Hot Dishes for Spring - Oysters

It is spring, and time to give yourself a boost of energy. So today i'd like to offer you a special oyster menu for the months of March and April.

One other apparent reason is that the Chinese believe a lot in natural aphrodisiacs - and the oyster is a famous one. The Chinese often say oyster is "a man's gas station", and "a woman's beauty station".

If you like, many restaurants can serves oyster in many different dishes, three cold, two soups, and four hot. And as i known, there are five kinds of oysters: French belon, French fine de Claire, Japanese kumamoto, Canadian Fanny Bay and Australian Pacific gigas.

Asians are likely to prefer the silky, milky texture of the Japanese kumamoto oyster. But the French belon has a metallic smell of the shell, which some people will consider a fresh sea smell. The Canadian Fanny Bay and Australian Pacific gigas are somewhere in-between.

So you can order all the oysters and taste the difference. Or they can just order what they like.

One day, I tried to pair the oysters with ingredients of the same region. For example, kumamoto is paired with tobiko salad and ginger ponzu. Belon is served with lemon frisse and Champagne vinegar.

The side ingredients are designed not to taste stronger than the main ingredient of oysters. Moreover, many alcoholic drinks are used in the dishes, to enhance the flavor, and to help with digestion.

Vodka is used for a gazpacho of lime-marinated fine de Claire. Fanny Bay is paired with chardonnay bearnaise and garlic spinach. Brandy and beer are served with hot oyster dishes.

The vodka gazpacho is outstanding, and the fragrance of chilled tomato helps to make the oyster taste even better, while the celery works to limit the sea smell.

In the hot dishes, the oysters are baked with cheese, grilled, poached and deep-fried with batter. I will use stronger tasting ingredients such as garlic and cheese to cover up any possible sea smell caused by heating.

The fresh oysters taste bright and salty, with firm and clean flesh. A ponzu sauce helped them go down very easily. and i believe the best oysters should still be enjoyed fresh.

I'd aslo have to admit that the hot oyster dishes are tailored for those who cannot deal with the sea smell. Some Chinese people prefer not to eat seafood raw, for health reasons.

* Originally archive: Hot Dishes for Spring - Oysters 

Customs of the Chinese Lantern Festival

The annual Chinese Lantern Festival is one of the most important and long-going traditional festivals in China, ang there are various customs of this special festival in different areas in China, but in most districts there are three customs as following:

Custom 1: Eating Yuanxiao

Yuanxiao is the special food for the Chinese Lantern Festival, and it is also named Tangyuan in Chinese. It is believed that Yuanxiao is named after a palace maid, Yuanxiao, of Emperor Wu Di of the Han Dynasty.

Yuanxiao is a kind of sweet dumpling, which is made with sticky rice flour filled with sweet stuffing.And the Festival is named after the famous dumpling.

It is very easy to cook - simply dump them in a pot of boiling water for a few minutes - and eaten as a desert.

Custom 2: Guessing Lantern Riddles

"Guessing lantern riddles"is an essential part of the Festival.

Lantern owners write riddles on a piece of paper and post them on the lanterns. If visitors have solutions to the riddles, they can pull the paper out and go to the lantern owners to check their answer. If they are right, they will get a little gift.

The activity emerged during people's enjoyment of lanterns in the Song Dynasty (960-1279). As riddle guessing is interesting and full of wisdom, it has become popular among all social strata.


Custom 3: Watching Fireworks

In the daytime of the Festival, performances such as a dragon lantern dance, a lion dance, a land boat dance, a yangge dance, walking on stilts and beating drums while dancing will be staged.

On the night, except for magnificent lanterns, fireworks form a beautiful scene. Most families spare some fireworks from the Spring Festival and let them off in the Lantern Festival.

And on the night when the first full moon enters the New Year, people become really intoxicated by the imposing fireworks and bright moon in the sky.

* Originally archive: Customs of the Chinese Lantern Festival

3 Fast Tips for Making a Cute Christmas Wreath Easily

Now it doesn't take hours to make a beautiful and fashion festival Christmas wreaths that welcome visitors to your home in holiday style!

Fast Tip 1 - Christmas Wreath with Merry Musical Accent

Invite carolers and neighbors to warm up in a front hall echoing with the joyful sounds of the season.

