How do you respond to strange food?

Strange food some times may be mixed up with weird food, but to me they are totally different things. We may first discuss the difference between strange and weird, one of those many anwsers I could find is: weird is something you think about for awhile, and is more eye catching, but strange is just something you notice for a second, then may stop paying attention to. This is not a linguistic explanation, but do the job. You meet a strange person first time, then you may forget him or get on with. Strange things are those you are not familiar with, but you may know a weird person for a long time, weird things are those which emerge from inside a community, but strange things may come from outside, even from a remote country.

Strange food to you may be some oriental food, such as Japanese eat raw fish, bee larvae as well bees, those are not strange food to Japanese at all; But weird food is abnormal food. For instance, we like to eat boiled rice with milk and sugar, most people may like it, but if I add gravy in it, how do you think, will you try it? We drink coffee, add milk? sugar? Oh, yes, please. But if I ask you, salt? How do you response? You may thing I am kidding.



I forgot the source of a love story, but it's kept in my mind so long that I sometime wondered why, and I concluded that was due to no other reasons but the weird salty coffee recipe in that love story. A college student came from a seaside village, he fell in love with his classmate. One day he had a chance to talk with her in a cafe, he talked about wonderful life in seaside. Whenever he got homesick, he said, he add salt in his coffee, which taste like salty sea water and smells in the sea wind! Then he won the girl's love, and they got married, and then he kept drinking salty coffee for the rest of his life. Before he die, he confessed to his wife: I am sorry, my dear, I lied to you, I cheated you on salty coffee. There were no such thing! His wife were not disappointed at all, quite contrary, she was so moved and thrilled of learning the truth, and knew the real love between them, because she thought that her husband had been drinking salty coffee for her sake for more than fifty years!

So, will you fall in love with somebody just because of the weird food or something more behind it?


Some people do add a pinch of salt and even a shake of cinnamon to the coffee grounds on a daily basis, it's said adding salt and cinnamon can cut the bitterness and brings out the coffee flavour. But they do it before brewing, not after, not add salt instead of sugar in the cup.



Chocolate was a strange food to me, because I was born in a small mountain village, while chocolate originated from outside China, during the time when I was born, you could only find chocolate in some large cities, which was imported from Western countries or Hong Kong or Japan. My next-door neighbour girl was my best playmate, but she moved to town with her family. Many years later, I visited her, we sat down on a stone bench under a large French Phoenix tree outside her house. She took out a beautifully packaged block, opened carefully, and broke one piece off, and put into my mouth. It's so bitter and strange, I spit out immediately, and sad: yuck, what's that strange stuff? She was so disappointed and said: I knew you come, and saved this just for you! What a pity! I have never seen her again since that meeting.

Cheese is not normal food in most areas of China, even rare to see especially in southern China. I tasted cheese the first time at Pizza Hut, those cheese was already melted on the pizza, and it's delicious. But one day my colleague came back from Tibetan, and brought a block of cheese for me. It looked like a block of soap, and so it tasted like! I didn't know how to eat, and reluctant to ask, so I stir-fried with bean sprouts, it's so sticky that all my bean sprounts were sticked together to a bunch. When I went to Northern Ireland, my girl friend made cheese toast for me, she cut a tiny bit of cheese, melted on the middle of the toast, looked like soft yellow chicken drop. But tasted not bad, many months later, I learned that cheese should be grated, and cover the whole top of the toast, even overflow out of the edge!



So how do you response to strange food?

Waxberry or yumberry

It's quite strange that Yangmei has a name "waxberry", according to wikipedia, "[1]the name waxberry may refer to the waxy fruit of plants which produce berries that can be used as a source of wax. " It's totally wrong!


Another Wikipedia article "Myrica rubra"[2] with a right picture. I think "myrica rubra" is the right name for yangmei, but might be a scientific Latin name, too difficult for common English speaking people, you might have no idea at all what the hell is a "myrica rubra", but when you see the word "waxberry", at least you can guess that this is a kind of fruit which might look like berry, similar as strawberry, blackberry, raspberry, etc. In terms of "wax", you can guess this kind of berry "might be used as a source of wax"! Although this is not right.


