Foof & Wine - Chinese Style

A long while back I was shopping at a liquor store (in Minnesota, we get liquor and wine at liquor store, not grocery store) when the manager, who was our neighbor and was helping a yuppie type couple pick a wine, asked me what wine would pair well with Peiking duck. To help my neighbor, I thought hard for awhile and told them, dark BEER. You could see the dejection shown on the young couple's faces.

Really, I didn't know how to pair a certain type of western or Chinese wine with a particular Chinese food or dish. To this day, it continues to be an intriguing subject for me. Since we have such a vast collective knowledge among our classmates, I would like to throw a brick and hopefully draw in some jades.

A disclaimer. I am not a connoisseur of food or wine of any kind; whether Chinese, French, Italian or Japanese, or Thai for that matter. Heck, I cannot even claimed to have had a dish prepared by a Chinese royal chef or any French or Italian dish by a 5-star chef from New York, Chicago, Milan or Paris. As for wine, I can hardly distinguish among the different wines produced in Napa or Sonoma alone, not to mention those outrageous varieties from Italy, France or Spain.

The Italian and French are known for their arts of food and wine pairng, where one compliments the other. I know no such arts in any Chinese cuisine. For one thing, the Chinese wines are fundamentally different from European wines both in ingredients and processes. And as far as I know (I might be utterly ignorant), Chinese drink liquor or wine simply to get intoxicated or loosened up so the brain becomes less inhibited (we have way too much taboo along with our rich culture) that the genius of beautiful poems, paintings and calligraphies can spout out freely; or, like in the martial art novels, that the welled up energy can be maximally released. It seems to me, the enhencement of food with wine or wine with food is the least of our concern or interest. Either the food is great or the wine is great, but never a praise of the combination of food AND wine.

In a way, I wonder if it really makes sense to try to pair western wines with Chinese food, since China is not a grapes growing land. If we had grapes in China, with our ancesters' unmatched cleverness, I would bet we would have had the most wonderful wines to go with any of the countless wonderful regional dishes.

So, where are we? Again, in today's global competition for food prestige, if Chinese wants to claim a seat at the head table, we have to come up with some wines that compliment the food. And the wines may become significant national revenue. A good idea, don't you think? Sorry, I got carried away again, as usual.

Please share your experience or opinion, so we can all learn something in food and wine - Chinese style. I am itching to try any recommendation.

美式足球

美式足球

昨天佛羅里達大學橄欖球隊用以３１比 ２０戰勝阿拉巴馬大學 。 成為「東南聯盟」的冠軍 。 再加一場比賽，它可能成為全國冠軍。 全校一片沸騰。 近年來，佛大橄欖球打得非常好 。 每個週末，整個大學校園像是開嘉華年會 。有人聲稱這是各州立大學的一個「陰謀」 。州立大學依法必須招收許多不太合格的學生。他們對讀書不感興趣，特別在週末。「小人不可久處約」。閒著可能引起麻煩。有了球賽，從星期五的晚會，到星期六的比賽，到星期日的狂歡或沮喪，週末就過去了，而且學校也趁機賺了大錢。想想， 足球教練的薪水是校長的10倍。 我的汽車也幾次因此被拖。因為很多停車場為了校友看球過夜停放旅行車， 在星期五6點半之後，教授就不能停車了。 有時忘記時間，我的汽車被拖，還得付罰款。又被學校賺了。

我剛到美國的時候，總覺得橄欖球是以蠻力取勝。在我看來，不論是帶球短衝還是投球長跑，帶球者老是會被對方絆倒在地，混打成一團。而且，那誇張的護肩和頭盔，試把一個人退化成猩猩。學校的高年學長告訴我這是典型的美國文化，重力不重智。特別那時越戰打的美國人灰頭灰臉。一味以火力蠻幹。正是橄欖球文化的投影。 後來，我漸漸發現橄欖球並不只是以蠻力取勝。需要智勇雙全。並且智慧比體力更為重要。在所有集體運動中，我覺得橄欖球用的智力最多。

中國在今年奧運會上贏得最多的金牌。幾乎都來自個人項目。在大的集體運動中，如籃球，足球，或棒球。中國什麼也沒有。個人項目取決於個人。中國人可不會輸，但集體運動需要合作。中國人缺點就出來了。當然桌球和羽球的雙打也要合作，但他們的合作只有兩個人。棒球需要的合作較少，籃球和足球較多，但他們都比不過美國的橄欖球。因此美國中學和大學用橄欖球作為主要運動項目是有理由的。或許這是美國人能合作得更好的原因吧？

