The Holiest of Beers

I'm not much of a drinker, but I do enjoy trying new beers from time to time. My most recent tasting was of a very unique beer brewed by Belgian Trappist monks called Achel 8° Blonde. The beer was served in a Trappist style glass (similar in shape to a goblet) and had a huge foamy head that looks like a french vanilla float. Underneath all that foam was a nice dark blonde beer with a wonderfully pleasant rich fruit and floral yeast aroma. The taste is of sweet malt with some hop bitterness, light bodied with creamy texture, just amazing.

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豆苗, Dau Miu, Snow Pea Sprouts, A Vegetable By Many Names

Dau miu: snow pea shoots stir fried with garlic

When I lived in Hong Kong I used to go to many local dim sum restaurants and the people I was with would always order a stir fried green leafy vegetable dish.  It was one of my favorite vegetable dishes there yet I had no idea what it was, and nobody could really explain it in English when asked. Tonight I went to have some crispy duck in London's chinatown...I know, again in Chinatown, I should have rented a place there. There I finally found out that this magnificent dish is actually the shoots from snow pea plants steamed with garlic.

These are one of the most delicious vegetables that can be stir fried and are considered a Chinese delicacy. If you haven't tried this it's a must. I don't remember seeing this on the menu in any Chinese restaurants I've been to in the US, although surely it's available in the Chinatowns of larger cities such as New York and probably available in quite a few places in California. So rather than search through all of the Chinese style restaurants here's a quick little recipe for it.

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Cycling in Belgium

Belgium cycling map courtesy of fietsroute.org

This week I've been planning a trip to Belgium towards the end of the month. I haven't been there before, nor do I know anyone who has been or anyone from there so I figured it would be the perfect place to go explore. We'll be taking the Eurostar from central London through the Chunnel, through northern France and into Belgium, stopping in Brussels. A 2 and a half hour journey by train is a lot nicer and more relaxed than 2 and a half hours of dealing with security and customs at an airport for a 40 minute flight.

While researching how to get around northern Belgium I found that they have an extensive cycling network with more then 2500 miles of cycling paths criss-crossing throughout just the northern half of the country. Most of these are long distance routes cutting through most of the major towns and cities, and even crossing borders into Amsterdam and the Netherlands. This is a great contrast to what is seen in the US where you're lucky to have a narrow bicycle lane in a city. Admittedly some cities have nice networks for cyclists such a Denver/Boulder and Portland Oregon, but they pale in comparison to a country wide paved network of paths set apart from the larger vehicles like cars and trucks.

I'll be sure to post a few pictures if I see anything of interest. I'm not entirely sure what to expect from this country other than cycling, chocolate, and beer. Actually those 3 things should make for an exciting trip.

Epic Lunch of Champions

Salmon box from the Hare & Tortoise restaurant

I've been on a bit of a sushi kick the past few days, going to various Japanese restaurants around the area. Yesterday I found myself at a place called Hare & Tortoise. It's more of an Asian restaurant than strictly Japanese with quality Thai, Korean, Chinese, and Japanese dishes filling the menu.

This time I ended up ordering one of my favorite Japanese dishes; a salmon box. It consists of 2 salmon nigiri (salmon laid on top of a ball of rice), 6 salmon maki (the salmon sushi rolls), 3 pieces of salmon sushimi (just pieces of salmon with nothing else), and a salmon temaki or handroll (salmon, cucumber, salmon roe, and rice wrapped in a cone shaped seaweed.) It looked so good that I had to take a picture of it (seen to the right.)

It makes for a very fresh and filling lunch which doesn't leave you feeling stuffed and bloated afterwards. Even for those who haven't had sushi before it's a good starter dish.

Ghost Bike

Ghost Bike in London

Wandering around in East London today and spotted this fitting reminder of a fallen cyclist; a ghost bike. I've seen these in a few other cities such as New York, and even Denver and they're always a chilling reminder of the constant danger of being a cyclist in a major city. Be safe out there.

School of Life

Near where I'm staying is a little store front near Russell Square called The School of Life. The shop sells a small number of books and gifts and also displays information about all The School of Life's services and programs. Beneath the shop is a classroom where small classes are held. According to the "school's" website the school offers a variety of programs and services concerned with how to live wisely and well, addressing such questions as why work is often unfulfilling, why relationships can be so challenging, why it’s ever harder to stay calm and what one could do to try to change the world for the better.

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It's Good Enough

Spotted this today while wandering around. If it's good enough for them then it's good enough for a post.

Goodenough College: Central London

Chop Chop Redux

In a previous post (Chop Chop) I detailed a bit of Chinese chop stick etiquette. This post of course left out a huge portion of the chop stick using population; the Japanese and Koreans. Today I am comparing three countries, Korea, China, and Japan, each of which have their own style of chopstick and different etiquette.