Even names such as "Chinese bayberry", "Chinese strawberry tree" are better than waxberry. And another newly-invented name "yumberry", is perfectly translated from Mandarin, but not popular. "Yum" sounds like either in Mandarin "Yangmei", or in English "yummy", a combined translation of sound and meaning, "hmm, the yumberry is very yummy berry!" I think Yumberry will become popular soon, because it's reported that some companies have started marketing Yumberry juice concentrate in the United States and Canada . This means you should start seeing the juice on market shelves already. Yumberry will be used in diverse applications ranging from fruit juices to bakery applications, wines, cocktails and dairy products. you can play around with the juice in cocktails and there are a lot of possibilities; although you may feel strange asking for a bottle of Yumberry juice in the store or a Yumberry Sour cocktail at a bar.


Legend has it that, Yangmei flowers blossom at midnight, and withers at dawn, so nobody has ever seen Yangmei flowers, I haven't seen it either. It's said that it's unluncky to see yangmei flowering. Some adventurous people have both curiosity and courage to find out the truth, they waits under the yangmei tree for the yangmei budding, but they could only smell the fragrance in the wind, have never seen flowers.

I am not sure how does this legend originate, is Yangmei flower very tiny? or has Yangmei very short flowering period, so it's not easy to notice?

Yangmei is dioecious, which means a yangmei tree bears either male or female flowers. Male tree bears flowers, but no fruits in result; while female tree bears flowers and results in fruits consequently. But as far as I know, no Yangmei tree in my village or nearby villages doesn't bear fruits. Do villagers just cut off male Yangmei tree when they know the tree can't bear fruit?

Yangmei flowering period is 3 to 4 months, quite contrary to the legend, it's quite long, and flowers can be in bloom day and night, not just from midnight till dawn.

Yangmei fruit is green and taste very sour, but when it get ripen, it become red or even purple, and taste juicy and sweet. Heavy fruit bends branches, people can easily reach them, he just jumps a little and plucks one, so We have to guard yangmei trees when it's fruits getting ripen. Later summer afternoon, we spreaded a mat under the yangmei tree, and lied down, listened to the wind rustling through the yangmei leaves and bamboo leaves, and the cicadas singing somewhere among leaves far and near. A strong wind came through, waving the branches, shaked off one or two Yangmeis and just droped beside us, we just stretched our arm a little bit, and reached the Yummy purple Yangmei.

I often missed the Yangmei since I went to college. In one summer vacation, I came home early, and just caught up the yangmei ripen period, I went to Yangmei orchard straight away without going home first, but unfortunately it was just after a heavy summer rain, yangmei is very fresh but wet, I ate too much, and upset my stomach, I got a serious diarrhea that night.

Fresh yangmei can't be preserved for long time, so, besides fresh consumption, the fruits are commonly dried, canned, soaked in Chinese liquor, or fermented into alcoholic beverages. But we only dry them by sun, or if it's bad weather, by baking, and soak in liquor. Yangmei could be preserved for long period by these methods. The Chinese liquor has as high as 65 percent alchohol, but soaked with yangmei, the liquor will become sweet, smooth, and taste no stronger than red wine. You will drink too much without noticing you have already got drunk.


Now it's the season of yangmei, which is within later June to early July, I am really missing it!

[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waxberry
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrica_rubra

Can we use a shopping cart as baby cot?

A shopping cart is called "trolley" in British English, many other names in English speaking world.

Supermarket trolleys are nested within each other in a line to facilitate moving many at one time, and to save on storage space. They normally inter-locked together, and need one pound coin to unlock. When you finish shopping, return the trolley to the trolley park, and get back your coin. One day I found that we actually can use a twenty pence coin, or an Euro coin, that's much "cheaper".

