Zuppa freda

simple and delicious cold soup (from my Sino-Italian cousin):

combine in a blender or food processor:
1 cup yogurt (or more to get desired consistency)
tomatoes
cucumber
small amount of carrot (cooked slightly)
(all veg rough chopped)
salt
optional: onion, potato (cooked), red or yellow peppers.
NB. a more powerful food processor will make a smoother soup.

serve chilled in a bowl over a small amount of pasta (eg whole wheat fettucine), drizzle a small amount of olive oil over it, and garnish generously with cilantro.

bamboo

This is the season for fresh bamboo in Taiwan. I have been enjoying it since arriving in mid-April, which is when the season begins. The very best is young bamboo, which is dug out of the ground before it emerges--the farmers look for the bump in the ground. The shoot in the photo below right is too late (not really too late, it is still harvested, but it is the very young shoot dug out from under that is the freshest).


For those of us who have grown up on the canned variety in the U.S., the young fresh bamboo is a revelation. Delicate, not in the least bit tough; with a light taste; and a beauty to behold. We buy them in the traditional market; steam them and then cut it into small pieces. Delicious in a green salad; or stir fried with other vegetables and a bit of meat. Last night we had a soup, made from thin strips of bamboo cooked in just enough water to cover it, then chilled. Perfect for a hot summer evening.

Signage

Sighting in Taipei, on Roosevelt Road, a respectable area (car dealers, shops, restaurants.) Not exactly Chinglish, but something has been lost in translation. I have no idea what it is (I didn't go up to look).

Still the best

Ma and I went to Sogo today--Japanese department store (like Saks)--a ten minute walk from the house. We shopped at the Muji boutique and then had lunch at Din Tai Feng, which has branch on lower level. Half hour wait for a table. No window to watch workers making the xiao lung bao (little steamed dumplings with soup inside), but then again, you can shop while you wait for your number to be called. We had crab/pork xiao lung bao and a bowl of soup noodles and spinach. Perfect for two ladies shopping and lunching.

spicy peanuts

In Beijing we were introduced to these exquisite munchies--roasted peanuts with hot chile peppers (the red flakes in the photo). Very spicy!!! Also in this bowl are a few roasted black beans, which I bought in Shengken (outside of Taipei) a few weeks ago. (Shengken is tofu heaven; the specialty there is tofu that has been smoked with these black beans).

Mangosteen

Mangosteen, the "queen of tropical fruit" (David Fairchild, 1903).
Chinese name is shan zhu (山 竹，mountain bamboo; though I'm told in Hong Kong it's called "foreign devil lichee," 洋鬼 荔枝）。 Purple rind (inedible), white sections (like an orange) inside that are absolutely luscious: juicy with perfect balance of sugar and acid. Indigenous to Thailand, Burma, and SE Asia; now cultivated in China, on Hainan island (South China Sea), so they are plentiful in China. My cousin in Beijing had a crate of them so we ate them like crazy. In Taiwan they are imported from Thailand. The tree is difficult to grow (climate and soil must be just right); apparently an effort to grow it in Hawaii failed. I've never seen them in the U.S. (for more, see link, left)

Lichee are now also in season. Big, plump, juicy, not like the pathetic ones sold in U.S. Chinatowns. Mangos are just coming in. I've also grown fond of Taiwan wax apples, which have a different consistency from regular apples--light and crisp.

Taipei- MuLan

We went to the National Theater (top photo) tonight to see an unusual performance of MuLan, which combined traditional Peking Opera with avant-garde percussion and tap-dancing, and abstract staging. (photo above from rehearsal). The show was a collaboration of the Ju Percussion Group and Guoguang Opera Company.

According to a local news item, "The director, Lee Shao-pin, is pushing the boundaries by including differing forms of performance on the same stage. He said he felt the story, which tells of a young woman who served as a general in an all-male army, could be accented by the dramatic changes in Peking opera and tap dancing."

Over 100 instruments were used in the performance. "In one scene, the percussionists, sounds from the Peking opera actors, and the clacking of the tap dancers work in concert to represent thousands of mounted warriors going to battle." (China News Agency, May 15, 2010)

For more on Ju Percussion Group, see link at left. Check out the video.

Beijing

"798" art district in Beijing. Former factory spaces converted to art galleries; also shops and cafes. Rather commercialized (read: mediocre art, high prices) but some is quite interesting. The old factory walls have maintained slogans from Maoist era (below, "Long live Chairman Mao"). For more on 798 see link, left.




We stay at my cousin's house for a few days. My mom visits with childhood friends while my cousin's daughter takes me to 798 etc etc. Some serious eating here including a roast duck dinner with all the duck side dishes--the deboned feet with hot mustard; kung-pao duck hearts; duck liver and meat in white wine sauce; deep fried duck gizzards served on shrimp chips--and of course the roasted duck.

