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There is a vegetable that the Taiwanese just called "A" vegetable. In our Asian markets here, they just give the lable "A" Cai - with the "Cai" part in Chinese (Mandarin), which means "vegetable". So, "A" vegetable is the name of that vegetable. Does anybody know the history of the name of this vegetable? Why is an English alphabet "A" used as the name and not a Chinese character?

The American bacon "bacon"? Or Chinese laap yuk "bacon"? Mung bean threads (Fun See) is indeed difficult to cook by itself. I typically only use it in other Cantonese stir-fried dishes to soak up the extra cooking liquid.

Thank you for the kind words sheetz! I know what it feels like to live in the boonies. San Diego used to be like that, Chinese-food wise, when I went there for college (Go Aztec!) in early 80's. We used to hop in a car and drove for 2 hours to get to LA Chinatown to have a decent meal. It made it easier that we went in a pack of 5 so all we did was chit-chat. Time went by much faster. Things are quite different now, both in San Diego and the Los Angeles Basin. The steamer baskets are sold in most of the Asian markets I have been to in Sacramento. I found them in The Wok Shop too. Since they do mail orders, perhaps order from them? Pretty generic stuff. If the price is not good for you, perhaps wait until you head back to SGV for a visit?

Kung Hey Fat Choy Domestic Goddess! LOL. Now... Master Leung demands grasshopper to post some of her work in the Chinese forum, under "Chinese eats at home, What did we cook". Chinese eats at home, What did we cook?

Can I offer some help? Inside the red and gold foil packets are strawberry-flavoured hard candies that have a chewy centre. A childhood favourite of mine, I still have a soft spot for them when CNY rolls around. ← Arrrr... that what they are. Thank you Joie. In Hong Kong we can find many toffee kind of candies with a chewy center. CNY makes all children happy. Then all the dentists are happy.

Forgot to post my CNY chart last night: Date: Feb 20, 2007 Chinese calendar: The third day of Chinese New Year Festivities: This is the third day of the Chinese New Year. This is the day that it is adviced not to see any relative. Most people just spend time to be with their immediate family. Many would go out and about, do the entertainment thing. Quite a few restaurants are still closed so the eateries that are opened are packed. It is the last day of the holiday series, people would enjoy it the best they can before returning to work.

I'm far from a flowering plant expert, but those look very much like some kind of jonquil/daffodil/narcissus relative. A little creative Googling turned up this flowering plant -- is this the right one? ← Thanks Ellen. Yes, daffodil. That's the name in English. I remember it now! "Shui Sin" in Cantonese. Popular flower in CNY. Edit: No... as it turned out, it was not daffodil. Kouign Aman and Dejah Dai Ga Jeah are right. It's Paperwhite. The Googled pictures look right.

Good Morning everybody! Need to come into the office today. Here was my liquid breakfast: Horlicks! Get a few spoonful, mix it up in hot water. You have to stir it very well. Even so, the sediment just settles on the bottom. I acquired the taste of Horlicks when I was in Hong Kong. This is a British thing, isn’t it? And the popularity is similar to Ovaltine? Anyways, thanks to over one and a half century of British ruling, Hong Kongers picked certain food habits from the Brits. I am sure you know this is not a traditional Chinese drink. It is a good thing, as this drink is really delicious. My coworkers had given me a few “Kung Hey Fat Choy” around. LOL! Just not used to hearing it from some blond-hair blue-eyes. My cup has two drawings from the famous artist E.C. Escher. He really was a pioneer in the concept of morphing and impossible 3-D figures. This cup has the drawing of the 3-D stair-cases (ever-going up). On the other side is a bunch of fish morphing into flying geese. Fascinating stuff – if you ever have seen his work. (Some of his drawing images found on Google)

Many eGullet foodblogs included some pictures of the local sceneries. Here are a few of Sacramento’s. It’s February. Sunny. Day time temperature: 65F (18C). (How about that Dai Ga Jeah?) This winter has been extremely dry so far, compared to last year where we had lots and lots of rain. In March 2006, there wasn’t one day without rain. In January 2007, there was not a single day with rain. Strange pattern. Global warming? This is the Sacramento River taken at the Sutterville exit off the I-5 freeway. Downtown Sacramento is about 3-4 miles north of here. A river boat that is no longer running. On top of the river levee is a paved bike path. From here you can ride a bike straight to Old Town Sacramento. My wife and I ride our bikes once a year starting from here to Old Town, then on along the American River Bike Trail to Folsom, about 30 miles one way. Very scenic, highly recommended for anyone who comes here for a visit. It makes a pretty good work out for us. The crazy cyclists from Tour De California had crossed the Sacramento Tower Bridge on to the Capitol to make their final run this afternoon on their day-2 journey. My wife saw it first hand. I only watched them on TV. They are quite impressive to see in person, riding at 30-40 mph on a flat road.

