Grab your Chopsticks

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Chopstick Challenge

Hi guys for today's post we are going to present you video about our Chopstick Challenge activity
Hope you guys like it :)

The blog that we made represents the Asian Traditional Food with chopsticks shown to emphasize the method of eating food. Chopsticks are frequently shown in Asian cuisines in Australia therefore; it was interesting to demonstrate the method of using it while enjoying the game that we played.

The chopstick competition that is often held in Asian countries have influenced our group to imitate the procedure of competition into our video.

The first procedure that we did was meeting at Lori’s house to prepare the video. After that we started to collect some ideas and created some steps to precede our video with chopsticks. As the game was focused on picking up different sized ingredients, we had to choose some foods that are challenging. Therefore, with found 1 and 2, we chose macaroni which was relevantly easy in some ways. For the final round, rice was chosen. As rice is the smallest ingredient that we could find, it was pretty challenging for us to pick raw rice with chopsticks. Through this game we were aiming to promote people to use chopsticks when eating Asian food as well as encouraging them to try Asian Food at the same time.

The second thing that we focused on was the Camera angle. The angles of camera often contribute to the way how the video is shown. Therefore to enlarge the engagement of the audience, we considered various types of angles to emphasise how interesting this game was.

Every member of our group has participated enthusiastically. With all the materials, Tiger brought chopsticks which were our main material; Lori brought macaroni, rice and few other chopsticks as well. Otto brought camera.

In scientific world, it is said that if people kept on using chopsticks, they are more likely to become intelligent as our brain tries to work constantly, making our brain active.

To conclude, the purpose of this video is to encourage the audience to understand the culture of Asia through the interestingly played game with chopsticks. We expect as a group to see many people getting used to using chopstick that will benefit their brain and their ability of embracing the other culture to integrate together in this multicultural community.

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Pineapple bun

I talked about the Hong Kong tea restaurant last time. And more information about that here. People live in Hong Kong always say, “if you go to HK-style tea restaurant everyday for 3 meals, you are able to have different kinds of foods.”. It is because we can find more than hundred kinds of food there.

I want to introduce is Pineapple bun. it is one of my favorite western buns. The top of the pineapple bun is crunchy and is quite sweet compared with the bread underneath. The original name of pineapple bun is “Russian bun.” The name of pineapple bun is because after baked the bun, the surface turned golden yellow, and become crunchy which looks like a surface of a real pineapple. Thus, a pineapple bun certainly does not have pineapple as the ingredient. And the thing we need to know is HK-style tea restaurant served bread and they bake the bread by themselves.

Most of the HK tea dining room offer an item called “buttered pineapple bun”, which is a pineapple bun with a piece of butter stuffed inside. Typically, the pastry would be brought hot from the oven to the customers. The best eating method is a fresh pineapple bun served with a COLD butter. Thus, butter would dissolve by the pineapple bun of the heat. A whole bun would full of the taste of butter. The only different between pineapple bun and buttered pineapple bun is a butter served inside.

Pineapple bun and buttered pineapple bun contained too much fat and cholesterol. They are not good to our health. However, have it rarely is a good enjoy!

There is a video that show how to make a pineapple bun. Let's try it.

The last post....... Yakitori, All Japanese people were vegetarian??

Konichiwa, good day all,

I will be posting about the history of "Yakitori" which translates to chicken spuarial.

I have experimental connection with "Yakitori", as it was my first work place.

I want to briefly explain about how the chickens were brought to Japan, (As Japan is an island, and Chickens cant fly, someone would have brought them to Japan). It has been told that first chickens to be brought to Japan was sometime during the Joumon period (14,000–300 BC) with horses, cows, dogs and pigs. As Chickens cannot fly they were easier to look after and good alarm to wake up in the morning. As chickens have the characteristics of defending its territories, the people used to ply gambling through "Toukei"chicken fights.

Since then there are many evidence such as "Haniwa", which demonstrate connection between the Japanese people back then and chickens. There was a huge change in Japanes diet, when Tenmu Emperor announced that people should eat horses, dogs, cows, monkeys and chicken.

Horses were used for farming, dogs were used as a watch dog/guards and chicken played important role of being the clock.

During this period, the influence of buddism was very strong. Soon the only meat that people ate was wild birds if they were desperate. These working animals were considered as labor/capital not for fulfilling the desire our hunger. The chicken farming and poultry only become part of the Japanese people during the period Tokugawa Yoshimune was in charge (1716~45), to generate extra income for lower class Samurais.

As the time passed on, improvement in transport and equipment helped many Japanese people to grow their chicken farms and poultries. However, even during this Edo period, chickens were not common to be on the dining table. Even the cooking book during Edo period described all the ingredient as wild birds.