我們從童年起就知道中國人像一盤散沙。最近我多次看見，「台灣人沒路用」這句話。說這話的人不意味著台灣個人沒用。他感嘆的是台灣人不能合作。柏楊曾經說中國人不合作不是我們不知道合作的好處。 中國人能寫一本甚至一火車有關合作好處的書，但是就是不能合作。柏老這次看走了眼。怎麼可能聰明的中國人知道合作的好處而不合作？其實合作有一個壞處，它可以遮蓋所有的好處。合作也意味著犧牲，搞不好會吃虧上當。聰明的中國人當然知道，只是不說出來而已。

合作之難，可以從生物的演化史上看到。從化石的見證，單細胞生物大約在３０億年前開始出現。猜猜看，從單細胞演化到第一個多細胞生物化了多少年？化了大約３０億中三分之二的時間（注１）。多細胞生物在十億多年前才出現的。為什麼？合作真難。細胞我為什麼為了細胞你就犧牲復製？人體裡有兆個以上的細胞。他們都為卵或精細胞犧牲他們自己分裂權力 (除癌細胞之外，他們拒絕再犧牲)。他們也都是歷經了至少35億年的艱苦歲月，不曾停止過奮鬥的。但是今天，他們決定為那些卵或精細胞犧牲了。多麼大的犧牲﹗「為有犧牲多壯志，敢教日月換新天」。 如果沒有這麼多細胞的犧牲，我們仍會停留在單細胞生物的過程。由此觀之，人類社會再往前進，就要看那一個制度最能推動社會成員的合作。美國之所以為美國，有她的道理。

我的高中在屏東高雄，那時就知道北部有個建國中學。如雷貫耳。到達台北以後，我意識到建中有一個橄欖球隊。這可能是台灣唯一的中學橄欖球隊。現在看起來，建中不僅聯考第一。他們在體育上也有遠見。建中之所以為建中，是有她的道理（注２）。
楊照崑

注１︰ 可在 google上查到。地球約在４６億年前形成。單細胞生物約在３８億到２０億年前已經存在，多細胞生物在８億年前開始出現。魚類在5億年前開始大量出現，恐龍在２億到７千萬年前統治地球。開始慢，後來快。不久的將來，新的物種几天就可以用生物工程製造出來。

注２︰要瞭解建中請看幸峰兄寫的 All Kinds of Everything Remind me of ...
幸峰談到當年在建中班上來了一個漂亮年輕的英文女老師，〞Everybody treated her like a sister”可見建中是比我們南部文明多了。如果我們有這種好運，心裡想的就像街上唱的一樣，「給我一個吻，可以不可以」（見維龍兄的 comment）。那裡會去煩惱 Seven Lonely Days 是什麼意思。

寒山寺

I passed by 蘇州 last month & had a chance to see 寒山寺. This temple is not that famous comparing to 金山寺 or 普陀寺. However, it became well known after 張繼 composed the poem "楓橋夜泊":

月落烏啼霜滿天，江楓漁火對愁眠。
姑蘇城外寒山寺，夜半鐘聲到客船。

The gate of the temple is very humble. There are only three green characters 寒山寺(white base) on a brown wall. It looks very spartan & gives you a cool feeling. Inside the temple, it is spacious & nice, 給你一种佛道温暖的感覺. Several buildings spread around the temple: 大雄宝殿, 寒拾殿, 罗漢堂, 天王殿, 楓江楼 etc. The most notable one is 普明宝塔, it is high & can be seen from far away. 鐘楼 itself is a little two level pagoda with a bell in the second level. There were a lot of visitors inside the temple. I noticed a group of Japanese high school kids with uniform. They said they learned "楓橋夜泊" in the class. Apparently 寒山寺 is well known in Japan. As far as I can remember, we didn't have this poem in our high school textbook, though it is included in 唐詩三百首. Later I learned that some Japanese have a tradition to come here on New Years' eve to 敲鐘. By doing that they believe it can shave 10 years from their age, .ie. make them younger. It is kind of odd that Chinese never really get serious about 寒山寺. Perhaps, 遠來的和尚會念經. In Tang dynasty, Two monks 寒山& 拾得 were in charge of this temple. To Japanese, 寒山& 拾得 were the monks from afar, they have got to be superior. The bell 張繼 heard is not in the temple now. It is said that the bell was carried to Japan when 拾得 visited there. Japanese couldn't locate the original bell since then. 伊藤博文 recasted a new one & sent to 寒山寺 in 明治38 年四月(around AD 1906).