Chinese chopsticks are the longest of the 3 styles of chopsticks and have a square end. The material they are made from is typically wood, however they have been made of many different materials from ivory to plastic. There is no definite answer to why they the are longest, but it is said that it is because the Chinese typically share their food. When they sit at the table there are many dishes in the middle and each person pulls a bit of food rather than piling everything they will eat onto their plate as in other cultures. The wider and longer chopsticks make it easier to move food from a bigger serving dish to a smaller eating dish.

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Interesting landmark in central London

Entrance; which is under a hotel in central London.

There is an amazingly fun venue near where I'm staying called Bloomsbury Lanes. It's an old American style bowling alley with old time American eats. They offer a few different menus all with traditional bowling style fare; burgers, pizzas, wings, classic ice cream milk shakes served in a glass with 2 straws. I know I should be eating more traditional British cuisine, but I'd be hard pressed to find a place like this even in the US.

It's more than just a restaurant though. They offer 8 lanes of large ball 10 pin bowling at a rate of something like £4 per game. Apart from the bowling they offer private karaoke rooms suitable for groups of 6-30 people (haven't experienced this however as I'd rather not break their equipment with my terrible singing. )

Equipped with state of the art old skool bowling shoes.

Add all this together with live bands 4-5 days per week and this is the place to be if you're bored with the London pubs which fill up as early as 4pm and generally have the same feel no matter what part of London you're in. If you ever find yourself in central London this place is a must to balance out the regal tourist destinations of the city.

Crispy Ducky in Chinatown

Crispy duck and some fixings

Whenever I travel to London I always make it a point to visit Chinatown. The restaurants there are very authentic and reminiscent of the local restaurants of Hong Kong and China. My trip wouldn't be complete without having my favorite Asian appetizer; crispy aromatic duck. This time I stopped at the Four Seasons restaurant in the heart of Chinatown, who are said to have the best in all of England. I'm not sure if this is true or not, but they do make a really tasty duck.

This dish is very similar to Peking duck for those who are familiar. The duck is first marinated with spices, then steamed until tender, and finally deep fried until crispy. This leaves an amazingly low fat and deliciously crispy skin on meat. In most restaurants here the server brings the duck (whole, half, or quarter size) directly to the table on a platter and uses a fork and spoon to shred it into chunks. Accompanying the duck is a bamboo steamer filled with thin flour pancakes similar to soft tortillas, fresh cucumbers, and a plum sauce similar to but a bit sweeter than hoisen sauce. You're basically left to the task of assembling the given ingredients to your liking, like a make your own taco night. Spread the sauce on the pancake, add a bit of duck and vegetables, wrap and enjoy a mouthful of bliss.

New Barefoot Kicks

On days when I have to do a bit of walking or hiking my dressy Chruch's brand shoes however fashionable don't quite cut it in the endurance comfort department. Just the other day while doing a bit of shopping I spotted the Merrell Trail Glove at a local outdoors store.

I've been keen on the "barefoot running/walking" fad since the release of the Vibram Five Fingers shoes. Unfortunately my footwear design studying fiance considers them the most hideous footwear on the planet short of anything made by Crocs. Luckily there exists a few alternatives; the Nike Free shoes, Vivo Barefoot shoes, the Feelmax shoes. The pair I've been sporting are the Merrell Trail Glove in the ninjaesque black/molten lava color scheme.

It does take a while to get used to the way you walk/run in them, it shy's away from the heel toe action we're all so used to and encourages a more flat running stance, which should help lessen impact injuries and improve your posture. The whole concept of barefoot running/walking is to go back to a more natural running style, which makes you feel more at one with your surroundings but also helps take the strain off your leg muscles.

The strawberries taste like strawberries, and the strasberries taste like strasberries, and then pineberries taste like....umm pineberries?

In my previous post (strasberry post) I wrote about a limited edition Dutch fruit called the strasberry sold in Waitrose stores across the  UK. I arrived in London yesterday and visited a Waitrose on my way from Heathrow. To my dismay according to the grocer at that particular Waitrose they have discontinued the strasberry. Apparently Waitrose likes to feature only one designer fruit at a time this time of year.

Like the strasberry mentioned before the pineberry has the same genetics as the common strawberry. Also like the strasberry it was rescued from near extinction by a small group of Dutch farmers within the past few years. It seems these dutch farmers have become quite bored with the common strawberry and need to experiment a bit.

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Raw pre-processing

Portland Headlight - Portland, ME

When traveling I generally take pictures in raw format, in my case Nikon NEF. I shoot raw for a few different reasons; higher dynamic range, full control over the picture, post exposure error correction, the list goes on. It does come with it's disadvantages though, one of which being that my underpowered travel netbook bogs down to a crawl when processing them. There is however a bit of salvation. Since I use linux on my netbook I have access to the powerful command line and a little program called ufraw.

