魚香茄子

在三月二日播出的那輯 So Good，阿蘇跑去卿姐在啟德道開設的店舖買了兩塊薄一薄的越南(泰國也可以)河粉(要預先訂購的)，像我一般的觀眾想著阿蘇一定炒河粉，誰不知阿蘇將這些河粉製成托底用的食材。

茄子可以做成涼拌茄子，亦可煮出街知巷聞的魚香茄子煲。阿蘇講出她往泰國探訪香港粵語片明星嘉玲女兒時所見的情形。話說當時嘉玲女兒的泰國女傭端出一碗棕色物體，她一喝，那湯不像湯，裏面有塊肉，但湯的味道美味極了。阿蘇當時認為那塊肉根本是燜出來的牛腩，但吃下去時發覺是豬肉。

另外阿蘇描述那碟魚香茄子坐在一個像薄餅一樣的物體上，她當時完全不知道那是什麼。起初她以為它是用飯做成，但漸漸地發覺它是又滑又薄，有點粗粗的感覺。說穿了，它原本是放在鍋裡煎成有點焦的、變成薄餅似的河粉團。阿蘇繼續說：放在上面魚香茄子的醬汁滲進去令粉團變成很美味。

隨著而來，阿蘇教大家煮這道菜：

[1]首先將生抽、老抽、糖、生粉和麻油加進約五元的免治豬肉去拌勻和醃。








[2]將茄子切成條狀，要放在滾油中去泡一泡，令它們不斷吸收油。








[3]把先前買回來的越南河粉切成粗粗(即稍闊)的粉塊，然後把它們撕開，因為稍後煎的時候會變成一大塊。








[4]把鍋燒熱，加一層薄薄的油，以防粉塊沾鍋。把河粉放下去煎成餅地似的。把煎好微焦的底反轉再煎先前的面。最重要的地方是外脆內軟。








[5]先用蒜蓉起鑊，把豬肉放下加了少許油的鑊去炒一炒，放一點水或高(雞)湯，加豆板醬、糖、生抽和白醋，然後把已泡油的茄子倒進鑊中一齊炒，再加一些湯和生粉水。








[6]將粉團放在碟上，再鋪上魚香茄子便成。

最後阿蘇教了大家一句泰國說話：Kob Khun Mak Ka (多謝)

The World of Suzie Wong

Nancy Kwan, an actress of the 1960’s film, “The World of Suzie Wong”, who resides in Los Angeles, paid a visit to Luk Kwok Hotel recently.

I remember that I have seen the film before. The film was about a love story that happened in Wanchai, Hong Kong. The film, more or less, has raised the popularity of Hong Kong to the outside world and that of the stars, Nancy Kwan and William Holden.

Now Nancy Kwan learned that “Nam Kok Hotel” in the film, actually “Luk Kwok Hotel” had been rebuilt into a skyscraper, still with the existence of the hotel.

Nancy Kwan, now 70, said that, “In the old days, people would follow me around. It was quite scary actually. It was very difficult to get used to. But it was quite a long time ago.” “People may think that I am an old bag now,” she joked.

“歲月神偷”, a Hong Kong-made film has got a prize recently, brought back memories of the life of Hong Kong people in the “60”s and saved the buildings on 永利街 (the location where the film was shot) from being pulled down in Central.

I hope that more films about the life of the people in Hong Kong should be made.

N.B. Part of the information comes from "The Standard" today.

A Litter Bin with Dignity

I had not seen such a beautiful litter bin until I arrived at Victoria last October (in 2009). This was a black metal bin with two doors at the front. The box-like body was nothing special, but the Coat of arms of British Columbia had been printed on its sides.

This bin stood with dignity in front of the Parliament buildings. With the coat of arms, it was no ordinary litter bin at all. The local people as well as tourists like us should respect it and should not make it dirty.

The mouth of the bin was shut off from the outside by a movable lip with a handle. People could pull the lip down to insert rubbish. I did not have anything to throw inside at that time, but to take a good photo of it.

英雄樹正開花

英雄樹即木棉樹，在家的附近我可以找到幾棵。今天在巴士站候車的時候，從正面看去見到一棵足足有四五層樓宇那般高的木棉樹，其直立的樹幹帶有明顯的瘤刺，樹枝側生作水平環狀方向展開；橙紅色的大型花朵正開著；這時候生出來的掌狀複葉特別少。

聽說英雄樹外觀多變化，在3～4月開花，先開花後長葉。春天時，一樹橙紅；夏天綠葉成蔭；秋天枝葉蕭瑟；冬天禿枝寒樹，四季展現不同的形態。果實為蒴果，成熟後會自動裂開，裡頭充滿了棉絮，棉毛可做枕頭、棉被等填充材料。

今天我發覺在微風下，偶而一兩朵紅色的木棉花從樹上像炸彈掉下來，心想若果自己在對面行人路上走的話，不難被擊中。遲些當木棉樹果實成熟裂開或掉在地上時，裏面輕飄飄的棉絮帶著種子隨著風到處飛翔，那時正好是木棉樹播種的最好時候。

Discovery of Symbol of Tai Chi

A walk in the park at Shun Lee in an afternoon brought me to an open ground with the symbol of Tai Chi (太極). It is a big discovery for me because I have never walked about this park except to its nearby library.

