Well tonight we put up the “tree” (well sort of, hence the quotes - more on that later sometime), there are days left of work and try as the weather might, it can’t quite melt the snow in our yard. So, I guess what I’m saying is that I’m finally starting to get that Christmas spirit! (maybe those Christmas displays and music in the stores BEFORE Halloween this year finally worked on me eh?)

… interested? See the whole thing at storyofstuff.com

It’s never really happened to me, but I know people who have been moved to tears by music. How is this possible, you ask? How can vibrations caused by sound energy evoke such an emotional response? There has been research done into this question. Turns out that sound energy can have a pretty big impact on brain chemistry, which of course controls your emotional responses. You can check it out by clicking here

Jamie recently got back from a work stint in Turkey. He came back bearing gifts which included a beautiful rug and an Ibrik (Turkish coffee maker). Mmmm. This adds to our growing collection of ways to make coffee and types of coffee in our house.

To make Turkish coffee you fill the ibrik with the very finely ground, powdery coffee, sugar and water. Add heat until the mixture foams, then remove. Repeat until you’ve foamed it three times and then pour it all into the tiny cups and enjoy!

Well, post production has certainly been down of late. I guess we’ve been rather busy with work and such. Been away a bit too. Anyway, I’m gonna try to be more active. I’ll start with a quick update on the weekly new recipe. Tonight was a special effort. There are a few things that I really miss from China. We’ve tried a few so far, with pretty good results.

Tonight was one of my first favorites from a restaurant in Man Jia Tan a quick walk away. It was the first restaurant you got to and was thus called by some The Number One. Others called it The Upstairs as you had to go upstairs to eat (they cooked downstairs - why did they want us so far from the kitchen? hmmm). Anyway, I never learned the name of the dish - it was number 30 on the menu - but it was always high on my list of favs. It was basically pork strips in a brown sauce, wrapped up in tofu skin with sliced scallions. Mmmmm. While Mich and I were in Vancouver last weekend we went to The Sha Lin Restaurant (Broadway and Cambie) which does serve up Northern Chinese dishes and is, so far, the only place to find some of this tasty numbers. We had the number 30 there, and though they serve it with different wraps (more like the ones for Beijing Duck) it was great and I was motivated to find the proper wraps at TNT in Chinatown with my Nyen Nyen. I came up with a chinese brown sauce to use and we were off to the table. I don’t think it was perfect, but not bad for the first try.

The other tonight was one from The Red Table in KaiFaQu, a short walk from our apartment. It is basically Eggplant stuffed with pork. This one worked pretty well, though I did overcook the eggplant. Overall, a good feast tonight!