By using this program I can convert all of my raw images from my memory card to jpg format for easy and quick review. I can review all of my photos and prune out the duplicates and bad shots. The whole process is incredibly easy and only consists of 1 line of command-line-fu.

ufraw-batch --out-type=jpeg --out-path=/home/Pictures/export --compression=85 /media/memory_card/MyPics/*.NEF


This leaves you with jpg files in a separate folder for reviewing so you know which of your raw files you should keep and which you should delete.

Traveling

I'll be traveling a bit over the course of the next month or so. Today I made the 6+ hour drive north to the Canadian border for my sister's nursing school graduation ceremony. On tuesday I'll be boarding a virgin atlantic flight in Boston destined for London where I'll be meeting my fiance for our impromptu mini-vacation to the Isle of Wight off England's south coast. I'm not exactly sure what's going on after that, it's kind of up in the air at the moment, but I'll be sure to document my adventures thoroughly.

Strasberries..not strawberries, strasberries

I spent about a month in London last year in May. I spent some time seeing the usual sights such as the London Eye, Big Ben and various other touristy things. One of the most memorable aspects of my visit however were the strasberries. Shown at left they have the shape of a raspberry, but the texture of a strawberry.

It's a bit difficult to explain the taste of these little fruits. The best way that I can think to explain them is that each one is like taking a bite out of the most perfectly sweet strawberry you've ever tasted with just a hint of tartness. It's like an explosion of amazing flavor in every bite.

Apparently it was a near extinct type of wild strawberry which was discovered by a Dutchman a few years ago. I spotted them at Waitross (a midrange UK supermarket chain) during my stay. According to the grocer they are only in season and on sale between April and July which makes it a fairly short time for them to be available. They weren't the cheapest fruit on the shelves either at something like $6 for 1/4 lb. I'm heading back across the pond soon just in time for strasberry season, if any of you are as well I highly recommend trying these amazing little fruits.

Chop Chop!

Beautiful set of carved hardwood chopsticks

The Chinese were taught to use chopsticks long before spoons and forks were invented in Europe. The knife of course is older, but as a weapon, not a dining utensil. Chinese people living under Confucianism considered the knife and fork as weapons of violence, and chopsticks reflecting benevolence and gentleness; the main moral teaching of Confucianism. Therefore, instruments used for killing must be banned from the dining table, and that is why Chinese food is normally chopped into bite size portions before it reaches the table.

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Sweet and Sour Pork

During my time in Hong Kong I found that it was much cheaper to order or prepare foods which the locals eat. Also it added a bit to the adventure to be sampling the local cuisine not commonly found in the west. One dish I found myself eating quite often was sweet and sour pork. Quite similar to it's western counterpart sweet and sour chicken, only a bit healthier and doesn't leave you hungry 30 minutes after eating it. It's one of the few dishes I could serve to my family without them experiencing culture shock

The recipe does include a bit of frying which can be done using a wok or if you have one a fryer. I find the wok works just fine, and you only have that to clean when you're done cooking. There are a few substitutions in this recipe as a few of the ingredients are a bit difficult to locate here in the west.

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Canadian Delicacies

Yesterday I found myself at the very northern most part of the US route 1 highway, where nothing but an icy river and a set of train tracks separates the US from it's friendly neighbors to the north. This area consists of border towns powered by paper mills, and logging and is unlike any place I have visited. The language is a mix of French and English, the people are shaped by the forestry and mill jobs available to them, and the landscape is remote and wild.

When traveling I always make an effort to speak to the locals and to sample some of the local cuisine. During this trip I had a chance to try an eastern Canadian delicacy; poutine. This is a strange dish I haven't encountered before, it's basically thick cut french fries covered with a dark gravy and cheese curds. Upon receiving my order I felt I made a huge mistake, it had the look of something you pull out of a clogged drain pipe. After the first bite however my mind was changed. As you would guess the french fries and gravy compliment eachother beautifully; akin to mashed potatoes with gravy. Add to that the fresh cheese curds and it's a wonderful dish. It's not something I'd eat everyday, it's far too heavy for that, but it makes a great treat when visiting the frozen north.

Cows?

On a cool Sunday morning this past fall while adventuring in Hong Kong my fiance and I decided to experience some of the more remote aspects of the country. We boarded a boat in Central for the 1 hour ferry ride to Mui Wo located on the southeast side of Lantau Island; one of the country's less inhabited locales. This location provides a stark contrast to the busy life of Hong Kong with it's long sandy beach, vast forests, and relaxed lifestyle.  Upon reaching the island we caught a nearby bus to the 2nd stage of the 43 mile trail which travels roughly around the south side of the island. We had planned a 7 mile day hike traversing the 2nd and 3rd highest mountains in the country, Lantau Peak and Sunset Peak.

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