Nobody was playing Tai Chi there in that afternoon. I guess there ought to be some people playing such Chinese Kungfu each morning.

The two colours in the symbol are black and white here. The design of the symbol is simple with two commas being "reflected" and "fused" together to form a big circle. Inside each comma is a small circle.

I wonder if whoever stands on this piece of ground can play better Tai Chi than in other places.

Notice that the mountain far behind this symbol is Fei Ngo Shan (飛鵝山). I hope that this big symbol can bring strength to the people living nearby.

More Canadian Coins

It is rare to find a Canadian one-dollar coin in the shape of an 11-sided polygon. It is beautiful, but cannot roll smoothly as those round ones. It is bronze in colour, not involving gold at all.

The coin bears the years 1909 and 2009. The artistic “100” can be seen at the centre. This is the number which makes many students feel happy. I wonder what that 100 means. I guess it must be something that lasts for a hundred years.

The small figure in the very centre looks like a letter “C” with another letter “H” in the centre. What is it all about? Who can tell me?

Another 25-cent coin to mention is the one with 3 small maple leaves inside a large one with a big “2” curling like creepers round the large maple leaf. There is “Pride 2000” at the top of the coin. I guess the Canadian government issues such coins to celebrate the year “2000”. The small bits of square look like those colour papers that fly about when paper cannons are pulled during new year.

The third coin shows the beautiful pose of a pair of athletes in Olympic Figure skating. There is a maple leaf behind them indicating that Canada is the host country of the Winter Olympics in 2010. The hosting city is obvious, Vancouver.

金針雲耳炆雞

以前童年時我經常吃金針雲耳炆雞，但很久都沒有吃過了！看見阿蘇親自煮這菜色時，引起一番回憶。記起那時不愛金針的味道，只愛吃雲耳及滑雞。現時要吃蒸雞飯的話，就要跑到舊式的茶樓或中式的酒樓去找一找。















阿蘇話所用的雞是龍江雞，其實任何雞塊都可以的。

醃雞件時用生抽、老抽、糖、生粉、麻油、油和雞湯。準備功夫是首先浸金針、把它們打結；再浸雲耳，去其硬頂，分細片；跟著浸冬菇，把它們斜切一半。

把所有食材及調味料在玻璃盤上拌勻，放在鐵鑊裏用水去蒸45分鐘更成。

Mascots in Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics

The three mascots that appear in Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics are Quatchi, Miga and Sumi.

Quatchi is a young sasquatch from the Canadian forests. It loves ICE HOCKEY.
Miga is a sea bear which passionates about SNOWBOARDING.
Sumi lives in WHISTLER. It has the wings of a THUNDERBIRD and the legs of a BLACK BEAR.

The Canadian McDonalds promoted such mascots by printing them on the food-boxes of “Happy Meals”.

What I can learn more from this box of fast food are these words in French:

bonjour (Hello)
aventure (adventure)
commencent (begin)

The McDonalds also teach people how to say “Hello” in 5 different languages.

Continent (in French) Language(in French) “Hello!”

Americas (aMeRiQue) Spanish (espagol) iHOLa!
Europe (euROpe) Russian (RuSSe) pRi-veT!
Asia (asie) Mandarin (MaNDaRiN) Ni Hao!
Oceania (OceaNie) Australia (ausTRaLie) gi’DaY!
Africa (aFRiQue) Swahili (SWaHiLi) jaMBO!

FIFA World Cup, South Africa, 2010

In the coming World Cup Soccer, 2010, the 32 countries which can enter the Games are divided into 8 groups, having 4 teams in each group.

Group A: South Africa/Mexico/Uruguay/France
Group B: Argentina/Nigeria/South Korea/Greece
Group C: England/U.S.A./Algeria/Solvenia(斯洛文尼亞)
Group D: Germany/Australia/Serbia(塞爾維亞)/Ghana
Group E: Holland/Denmark/Japan/Cameroon
Group F: Italy/Paraguay/New Zealand/Slovakia(斯洛伐克)
Group G: Brazil/North Korea/Cote D’ivoire (科特迪瓦) i.e. Ivory Coast/Portugal
Group H: Spain/Switzerland/Honduras(洪都拉斯)/Chile

There are 48 preliminary matches, 6 in each group. The first preliminary game started on June 11th and the last will be on June 26th.

In the Round of 16, 8 teams will go for the Quarter-finals, then 4 will go into the Semi-finals and two will play the Finals. There is still a game for finding out the Third.

The Final will be played on July 12th.

