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@7
Disappointing about KC Meats, the silver skin is “fascia”, that’s what is I see as the *bane* of bad meat cuts at supermarkets here.. they always hide it so you look at the top of your steaks and see reasonable marbling and it appears cut across the grain, then you pull it out of the pack and the little muscle binding tough piece of ‘silvery skin’ makes it almost impossible to enjoy the steak. Was the fascia from KC along the side/with the fat? Or was it horizontal through the meat separating the cut? Were you able to see their available meat at all, or just do all the ordering online/via mail? If they have a place where they warehouse all their stuff or something it might be worth finding…
Maybe Jerry’s just gettin over a hardcore Halloween hangover, so his toilet (WITH TP!!!) is his current center of the universe?
@JerryS: RE: “I asked him briefly about New Haven pizza, since pizza was originated there.”
I’m not sure what you mean by this.. pizza originated in Connecticut? News to me.
I started making pizzas here for myself, mostly focusing on making the best dough possible (to me :D). I love to cook. I also love to research what I cook 😀 That being said, in *broad* terms, US has 2 varieties of pizza..and it’s mostly related to the dough – Chicago (deep dish) or New York (thin crust). Of course there are hundreds of variety of both dough and pizza and names to match, but when someone says “New York” style in a broad term, it probably just means thin crust.
That being said, if you’re interested in trying, grab some of what they call “bread flour” here, a little olive oil, some salt, some garlic salt, 2/5 ratio of your dough in water, and mix up some dough in a bowl.. it’s not so hard to make a decent dough, then you can play with the recipe and try to replicate what you are calling the best pizza ever, all ya need is a toaster oven :D. You can buy oregano (or my preference, “Italian Seasoning” which is a mix of several other spices) which goes great on the bread beneath the tomato sauce too. Trick when you transition the pie onto the pan you’re going to cook it on, or baking sheet or whatever you got, heat some olive oil on the pan beforehand, and if you want to add some interesting texture/flavour option to the bottom of the crust sprinkle some corn meal beneath the dough when you’re done kneading it out.
** Oh, and if you want you can get ahold of some yeast, I actually brought some back this month from overseas cuz’ I couldn’t find any here 😀 I just use a little because I like my crust crispy and relatively thin..and the bread dough has a little rise in it on its own.
Good information Ben, do you know who you provide evidence to? Some bureau or all done at a bank?
I’ll visit HSBC this week and try to swing something like Vincent suggested, HSBC has several branches in my city in Canada so I’ll try to get a dual-currency account opened, transfer from Canada to HSBC Canada account, convert to RMB in the HSBC Canada account, and access here…….. here goes nothing 😀
That’s a _really_ good idea. I’ll update if it works out 😀 Thanks for the thought.
My problem is I need to transfer about 180k USD into China. I have enough time to do incremental daily 9.999k transfers via western union, but not sure that is the ideal way for this amount.
I guess I’ll have to hit up a bank (or several) to find best rates or whatever, worried that there’s restriction or high fees involved…or possibly some sort of customs paper/etc.
Does Xiong Mao have a halloween party tonight?
I went to the jellyfish park party with some friends last night and it was pretty good….about to apply some more poisonous zombie skin and plan to meet some people at xiong mao, but not sure if I heard right that there’s a halloween thing going on…
RE: Jellyfish party – I got a call about it the other day, but don’t know the details yet. Basically what I heard was they are ‘renting’ out a section of a park by 2nd ring road and hosting a party there.. bar DJ etc. I’m 100% down with halloween outdoors rather than in a club 😀 I’ll get deets and paste them here soon, wherever it is I’ll be headin there.
