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Showing posts from March, 2017

15 global challenges that cannot be addressed by any government acting alone

  The 15 Global Challenges  from t he Millennium Project, a global participatory think tank. 1. How can sustainable development be achieved for all while addressing global climate change? 2. How can everyone have sufficient clean water without conflict? 3. How can population growth and resources be brought into balance? 4. How can genuine democracy emerge from authoritarian regimes? 5. How can decisionmaking be enhanced by integrating improved global foresight during unprecedented accelerating change? 6. How can the global convergence of information and communications technologies work for everyone? 7. How can ethical market economies be encouraged to help reduce the gap between rich and poor? 8. How can the threat of new and reemerging diseases and immune micro-organisms be reduced? 9. How can education make humanity more intelligent, knowledgeable, and wise enough to address its global challenges? 10. How can shared values and new security strategies reduce ethnic conflicts,...

Italian Tortellini and Chinese Jiaozi

I am not a big fan of Jiaozi dumpling, but when I notice the familiar shape of Italian Tortellini, I still felt glad of finding another similar western food. There are two kinds of Tortellini on the supermarket shelf, one filling is spinach and ricotta cheese, another bacon and ham. I don’t expect fillings like pork mince and garlic chives or cabbages as we usually do in China. During the research, I found that there are other varieties similar as Chinese Jiaozi along the Silk Road from Korea in the east to Italia in the west, all the way cross the Siberian Plain and turns at Middle East to India in the south west, such as Korean Mandu, Japanese Gyoza, Siberian pelmeni, Italian Tortellini and Ravioli, Turkish Manti, and Indian Gujia (also called gujhia). There are no questions that Mandu and Manti are cognate words, while Gyoza, Jiaozi, and Gujia are cognate words from another origin. Pelmeni is originated from Tartar Pilmän. The Korean word Mandu was derived from Chinese Mantou, w...

Youtiao and Yorkshire Pudding

Youtiao literally means ‘oil stick’, is a long golden-brown deep-fried strip of dough, it’s twisted like a cruller and so made that you can tear it lengthwise in two halves. If crullers are described as resembling "a small, braided torpedo", then I would say Youtiao is a mini "finger of God" tornado twister. Youtiao is eaten at breakfast, as an accompaniment for rice congee, soy milk, or stuffed inside a roasted flatbread to make a sandwich. We really missed this for breakfast in the first year in the UK, youtiao was one of the reason for homesick. One day we found Yorkshire Pudding, which is mainly flour-based and fried, with its similar texture and its golden colour, but it seems totally different kind of food judged by its round cup shape. Oven-baked for four minutes till it’s crispy when dipped into soy source, Yorkshire Pudding tastes exactly same as Youtiao and perfect with rice congee, and soy milk too!