My American Dream Like most Americans who were born in this country, many American immigrants have their American Dreams too. I have a few of my own. Here is the top one: The Dream of Flying. Yes indeed it occurred in a few of my dreams (not the metaphor "dream"). Each time it seemed that I just flapped my two arms and I was flying through the air, effordlessly, smoothly soaring from one place to another. I am hoping that one day I would become a licensed pilot, flying one of these: Cessna high-wing planes. These are trainers and the easiest to fly. I live only 1/4 of a mile down the end of KSAC - the airport sign for Sacramento Executive Airport. When I am out in the front yard rigging leaves in late afternoon, I often hear the roaring engine from one of these planes flying overhead: In the beginning of 2007 I had made a resolution for 2007 - pursue a pilot license. As a student pilot I would be flying one of those Cessnas. I haven't chosen the flight school yet. There are three of them at KSAC. But I have taken the very first step to take the ground school at Sacramento City College at least to see what it is like. Books that I need to study to pass the written test. It is really not difficult. Those who are licensed pilots can probably attest. The gadget on the top is call a "E6B". It is a fancy "mechanical calculator". In reality it is just a slide rule (remember those?). Instead of sliding along a rule, they make the markings revolve about a center. You turn this thing instead of sliding the ruler back and forth to make multiplications and, more importantly, divisions. That helps you figure out how long it would take you to fly from A to B and whether you have enough gas to get there. And if you don't? You have your parachute on, right? Living in Hong Kong, such opportunity (getting a private pilot license) virtually doesn't exist. There used to be three airports, total. The main airport was Kai Tak and the other two: one was located in Shatin and one in Shek Kong. The airport in Shatin was long gone because of urban development (and many residents are now living on top of what used to be the airport - which was where I rode a bicycle for the first time in the 60's). Shek Kong airport used to be a British military airport and was not opened to the public. And can you imagine flying a Cessna as a student pilot between two jumbo 747's trying to land? No the hell way! So... scratch that. I value this opportunity of living in this country where you can do just about anything you want to set your mind to. You can snowboard from the top of a mountain, jump off a cliff, dive in the ocean, or take a balloon ride and get drunk. My calling is flying a small plane. Has been for years.

Tonight's dinner... I didn't have time to cook before getting out of the house. My wife was on her own eating left overs from last night. I went to attend my three hour lecture. Afterwards, I dropped by the favorite "hole in the wall" New Hong Kong Wok Restaurant again to have a quick meal. They open really late. Til midnight at least. I had a bowl of "Siu Gnap Lai Fun", or Rice Noodle Soup with Roast Duck. The BBQ items there are quite good, and the soup base is great. Lai Fun is a form of rice noodles. Cantonese shape their rice noodles in many different forms, from large to small. The textures are slightly different too. Kind of like pasta in Italian cooking. This one, Lai Fun, is round (about 1/4 inch diameter) and fluffy. I sometimes have flat rice noodles (Ho Fun) or the thin rice noodle (Mai Fun) depending on my mood. Eating a bowl of soup noodle as a meal is quite common in Hong Kong. (And that's why I used to have five meals a day. )

This was my afternoon snack before I went to school: Green-onion flavored crackers made by Garden. Garden is a very successful commercial bakery manufacturer in Hong Kong and they produce many lines of crackers, breads and other products. I really like the flavor of this cracker. Drink: Chrysanthemum tea drink. Cantonese: "Guk Fa Cha". They named this as "tea" but actually no tea leave is used. Just as Cantonese named many drinks as "tea" and there is no tea leaf involved. It is made by simply boiling chrysanthemum (the dried flowers) with water and add rock sugar for maybe half an hour. Then filter off the residue. You can make this easily at home.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays I am attending some night classes in the nearby Sacramento City College for three hours. That is part of why I am so busy. Usually no time to cook. Or that I have to do it in a hurry. (Will have more on what I am studying later.)