@tiger
The local meat markets you’re after (not Ling Dian. :D) are located near the seafood market – just down a long side street. There may be other ones, but this one is pretty big, and you can get pretty much whatever you want – but from personal experience the butchers there, like many I’ve seen in China in general, don’t really cut in a way I’d say leaves ideal cuts of beef. I guess it depends on who you go to and how you describe what you want, but I digress – On a map, it can be found here down one of the little side streets that isn’t really visible on the map as far as I can tell, almost “inbetween” the city block, wander and find…bustling at 5am:
For what it’s worth, I was extremely drunk and stumbled into this place once with a friend, and for some reason we had a butcher chop the head off a goat and carried it around for a while ~ 6am…distrubing, maybe, but true. 😀
I’m a fan of Tony Romas from way back in the day – my first taste was in hollywood ~20 yrs ago, and whenever I saw one while travelling made it a purpose to go there and get my rib on.
I used to go to the one in Shanghai at least once every time I was there, and when they were opening the franchise in Chengdu it contributed to why I moved next to Lan Kwai Fong..
While I love their ribs and they use all the same sauces and such, the one time I tried their steak it seemed like the source meat was pretty thin and poor quality, maybe it was bad luck – the flavours were fine, the meat quality behind it was pretty disappointing, but I’m also a picky eater when assessing quality of foods 🙂
Brendan: RE K.C. Meats, that sounds interesting – have you experience ordering their cuts and are they generally fat (or do they let you specify things like thickness?) steaks? I’m going to check it out for sure, I’ve long desired to be able to buy *good cuts*, from a butcher who knows how to butcher properly without leaving tendony messes hidden under apparently well cut marble on top. Nothing worse than bringing home a nice looking piece of beef, taking off the wrapper, and seeing that 1cm beneath the beautiful marble on top is a disgusting thick layer of fat running cross-ways.
FYI, Ito Yokado has import cuts of steak that are nice, quite expensive, but unfortunately *thin*…they’re generally in the cooler area by the meat section in frozen packaging, same place as you’ll find their rather expensive crab.
Might also want to check laundry detergent – recently my maid changed my laundry detergent to something that was “cheaper” *sigh* and it caused me to get a few little rashy/itchy bumps, changed back and it went away – not 100% positive that was the cause…..it was also during the summer, but it seemed to be timed right and went away when I changed back.
There’s an interesting little contemporary/modern/abstract ish art gallary that had an event I had attended a while ago, I don’t remember the exact name, but it’s next to the Bank Of China HQ at RoMa Square near babaojie..
It’s not huge, maybe 150-200sqm? if I remember, and had a variety of mediums including canvas, sculpture, furniture, and jewelry..this was ~ 2 yrs ago, and I think the artist was from HK or Shanghai, but the location is around here on a map:
http://maps.google.com/?ll=30.669496,104.066223&spn=0.0015,0.00228&t=m&vpsrc=6&z=19
RE: taxi back from airport – don’t use the taxis at the exit gate yelling “taxi” – it’s not a taxi, and if you don’t speak Chinese you’ll get screwed. Even if you do..actually.
Just go to domestic terminal exit at the end of the airport and you’ll see the new taxi line. It’s a lineup along the taxi “row” where the taxis park in stalls like /////// and a dude will be there to point you to the taxi for you. The taxi drivers will all use the meter (at least I’ve not experienced one who doesn’t or needs negotiation) and you just need to say where you’re going, have it written down if you can’t say it properly.. I’ve never had to utilize chinese or have any sort of conversation with one, just say destination, done – not much chance of being ripped off. Expect to pay only like 30-40rmb to Ikea, for the return trip. There are taxis there early morning and late night, and usually a lot of them.
It depends on the country you’re moving to, they all have different rules and regulations. You will probably need (at least) health certificates, import licences and quarantine papers.. I know that I looked at moving to Singapore and the process/cost involved in bringing my cats there – and it’s not a HUGE hassle to deal with the paperwork and vaccinations / quarantine, but the cost is high.. you’d need to check with the country in Europe you’re going to, it seems most governments have websites that cover the process and costs exclusively.
For reference, the cost for Singapore (not flight, I’m talkin fees for getting my kitties in) was about 22k RMB each..there are also agencies that do the legwork for you.
