User Comments - jpvillanueva

Posted on: Characters in the Desert and Chinese Kitchens

I've made spaghettini alla carbonara in my wok several times.  The trick is to mix the scrambled egg in while the wok is off the flame. 

Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Hong Kong

There's great dim sum in Seattle and Vancouver; I love the cart service, but I must say that in Seattle you don't have to flag down a cart; they come to your table one after the other until you stop showing interest.  *Sigh,* I never thought I'd be nostalgic for the customer service in Seattle's Chinese restaurants... until I moved to Shanghai!

My favorite dim sum is baby squidlets in curry sauce.  I'm also a fan of the spongy steamed white rice cake that we call puto in Filipino.  Ooh, also the fresh bowl of super soft tofu with syrup; we call that tahon.  My other favorites are sticky rice in the banana leaf and...

oooohhhh salt and pepper squid... that usually didn't ride the cart; the servers put special dishes like salt and pepper squid, chiniese broccoli, and clams in black bean sauce on a tray and went from table to table.  Those dishes you had to fight for sometimes, because they sold out as soon as they came out of the kitchen.

In Filipino, chicken feet are called "adidas," so whenever the chicken feet cart would come by, we'd make jokes about running shoes.

Posted on: I Can/Can't Afford it (...得起 & ...不起）

rwroup,

Amber is so not dangerous.  Connie, on the other hand, has threated to "break me" on numerous occasions, seriously.  Although yesterday she gave me a twisty cracker...

Posted on: I Can/Can't Afford it (...得起 & ...不起）

This cracked me up:

Amber: What would you cook me?

Clay:  I'd probably cook you lobster...

Amber:  Oh... this is the dream sequence...

This 请问 might be the most charming ever. 

btw:  Amber does love George Michael. Absolutely

Posted on: Gifts Chinese People Like and 'Chinatomy' Premiere!

Hi everyone, you can find out more about my favorite gift, Aplets and Cotlets here at their website. 

buckaroo, your avatar is super scary!  It's true that our Chinese friends are not french toast eaters.  I also have an impression of Amber (or "hamburguesa" as we call her at SpanishPod), but it's based on her super-smile, which is hard to convey by podcast.  I'm working on a Pasden impression, but it's still in the research phase.  You can't rush these things, you know. 

Pasden does an impresson of me, it just consists of saying "folks" a lot.  Meh.

Posted on: Chinese Music Taste and Registering with the Police

Amber-guesa, I think the song "Time To Say Goodbye" that Davidico was singing is the English version of Andrea Bocelli's "Con te partiro.'" Not exactly a boy band, but just as cheese-filled.

Posted on: Roommates and What Chinese Think of Foreigners

Folks, Amber wanted a softball for the first limerick challenge, so that you all would get a little taste of success and then get sucked in. You know, she is some kind a broadcast genius, so I do what she tells me. When she gave the hint, I though, oh come on, Hamburguesa, you gotsta be kidding, but then she reminded me whose show it was by putting me in a headlock and calling me names. So when Amber says bring the heat, I will bring the heat. Y'all better be ready to rhyme...

Posted on: Roommates and What Chinese Think of Foreigners

What, Connie? Foreigners touch a lot in the office? Who could she be talking about....? I think Connie is going to get a SpanishPod-style greeting Monday at the office ; )

Posted on: You Must Listen to this Episode - 非...不可 (fēi...bù kě)

Juvenile and vain, maybe. But 非... 不可 is totally burned into my mind because of this presentation. I've already used it a couple times in conversation. In the immersion program I took last summer, they presented ten to fifteen structures like this a day, four days a week, for six weeks. There were no real-life examples, no communication. At the end of the program, I resented it so much I chucked my textbook and my notes in the trash. Forgetting all those structures was effortless, because the teaching method taught to the weekly test, not to communication. So as someone with an advanced degree in foreign language pedagogy, I have to say I would take memorable and communicative presentation over forgettable and non-communicative any day of the week, even if others find it juvenile and vain. Besides, juvenile and vain people like me need to learn Chinese too.

Posted on: Mobile Repairmen and AZERDocMom

I had the pleasure of meeting AZERDocMom and AZJosh as well. Unfortunately, I wasn't around for the the fried pizza or the custard bao! : )