The Meji revolution not only changed the social aspect of Japan through westernisation, but changes in Japanese people's diet. During the period chicken was more precious than any other meat. The famous dish during initial change in the diet was "Sukiyaki", which is still loved by many citizens.

Yakitori, became famous as chicken was considered as precious, however if started with low quality and parts which has been used to make soup. It has been noted that chicken farms were nearly over before the world war has begin. During war, any food supply did not meet the demand, Yakitori business kept quiet under the black market, selling other kind of meat.

It was only after the WW2, when the Americans introduced Broiler chickens, which is raised specifically for meat production. After the Broiler chicken was available to chicken farmers, Yakitori become available once again.

Yakitori now days are loved by many business man after hard work with coupld of beers to finish the day. Yakitori has become very popular and is definately something you MUST try when you visit Japan. There are special street dedicated for small restaurants like yakitori. Have a look at the photo, here is the offical touring site if you want to have few drinks in the middle of Tokyo, amongst local Japanese workers.

Memorial street

If you want to know more about Yakitori and the history, visit Here

And of cause for those cooking lovers, here is the youtube site if you want to cook them your self!

I recommend that you try the REAL yakitori before you make bad images of it.

How to cook mushroom beef with vegetables cooked in casserole!!???

This is real!!!very good for healthy and delicious!!!

very famous as nutritious food in South Korea!!!

firstly need to prepare Thin beef, many kind of mushroom!!( does not matter just put as many as possible without poisonous mushroom) , crown daisy, pumpkin, carrot, red pepper, spring onion, minced garlic, salt, black pepper, anchovy, sea tangle, soy sauce, sugar,

this food is really really easy to cook!!!!

Ready to cook sauce!!! as soup!!

just put red pepper, crown daisy, anchovy, sea tangle etc

it is does not matter what to put!! just if looks healthy!! then just put it!!

and just boil around 30 min

Ready for the beef!!!

put the soy sauce, minced garlic, sugar, and just mix!!

till looks like this!!!!

but the everything like this!!!

also put the soup before you made!!

just boil till ripe everything!!!

this food make you healthy and happy!!

it is not going to take for long time~

good luck for your cook!!

Monday, October 12, 2015

Most Expensive Coffee in the World

Hi guys, it’s Otto here. Today, after I finished my classes I took some time to chill at one of the coffee shop in Macquarie Centre. I ordered coffee and sat there for a while. When I was sipping the coffee, again, I thought about my hometown. Indonesia is the second biggest coffee exporter in the world and is famous for the Kopi Luwak (civet coffee).

Kopi Luwak is basically partly-digested coffee cherries and defecated by Asian palm civet. Some people say that this coffee is really rich in flavor but me, myself never tried it before, considering it is feces anyway. Even though it is produced in some crazy method, it is in fact the most expensive coffee ever sold in the world!! Maybe because it is believed to cure diseases such as prevent diabetes and gallstone disease and also protect your skin. One kilo of this civet coffee can be as high as US$1100. However, some people are against the production of the coffee. They argue that the raising of civets are really horrible in order to produce this coffee.

That’s all I am going to share today. If you guys visit Indonesia, don’t forget to drink this coffee. You guys wont regret it!

Saturday, October 10, 2015

Hong Kong — Street Side Food Stall

"Street Side Food Stall" was originated from teahouse, and slowly evolves into mobile food stalls on the streets. Street side food stalls which appeared in the 40s were welcomed by the Hong Kong residents. However, the government nowadays forbids the transfer of license from the holders to their children, and hence more and more Hong Kong style food stalls have to be closed down.

Type of food:
The variety of food choices in food stalls is wide, and it is always a combination of Chinese and western food. You can find the type of food you want to have, and choose the diversified cooking styles such as steam, fry, pan fry, deep fry, and many others. Just name your favorite type and you can have it.

Type of customers:
During lunch time, most customers are from the working class. In addition there are foreigners who have been attracted by the renowned cooking styles of the street side food stalls. Nevertheless most customers are people living in the neighborhood.

Locations and environment:
Majority of old-style food stalls are set up on the small streets or lanes, with construction styles suiting the street side stalls. There are mainly big round tables with folding chairs, and simply covered by canvas instead of a permanent ceiling.

Shortcomings of street side food stalls:
The environment and hygiene conditions of the food stalls are always a controversial issue. Reasons why street side food stalls are unwelcomed mainly because of the scattered placement of tableware, plus an unfavorable hygienic environment. Additionally lacking air conditioning and blocking of the passageways are also factors for peoples’ dislike of the street side food stalls.