Shiny brass jingle bells, horns, and little toy drums blend with tiny scrolls of sheet music, sprigs of holly, and a festive holiday bow to trim the wreath above and trumpet 'Happy Holidays'!

Fast Tip 2: A Pretty Christmas Wreath for Bathroom 

Christmas is a time for memories and surprises in unlikely places. Brighten your guest bath with a seaside theme that combines beachcombing memories with special treasures collected on family vacations.

We freshened up this wreath with starfish and tiny tulle bags filled with sweet-smelling potpourri , then gave it all a wash of gala gold and red ribbon.

You could also use seashells, sand dollars, or small pieces of driftwood and beach grass.

Fast Tip 3: A Warm Christmas Wreath for the Kitchen

Red gingham ribbon twirled and tied in a big bow cooks up a hearth-warming country look for this wreath.

Silver tea balls and measuring spoons add holiday sparkle and shine. Cinnamon sticks tied with red raffia lend a spicy scent tucked among jolly Christmas cookie cutters. For a fun finishing touch, try penning some whimsical recipe cards for 'Reindeer Treats,' 'Elf Snacks,' and 'Santa Sugarplums.'

* Originally archive: 3 Fast Tips for Making a Cute Christmas Wreath Easily

Do you know the Chinese Double Ninth Festival really?

As the annual Double Ninth Festival in China is coming, as for this traditional Chinese festival, how much do you know about?

The Double Ninth Festival - the ninth day of the ninth lunar month

The "Chong Yang Festival" is celebrated on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, and it is as such known as the Double Ninth Festival.

Origins: The festival began as early as the Warring States Period (475 - 221 BC). According to the yin/yang dichotomy that forms a basis to the Chinese world view, yin represents the elements of darkness and yang represents life and brightness. The number nine is regarded as yang. The ninth day of the ninth month is a double yang day, hence the name "Chong Yang Festival". (Chong means "repeat" in Chinese.) The ninth month also heralds the approach of winter. It is a time when the living need warm clothing, and filial Chinese sons and daughters extended this to make the festival a time for providing winter clothes for their ancestors. The Double Ninth Festival, therefore, also became an occasion to visit the graves of dead family members. Clothes made of paper would then be burnt as offerings.


The custom of ascending a height to avoid epidemics was passed down from long time ago. Therefore, the Double Ninth Festival is also called "Height Ascending Festival". The height people will reach is usually a mountain or a tower. Ancient literary figures have left many poems depicting the activity. Even today, people still swarm to famous or little known mountains on this day.

On this day, people will eat Double Ninth Gao (or Cake). In Chinese, gao (cake) has the same pronunciation with gao (height). People do so just to hope progress in everything they are engaged in. There is no fixed ways for the Double Ninth Cake, but super cakes will have as many as nine layers, looking like a tower.

The Double Ninth Festival is also a time when chrysanthemum blooms. China boasts diversified species of chrysanthemum and people have loved them since ancient times. So enjoying the flourishing chrysanthemum also becomes a key activity on this festival. Also, people will drink chrysanthemum wine. Women used to stick such a flower into their hair or hang its branches on windows or doors to avoid evilness.

In 1989, the Chinese government decided the Double Ninth Festival as Seniors' Day. Since then, all government units, organizations and streets communities will organize an autumn trip each year for those who have retired from their posts. At the waterside or on the mountains, the seniors will find themselves merged into nature. Younger generations will bring elder ones to suburban areas or send gifts to them on this day.

* Originally archive: Do you know the Chinese Double Ninth Festival really?

Chinese Author Mo Yan Wins 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature

The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2012 is awarded to the Chinese writer Mo Yan, who with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary.


Nowadays, there are hallucinatory realism from a Chinese writer. To find out more about Mo Yan and his works, please go on with me.

Actually, before the winner was announced - we knew that Mo Yan was a top candidate. China's very happy that this turned out to be the case. A lot of people in this country may not recognize his name immediately. But he's actually one of the best-known Chinese writers in the West because a lot of his work has been translated into English. And his novel "Red Sorghum" was made into a film, which was widely seen in the West. It was made in 1987. And he's been influenced by writers like William Faulkner and the magic realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, certainly familiar writers to many of us in this country and the rest of the West. And as you just heard, in announcing the award this morning, the Swedish Academy described his writing as hallucinatory realism that merges folk tales, history and the contemporary. His writing's also been described as experimental and unique.