Mark Yang mentioned 李香蘭 & 中國之夜 some time ago. There is one song related to it is 苏州夜曲. I checked the lyrics, the last sentence is something like "鐘が鳴ります寒山寺（かんざんじ） <寒山寺的钟声在繞樑回蕩>". However, in the Chinese version of 苏州夜曲, it becomes "水鄉苏州,花落春去,相思長堤,細柳依依." It sounds nice, but it just repeats the first section, omits the third section of the lyrics & rids of 寒山寺completely.

The temple is well kept & its surroundings are beautiful & romantic. 張繼 may not be that famous as we think, but "楓橋夜泊" sure puts 寒山寺on the romantic map of the world. Nowadays, everytime I read "楓橋夜泊", it reminds me of 寒山寺, 楓橋, water way, sunset & especially its haunting bell.

百思買

I was in Shanghai last month. As I strolled around 徐家滙 shopping area, I saw a big familiar store. It is “Best Buy” with three Chinese characters imprinted on the wall outside the building. It is 百思買. These 3 characters pronounce like Best Buy. However, in Mandarin, it means "Think 100 times before you buy". Personally, I think the translation is cute but it is a bad idea to use a store name like this. If a guy has to think twice, the probability of buying it is around 50%. If I have to think 100 times, I am sure I won't buy it as the probability of buying it is almost 0. When two cultures meet, all kinds of idiosyncrasies occur. This leads to that good old translation problem most Chinese encounter. 牛頓 or 牛敦? 詹森 or 強生? 聖地亞哥 or 聖地戈? 春田城 or 泉地市? 新奧而良 or 紐堮連斯? There is no standard way of name translation, it is a complete chaos. Japanese use kata kana for foreign names & they get by nicely. As to language improvement, Japanese is ahead of China about 1,600 years. Chinese always think Japanese learned the language from them & so it must be inferior. It is hard to swallow the pride to admit that now they have to follow the similar path to simplify characters & some others. I think it is hard to overcome 1,600 years of language evolution. Chinese need a quantum jump. One way to do this is just to get rid of the translation. Instead, make English as the mandatory second language everyone needs to learn from the primary school. So for all the foreign names or whatever foreign, we have the option to use English directly. This shifts the translation to the English instead of Chinese. Nowadays, all Chinese middle schools teach English, so just extends this to all primary schools & within 20 years, all the problems about foreign name disappear.

As a matter of fact, the way we communicate now (this writing) is writing English & insert Chinese word as we need it. The reverse of this is to write Chinese & insert English word as we need it. As long as every Chinese understand English as a second language, this method solves the problem. We will also find eventually that the language advantage of India & Singapore over Chinese will diminish. In a larger sense, this is very beneficial when it comes to 与世界接軌.

All Kinds of Everything Remind me of …

In our life, we go through a lot of routines. But we don’t remember them much & actually fade away when time goes by. Something comes once in a while that is out of ordinary, however, will stick to our memory. Love songs are common & everywhere. There are numerous classical love songs or arias. But most people are more interested in popular music. Personally, I like classical love songs more, perhaps because of the versatility of the orchestra & instruments. However, once in a while, I encountered some love songs from the pop side that is so out of the routines & influenced me much.

It was the time of 1956 when we were in our junior high. It was the time of growing up, we looked at everything fresh & new. Suddenly, one song popped up & we heard “Seven Lonely Days” everyday & almost everywhere. Of course, we didn’t know much about the lyrics & meaning of the song. But it was there everyday that we couldn’t ignore. Here came the English teacher, fresh out of the college, looked clean, nice & lively. She treated us like a group of uncivilized kids. She was about 8 years older than us. But she looked so cute & young that we treated her just like our sisters. One day, I asked her about “Seven Lonely Days” & what the lyrics really mean. She spent about 15 minutes explaining the whole thing, very impressive. Strange enough, I became very interested in English after this. Since then, every time I hear this song, it reminds me of my English teacher. The singer is Georgia Gibbs, a Russian Jewish descent. She had a nice, strong & lyric style voice. You can hear her voice far away. She passed away two years ago at the age of 87. Strictly speaking, “Seven Lonely Days “ is not a love song, but it is love related. You can listen to the song with the following youTube site:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcNU2Dr5c5M

