This Made My Day
Feb 14 2014, Rochester, NY, Lake Effect Snow
Sometimes, my graduate school classmates are quite funny. See below Facebook conversations…
Hangzhou Food: Gallic Chives, Black Bone Chicken, Edamame, Pork Heart, Fruit Flower Tea
Feb 15, 2014, Pittsford, NY, Lake Effect Snow
One of the important things for travel is food. My hometown is Hangzhou, China. It is located south east of Shanghai, about 2 hours drive. It is a historical tourism city, world heritage site. I am introducing my hometown home style cooking below:
Dish No 1. 韭黄炒蛋 （Stir-Fry Gallic Chives and Eggs)
Surprisingly, the garlic chives cost more than 10$, and I suspect that it is only available in the Chinese market seasonally. But it is super tasty and worth the money, I highly recommend it.
1. 4-5 eggs + salt + ginger: scramble the eggs and mix the ingredients well (use the knife to cut a slice ginger as small as possible 🙂 , ginger can change eggs’ taste so interestingly)
2. stir-fry the eggs with vegetable/peanut oil
3. once the eggs are done, move it to a bowl
4. stir-fry the garlic chives with salt and little vegetable/peanut oil, when the chives look soft (3-4 minutes), add cooked eggs and mix them well
Dish No 2. 乌骨鸡燉蘑菇 （Black-Bone Chicken and Mushrooms Hotpot)
In my hometown Hangzhou, hotpot or “soup” is a favorite home-cooking dish. The materials for this hotpot include black-bone chicken, a variety of mushrooms (e.g, black mushrooms, tree ears) – small amount, ginger, a few pieces of salty bamboo (this time, I use 黄花菜 – day lily?) , green onions, and some sort of broth base made from bones (this time, I used salty chicken gizzard from Chinese market, it turns out pretty good).
1. ginger + some Chinese wine + bones/salty gizzard: cook until boiled, dump the water
2. refill the pot with water + ginger + black-bone chicken + Chinese wine (little) + 八角茴香 (Illicium verum?): cook for 15-20 minutes
3. add salty bamboo (needs to be rinsed before adding it to the pot to remove some of the salt) + mushrooms (needs to soak in the hot water for a few minutes before adding them to the pot)
4. cook another 15-20 minutes with low heat to let the flavor in
Dish No 3. 五香毛豆（Edamame)
This one is easy. Add water, salt and 八角茴香 (Illicium verum?) and boil them until edamame is very soft (15 min?). Then filter the water.
Dish No 4. 白斩 猪心（boiled pork-heart)
When I was little, this dish was only available during Spring festival because the heart was somehow considered good food back then 🙂 This easy recipe works for beef heart or beef/pork tongues, chicken as well.
1. boil the pork heart with Chinese wine and ginger
2. slice it and serve it with the sauce made from a mixture of: soy sauce, garlic grounds and 老干妈 (spicy peppers from this jar)
After Dinner. 水果花茶(Fruit-Flower Tea)
In Chinese family, after dinner, typically we have some fruit, nuts or a cup of hot tea and sit around the table to chat a bit. This cup is made from a slice of orange (lemon, cucumber would work too) + tea honey + flower tea (e.g., this time I used Jasmine).
Sometimes, I view cooking home food as an exercise of missing home and revisiting my Chinese root. The above procedure sometimes never makes sense from a professional cook’s point of view, but that is how my mom and family used to cook when I was little, and that is what I want to replicate and eat.
New Orleans (1) – Jazz
Dec 31, 2013, New Orleans, LA, Light Rain
What a wonderful world (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2VCwBzGdPM)
I see trees of green…….. red roses too
I see em bloom….. for me and for you
And I think to myself…. what a wonderful world.
I see skies of blue….. clouds of white
Bright blessed days….dark sacred nights
And I think to myself …..what a wonderful world.
The colors of a rainbow…..so pretty ..in the sky
Are also on the faces…..of people ..going by
I see friends shaking hands…..sayin.. how do you do
They’re really sayin……i love you.
When I listen to this relaxing and kind song, I always feel it is indeed a wonderful world. That’s the success of Louis Armstrong. He is the foundational character for Jazz, He later brought Jazz from New Orleans to Chicago, which made Jazz known to the outside the world.
Origin and History of Jazz: Jazz is so important to the New Orleans history. There is even an National History Park for Jazz. At New Orleans, there used to have many plantations at some point. Slaves worked very hard on these plantations to harvest cottons and sugar canes. When they had the only time Sunday afternoon off, the slaves gathered around, singing, dancing and beating drums. Jazz is created for celebrating such Sunday relaxation, joy and free after a long-week hard work. It is a mixture of African music which brought by the slaves, and the European music which brought by the French settlers . This picture was taken at Louis Armstrong park, outside of the French Quarter. The place is considered as the birth of the Jazz music where the slaves used to gathered around for Sunday celebrations.
