by Liv | Mar 28, 2010
One of the things that upset me the most when I moved to the UK was leaving my beloved Mimi (my cat) back in Taipei. I love cats and just a few days after we moved to Edinburgh we found a little pet shop, which has now closed, that was selling kittens.
He was desperately young, maybe 4 weeks or so but he was completely ridden with fleas and quite ill for the first week or so after we took him home (At one point we were worried he might die but he eventually picked up and is still with us today).
Instantly both Chris and I fell in love with this little cat and we named him Popo. Popo can be desperately affectionate but he can also be a major pain in the ass. We affectionately call him “beast” and “monster” for some of the things he does (jumping up doors, shredding paper, attacking our feet while we sleep etc etc) but sometimes it’s hard to be angry with him when he’s as cute as he can be.
Take the picture below where he’s lying on his side. He literally jumped up towards the toilet roll holder in the bathroom and shredded a whole toilet roll then when we caught him he just lay there pretending it wasn’t him. So cute!
by Liv | Mar 23, 2010
I think it’s a good time to introduce everyone about my partner’s photography website. All of the photos on my blog were took by my partner Chris Radley. As you can see he is an excellent photographer and always manages to produce wonderful photos all the time.
So, Here is his website : http://www.chrisradleyphotography.com
I will ask him give you 10% discount if you are my blog reader!!
by Liv | Mar 14, 2010
Last weekend my Austrian friends Michael and Anja asked me to teach them how to make sushi. They especially love Maki sushi and really wanted to know how to make it.
I always remember my first job in a hotel was working in cold kitchen for a buffet restaurant and we always had to make lots of different kinds of sushi. There are lots of people in Taiwan who absolutely love Japanese food and especially sushi. We’ve been influenced by Japanese culture and fashion in many different ways and Taiwan was under Japanese rule for fifty years, so sushi is not that unfamiliar a dish for all Taiwanese people.
Michael and Anja learnt to make sushi for the very first time and and I’m so proud of their sushi. It is a wonderful experience for me to practice teaching cooking. We went to our local Chinese supermarket together where I showed them what ingredients are necessary then we went to their home where we made the sushi.
So, here are the photos we took on the day and I hope you enjoy them.
I was demonstrating sushi :
Michael was making his first sushi :
Anja was making her first sushi :
Michael and Anja’s first sushi!
by Liv | Feb 27, 2010
There are two very common rice wines that we use in both Chinese and Taiwanese cooking of which you can buy both of them easily in Chinese supermarkets in the United Kingdom.
One is “rice wine” (米酒) which has no colour and looks like water. We use it in most of our Chinese and Taiwanese dishes. It’s made by normal rice while the other is “Shaoxing rice wine” (紹興酒) which usually has brown colour. It’s made by glutinous rice.
These two wines have a different taste and flavour but they both can be used in different dishes. It depends on personal taste. I personally use rice wine for most of my eastern dishes because it tastes mild with a refreshing fragrance and use Shaoxing rice wine when I cook drunken chicken, drunken prawn, Dongpo pork and other slow cook meat dishes. Shaoxing rice wine usually has a stronger taste and flavour. It tastes a little bit spicy so not every dish is suitable for Shaoxing wine.
Here is a true story about Shaoxing wine to share with everyone. Shaoxing wine is from a city in China called Shaoxing. Shaoxing wine has many different variations and one of these is called “nu’er hong” (女兒紅). Every family in Shaoxing will make Shaoxing wine when their daughter is one month old and bury it underground until the day their daughter’s wedding date when they will open it and drink it to celebrate. “Nu’er” means daughter in Chinese and “hong” means red. Because red is a very lucky colour in both Chinese and Taiwanese culture and this wine is used to celebrate, so using “red” in the name adds a lucky meaning to it.