The lyrics:
Seven lonely days make one lonely week
Seven lonely nights make one lonely me
Ever since the time you told me we were through
Seven lonely days I cried and cried for you
(Oh, my darlin' you're cryin', boo-hoo-hoo-hoo)
(There's no use in denyin' I cried for you)
(It was your favorite pastime making me blue
(Last week was the last time I cried for you)
(Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo)
Seven hankies blue I filled with my tears
Seven letters too I filled with my fears
Guess it never pays to make your lover blue
Seven lonely days I cried and cried for you
(And cried for you)
(Oh, my darling you're crying) Seven lonely days
(Boo-hoo-hoo-hoo) Make one lonely week
(There's no use in denying) Seven lonely nights
(I cried for you) Make one lonely me
(It was your favorite pastime) Ever since the time
(Making me blue) You told me we were through
(Last week was the last time) Seven lonely days
(I cried for you) I cried and cried for you
(Oh, my darling I) Cried and cried for you
(Oh, my darling I) Cried and cried for you

Time went by, we entered senior high & the pop music was dominated by Elvis, the King. Time went by again, we entered college & the pop music was dominated by Beetles. Since they are all male singers, we boy though like the music but not the type that you will jump, scream & faint in their concert. That sort of thing belongs to girls. Not until 1965, while we just finished military service & ready to study abroad, one song hit me with a bang. The first time I heard the song, I felt this woman was sincere & serious. The title of the song is “The Wedding”. After hearing the song, I decided to look for someone that I can marry someday later. If someone put the emotion on line & sings the song from the bottom of the heart, she can’t be ignored. Nowadays, every time I think about the college graduation & military service, it reminds me of this song. Recently I found the original performance of Julie Rogers on youTube. It really enhances my original feeling about this song: sincere, earnest & emotional. Julie Rogers is an English pop star, born in 1943 & still around these days. The following is the youTube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jvo8vlSi8zE

Time went by again, it was the time of 1970. In the distance, I heard something “All Kinds of Everything”, a distinctive voice of a loving girl. This was the time we just finishes our Ph.D. dissertation & ready for the world. Now this song sounded so pure, sincere & real that I forgot the Ph.D. & decided to get married right away. How can you refuse a love call like this. Dana Rosemary Scallon is an Irish singer who won the 1970 Eurovision Song Contest with this title song “All Kinds of Everything”. You can see her original performance in the following youTube link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awhQjT14cdA

After I watched this video clip, it sure enhances my original feeling. My heart is almost melted when she utters the last word of the song. Nowadays, every time I think about Ph.D. degree, it reminds me of this “All Kinds of Everything”.

The lyrics:
Snowdrops and daffodils
butterflies and bees
sailboats and fishermen
things of the sea
wishing-wells
wedding bells
early morning dew
all kinds of everything remind me of you

Seagulls and aeroplanes
things of the sky
winds that go howlin'
breezes that sigh
city sights
neon lights
grey skies or blue
all kinds of everything remind me of you

Summertime
wintertime
spring and autumn too
Monday
Tuesday every day
I think of you.
Dances
romances
things of the night
sunshine and holidays
postcards to write
Budding trees
autumn leaves
a snowflake or two
all kinds of everything remind me of you.

Summertime
wintertime
spring and autumn too
seasons will never change
the way that I love you.

Dances
romances
things of the night
sunshine and holidays
postcards to write
Budding trees
autumn leaves
a snowflake or two
all kinds of everything remind me of you.
All kinds of everything remind me of you.

November's Greetings

Hi, All,

After almost 2 months (June and July) of checking without any new posting, I thought our blog had been abandoned. So, I was surprised to see the good stuffs posted by Mark Lin and Mark Yang.