In one lucky day, I found a standalone trolley, a pound coin was still in the lock hole. So I took this trolley to do shopping, then returned the trolley and pocketed the lucky money.

In one TESCO store, all trolleys are fixed with wheel-lock, they can't be taken out beyond the car park perimeter. One day, when my trolley reached a red line, I could hear a "click", then the trolley stuck on the ground, I was quite surprised, and stooped down to check the wheel, then tried very hard to maneuver the cart. Second time, same thing happened to me, and I abandoned the trolley as the first time. This happened a third time, a woman passerby pointed out to me that I couldn't take the trolley beyond the red line, then I noticed the notice board under a tree, with a crossed out trolley on it. Only store personnel can unlock the wheel-lock with an electronic key.

This kind of wheel lock functions same as interlocking by a coin. But much safer. Because that TESCO store is situated in a very busy area. It's quite dangerous to let people take out the trolley to the road, this definitely can cause traffic jam.

Electronic wheel-lock is quite high technological, I think, only supermarket as TESCO can afford such expensive a security system. Farm Food store is situated in city center, which has less than 10 trolleys in store, it's quite funny that all trolleys are fixed with a long steel pole, which is taller than the door, to keep them inside. Sometime the shop put sale banner on the pole, customers move the trolleys around, looks like a marching band carrying many flags. If absent-minded customer push the trolley towards the door, he will definitely be stuck by the long pole.


Large sized trolley normally has baby seat installed, some even have two baby seat. We lived a traveller's life many years ago, you may feel surprised that we even used a supermarket trolley as a baby cot. When my first daughter was born, we couldn't afford a baby cot, even if we bought a cot, we couldn't take with us when we move home, and we knew that we could move our home at any time. So I had a "bright idea" one day, why can't my baby sleep in a trolley? There was a supermarket called Mr. Long near where we lived, the store logo is funny faced old man, he must be Mr. Long, he has a big smile, many wrikles on his face. The name Mr. Long is quite auspicious, and it has same sound as "dragon" in Chinese.

Mr. Long supermarket trolleys are interlocked by a pound coin. We brought home the trolley with our shopping, and stuffed with some rags and mats, and let my daughter sleep inside this semi-DIY cot.

It's quite embarrassing when health visitor or my friends came to see my daughter, so we hide the trolley in another room. I spent hours staring on my newborn baby, talking to her: "OK, you now sleep in a trolley, will you work in a supermarket as checkout cashier? or will you buy Mr. Long store or even TESCO supermarket, become a biggest shareholder?"

We returned the trolley to Mr. Long three moths later, and quite amused by the imagination that if I told Mr. Long that story, how would he response? Would he reward us for using their trolley as cot and make known to the public as an advertisement?

Many supermarket doesn't require a coin to unlock a shopping cart, one of these is Sainsbury store near where we now live. But I think there is a big problem, many people push the trolley far away from the trolley park, even out to the main road, and abandon it by the bus stop. I even see one trolley lie beside a public grassland near our estate, about 2 miles away from the Sainsbury's store.

One day I saw a woman and her son pushed a trolley full of their shoppings, her son was playing with trolley, pulled back and pushed forth, moved left and swinged right, made the trolley wobbling and wooshing, but when her mother saw us, she stopped her son and grabbed the trolley and pushed it by herself, Her son asked: "why, mum?", she said: "it's so embarrassing!"

We got Water Meter Installed

We use Severn Trent Water, It's reported that Severn Trent Water were fined £2 million for lying on water leaks, The water company reported an estimated yearly water loss of 340 million litres per day to meet targets, while the true figure was around 514 million litres (Is that a big number and a serious problem?). The reason they lied on water loss were to stave off having to carry out millions of pounds-worth of repairs until they could be covered by future water bills, and to avoid bad publicity.

All homes in UK built since 1989 are fitted with water meters. But our house is older than that, it's more than fifty year old. It's an ex-council house, all houses in this estate were council house, most of them are still own by city council. they get conservatory fitted for free, or get wall and loft insulation for free, they can buy council house for a fraction of market price. Why UK government are so kind to their people?

