[絕對達令] Absolute Boyfriend~!!

Hello! :3

I've recently become addicted to Jue Dui Darling, the 2012 Taiwanese drama adaptation of the Absolute Boyfriend manga by Yuu Watase! 

I love love love this show! It stars two idols that I adore: the Taiwanese singer Jiro Wang, and the Korean actress Koo Hye Sun from another show I love called Boys Before Flowers (although her voice is dubbed because she is not fluent in Mando). Multi-cultural indeed.

Jue Dui Darling is about a young working professional girl called Xiaofei, who, fed up of being rejected by guys all the time, whimsically orders an online boyfriend from a shady company called Cronos but doesn't actually believe what the writing on the package says. Much to her shock, the next day he is delivered in a pod. She activates him, and learns that he is a robot that has been calibrated to be her perfect boyfriend and that he is free for a trial period of two days. She's like, what the hell and takes him out, happy to receive so much attention. Unfortunately, she forgets to return him within the two days and therefore is forced to buy him - at a price that she will never be able to afford. Dundundun...!

At the moment, I have finished episode 4 out of 13 and am looking forward to much much more~~

The theme song is called Mr. Perfect, and it is by Fahrenheit. Isn't it catchy?

This is my current deskie background, hehe! >:3

What I really like about this show is that firstly, it's in Mandarin which means that I can actually follow it (and improve my Mando skills hehe), secondly, the acting is completely and utterly overdramatic - just how I like my Asian dramas to be, and thirdly, it's about a perfect boyfriend...what more can you want? My housemates have criticised this concept, saying that it's building up unrealistic expectations, which...is true...but hey, a girl can dream, no? ^_^

Yishi xxx

[柚子] Pomelo ♥

Hey guys!

Sorry I haven't been active on the blogosphere as of late ~ real life has been eating up my time, but since I have a few spare minutes before bed I thought I would tell you about something that is close to my heart...and food related.

There's a fruit that I really like to eat which is called Pomelo:

Apparently the leaves of the fruit are used in a ritual bath, which the Chinese believe/believed(?) helps to cleanse a person and repel evil.

It's a large citrus fruit native to Southeast Asia and tastes like a sweeter version of a grapefruit (it's actually the ancestor of the grapefruit). In China, we call it 柚子 (you zi), and when my parents have friends round for dinner, they will often have pomelo for dessert as it is a nice cleanser after a meal. It's often candied and used in Asian desserts as well as Western marmalade. I think it'd also make an awesome breakfast or drink! ^^

Since it's a citrus fruit, it's a great source of vitamin C, and also of folate. For those that are health conscious, there's a full breakdown of the nutritional values of the fruit here.

It's quite hard to come by in the UK ~ we can usually only find them at local grocers or Chinese supermarkets, which is why most of my friends have never heard of this fruit! As such, I thought I'd tell you guys about it and spread the pomelo love! :D

Yishi xxx

Happy Chinese New Year!

新年快乐!!!

Wish I could cut paper as pro as this! Image source: here.

Hello everyone, and happy new year in the lunar calendar! This year, it's the year of the dragon, which means that according to tradition, this will be a year of progression, perseverance and auspiciousness.

Song of the day: Love You More And More by Fahrenheit (opening theme to Superstar Express/To Get Her! ^^)

For those of you that don't know, legend has it that back in the day, an Emperor decreed that there would be a race for all animals in order to determine which animals would be included in a calendar of years. There were only enough spaces for twelve animals, and the race involved crossing a river as the final obstacle.

At that time, the Cat and the Rat were good friends and rode on the back of the Ox, who had set off early because he was slow. However, when they got to the river, the sneaky Rat pushed the Cat off and jumped onto the shore, backstabbing everyone but earning his place as the first animal. But at least the Ox's efforts weren't wasted, for he came second. The Tiger came third, and the Rabbit fourth after finding some stones to hop across. Fifth was the Dragon, who had watered the land by spreading rain which slowed him down - he'd also helped the rabbit across. The Snake came sixth by sneaking a ride on the Horse and then scaring the Horse enough to steal the Horse's rightful place. The Sheep, Monkey and Rooster all worked together to build a raft, and earned their respective eighth, ninth and tenth places. The Dog came eleventh, having been distracted by playing in the water, and long afterwards, the Pig arrived, claiming twelfth. Unfortunately the Cat arrived too late, so now hates the Rat forever more!

