Text 6594, 172 rader
Skriven 2013-11-08 19:31:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av NANCY BACKUS
Ärende: quite elevated 443
==========================
 ML> In Salem MA, Valley Way runs along the ridgetop.
 NB> Hmmm... the way to see the valley, maybe...?  :)

... and down below it there's Summit St.

More likely the city planner had a peculiar sense of
humor and composed the street names in a tavern
someplace. Other street names in the vicinity include
Witch Way and Cauldron Court.

 ML> and commerce. The city government has a list of streets for
 ML> which the name origins are known; neither Milton nor Russell
 ML> (see below) is on it.
 NB> Maybe they are from an earlier age than from their recorded origins...
 NB> or they've never heard of John Milton... or wish to be thought not to
 NB> know... ;)

I have little knowledge about the Cambridge government, other
than that when Al Vellucci was mayor he proposed to remedy the
parking problem downtown by turning Harvard Yard into a parking
lot. I had mixed feelings about the plan, as I don't really care
for automobiles, but Harvard Yard doesn't ring my chimes either.

 ML> Falls don't usually happen where the water is deep, though.
 NB> Well, perhaps not... certainly there's a difference, often quite a
 NB> lot, between the two surfaces... the sort of difference that the canal
 NB> used locks to compensate for...  :)

There is that, but it's a geologic artifact likely as not,
with the original property cleaved by some terraforming event. 

 NB>> larger lake) does... Quite the difference for a river between flood
 NB>> stage and drought time... even the Pond isn't that much affected,
 NB>> although it can be lower or higher at times... 
 ML> But the mean high and low waters are well documented for all
 ML> navigable and some nonnavigable waterways, and from these,
 ML> we can calculate the capacities without too much trouble.
 NB> Dunno...  never really thought that much on it...  the fact that there
 NB> isn't an easy lookup makes me wonder how easy/hard the calculations
 NB> would be... even knowing mean high and low...  just seems like a lot
 NB> more would be variable in the calculations...

That's what meanness is all about, evening out the difference.
The way I figure it, the mean width is public knowledge and
pretty invariant, and depth gets charted at least for navigable
waters, so the calculation of how much water a body of even
running water holds at any given time should be fairly simple.

 NB> ... If life is a bowl of cherries, what am I doing in the pits?

Didn't aim high enough.

Bak chang (dump, zongze)
cat: Cantonese, lunch, dim sum
yield: 1 batch

h - Aromatics
10 lg shallots, thinly sliced
h - Pork Stuffing
400 g pork belly cut into 1 cm cubes or strips
- can sub boneless country ribs (or other fatty cut)
4 Tb oyster sauce
1 Tb light soya sauce
1 Tb dark soya sauce
1 ts sesame oil
1 ts cooking wine
1 ts white pepper powder
1 Tb Chinese five spice powder
h - Sticky Rice
1 kg glutinous rice 
5 Tb oyster sauce
1 Tb dark soya sauce
1 Tb light soya sauce
1 ts sesame oil
1/2 ts white pepper powder
h - Mushrooms
12 dried Chinese mushrooms
2 Tb light soya sauce
h - Dried Shrimps
1/2 c dried shrimps
h - Bamboo Leaves
60 bamboo leaves (half a packet)

For the shallots: Fry shallots in 1 c oil until crispy brown.
Set aside. The shallots here are huge, almost half an onion.
If using tiny shallots, double quantity.

For the pork: Marinate pork with seasonings and let it sit
either overnight or for a few hours.

Heat wok with 2 Tb of the shallot oil you made earlier and
1/2 those crispy shallots.

Add seasoned pork and stir-fry until cooked. Set aside.

For the sticky rice: Soak rice overnight or for at least
5 hr. Drain away water.

Heat wok with 1 Tb shallot oil and half of the remaining
fried shallots. Remember you already used half for the pork?

Add rice. Add seasonings to rice.

Stir-fry until rice is smoking. This won't take long.
You do not want to cook the rice. It should still feel hard
like before you added it into the work, just fragrant and
seasoned now. Remove rice from wok and set aside.

For the mushrooms: Soak mushrooms until soft and rehydrated.
Slice into strips.

Heat wok. Add rest of shallot oil and shallots into wok.
Add mushrooms, soya sauce, stir-fry until done. Set aside.

For the dried shrimp: Soak for a couple of hours. Drain and
fry in wok with a bit of canola oil until fragrant. Set aside.

For the bamboo leaf wrappers: Soak overnight. If you've hemp
strings for knotting the dumplings, soak them too.

Remove from water, wipe dry. Ok to be semi-dry.

As you're wiping them dry, look out for those with holes and
discard them. That's why you need 60 leaves.

Note: I sort mine into 3 piles - (i) perfect; (ii) some
tears/holes; (iii) hopeless and for discarding. Pile (iii)
is for backup.

Put something heavy on the leaves so that they are weighed
down and won't float.

Wrapping the Dumplings

Organize your work top so that you have all ingredients and
leave within reach.

Take two leaves, smooth side up, and overlap them in opposite
directions, i.e. tip of leaves should be pointing one left
and one right. Make a cone by folding in the center. Do a
Youtube search for "How to wrap bak chang" and you should
find some helpful videos.

Add 1 Tb rice and make a well.

Next add in a few pieces of meat, a few slices of mushrooms,
and a couple of dried shrimps. These should take up the next
third of your dumpling.

Cover with more rice, fold the long ends towards you and
into a triangular parcel. Tie with strings. You really have
to watch a few videos and practice to figure this out.

Boil a pot of water and when water is boiling, drop in each
bundle of dumplings.

Cook for 1 1/2 hr with water bubbling away. When water level
drops, add more boiling water so that the temperature of the
cooking water does not drop.

When done, fish them out and hang each bundle up to drip dry.

You're now all set! Undo one and enjoy! Truly satisfying.
Caution: do not eat too many at a go because you'll get belly
ache. Glutinous rice is heavy and hard to digest...

Source: Linda Lim


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