There is an interesting story about the ranking of the Chinese Zodiac. It was said long time ago the God Yuk ("Yuk Wong Dai Deh") ranked the animals based on their usefulness to mankind. So Ox was the first and Rat was the twelve, lower than Pig - who is nothing but food. But one day Rat was not happy with this arrangement so he went with Ox in front of God Yuk and argued that he should rank higher than Ox. At the end, God Yuk said: To settle this, I am going to send you both to the earth and let the humans decide which of you they think is bigger (in Chinese custom, the "bigger" one has higher ranking). So Rat and Ox went to the earth and strolled along the street. To make sure that people would see both of them at the same time for a fair comparison, Rat sat on top of Ox's head. And they strolled and strolled and strolled. Whenever people saw Ox, they would point and say, "look! there is an ox!". But whenver people saw Rat sitting on top of Ox's head, they would shout, "Oh my god! That's such a BIG RAT!!!!!". So, the first rank was taken from Ox and given to Rat.

You are crazy and just imagining things. I don't have any proof. I just want to say such a sentence! Really? I have not heard of such a wrapper. It would be realy neat to see it.

The link works. I just tried it. You just need to wait about 1 minute (advertisement time) for the link to show up for you to click on.

Chinese Zodiac: It goes in this order. Rat goes first, then Ox, Tiger and so on. 1) Rat: 1936, 48, 60, 72, 84, 96 2) Ox: 1937, 49, 61, 73, 85, 97 3) Tiger: 1938, 50, 62, 74, 86, 98 4) Rabbit: 1939, 51, 63, 75, 87, 99 5) Dragon: 1940, 52, 64, 76, 88, 00 6) Snake: 1941, 53, 65, 77, 89, 01 7) Horse: 1942, 54, 66, 78, 90, 02 8) Sheep: 1943, 55, 67, 79, 91, 03 9) Monkey: 1944, 56, 68, 80, 92, 04 10) Cock (or Rooster): 1945, 57, 69, 81, 93, 05 11) Dog: 1946, 58, 70, 82, 94, 06 12) Pig: 1947, 59, 71, 83, 95, 07 It is a 12-year cycle. Each year belong to one of the twelve animals. I found some description on the Chinese Zodiac that said: I was born in 1959 and I don't believe any of this stuff. I only like to eat and sleep.

That is true Ellen. I sometimes soak the dried shrimp, somtimes don't. It depends on the dish. Without soaking, the dried shrimp have more fragrance. Since they will be stir-fried with the melons for a while, they will get soften up even without being soaked. When making other dishes, such as rice cakes, it would be better to soak the dried shrimp first.

Kung Hey Fat Choy Karen! Did you get any brand new bank notes to stuff the red envelopes?

Holding a "straight" vegetarian view, Suzy, no. They wouldn't use dried shrimp or oyster sauce. There is a "vegetarian oyster sauce". I don't know how they make it but must not be extracted from oysters. Most Chinese who observe the "no killing" rule on the first day of CNY would eat "Gai" [Cantonese], which means vegetarian dishes. And many of them are made to mock up like meat/poultry. Mock chicken, mock intestines, mock goose, etc.. Their consumption is vegetarian's but their mind is still not! You might have seen the "gai" dishes Tepee posted in the China forum. They looked great. And I think Kent Wang had posted some pictures from his visit to one vegetarian restaurants in Beijing and those look fantastic!

Gong Xi Fa Cai to you too May! Yes our reunion dinner is very nice. It is not quite a "reunion" because I see the in-laws just about every week or other week. It is definitely another gathering.

Hi Sheena Greena! I am not aware of the Chinese custom that eat a red bean based soup during CNY. But China is a big country. Chinese living in different regions celebrate CNY differently. It is nice to use red beans to make soup nonetheless.

Arrr.... thanks for the link to the website, cats2! I checked the year 1959. It verified what my father had been telling me all along about my birth date in lunar calendar.

Thanks for the kind words, Suzy. Well some of it is dietary related. I am sure you would understand. My MIL is borderline diabetic, so we need to watch out. She is lactose intolerant, no milk. She has high blood pressure, no salt. She is a Cantonese - no heat. Her teeth don't work too tell - need to chop the ingredients finer. So... enjoy life the best as we can, while we still can.

Though I telecommute most of the time, I like to step outside the house and spend some leisure time to enjoy lunch. I am blessed because where I live I have easy access to half a dozen decent Cantonese style Chinese restaurants to fill my appetite. What I had for lunch. Yummy Guide Restaurant – serving Hong Kong style steaks and western dishes, and also some Cantonese style stir-fries. This was fried rice noodles with beef slices stir-fried with some water-down eggs poured on top. A common Hong Kong style lunch item. "Wut Dan Ngau Ho" in Cantonese.