I'm spending Christmas and New Year in Hong Kong and China! I was deciding if I would stay here and save money or go to NYC with (half of) my wonderful family for Christmas. In the end, I decided to travel somewhere in Asia since I live in Japan now and can travel more affordably in this region. I found a very cheap plane ticket to mainland China via Hong Kong and managed a five day stopover in HK. Look at these two pictures and take a guess what two places in Mainland China I'll be going...
The main reason I want to go to China is that I've always been pretty interested in Chinese history and living in Japan has made China even more fascinating to me. All the Kanji (One of the three Japanese 'alphabets') I'm learning right now was borrowed from Chinese. I find it really interesting that Mandarin speakers can't understand spoken Cantonese but they can still read the same books and signs (except not always...).
Chinese history also appeals to me because there's so much of it! Recorded Canadian history doesn't date back like recorded Chinese history does. It's so rich that different aspects have at different times influenced basically every single part of the world. But I'm especially interested in the following things:The Opium Wars. Tang poetry. Sun Yat Sen. Nanjing/Nanking and the Japanese occupation during WWII (very, very sad). all of the controversy of modern China: sweatshops, the Henan blood scandal, Tiananmen Square Massacre, the internet censorship, the issues surrounding Tibet and also Taiwan. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. the Cultural Revolution and all of the Cold War era events. Cixi the conniving and powerful Dowager Empress who started as a concubine and worked her way up, killing adversaries and building a ridiculously extravagant palace while her country was in wartime poverty. Hong Xiuquan (This guy very seriously declared himself the little brother of Jesus Christ and led 600,000 men and 500,000 women into the Taiping rebellion, a revolution in the late 1800s. Charismatic man.) I'm also interested in the Walled City of Kowloon which was the most dense human habitation in world history, so overcrowded that some elderly residents lived for years in the city without ever seeing the sun. It was torn down in 1993 but you should look up pictures of it or click the one I gave you.
I'm a bit nervous because Hong Kong is apparently the least vegetarian and most meat-heavy country in the entire world. I remember going to Dim Sum with my friend Ryan and his uncle Randy and family and not being able to eat anything except one mochi ball. I was so hungry! But I like congee and pi-dan (Aka hundred year old egg...I swear it is delicious) and bok-choy and a lot of other things, so I hope it will be ok. Shanghai is known for all sorts of fake meat made from soy.
Here is a picture from one of the Chinese New Year parades last year. This will be my first time anywhere in Asia besides Japan. Have you ever been to Shanghai, Hangzhou or Hong Kong? Please recommend what I should do while I'm on my vacation. Especially in Hong Kong because I'll have a lot of free time there.Also, thanks for the Cantonese phrases Mp3, Tony.
So kind of you.
5 comments:
omgosh..your picture of the Walled Kowloon....waaaaaa...i think it seems scary to stay there!
hong kong hong kong!!! i love hong kong! i've only been there once though. i love mong kok! it's a shopping heaven!!! go check it out yes! :D
you can eat their lovely egg tarts!
thank you for visiting my journal!!! i'm so happy! :)
and i have always feel so lucky to be a Chinese, because it's true how useful the language is in so many Asian countries!:D:D it makes learning languages like Japanese and dialects like Cantonese and Hokkien so much easier.
and being a Chinese in Singapore is another bonus because we are all bilingual! ^^
love,
Apple
Yeah, the walled Kowloon is crazy if you read about it. It's totally interesting. Apparently it was ruled by Triad gang (Chinese mafia) and HK police didn't enter. It was the place to go for illegal meat and medicine made from endangered species, brothels and drugs, really heavy gambling and the worst one...unlicensed dentists! The pictures look so fascinating.
Yeah, I am so jealous of you! I know a lot of people working here in Tokyo with Chinese backgrounds and they already read Kanji so it makes picking Japanese up so much easier. You are lucky!
I love being bilingual, too. I'm aiming for tri-lingual and maybe someday...
Julie, your blog on Japan is amazing, one of the best sources of info I've seen so far on the www. I'm travelling to Japan for 2.5 weeks in Feb. I do cook Indian food so I can recommend some recipes if you like, if you can send me an e-mail address, I'll post some easy recipes on-line for you to download. Thanks, Khaled (shivji at gmail dot com).
