altogether.
But it might be possible to help your friend to avoid an overdose of "added" MSG, which is pretty hard to miss.
One practical way to avoid MSG in "additive" concentrations is to stick to Chinese dishes which don't require some kind of pre-prepared stock or "base". Eg. they can do hot stir-fried veggies with a simple garlic, ginger and sesame oil garnish with no problems, but it's next to impossible to eat the same dish with an "oyster sauce" dressing without ingesting large amounts of MSG.
Generally, the brown sauces are pre-prepared with at least a small amount of MSG, and so they can't simply "hold" the MSG for you. Go for the steamed dishes if you can help it. For clear soups, the better restaurants would achieve richness and depth with ingredients such as dried scallops (very expensive!), which do include naturally-occurring MSG, rather than refined MSG in crystal form, but I've never heard of any bad reactions to naturally-occurring MSG...
HTH!
Posted on: Regional Accents Part II
June 20, 2008 at 3:28 AMThanks. So the words were mocking him for having pretentions to emperorhood even during his more "moderate" period (ie 四不一没有) ? This is strong stuff!
Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Hong Kong
June 20, 2008 at 2:57 AM@pulosm, thanks!
@joannah, if your friend is severely allergic to MSG, maybe you won't feel overly silly making a little card with the request in Cantonese characters:
請唔好加任何味精 － 唔該！
Posted on: Regional Accents Part II
June 20, 2008 at 2:35 AMWah, changye, I was completely baffled by the quote until you posted your explanation. Because I didn't know the meaning of "去中国化“:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desinicization
In fact, I gave it the opposite meaning because I forgot that 去 in this kind of context means "getting rid of" (not "moving towards" as in "Big Bird Goes To China" or "Going Green"). :blush:
So it was absolutely impossible for me to figure out whether the words were mocking Chen Shui Bian for being servile (during 4 "no's" + 1 "without") or for having pretentions to emperorhood (during the 4 "wants" + 1 "without"). Is it the latter? Help!
Posted on: Instant Noodles
June 22, 2008 at 3:54 AMNo, don't save it! Spend it now, so we can share it!