My cousin is a retired heart surgeon but he still does rounds once a week in the ICU (here with my mom). He has the residents give their reports in English.
But Chinglish is still everywhere. Florist shop near my cousin's house.
On the last day, a visit at Beijing University (Beida), where I gave a lecture to Prof. Wang Xi's seminar on U.S. history and citizenship. Below, in front of the history department's building. Campus has lovely lake (middle)and a lakeside guest house where we stayed (bottom photo). This area is preserved in the old style (or, as in the case of the guest house, newly built in that style) but much of the campus is modern.

Shanghai

Below: A typical yummy Shanghai breakfast--(top) shenjianbao; (bottom, clockwise from bottom) little wontons; you-tofu ximian (fried tofu in soup with cellophane noodles); more wontons; dou-hua (silky tofu). Not shown: dou-jiang (soy milk) and xiaolungbao (dumpings--overkill).



Then, a visit to Tianzifang, an artsy area across town. A warren of little lanes, with shops, cafes and bars. Bought gifts for the folks back home and shoes for me (what else).

more expo photos

above: the central axis of the expo, which houses restaurants and shops. It features six rain water collection towers, in line with the environmentalist theme of the expo.

below: Macao, a giant rabbit. It has nothing to do with Macao but was inspired by a Chinese folk tale about the rabbit in the moon. I-Ping and I are both born in the year of the rabbit.


The main exhibits are in Pudong (east of the river); the science and technology area is in Puxi, on the other side. Below, the ship building pavilion, housed in a former shipyard. Featured a model floating farm, a huge ship that would desalinate water and grow, on different decks, fruit, vegetables, and grain. Designed but not yet built. An interesting solution for dealing with lack of agricultural land (which is itself a man made problem) but the carbon foot print for transporting back to consumers would be considerable.

The earth pavilion. (translation of sign below: We only have one earth) Sorry no photos from inside but this had some of the best exhibits of entire expo--one on "city being" (bad translation, they really mean city life) which had remarkable videos of urban life in Buenos Aires, Naibobi, Chengdu (post-earthquake, very moving), Edmonton... and one called "urban planet" on climate change, which culminated with a huge 'blue planet' covered with video simulations of the oceans rising, land masses giving way, and the earth recycling. (for more, see link, left)

There was also a "best urban practices" pavilion in Puxi, with case studies from around the world. Best one in my opinion was Sao Paolo, which has banned all outdoor advertising (billboards, walls, etc--"visual pollution") and limits the size of store signage.

China pavilion at night. See the people on the escalator and on the second level for sense of scale.



Inside the Iranian pavilion. Predictable exhibits (industry, technology; but did you know there are ski resorts in Iran?) but upstairs they were selling persian rugs--at very good prices too, I might add. They said they would ship to anywhere, but...


United Kingdom: Seed Cathedral, constructed with 600,000 (or 60,000? not sure) acrylic rods; at the end of each one (seen from inside) is a seed. Kew Botanical Garden's "Millennium seed project," to collect (every existing??) seed as a way to memorialize the biodiversity of the world.
Taiwan pavilion, with huge video globe inside. Designed by Li Zhuyuan (Taipei 101).



Japan pavilion is dubbed the purple silkworm island. Three+ hour wait so we did not go in. Apparently, interesting robotics inside. Its restaurant is expo's most expensive and is booked through July.


The USA pavilion was, by the way, terrible. US had first decided not to participate, citing budgetary restraints, then joined at the 11th hour. To not have come would have looked very bad. The exhibit comprised three hastily made videos, all fluff (children with dreams), no substantive content. Because of late entry, the pavilion is the very last one. Not coincidentally, perhaps, it is also at greatest distance from N Korea and Iran pavilions.

I will say that the amenities were pretty good. Lots of water fountains and restrooms (very clean and no shortage of TP) and areas to sit. Food situation not so great: Pavilion restaurants with national cuisines tended to be very expensive. Food for the masses was plentiful but there were often lines. We ate sandwiches at Starbucks one day; had Taiwan beef noodle soup when we went at night; and stood on line in front of the Belgium pavilion for Belgian waffles that were tasty but the size of a silver dollar. And no whipped cream.

Shanghai-World Expo

Trip to Shanghai with Ma and Ahee. The World Expo is big, bigger, biggest with gi-normous crowds. We refuse to stand on line anywhere but many pavilions have special entry for seniors so we do go into quite a few. Above we are on the roof terrace of the India pavilion with China pavilion in background (for which tickets are simply unavailable). India featured an amazing 5-minute long, and large, holographic presentation. The technology in many of the pavilions is very sophisticated.

We stayed in a simple but clean hotel near my cousin Jingfu's house in the Hangkou district (north of city center), the old Japanese concession. This is their condo, and the view from it.




This is us with Jingfu with his wife, I-ping, and their son Pan, a college sophomore (Spanish major).










South Korea
































Spain: the outside is covered with pieces made of woven reeds. (All pavilions will be deconstructed after expo is finished; most of the materials will be recycled. Only China pavilion and some of the thematic buildings on urban life, science and technology, are permanent.) Inside is 6.5 meter (21 feet) robo-baby. Her head moves, her eyes blink, and she breathes. Cool or creepy? Not sure what the message is.