Text 23181, 72 rader
Skriven 2015-01-23 03:31:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av JIM WELLER
Ärende: oddities 90
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 JW> sugar and salt (about 1 scant tsp each per cup of beans) to
 JW> finish the refreshing.
 ML> Sugar, eh. Interesting.
 JW> Fresh young beans are slightly sweet but mature dry ones are all
 JW> starch, unless you soak them before cooking so long that they start
 JW> to sprout (which is something I have done in the past.)  So a very
 JW> little sugar improves them immensely.

I should perhaps have thought of that but didn't.

 ML> I had fencen rou at a reputable restaurant recently that
 ML> tasted like my microwaved beef, only not as good.
 JW> Another spelling for fen zheng rou?

I suppose. The real sound is sort of "fun tsun ro," but no
system of transliteration truly conveys.

By the way, the current Mandarin pronunciation appears to
have been a deliberate adoption of lower-class language by
the Communist powers that be (no surprise), and it slurs
things that ought classically to have been clearly enunciated.
Like Beizhing for Beijing, which drives me nuts.

 ML> Stavros Milos, who gave new meaning to the term Daisy roll.
 JW> Not to be confused with Milos Stavros who was also pretty strange.

Describe.

 ML> Adam Kuban [...] appears to be a bit misinformed on [...]
 ML> Chinese foods to try before you die
 JW> I've had most of them already and think less than half of those
 JW> deserve to make the list.

He'll never make honorary Chinese, that's for sure.

 ML> Asian pear/ Baby bok choy/ Chow mein/ Egg rolls/ Fortune
 ML> cookies/ Fried rice / Hot and sour soup/ Lychee/ Silken tofu/
 ML> Sweet and sour pork, chicken, or shrimp/ Wonton noodle soup
 JW> Is there left anyone on this continent who has not already tasted
 JW> all these?

Yes, you've probably run into them. There are those for whom
lychee and silken tofu are beyond the pale - Lilli, computing
next to me as I type, for one. She sat by me at lunch and munched
a piece of bad adobo and a couple pieces of decent red-cooked
pork belly (and a bunch of rice, so she shouldn't starve) while
I went to town on the pigskin and stuff, then at dinnertime
watched with equanimity as I ate chicken parts satay - intestines
and gizzards, P5 (about 11 cents) a skewer and quite delicious;
but then we had to go find a Big Mac by way of atonement.

 ML> homeopathic product called "no jet lag" just to see what will
 ML> happen - I don't believe in homeopathy, but what the heck, it
 ML> won't hurt.
 JW> If it doesn't work the first time just dilute it even more! 

For the first couple days, no jet lag at all, but then
it hit with redoubled force. Could be the homeopathic
stuff or the psychological suggestion related to taking
it or perhaps because I drank less than half the usual
drink an hour (which for a 20-hr journey is quite a lot).
Or, truth be told, there was the incident of the half
bottle of Johnnie Walker Explorer's Club Spice Road in
the night a couple days into the trip. By the way, don't
bother: it's only US$40 in duty-free, but it seems to be
not significantly nicer than the regular black, or the
regular red for that matter, though it is significantly
sweeter. I detected little in the way of spiciness.

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