Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Braised Potato with Chicken-Chinese food recipe3

Do you like to eat Chicken? Do you love spicy? Do you want to try the real Chinese spicy Chicken? Come and check it out! One of the most famous dishes in southern China-- "Braised Potato with Chicken"

Braised Potato with Chicken Recipe

 Materials: Chicken, potato

Ingredients: Salt, garlic, onion, dry red chili.

Spices: salt, cooking alcohol ( any type of beer, wine, whiskey is ok) , soy sauce.

Method:

1. Cut the ginger and onion into small pieces.

2. Cut the chicken into pieces, put salt, alcohol, soy sauce and minced onion into the chicken pieces, stir the mixture, pickle it for around 15 minutes.

3. Remove skin of the potato, cut it into pieces of 1cm square for each.

4. Put pot on fire or heater, pour some oil inside, couple of tea spoons are ok, when the oil gets hot, put the minced onion and ginger inside the oil, fry for a little bit then put the pickled chicken into the pot, fry all and stir them while frying, till most of the water goes away, then pour little bit soy sauce into the pot, plus the chopped potato, fry and stir for 2 minutes.

5. Pour some water into the pot, which is at same level of the materials in the pot, put some salt, open the big fire, or turn heater into high level, when the water boils, turn the fire small, or heater into low level, keep cooking for 20 minutes, then turn fire or heater into middle level, add some dry chili, keep cooking till the water goes away, then it's ready to eat.



Resource: http://makechinesefood.blogspot.com/2010/03/braised-potato-with-chicken.html

Kong Bao Chicken-Chinese food recipe2

Many local people know the famous Chinese dish "Kong Bao Chicken," but few know how to make it. Do you want to be able to eat it at home whenever you want and not throwing away too much money in the Chinese restaurant? Then come and learn how to make it. It's just that SIMPLE!

Kong Bao Chicken Recipe


Main material:
Chicken without bones: 900g ( best to choose drumstick without bones), Dry Red Pepper 40g, Fried Peanuts 75g

Ingredients:
Onion 1 piece ( better to find 2 bars of long green onion), cut into small pieces, egg white from 1 egg, farina two big spoons, soy sauce 2 big spoons, minced garlic, sugar half tea spoon, white vinegar 1 tea spoon, salad oil 5 cups, salt 2 tea spoons, farina water 1 big spoon

Method:
1. put the egg white, salt and 2 big spoons of farina together, stir till they mix with each other equally, keep the mixture there to be used later as preserving sauce... put 1 big spoon of soy sauce, 1 big spoon of farina, sugar 1/2 tea spoon, salt 1/4 tea spoon, and minced garlic 1/2 tea spoon together, stir till they are mixed equally, this would be sauce

2. cut the chicken meat into pieces, as 1cm small mass, mix with the preserving sauce stir equally, keep it for half hour, then put 5 cups of salad oil in the pot, turn on the fire, when the oil is hot, put the diced chicken inside, fry it with big fire, for half minute

3. when the chicken changes the color, take it out, dry it from the oil, leave 2 big spoons of oil in the pot, turn on the fire again, when the oil is hot put the dry pepper inside, switch into small fire, fry the dry pepper, then put the onion pieces inside and fry again, when there's smell coming out put the chicken back into pot again, switch to big fire, fry all the things, for a little bit while, now pour the sauce, again fry them for a bit while

4. now put the fried peanuts inside, fry and stir all things for another bit while, till you think they are ready to eat!


Resource: http://makechinesefood.blogspot.com/2009/02/kong-bao-chicken.html

Copy Crab-Chinese food recipe1

Are you interested in cooking healthy Chinese food? Here is a dish that is very popular in China called “赛螃蟹,” which means Copy Crab. There is an interesting story behind this dish. Long time ago, there is a poor Chinese student. He was envious of those kids who were born in rich family because they could eat crab which was a popular dish in his time, but he was too poor to afford one. Coincidently, he found that the egg white has similar taste as crab only by frying it, and actually it tastes better than the real crab. Since then Copy Crab became prevalent among poor people. Not long after, because of Copy Crab's good taste and cheap ingredient, it soon attracted more and more people.

Copy Crab Recipe:

Copy Crab 賽螃蟹 – Stir Fried Egg White

Ingredients:
1 dried scallop
5 egg whites
¼ cup of water

Seasoning:
¼ tsp of salt
¼ tsp of white sugar
1 tsp of chicken powder
1 tsp of wine
1 ¼ tsp of corn starch
Zhejiang vinegar

Cooking Method:
1. Soak the dried scallop with ¼ cup of water. Soak until tender and tear into shreds. Mix the soaking water with the seasoning. Leaves for later use.
2. Beaten egg whites. Mix with shredded scallop.
3. Heat wok with 4 tsp of oil. Pour in the seasoning mixture and bring it to boil.
4. Add egg whites/scallop mixture and braise for a while.
5. Stir well and serve with Zhejiang vinegar. You can also garnish with vegetable.

Remarks:
This is a low cholesterol healthy dish. Some recipes suggest serving with a raw egg yoke in the middle. Try not to do it. Though it looks nice but it is not healthy. Egg yoke is highly concentrated with cholesterol.

 

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Behind the Chinese blogging boom-Why blogging in China so different from the U.S.?