Thanks very much, Khaled. I feel like so much of my money gets wasted on going out to eat at Indian restaurants here in Tokyo because I crave it all the time. Actually, I shouldn't say the money is "wasted" because I enjoy all of it. I want to learn how to make palak paneer and yellow dal curry and malai kofta, mostly. I wish I knew a motherly Indian lady living in Tokyo who could teach me how to make really delicious meals. But the next best thing is you, sending me your recipes. Post them here so that other people can see them, if you don't mind.
Thanks so much and I hope you have a great time in Tokyo in February. Over here, Valentine's day is for guys and the girls are the ones who give the presents and chocolates to their boyfriends and guy friends. So if you know any girls in Tokyo, even just as friends, February 14th is a good time to be a guy.
Hi Julie, sorry I've been offline for a few days but here are the recipes! If you need me to show you how to put together the dishes, let me know and I'll see if I can stop by and show you the ropes whilst I'm in Tokyo. These recipes haven't come from North India but from Gujarat and are family recipes.
Thanks for the tip about Vals day, I'll have to look out for some Japanese ladies when I'm on the slopes on Mt. Naeba on the 14th!
Palakh Paneer
(Serves four people)
1 Medium Onion chopped, 4-6 table spoons veg. oil, ½ kilo Paneer cheese diced into small cubes, 1 teaspoon crushed ginger, ½ teaspoon crushed garlic, ½ teaspoon of crushed chillies, ½ teaspoon of coriander powder, ½ teaspoon of cumin powder, ¼ tea spoon turmeric powder, ¼ teaspoon of chilli powder to taste, 1 med tomato, 0.5 kilos fried spinach leaves, 2 teaspoons of tomato puree, 6 small potatoes, ½ litre hot water
½ teaspoon garam masala, 1 tablespoon of coriander leaves
Sauté onions over a medium heat until golden brown
Add paneer and sauté for three – four mins
Add tomatoes, spinach and puree + all spices except garam masalla/coriander leaves and cook until half done.
Add potatoes and cook again for a few minutes, add the hot water
Cook until the potatoes and chicken are cooked.
Add garam masala and coriander leaves.
Tips: Don’t add more water than necessary unless the dish looks like it will dry before being fully cooked. The sauce is designed to have a dry consistency so cook on slow-med heat if it’s boiling off too much water. Keep tasting the recipe to ensure the spices are adequate and monitor the levels of chillies and add salt if required.
Serve with rice or chapattis.
Tarka Dahl – my favourite!
(Serves two to three people)
125gms of tuvar dhal OR equal mix of moong and tuvar dhal (better for taste), 1 litre of water, ½ teaspoon salt, 1-2 tablespoons of oil, ½ teaspoon mustard seeds, dash of cumin and ajma seeds, 2 cloves, 1-2 whole chillies split open, 1 small tomato blended
¼ teaspoon ginger, ¼ teaspoon garlic, ¼ teaspoon cumin powder, ¼ teaspoon turmeric, ½ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon crushed hot chilli peppers, 1 ½ teaspoons of sugar, 1 table spoon of chopped coriander leaves, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.
THE DAY BEFORE: Wash dhal and soak overnight.
ON THE DAY: Ad the water and salt to the dhal and boil until tender and soft.
Blend well until smooth. Put back in pan and heat slowly until simmering.
Whilst heating the dhal, in a smaller pan, Heat the oil, add mustard, cumin, ajma, cloves and hot peppers.
Add the tomato, ginger, garlic, cumin powder, turmeric, salt and hot chilli powder and fry for 2-4 mins. Add this mixture to the simmering dhal for a further 7 minutes.
IMPORTANT: Taste the dhal and rate according to your taste. Then add some sugar and lemon juice for taste plus the chopped coriander leaves.
Serve hot with rice.
Malai Kofta: sorry I don’t have a recipe for this but I found a website that does: http://indianfood.about.com/od/vegetarianrecipes/r/malaikofta.htm
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