Other novels by Mo Yan include "The Republic of Wine," "Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out" and "The Garlic Ballads." He's said to be so prolific that he wrote "Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out," which is a 500,000 word epic, in just 43 days. He wrote it with a brush, not a computer, because he says a computer would have slowed him down because he can't control himself when he's online. He always has to search out more information.

His work is mostly about peasant life set in the countryside. He often writes about the area where he grew up in Shandong Province. He has said that folk literature, storytellers, his own family's stories have been a resource for him. He grew up during the Cultural Revolution. When it ended, he joined the army, and that's when he began writing.

Something very interesting: Mo Yan is a pen name and it means: Don't Speak. And he said he took on that name because when he was growing up during the Cultural Revolution, his parents told him not to speak or to say what he really thought outside of his home. And he says that's very ironic because he's speaking all the time.

China has felt it's been snubbed by the Nobel committee in the past. The only other Chinese writer to get a Nobel in literature was actually a French citizen. And Mo Yan is the vice chair of the state-sanctioned writer's committee. And, you know, he's actually been criticized for his tolerance for public censors in China because in a country where writers are banned and even imprisoned, Mo Yan has cooperated with authorities. Although on literary scholar said: He's an honest writer who knows how to survive in the coercive censorship of China.

* Originally archive:  Chinese Author Mo Yan Wins 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature

China Strives to Develop its Own Wine Industry

Brief: Times are changing, though, and more Chinese people are developing a taste for Western food and wine.

This area around the Helan Mountains is a key part of Ningxia's government’s five-year plan to make this an official wine-growing region.

The area is home to a host of wineries, such as Jiabeilan and Domaine Helan Mountain. One of the smaller wineries is Silver Heights, which was started in 2007.

Winemaker Emma Gao grew up in the area, but is one of the few Chinese to hold a French national certification for winemaking.

"When I was growing up in the 1980s, the wine we drank was sweet, which is how we thought all wine was. We would even add some other beverages to it, so that it would be more palatable. If it was like a proper red wine, very tannic, we would not like it very much," said Gao.

Changing Tastes

Gao says times are changing, though, and more Chinese people are developing a taste for Western food and wine.

"There is already a huge potential market of 1.3 billion customers. Even if just one percent of the population drinks a glass of wine a day, the result you get from this is pretty clear," she said.

Wines from Ningxia, including one from Silver Heights, caused a small stir last December when they beat similarly-priced wines from Bordeaux in an informal blind-taste test in Beijing. One of the contest's organizers, Jim Boyce, runs a Chinese wine blog called grapewallofchina.com.

"The reality was five French and five Chinese professionals picked Ningxia, the top four wines of the 10 were from Ningxia. Does that mean Ningxia is better than Bordeaux? No, of course not," he said. "The best Bordeaux wine is still better - but it does mean there is a capability here to make wine that can compete at a certain level."

Father's Pressure

Silver Heights is largely the realization of a dream - cherished by 70-year-old wine lover Gao Lin, who funded his daughter's wine education in France.

"I told her if you study wine-making, the goal is very clear - we can have some fields here and we can cultivate grapes," she said. "Afterwards, you can come back and work here. So, I can give you money to pay for your education. If you study other subjects, then I will not provide any financial assistance. You will have to support yourself."

Emma Gao acknowledges her father's strong influence in her choice of careers, but says she also had an epiphany moment - when she began to love wine too.

"I was tasting 13 or 14 different kinds of chardonnay," she said. "It was all excellent and I tasted a blooming spring flower, different kinds of fruits, a nutty taste, all of these tastes were delightful. Afterwards, I did a lot of other tastings, in places like Burgundy, the Loire Valley - every area has its unique wines and tastes."

Gao says Ningxia wines also have distinctive characteristics. Her winery produces only red wines, which judges have described as spicy, and reminiscent of roses, tomatoes and black fruits.

* Originally archive: China Strives to Develop its Own Wine Industry