Kato Yoshikazu (加藤嘉一) is a journalist studying at Peking University's School of International Studies. He's been active in Sino-Japanese scholarly exchange activities and writes extensively on the exchange student experience, international relations, and a wide variety of other topics.
Among other online outlets, he writes a column for FT Chinese and keeps a blog of his own on iFeng.
In the following column from the current issue of Oriental Outlook, Kato discusses the rise of blogging in China:


Why is blogging so hot in China?


by Kato Yoshikazu 
With the Spring Festival nearing, I've been invited to parties thrown by the blog departments of a few Internet media companies. I'm pretty introverted and don't usually like that sort of thing, so I felt pretty uncomfortable at first. But having gone to few, I gradually realized through careful observation that the blog party is a particularly Chinese form of gathering.
First off, the attendees came from a wide variety of backgrounds: academics and lawyers, soldiers and artists, reporters and bureaucrats. Second, guests held quite lively viewpoints and opinions, making it unlike a typical Chinese meeting. Communication between different stations and exchange of different ways of thinking: I profited quite a bit from this.
This experience started me thinking: why is blogging so hot in China?
According to a set of statistics I consulted, the number of bloggers in China exceeded 100 million in 2007. Phenomenally-popular finance blogger Xu Xiaoming was the "hit king" of Chinese blogs in 2008 with 355 million hits. Other statistics predict that between 2012 and 2015, China will see blogs with hit counts of 1 billion.
Blogs actually have a history in China of only five years, more or less, so this pace of growth is astonishing. Two other points are surprising in addition to speed. First, diversity of blogger identity: both experts and non-experts are active in this medium of social exchange. Second, openness of blogger identity: celebrities as well as ordinary people are open about their identities and blog under their real names.
Although my homeland of Japan has around 10 million bloggers, in my observation, they are not as diverse in their social participation, and far fewer of them are open about their identity when they express their opinions.
Why are blogs so big in China? In my view, there are three main reasons:
First, the era of the Internet and the growth of netizens. China's online population reached 253 million in 2007 and is currently around 300 million. Such a foundation provides unprecedented space for the growth and development of blogs. The growth potential for new media on the Internet is obvious when compared to traditional media like television and newspapers.
Second, the respect major Internet media have for blogs as tools as evidenced by their active construction of blogging platforms.
Blog departments at major websites, as I understand it, are outfitted with a sizeable staff that is divided into teams according to subjects like politics, economics, society, entertainment, culture, and history. With one eye on societal trends and international conditions, they set up relevant feature topics to which they promote profound and penetrating blog posts. Posts promoted in this way, if they agree with netizens' tastes, will quickly climb to reach ten thousand, a hundred thousand, a million, or even ten million hits.
Behind China's blog boom is what I like to call a "three-in-one" promoter: the interests of media that hope to increase their influence and profit by blog promotion, bloggers who want to increase their exposure and enjoy their right to speak through the promotion of their blogs, and readers who want to broaden their knowledge and connections through promoted blogs are joined into one unit. I am highly dubious of a direct correspondence between "hit rate" and profundity.
Third, blogs satisfy the information needs of Chinese readers, who are new media consumers. Speaking of the demands of readers, European, American, and Japanese readers particularly enjoy reading the findings of independent journalism: political scandals or major corporate fraud, for example. However, my own investigations have shown that Chinese readers seem to be more excited about various perspectives on major social issues and problems. Perhaps you could call the former an attention to detail, while the latter is a propensity for the big picture.
Hence it's not difficult to understand how blogs fit comfortably into a Chinese environment. They exist against the backdrop of a swiftly-growing Internet that exerts a massive influence on society, and they have become incorporated into public opinion. They closely examine societal trends and reader demands, and they drive forward relevant debate as they seek out ways to grow.
China therefore has blogs with Chinese characteristics, a special phenomenon that is a product of a particular developmental stage and transitional environment. To a certain degree, they are one of the best ways of looking at contemporary Chinese society. Apart from the ideas of the "state" and the "people" that they represent, I am more interested in the "societal" dimension that is now gradually taking shape. If Chinese bloggers one day number 1 billion hits, it will have a far-reaching influence on China's future.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Deyong Zhu's Comics and his Philosophical Life

Deyong Zhu, the famous cartoonist in China, likes to share his philosophical life with his fans through Weibo. His famous comic book   “涩女郎” and “双响炮” have cynically observed relationships between Chinese men and women in today's society. Now he begins to share his philosophy about life on Weibo through uploading his hand painted works. These comics are cute, simple but vivid. I believe Deyong's intended readers would not be the children even though children may most likely be attracted to these comics at first sight, but he is intended to get the grow-ups who are running a busy life and gradually lose themselves. I love his comics and always find something meaningful in them. Looking at those cute little characters, I feel that I've returned to my childhood when I was innocent and naive, and I start to see the world with my new curious eyes.







It's weekend! Whoever asks
me to work, I will punch him
in the face!







                                                                                          There is always a   little devil in our heart that urges us to take some time off and start traveling in our crazily busy life.









I've tried to behave like others all the time. If one day I want to stop behaving like others, can I still be myself?








                                                         The past has passed and the future has not  yet come. Only today belongs to me.










This weekend is so boring! Well, just let me cry for those things whichever deserve my tears. 

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Vote for your favorite "Uncle" !

Helen Cat is one of the most popular Weibo users on the internet. He is from Japan and owns many lovely cats. His favorite hobby is to take funny pictures of these lazy cats. One of his most famous cats is "Uncle." Very  lovely, very sophisticated (from appearance). Here are some interesting photos of "Uncle." COME and VOTE for your favorite picture of him! Whoever loves cats should participate in this event. You'll for sure get inspirations to decorate your lovely cats in the future! :D
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Sunday, April 10, 2011

UW-L Weibo User Survey

This survey intends to examine the popularity of Weibo among Chinese students at UW-L. It helps the researcher get an idea of Weibo's influence overseas and how to develop WeiboChina to a better blog. Thanks for everyone who conducts this survey.
(Big sweet smile! :)


UW-L Weibo User Survey link:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/G99J9QF