Current Category: Ingredients (4 entries)
Posted by Trudi on July 11, 2006
Tofu (Bean Curd) has a wide variety of byproducts which are often used in Chinese cuisine. It is an indispensible ingredients in traditional Buddhist or Taoist vegetarian dishes. One of the popular byproducts is tofu skin (腐皮 in Chinese or Yuba in Japanese) (the brownish sheet shown in the front of the picture). When it is bunched up to stick form, it is known as “tofu bamboo” (腐竹). Due to their rubbery texture, tofu skin and tofu bamboo are used to imitate meat in vegetarian cuisine.
Although no one knows for sure when tofu was first consumed as a food item or where it was originated, its consumption began as early as in 2nd century BC in China based on established history.
Tofu has a high nutritional value and is considered a good source of nourishment. It is low in calories, contains beneficial amounts of iron (especially important for women of child bearing age) and has no cholesterol. Many of its varieties are also high in calcium and magnesium.
Tofu is relatively high in protein, about 10.7% for firm tofu and 5.3% for soft “silken” tofu with a neglible amount of fat.
Posted by Trudi on July 15, 2006
Chinese Parsely (Cilantro) must be one of the most hated and loved food herbs - there is no middle ground. It is widely used in Mexican, Caribbean and Asian cooking and has become popular in most metropolitan areas in the States. In S America and in SE Asia, it is used in everything from salsas and salads to burritos or meat dishes. It is indispensible in the Chinese steamed fish - a must-have dish in any upscale restaurants in southern China. In Thailand, they even stuff it into a Hamburger. Western Europe is probably the only place where Cilantro is generally not very well received.
The Chinese bellieve that Cilantro will increase potency and its usage was dated several thousands years’ ago. The book of Arabian nights which is over a thousand year” old also has a story about the aphrodisiac qualities of Cilantro. These notions may not hold any scientific ground but one thing for sure is that Cilantro does have a quality to stimulate the digestive system and is a proven appetite stimulant.
Posted by Trudi on July 25, 2006
Although this is not strictly about food, it is equally delicious.
Flickr API facilitates the use of a set of callable methods to make requests and to receive corresponding formatted responses from its fantanstic photo archive. There is a good number of open-source applications making use of the Flickr API to enhance our browsing experience.
The above thumbnails are made using phpFlickr - a wrapper for the API translating the Flickr response XML into some meaningful data.
There are some very useful documentation in Flickr Services and Yahoo’s UI library if you are interested to develop your own Flickr tool or you may try out some of the cool stuff in the 3rd party application list in Flickr.
We have made two simple pages for your enjoyment:
Posted by Trudi on August 02, 2006
Simple ingredients, easy to cook and healthy to eat. As to taste, it all boils down to the sauce.
Add some red pepper flakes and grated Parmesan to taste.
fn1 “tomato sauce” tends to be a confusing term. It may mean very different things depending on where you are in. It generally means tomato ketchup in Britian, Ireland, India, Australia and New Zealand. In North America, “tomato sauce” refers to “marinara sauce” - a simple quickly-made tomato sauce for pasta without meat. But in Italy, marinara sauce actually refers to seafood sauces for pasta, risotto, or pizza (with or without tomato sauce).