We asked our friend Peggy who has got a water meter installed, she also has three people, she said it's cheaper to choose a meter, much smaller bills, and to install meter is free.

So, we got a meter fitted, and now it's start counting. From now on I have to be more careful, and remember to turn off water tap, and flush the toilet no more than necessary. My daughter likes to play with water tap, now she can't let the tap water flowing for one hour.

Is English your Anguish?

Somebody says, you live a new life for every new language you speak. If you know only one language, you live only once.

If this allegation is true, I have 4 lives. Because I have my own dialects, then I learned to speak and write in Mandarin, and I stayed in Shanghai for more than 6 year, and married a Shanghai girl, so I can speak Shanghai dialect, now I have to speak and write in English in a foreign country. So I have 4 lives.

But I am good at none of these languages, I'd rather have one perfect life, not 4 miserable lives. But now, I even feel anguish at English whenever I speak. I couldn't be able to connect my inner world to words, and words in to sentences. Words seem to be suppressed cries of a wandering soul, which are clutching desperately at my heart. Without emotional vocabulary, everything seems become allusion and confusion, and I started to fear of things I needn’t be afraid of.

I have never had confident with my English, what you see is actually not the real me, but another self which is alienated by a foreign language.

My voice is not my own, English language which I am speaking is but a mechanically and poorly translated from Mandarin, even translated from my own mother tongue (a local dialect). Every time when I hear myself speaking in English, I just hate it. In the strain of translating a Chinese word into its English equivalent, or vice versa, the spontaneity and natural quality of my speech are lost. In the toiling process of translation, I try hard to impose my learning, will, and intellect on my spoken English in an effort to turn my speech into an oral facade of my hidden self. Ｉam stuck in this dark and chaotic situation, I have become a stranger to myself.

“I am my language,” says the poet Gloria Anzald, because language is at the heart of who we are.

All though I live far away from my homeland, but I always feel desperately to connect to that world, hanging on those Chinese website, seems waiting for something, being eager to see someone, or just getting in touch with my old self.

Durum wheat pasta and pasta soup

In China, we call spaghetti Italian noodles, any shaped pasta Italian "hollow vermicelli" or "hollow cellophane noodles". I could remember when I tried to cook fusilli pasta for the first time in Shanghai, I emptied half bag of pasta into the boiling water, approximately 250 grams, enough for two person. The pasta expanded to double its original size, as swollen and swirling as earthworm. I didn't know how to make it tasty, no idea of adding any sauce.

I hate Sainsbury's basic Pasta, but my wife likes to buy, because it's cheapest. The slogan on the bag is "shapes, still durum wheat". According to Wikipedia, "durum" in Latin means "hard", and "durum wheat is the hardest of all wheat".


Actually, I am not quite surprised by what I have found, because I always boil it in more than half an hour, it still as hard as rubber. I have to chew and chew till my chin joints and gum became very sore. But I am surprised by the cooking instruction on the pasta bag, it says "to boil in 10-12 minutes". Let's see how they give the cooking instructions:


"Place pasta in a large saucepan of boiling water. Add salt to taste and boil for 10-12 minutes, stirring occasionally. A shorter cooking time results in a more 'al dente' (firm) texture". I don't believe that you could still eat it in a shorter cooking time.

When I shared a house with a French student five years ago, I first time learned how to cook pasta, he boiled the pasta, and drained off the cooking water. Because I never knew the way to cook pasta before, I took that as the right way, but when I saw he cooked rice in the same way, I started to suspect that if that's right. Normally, boiled rice in Chinese style, no cooking water is wasted. A story could explain that. Once upon a time, a girl lived with her stepmother, such as in the story "A Princess and the Golden Shoes". Her stepmother treated her harshly, let her eat coarse food and drink cooking water drained from boiled rice, let her own daughter eat boiled rice. But surprisingly, the poor girl grown up more healthier and beautiful than her own daughter. We all think that rice cooking water is most nutritious, and shouldn't be wasted.

