April was a month to forget !!!
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雙豆陳皮去濕湯
(Red and black bean dried mandarin peel soup)
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Finally, I was up and running again in May. Turned on my "turbo" engine, and was able to manage a gathering on the last day of May. Got to praise myself of gathering up enough energy after battling a bad April with various health issues that dragged me down badly.
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點點心意
２種前菜
(2 kinds of entrees)
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蝦米菜圃炒四季豆
(Back, String beans stirred fried with dried prawns)
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滷金針
(Front, Braised dried lily flowers)
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滷金針
(Braised dried lily flowers) |
Again, thanks everyone for coming all the way over to my place. It was a pleasure to have your accompany, and the non-stop chit chats revived my almost diminished spirit.
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去濕蒜泥白肉
(Boiled pork belly with Sichuan spicy sauce)
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Most of all, it was the first time for me to gave a mini lecture on Chinese food therapy to non-background persons.
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荷香嫩雞
(Steamed chicken wrapped in lotus leaf)
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So far, my Chinese medicine school friends were my sole audience, and they have a very good knowledge of Ying and Yang (陰陽), the 4 seasons and 5 tastes (四気五味), the study on relative effect between meridians and internal organs (經脈和臓腑的関係）; the study of food properties and its relationship between meridians and internal organs (食物的性質和歸經的食療法).
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| 荷香嫩雞
(Steam chicken wrapped in lotus leaf)
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This gathering gave me more insights on how to explain the contents in layman's terms to non-background audience. I gained a lot, honestly. Now, it is seriously time for me to really consider how I should approach my lessons going forward.
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金不換炒蜆
(Clams fried with basil)
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Considering my children are still young, how many classes can I conduct a month? I know doing these classes won't earn much money but it
is more of an interest than earning. I always wonder should I go back to the city and do what I used to do or find another job outside. Being trilingual, perhaps it really isn't that hard to find a job again.... yet.......
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蠶豆鹹肉飯
(Fava beans and bacon rice)
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After giving much thoughts, as a Chinese myself, if I can promote this long history Chinese food therapy in a foreign country, I feel my obligation of being a Chinese is somehow being fulfilled.
As Confucius said,
「三十而立，四十而不惑」 meaning by the age of 30s, you stood firm, and by the age of 40s, you shouldn't hesitate and do what you believe in.
So, I think it is time to start my own cooking salon. How to advertise myself? How much to charge each lesson? How many times per week...... All these are still undecided. Things will fall in place as it should be. I believe, things will work out just fine.
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粟米南瓜西米露
(Corn and pumpkin soup)
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Anyone with any good suggestions on how I should start up my very own cooking salon, please drop me a note!
I really enjoyed compiling information about Chinese food history. It made me learn more about my roots. What's funny though is that I tend to write in English than Chinese because it is much easier and time efficient writing in English.
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| 袪濕食養生 |
In our gathering, we touched on many aspects. Cooking techniques, history, food properties, how weather effect on what you cook and what you eat, how can we apply this theory in Japan, healing effects, comparisons with other countries, etc.... I talked non-stop from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and at the end, I lost of voice and had to drink a cup of 金嗓子花旗參茶!!!
<小常青>