There are many variations on the legend of the zodiac, but that's the one that I grew up with.

I've never celebrated Chinese New Year in China before but really want to, as it is by far the biggest festival in the Chinese calendar and tends to go on for AGES! There are lion dances, feasts, variety shows, fireworks, presents...the works! For me though, I've normally celebrated it with family and friend dinner parties. It is a tradition to eat dumplings, so when I started going to university, it was difficult for me to go home so I learned how to make dumplings and have done so every year now...apart from this one since all the people that I made them with have now left! :(

Pre-made dumplings just don't have the same TLC as home made ones...

Going off-topic, today I went to Mill Road which is where all the Asian supermarkets are. I was planning on buying kimchi, pak choi, udon, sauces, rice snacks, biscuits, sweets, and whatever else I fancied at the time, but in one of the shops, when I got to the till, I realised that I'd left my card at home. CRINGE. I only had a fiver too, so I had to do the really embarrassing ritual of removing items from the shopping bag but still ended up being six pence short. Luckily, the woman let me off. I hope she took pity on my broken Mandarin and was in good spirits because it was CNY! So, the image above shows the only things that I managed to buy... :(

A present from my friends that I mentioned in my last post.

Normally, it's a tradition for us to receive little red envelopes of money from our relatives, but when I checked my pigeon hole today, there was no pocket money from the parents. Hoping something will come tomorrow...! ^^

This is what I had for dinner tonight to celebrate!

I managed to take some in progress photos of my dinner preparations: udon soup and the dumplings I bought, so I'll put up a recipe for the udon soup...probably tomorrow.

Finally, before I sign off, want to know why firecrackers are so popular on Chinese New Year? Well, back in the day, once again, the world was dominated by monsters - a notable one was called Nian, who came out once a year on the same day to destroy villages and gobble up people. People lived in fear and marked the end of the year with the time Nian came out, hence why the word nian is year in Chinese. One day, a man proposed to light bamboo which was supposed to crackle really loudly and could therefore scare Nian away. It worked, and now, firecrackers are lit to reconstruct the crackling of the bamboo.

The end! :)

Yishi xxx

Of bicycles and street vendors...

Hey there, hope you're well! I wanted to post a picture of the view from my window in the morning, but by the time I got up and found my camera, the sun had risen up too much and bleached out everything in sight. But hopefully soon I'll get to show you Old Court and our college Chapel.

Outfit of the day:

For more picspam, see my new style blog: mystyledchopsticks! ^^

Anyway, today I was re-united once again with my beloved and battered bicycle, after seven weeks of being apart. And boy, I could feel what those seven weeks have done to my muscles! I've missed my bike - I don't have one that's my size at home, and whilst I can get away with riding my brother's little bike or the one that I have owned since I was about 10, it just feels outright weird to be riding a kid's bike.

If you ever come to Cambridge, then you'll very soon conclude that Cambridge (although I'm sure Oxford would also pitch in for the title) is the city of bikes - you can't go for five minutes without the sleek sound of spokes whooshing by. It's an icon of the city and an icon of what it means to be a student here. Even if you live close enough to walk to lectures, most students still own a bike for ease of transport, although that isn't to say that there aren't those who make it a point to not own one!

Growing up, I had an image in my mind that cities in China were like this too, that they were famous for their two pedals:

Sourced from here!

I remember seeing old black and white photos of roads filled with cyclists and feeling awed by the mere thought of the words "bicycle kingdom", but in the three times that I have visited China, all I've seen are cars left, right, centre. It was quite a sad realisation for me as I'd really looked forward to seeing the views from the photos in real life, but in retrospect I guess they are now just a symbol of the past and of what life once was, you know, before everyone could afford a car. Apparently, bicycles in China were once held in such high esteem that they were included as wedding presents!

In my mind, there's just something that feels a bit more communal about riding a bike instead of driving, not to mention the health benefits. But speaking of that communal feeling, I got a lot of it today when I was in town on my shopping rounds!

At Market Square, I came across a Chinese vendor selling hats, scarves and other winter goods who was in the middle of haggling with two Chinese girls. I was standing nearby, browsing the cute gloves, and couldn't help but smile at the tactics that the girls were using: cuteness, appeal to race, appeal to the homeland, and "in [insert town name] we get it for only [insert price]!!!". Eventually, they walked off, happy. Now there were some items that I had my eye on, but since I didn't have the courage to try to bargain, I went to Paperchase for a bit and then came back, determined to give it my best shot.