In the old days, poor people were not affordable to go to the Jazz concert. The musicians come to the neighborhood (see picture below) to perform free shows. This place then becomes so historically important.
New Orleans Jazz: when we talk about Jazz, people easily think of Jazz played by Carnegie Jazz Band or some piano music in the wine bar. The best Jazz I have ever heard is New Orleans Jazz, played in this Preservation Hall.
The building is considered as one of the oldest in French Quarter. The room is small. A selection portion of seats can be reserved via their website: http://www.preservationhall.com/hall/. Order several days early as they sold out fast. We ended up waiting outside in the cold for two hours and get a standing position. The players are all very famous local players in New Orleans. For example, the drum player is Jason Marsalis who belongs to this Marsalis family. The instruments used in the Jazz are typical symphony instruments such as Piano, Drum, Clarinet, Trombone, Base and Trumpet; however, they are played using different techniques in Jazz. Sometimes, the musicians insert a section of vocals in the music. For those of you who have no chance visiting New Orleans yet, here is an amazon collection to recommend: City-Of-A-Million-Dreams
There are many Jazz bars in New Orleans. Besides famous Bourbon street, Frenchman street outside of French Quarter has many good ones that attract even locals.
Jazz Funeral: When a Jazz musician dies, many Jazz musicians will come to the funeral and play Jazz. On the way to the cemetery, the music usually is very sad for mourning their friends; however, on the way away from the cemetery, the music usually is very happy, representing new life starts. Many rich people order Jazz funerals. It is a music fest that many people comes to watch.
From those stories, I feel the Jazz culture really alike the Jazz music, has this warm, witty and happy spirit, which deserves us to appreciate.
Intelligence
This is an example to show my intelligence sometimes equals to Gmail spam filter, as I was about to click Activate_Now with 100% seriousness, devotion and faithfulness.
Toronto – Famous People Player (FPP)
Oct 20, 2013, Toronto
Don’t miss it if you visit Toronto !
The night started with steaks, salmons and vegetables, cooked by and served by the performers and directors. FRESH ! After the show, we came back here for a desert, served by the sweaty performers and directors. HOT !
Have you heard of blacklight? I am not going to break your surprise, but here are some elements of it: the black stage, the puppets, and the picture of a performer.
The show connected a few famous songs from 1950s to tell stories. For example, one song is for the love of two squirrels, the other song accompanies hanging clothes fighting. Moving with the music are the puppets of boxes, the turkey, the leaves, the hanging underwear, the question marks … DANCE, MOVING INTO THE MUSIC, how can you resist it? I have signed up Jazz and Hip hop after I came back from Toronto.
It is a non-profit. Volunteers from all over the world contribute. French chefs teach the cooking. The Hollywood stars come to perform. See how in 1970s the newspaper is so insensitive about reporting things: 
Who?
Dec 4, 2013, Rochester, NY
Driving back from Rome, NY and saw this thing appears to my office door. Dear Colleagues and Students, WHO DID IT? I LIKE IT.
Midwest (1) – Frank Lloyd Wright @ Chicago
October 5, 2013, Oak Forest, IL
He decided to quit his engineering degree and went to Chicago to pursuit his Architecture career. Then he was 20.
Some of his early work at Oak Forest, designed when he worked for Louis Sullivan are shown below. These residential houses still look Victorian, but with his personal voices on geometric shapes such as horizontal lines and triangles.
He explored about 10 years before he settled down his Prairie Style. People said that he felt naturally adding in horizontal lines in the design probably because he grew up in the mid-west plain. He went to Japan 1905 for the first time. Certainly, you can see the similarity between Japanese temples and Prairie homes, both in terms of color and style. (one picture I took in Tokoyo and the other one I took in Oak Forest)
Visit his home is about discovery. What interesting things have you found, visitors?
Fun rhythms planned into the space： he plans intelligent games with his visitors in his interior design. As an example, walking in his houses, the visitors sometimes enter a small, tight, dark space and feel uncomfortable. Then suddenly they are released to high ceiling and large windows, open spaces. Can you see this below? The picture is playroom in his house in Oak Forest.
Bring in nature in the building: he sometimes planned houses around an old tree. The living room typically has front and back large windows. We can see through the house and see the view in the backyard, e.g., a lake. Even, he likes to use rocks which contain fossils, which is unusual in his era.
New York City (1) – Street Performer
August 22, 2012, New York City
It was a Sunny afternoon. I found this street performer at the lower level of Grand Central. His violin was attractive and I could not move my legs. In the middle of a piece, this audience lady joined his music with her opera voice. Although it was spontaneous, they performed as if they have been practiced together for a long time. At the end of the piece, the lady introduced herself to him and talked about her experience of learning operas …
I just could not think of a better way to meet a person, can you?