The cost for in-cabin pets is pretty small, and the pet has to remain in a cage under a seat at all times by law.. this might vary country to country and on international flights, you should really check with the airlines you plan to use to verify. If it’s too big for the cabin you can send it as either excess baggage or cargo. Airlines can confirm the details for you tho, better contact them, and you definitely need import certs before you’re allowed to put ’em on the plane and may need to pay customs tax if it’s a high valued animal on the other side.
If you want sons of anarchy and don’t need subtitles (Chinese) then go to eztv.it – it’s *fast*.
I download the latest season episodes as they come out, it’s one of my shows on tap…as it has come out season by season since season 1, it’s on my box and watched the next day 😉 Same for Spartacus (both blood/sand and gods/arena), but spartacus is much easier to find on DVD with subtitles.
Sometimes funny, sure..but *gets tired fast* 😀 I heard an amusing story which gives a reason (other than no incentive) for the lack of service:
Back in the day, an emperor was heading to a town, and had his right hand ride ahead to arrange lodging for their horses. They arrived at a stable, and said, “We need to keep a couple horses here, by order of the king.” The stable-hand replied, “But Sir, we have no space! It’s full!” and immediately saw the frown on the hand’s face. He got a thought, “But.. wait! I have an idea. You can leave them with me and I will take them up the road to another stable, where we can take even better care of them. I will handle it all for you, no problem Sir! My pleasure to serve!”.
The hand immediately signaled to have the stable-hand beheaded.
Moral of the story: if you show motivation to go above and beyond and demonstrate any sort of ingenuity, motivation, or intellect, you will be seen as a threat, recognizing problems with leadership, or potentially leading a rebellion. The safe world for an emperor is a world of simple minded servants. Be a simple minded servant, and keep your head intact.
It’s sorta how I remembered it, anyways, and I don’t know if it’s a common story or just something someone made up, but the explanation fits a mentality I see pretty commonly around here 🙂
You can force tips on people, but their immediate response is to refuse.. sometimes I force tips on people who do excellent little services for me like, the car guy who comes to fix my shit when it’s broken somewhere and he personally grabs a cab to wherever I’m at almost immediately, or essentially anyone who goes above and beyond to get something done for me, like the guy I argued with over cab fare to the airport (very early, no return fares, so he was like “80 minimum!” I was like “50! or use the machine!” etc..) ended up giving him 100 because he drove like a madman and got me there on time 😀
What you will notice, though, is as you go to different cities – like Shenzhen, you’ll be expected to tip at different places. Massage places, some restaurants, anything frequented by HK’ies who drive up for cheap service – they tip, and the people get used to it so expect it (and ask for it shamelessly… “Tipsie?” with fingers rubbing). Nicer restaurants etc in Shanghai expect tips, too, I found – at least western ones..not so much for Chinese ones.
It’s an awkward thing here. In general in Chengdu, don’t tip. It also kind of pisses me off that tipping isn’t common, I blame the generally shitty service on that…sure service is really cheap, but it’s almost never done with a smile or pleasant interactions, and people just blankly go about their job with almost no passion. Makes sense with no additional incentive and shitty pay, but sucks for someone who wants good service.
One thing I’m confused with Cecilia, is that your example is “mouthful” – which isn’t a body part. A mouthful is not a mouth, it’s a quantity of food which can fill a mouth.. is that what you mean by body parts which describe quantity? If that’s the case, maybe:
“A fistful/handful of quarters.”
“A head of lettuce.”
“An ear of corn.”
“A leg of the race.” (One segment in a relay or triathlon)
“A finger of fudge.” (different in different countries……..potentially very dirty)
“An foot of snow.” (length, not quantity, but still a measurement :D)
The thing is, the Chinese examples you use are more like idioms than body parts used as quantifiers specifically, at least as I read them…so I’m curious if you’re looking for specifically quantifications via body part, or idioms involving body parts, which may be a lot easier to come across?
Like for example, “A bag of bones” – the quantifier is the bag…but these are way more common. Curious what the desired result/output in the research is..