The vendor immediately asked me if I was Chinese, to which I replied yes in Mandarin, and then he asked me if I was from Malaysia... >_< ...I made a face similar to that, so he asked me if I was from Guangdong. I was somewhat surprised as Guangdong is adjacent to Hunan where my parents come from, and I thought my accent sounded more foreigner-trying-to-learn-the-lingo than Southern China Twang. But if he did manage to detect any Southern accent then I am well impressed. On the other hand, if he thought I was Cantonese (on account of Guangdong) learning to speak Mandarin then I am less impressed. Those are answers that I will never know unless I visit his stall again, so I shall no longer dwell on the matter.

Anyway, he told me straight away that since I was Chinese, he was willing to negotiate prices with me - he must've seen my grin when I was listening in on the girls earlier. Not that I was complaining, but when I think about it, it's pretty unfair on others that I get secret discounts just because of my race. In the midst of my bargaining session, I even saw some white tourists drop by and ask the vendor for the price of an item - for them, it was a flat rate, and whilst it may have looked reasonable to the tourists, the vendor and I both knew that the asking price is always much higher than what the vendor is willing to accept. I think this is just a part of Chinese culture, that at every small business shop, as long as the shopkeeper likes you, can speak to you in his mother tongue or is desperate to make a sell then you can very easily whittle the price down.

So with that in mind, I managed to score myself two sets of hats and scarves for almost 50% of his original price. Of course I threw in the "I have no money because I'm a poor student" card, but he already knew that, because I apparently looked so young. He also gave me a leaflet advertising a show about 5,000 years of Chinese culture that looks amazing but is too pricey for me to attend, since "I have no money because I'm a poor student". However, if any of you happen to be in London in April and are interested in attending then my good deed for the day has been done.

On a final note, here is a photo of Gus, our college cat, who decided to take up residence on my friend's bed. She actually called me over to get rid of him, poor thing!

So cute! ^^

Maybe I should've titled this post: how to haggle with a Chinese vendor. Answer: if you can't speak Chinese, then go with someone who can haggle for you.

Yishi xxx

Congee [稀饭]

Hey guys! Since one of my New Year's resolutions was to learn how to make ten new dishes, I decided to get on it this weekend and learn how to make congee! :D

Song of the day: Gaseumi Eotteokeh Dwaennabwa by A & T

OK...so it's a bit of a cop out as it's one of the easiest things out there to cook, but I was genuinely curious about this dish after eating it at a restaurant and being told by my friend that whilst it was a good dish, it wasn't worth the price. Why? I asked, and was told by her that congee is essentially made from leftovers and is so easy to make that even a beginner can't go wrong! Anyway, as there are so many different variations on the basic recipe then I'm still gonna count this as one of the big ten hehe!

The seaweed and sesame Korean variation, as made by SJ!

I grew up knowing congee as xi fan, a rice porridge dish that my parents would feed me when I was ill, or something that family friends would serve after a main meal that was gentle on the stomach to digest. Widespread all over Asia, it has a reputation for being a therapeutic and calming dish, a comfort food of sorts!

Historically, congee is a traditional Chinese dish that has been in Chinese culture for thousands of years. Originally a poor man's dish, or served in times of famine, 'legend has it that during the rule of Emperor Yong Zheng of the Qing dynasty, a famine broke out. He ordered his officials to make congee and distribute it to the starving people. Corrupt officials would skimp out on the rice and distribute very watery versions. When the Emperor heard about this, he set a standard that the porridge must be so thick that when a pair of chopsticks were inserted, they stay upright. Any officials who failed this standard were beheaded!'

So in essence, congee is rice that is cooked in lots of water over a long period of time. This allows the rice to disintegrate into a soft porridge and the starch that is released thickens the water. Seasonings then depend on culture, region and personal taste!

Some flavours that I have come across so far:

♥ Plain with salt
♥ Sliced shiitake, chicken, chicken stock
♥ Salted egg, ginger, spring onion, ginger
♥ Seaweed slices, sesame oil, sesame seeds
♥ Red beans, ginger for a dessert
♥ ...what else will I add here? ^^

I hope this post has inspired you to take a look at a familiar dish through new eyes, or to try something new if you haven't been introduced to this wonderful and versatile yumminess! :)

For more information, see: here, here and here!

All my love,

Yishi xxx