Mark Lin's posting about "the last rose of summer" really struck the core in me. I happen to consider this song the most beautiful folk song of them all. I have collected quite a few recordings. The best (again in my opinion) was sung by Leontyne Price in Flotow's version. Two years ago, in a Dublin pub, with Guinness of course, I asked our tour guide to sing it, but he declined. Then, when we were at a B&B in a small Irish town, the 75 years old keeper did granted my request and sang it wonderfully. She used to a choir singer in younger days. A few years back, my family was celebrating my birthday at a restaurant where there were a keyboard player and a fiddler performing. Right after we finished our entrees, the fiddler came to our table and played this song for me. Needless to say, I was quite moved. It turned out my daughter had asked them to. I have listened to so many recordings and performances from profesionals down to school kids, and I have not heard a single bad one. I guess the song is so good that no matter how you sing or play it, it just comes out nice. As far as I know, Flotow was the only composer adapting the whole folk song into his work, unlike Puccini and others. Some critics had said that "The last rose of summer" made the opera Martha, not the opera made the song. I think there are more people who know this song than people who know Flotow and Martha. By the way, I don't think Puccini did a good job with oriental materials; both Turandot and Madam Butterfly are not that great except the two famous arias that are more Italian. Actually, I feel Puccini demeaned Chinese and Japanese in those operas.

Other follow up coming.

HP-12C & New Numbers

Have you ever found any high tech gadgets last more than 25 years (1/4 of a century) on the market & still produced and supported by manufacturers.  It is indeed very hard to find one with average product cycle around 3 years in Silicon Valley. Believe it or not, I did find one that meet the honor. It is HP-12C Calculator.  I purchased one in 1983 which I still use these days.  I was in Walgreen last week, a drug store around the corner, looking for BeneFiber.  I passed by one aisle and see the familiar HP-12C calculator, priced at $69.  Although there is a platinum model that cost more, the original one is still there. This is a finance calculator for interest, mortgage, amortization, etc.  I heard that some big financial company bought this calculator for each employee & used for company's work.  This may be the reason why it is still around these days. But why they pick HP-12C?  I think the reasons is the pocket size, easy to use & its long-lasting batteries. As far as I can remember, I only changed batteries once in 25 years. HP-12C is truly a classic product in itself, amazing.

Related to calculator, it is the number---unit of number, the way we do the counting.   In most calculators, the number is displayed three digits in a group with comma.  In other words, it is easy to read it in thousand, million, billion etc. But this creates problems for 万& 億.  I am sure most of us have the same experience.  When someone said 700 billion dollars to bail out the financial mess.  What, 700 B, oh, it is 七千億.  It takes about 4 or 6 seconds to get the conversion.  How about 八拾七萬?  Oh, it is 870 thousand. This time it takes about 4 sec to get the conversion.  How about 四万万七千万? Oh, it is the same as 四億七千万, and it is 470 million.  It takes more than 10 sec to do the conversion. I found it rather amusing whenever Chinese people in America try to quote the big number & everybody sort of sucks into some confusion.  The inconsistency comes from the way Chinese count---4 zeros a group instead of 3 zeros a group. 百, 千, 万(4 zeros) then 億(8 zeros), 兆(12 zeros).  But the western way is thousand (3 zeros), million (6 zeros), billion (9 zeros) then trillion (12 zeros). I think it will be a good idea that Chinese create two new units of number: ＃米 and ＃比.  They are equivalent to million & billion. We might as well get used to these two numbers and save us a lot of trouble.  So 470 million is just 470 ＃米 & 700 billion is just 700 ＃比.  And 140 thousand can just be 140千, simple as it is.  So from now on, we all live in peace & happily ever after.

PS1: You may be upset that why we have to confirm to the western way of counting.  Well, it started long time ago when our ancesters wanted 西学為用.   This does not mean that we abandon the counting of 万& 億, we simply add two more units of number to facilitate easy counting & communication. Take a look at Periodic Table, Uranium (鈾), Plutonium (鈽), Americium (鋂), Curium (鋸), Einsteinium (鑀), Fermiun (鐨), Mendelevium (鍆), Lawrencium (鐒), Berkelium (鉑), Californium (鉲) etc.  So we already named a lot of items per western words and pronunciation. By the way, the United States fares very well in the periodic table: Americium, Californium, Berkelium. Berkeley & California are the only university & state to be named in the periodic table. Also Lawrence (Lawrencium, atomic #103) & Seaborg (Seaborgium, atomic #106) are the scientists from Berkeley.

PS2: It is funny to see Trillion & 兆 all end up with 12 zeros.  The reason is simple: 12 is divisible by both 3 & 4.  No wonder ancient Babylonian used 12 進位 instead of 10. 12 has factor 2,3,4 & 6. But 10 has only 2 & 5 factors. At least for division, 12 based # is twice efficient as 10 based #.