January 3, 2006 Archives

This documentary (originally aired July 1st, 2005) is really really good. I don't know if it's good, as in "quality good" - it talks about a familiar place. Probably good, like congee (or a dong qwa tong) one's mom makes when one's sick.

The girl at the end says, "we are free to speak our minds, but there isn't lot to speak out about". Democracy in Asia. Democracy as a policy choice, rather than universally good political system. Hmm.

Yearning for a motherland, or not yearning for it. Rhaaaa. Like a lot of Hongkongers, I like being "Chinese", but there is another level of cool, that of being overseas Chinese. Hmmm.

Not her recipe per se, as she recounts how she learnt it from the baker's wife, she being the grocer's wife, back in Madagascar where my grandparents emigrated to (alike other territories in the Indian Ocean, popular places for coastal Chinese to emigrate to). The cakes are shaped like muffins, with a bit more butter/fat in them, and one can change the flavour as he wishes - my grandma puts vanilla tips, fruits confits, raisins, and/or roasted almonds in them (I will probably try with rhum...). There are two versions to the recipe, with the "western" one using butter, and the "chinese" one using vegetable oil. Both can apparently be steam-cooked, but that's the first time I hear you can make cakes like Chinese buns...

Style Occidental
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- Butter (100g to 120g)
- Sugar (200g)
- Eggs (4x)
- Flour (250g)
- Milk (180ml)
- Baker's yeast (3tsp)

Separate the yolks. Put the yeast with the flour. Mix the butter, add in the sugar, then the yolks, and the flour, and the milk, and then the white (uniformize at eachstep before adding the next ingredient). Add whatever "filler" you want. Pour it in. Bake it (and actually, I need to call my grandma up - she didn't say how long, and what temp!).

Style "Chinois"
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- Vegetable oil (120ml)
- Sugar (180g)
- Eggs (3x)
- Flour (240g)
- Milk (180ml)
- Baker's yeast (3tsp)

Same procedure as the western one. Eventually will try them out, distribute them to family, friends and whoever.

If I weren't living in Quebec, I'd hold my breath and go with the momentum to oust the Libs (and vote for the Conservatives). I do remember voting for Joe Clark (not based on his policies, more per his positive image versus Jean Chrétien), when he peeked back on the federal scene two elections ago, but voting the Cons this time is not like voting for the Progressive-Conservatives back then. It's a party purged from all the (mostly) urban social values, and voting for that is like voting for the Devil (in a very ironic sense). So yeah, with the latest polls in, the Conservatives in front by a point, and even two in Ontario only, there might be a chance for a minority Conservative government. And on next election, we go back to our wife.