World Cup Soccer in 80 years

I collect this information from a newspaper about World Cup Soccer in its 80 years.
Here it is:

Year Host Country Teams Champion

1930 Uruguay 13 Uruguay
1934 Italy 16 Italy
1938 France 15 Italy
1950 Brazil 13 Uruguay
1954 Switzerland 16 West Germany
1958 Sweden 16 Brazil
1962 Chile 16 Brazil
1966 England 16 England
1970 Mexico 16 Brazil
1974 West Germany 16 West Germany
1978 Argentina 16 Argentina
1982 Spain 24 Italy
1986 Mexico 24 Argentina
1990 Italy 24 West Germany
1994 U.S.A. 24 Brazil
1998 France 32 France
2002 Japan/Korea 32 Brazil
2006 Germany 32 Italy

The photo shows 18 posters promoting World Cup Soccer.

The host country of the coming World Cup Soccer is South Africa. For the first time the exciting football games will be played on African soil.

Two photographs to compare

What a coincidence that Philip and I took a photo of North Vancouver and the harbour from the same spot, but at different times in two different years (2009 and 2010).


Let me compare the photos, mine with Philip’s:

[1] My photo was taken in late November while Philip’s in early March.

[2] The weather was bad during my shot, being cold, rainy and cloudy. The weather on the day Philip took the photo was fine with much sunshine.

[3] My photo appears grey in everything and lacks of life because there was low overcast on that day. The white film of clouds still lingered in mid-air after rain. Philip’s is very different. The colours are rich, the right blue for the sea, the lively green for the trees and the right pink for the sakura. The clouds were floating higher in the air.

[4] We took the photos with different cameras. Mine was a mini pocket-sized Canon IXUS 860 IS while Philip’s was an interchangeable lens Canon camera, much higher graded and powerful than mine.

[5] Philip’s photo appears sharper that mine. I wonder if the water-vapour in the air on the day I took had blurred the picture a lot.

[6] The houses at the foot of the mountains and the buildings on the shoreline in North Vancouver shown in Philip’s photo were more distinct under sunshine than those in mine. Inside these houses and buildings live the rich people in Vancouver.

I am most happy to find that Philip and I, without discussion before, select the same spot and take the same view of North Vancouver.

瞬間看地球

I love watching the short report and scenery from瞬間看地球 in TV. The reasons are simply as follows:

[1] The weather conditions of various cities at the moment of broadcast can be seen clearly. I am earnest to know what temperature it is in Vancouver or Seattle because I have been there recently.








[2] The cities we can see are in North America, Europe, Australasia, Asia and on islands in the Pacific. They cities we can see from the program are normally very famous such as Los Angeles, Seattle, New York, Berlin, Ekaterinberg (Russia), Sydney, Melbourne, Udaipur (India), Manila, Beijing, Noumea (New Caledonia), Bandar Seri Begawan (Brunei) and Hawaii.








[3] Sometimes the cities we see are in the day-time and some in the night-time. It all depends on the time at which the program is broadcasted.








[4] The activities of the citizens can be seen in that short glimpse of about 4 to 5 seconds for each city. For example, we can often see people playing basketball at the park in Los Angeles, the cars running on Sydney Bridge, the night view of New York City and the launch and ferry activities in Victoria Harbour.








[5] A rainy day in a city can be seen easily because rain drops can been seen sticking on the lens of the video-camera. Rough seas can be seen by the white foam from waves splashing ashore. Quiet streets of a city means that most people there are sleeping.

Walking through a tree

We found several stumps of trees in Lynn Valley beside the footpath we walked along. Some of these remains of trees were still living because small branches or twigs once more grew out from them.

A few stumps appeared hollow. The space inside was usually too small to stay.

When we reached a larger stump of wood with a hole big enough for Abby, we urged her to go in and come out from the other side. Abby was willing to do this and nothing seemed fearful to her. She just considered it as a wooden house in the woods. On the other side of the tree stump we took a few photos, but the sunlight that came in through the trees was too strong. The light that flooded on the Cheng’s family of four must have made our photos well-over, but we had no other choice at that moment.
















Free as the wind, Abby walked through the tree hole several times without bumping her head. We, adults, if insisted, could walk in like a duck. Elly, exactly two months old on that day, did not know how to crawl, otherwise she could have joined in the “magic” walk with her big sister.

烹飪決賽(二)

阿蘇所主持的烹飪決賽繼續是由文姐和豬咪煮餃子。

文姐包的是白菜豬肉餃，材料有白菜、豬肉、魷魚乾、薑粒及胡椒粉。








豬咪包的是鬼馬素菜餃，材料有白菜、豆腐乾、雲耳、紅蘿蔔、冬菇、油炸鬼及豬肉。








以下是兩位賽員所煮好的餃子，左邊是白菜豬肉餃，右邊則鬼馬素菜餃。








比賽最後結果是由Mimosa勝出，得到一部檯式雙頭煮食爐 $500 Towngas Avenue Coupon。另三位各得禮券一張，而小霞勇奪第二名。