When pasta is cooked, strain immediately, and the cooking water cooled down and turned out to be a kind of aspic jelly, is that gelatin? I have no idea what that stuff is. But it's quite a pity to let go down the drain. So I always add as enough water as we cook rice, that's boiling pasta till it's dry.

In Italy, the pasta is often added to the sauce in its pan, mixed well and heated gently prior to serving. This way is similar as frying noodle. One of the simplest ways to serve pasta is to mix it with a little olive oil or butter and freshly ground pepper to taste, re-heat for a few seconds and stir in freshly chopped herbs or grated Parmesan cheese. Delicious also tossed in olive oil, fresh chopped tomatoes and fresh chopped basil. Both way are similar as Chinese noodle salad (cold noodle, "leng mian" in Chinese Mandarin). But I have never seen people cook pasta soup, such as noodle soup in China.

The way I cook pasta soup is like this:

To boil pasta for 10-15 minutes, prepare any vegetables and meat or seafood, add enough vegetable oil in a large deep pan heat to hot, then fry the meat to half done, then add chopped vegetables and fry them together, then add some water and bring to boiling. At last add boiled pasta with the cooking water (don't drain off cooking water, it's nutritious!). Bring to boil and simmer for five to ten minutes. If you cook seafood pasta soup, fry vegetables first. Seasoning with salt, herbs, ground peppers, all kind of stuff to your taste.

I found that pasta soup is the best way to eat durum wheat pasta, because no matter how hard pasta is, it will become soft.

Work permit, visa, and PR

Mr. Ren and his wife came to visit. Mr. Ren found a new job in London. He sold his house for same price as he bought, but he spent 2,000 in refurbishing, plus fees, interests, and inflation, actually he lose a lot.

He gave us a lawnmower, and a baby bath. I borrowed a grass trimmer from our neighbour, quite noisy, and inefficiency. A lawnmower is what I needed.

Every time they meet, their topics seem never move away from work permit, and visa, and PR (Permanent Resident). When I pointed out this for them, they argued that "identity issues" is always the biggest that keep bothering immigrants.

Charitable Landscape gardening

Three gardeners came to work on my neighbour's garden. They cut grasses, clear out dead leaves and wild flowers, and dig up the edges around back and front gardens.

When I picked up my daughter from school, my daughter greeted them when she passed by, she always feel very proud when she say hello to strangers, and disappointed when not be answered. So greeted them and had a chat.

The man told me that they were working for Betel of Britain Charity, a free Christian residence.

I was bit surprised, and asked: "Do you work for free"? Because my neighbour is an Indian, from Tamil, the family definitely is not Christian.

The man answered:"Not for free, all income goes to the charity."

"Right," I said, "So, you are volunteer for Betel?"

He said there are many residence sites has been opened, even one opened recently in Mongolia. I asked if there was any in China. He said, I don't know but I hope so.

He give me a leaflet, the slogan on the leaflet says, their landscape gardening is "the charitable thing to do this season". and "Leave your landscape gardening to us... and help us to heal the hurting."

I didn't ask if Betel's gardeners are their former "homeless and substance-dependent people", although I thought so and quite curious to know. Because from their behaviour and appearance, I could still feel the deep wound still there. They must be, because from their website, I can found those information:

"Betel of Britain is a caring, not-for-profit Christian community in the heart of the UK dedicated to restoring homeless and substance-dependent people to productive, independent lifestyles. Our residences are drug- and alcohol-free, and all our support services are free of charge."

They do all kind of gardening jobs, such as slabbing, block paving, trees, turfing, fencing, patios, hedges, clearing and many more. And their charge is quite reasonable, I asked the man how much did my neighbour paid for the work, he said, very little, reluctant to give the real number. But I found it out from my neighbour.

They offer free estimates.

Their website:
http://www.betel.co.uk/