Creative Wanderings

Design | Explore | Dream

rice: the chinese staple

Did you ever realize that there’s an insane variety of rice products in the Chinese diet?! Rice porridge (congee), dumplings, noodles, and buns are just a handful. Truly a staple, starting with a breakfast food like congee, “flavored with all manner of additions such as salted eggs, pickled vegetables, meat, or seafood,” and rice dishes for lunch or dinner through to desserts like glutinous rice balls filled with peanut or sesame. Simply resourceful if you ask me! To be able to use one crop to make a multitude of dishes. Not only is rice a staple dietary source, and integrated into cultural celebrations, like zong(4) zi (粽子,tamales) during the 5th lunar month of the Dragon Boat Festival, rice is an interesting look into the integration of food, culture, and language:

Rice appears in a wide range of idioms and expressions. For example, a person’s means of filling his or her bowl, that is, his or her job, is known as a “rice bowl,” so an “iron rice bowl” refers to an “unbreakable” government job-for-life, while a “golden rice bowl” is any well-paid job. Someone who eats a lot is called a “rice bucket,” while someone who eats but does little work is a “rice worm.”

Learn about the overwhelming amount of rice products with the article, Rice by Any Other Name at Travel in Taiwain.

你知不知道中国人用米来做怎么多食品?米真的是最重要:粥,米粉,包子,和饺子就是几个食品用米来做的。还有吃粽子的时候是五一端午节的时间。食品文化和汉语真有关系。

Bookmark and Share

Pintley: personalized beer recommendations

Pintley is a new community of beer drinkers, providing personalized recommendations based on how you rate beers. Sign up for an account, rate beers you’ve tried, and continue to update your profile with tasting notes and ratings to keep a record. Based on your feedback, Pintley recommends beers that you’ll like. You can also browse by brewer or style, see what other’s have said about the library of beers, save beers to favorites or wish list, and interact with other community members. Sounds like a great site for beer fanatics! And a much better way to keep those tasting notes than in a scribbled, old notebook.

新的网站叫Pintley能推荐啤酒。你开了帐户以后对你已经尝过的啤酒评论真么样, 然后Pintley用你已经尝过的啤酒再推荐别的你会喜欢。

Bookmark and Share

resting on the streets of Asia

Just the start of a funny collection of photos of nothing I’d see in the States:

Beijing, China (courtesy of my classmate Tim. Thank you!)

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

在亚洲的街上休息休息:这几张照片就是开始的系列。真有意思,在美国没见过。

Bookmark and Share

etching glass: how to

I started a project attempting to etch glass… When starting it, I didn’t realize it would be so simple! The vinyl sticker material used to make the stencil was the hardest part to master. If you’re trying this, a few trials should do the trick to familiarize yourself with how the material cuts with an exacto knife :) The product I found to etch glass was at the local craft’s store: a glass etching cream.

Gather additional materials needed: etching cream, exacto or utility knife, glass, vinyl stenciling sticker, and paint brush.

我开了一个项目关于蚀刻玻璃。开始的时候我不知道能真么容易!

Read the full article »

Bookmark and Share

bacon chocolate bar

Bacon!!  Mo’s Bacon Bar, to be exact. I had a taste of this mini-chocolate bar the other day and the salty, sweet flavor was pretty good! I think it was the novelty of the product more than the chocolate itself that made it delicious. Funny how that works. Regardless, along with the infused bacon flavor in the chocolate, which was smooth and not overwhelmingly rich, there were bits and pieces of the alderwood smoked salt giving the chocolate more texture and the impression of salty bacon. A 3oz. bar can be bought on the Vosges “Haut Chocolat” site for $7.50. And many other clever gifts ;)

There are other flavors too:
Naga: sweet Indian curry + coconut + deep milk chocolate, 41% cacao
Gianduja: almonds + caramelized hazelnut paste + deep milk chocolate
Black Pearl: ginger + wasabi + black sesame seeds + dark chocolate, 55% cacao
Red Fire: Mexican ancho & chipotle chillies + Ceylon cinnamon + dark chocolate, 55% cacao

It’s like Demeter frangrances, but edible. And chocolate!

咸肉和巧克力!日前我尝尝“Mo’s Bacon Bar”的巧克力, 不错。我觉得可能很好吃因为比较特别的小吃。每见过。但特别真的是,味道也甜也咸,巧克力味道也不太浓烈。做礼物真有意思。我想试试它们别的味道。。可以买给我吗? 呵呵。

Bookmark and Share

spitting on the street: in the States too

The other day I was by South Station in Boston and saw a fairly young, caucasian man spit on the street. You’d think I’d be used to seeing the spitting and peeing on the street by now, having just spent four months in China, but really it partially grossed me out, partially offended me, and yet I found it partially completely acceptable.

When foreigners (Westerners) see Chinese pee, spit, or pick their noses in China, we think it’s uncivilized… but it’s perfectly OK for a white man in the States to do the same…? Of course I’m making a broad generalization and there are exceptions for individuals. It’s just very interesting, this idea of being rather ‘natural’ and open with our bodies as part of society. Or perhaps it’s the infrequency of these bodily actions in the States that makes it semi-acceptable.. or ignorable?

What are your thoughts? Acceptable? Or not? Or just part of human nature?

日前我在波士顿的难站看到一个男人在街上吐。我刚刚四个月在中国应该习惯人在街上吐或者撒尿,现在在美国看到应该么问题。但我觉得有点没礼貌也有点每问题。
在中国的时候,对位国人来说看都中国人吐,撒尿,或者挑鼻子真每礼貌,但为什么在美国这个人能做这样?可能因为偶尔才在美国看到?或者每个人也不同。。。我想想真有意思。

Bookmark and Share

invasion of public space: chinese sausages

Found in Danshui (淡水), a port city north of Taipei, Taiwan:
“禁止设摊” (Jin4 zhi3 she4 tan1) translates to “It’s forbidden to set up a vendor’s stand”

I suppose as long as you are not directly selling the items from this public space, it’s perfectly acceptable to use the space for storage or display of your vending items! The Chinese really do make use of all the space they have, interpreting signage as they wish and hanging laundry anywhere possible. Is it a result of the over-population or of just being as resourceful as possible? Probably a combination of the two.

在淡水,台北北边的港口城市,看都标志说“禁止设摊”但能用公共空间当存储。。。能挂腊肠好像挂衣服

Bookmark and Share

Vancouver: Japadog!

Coming across this very humorous series of infotoons on Flickr, I was oddly reminded of the absolutely most delicious hotdog I’d ever had; it was at Japadog during my trip to Vancouver.

The streetfood cart of hotdogs called Japadog was amazing! No wonder when we first tried to line up, we waited nearly 10 min and it felt like the line hadn’t even moved, not to mention the system of 2 lines: 1 to order and 1 to pick up. The special someone and I made it back and waited in line later in the evening when the crowds died down and tried 2 Japadogs.

Read the full article »

Bookmark and Share

iamaKey

Lacie‘s “iamaKey” USB key is lovely!
Lately, I’ve been busy backing up photos and reorganizing files. With the USB always with the house keys, iamaKey would be perfect for my absent-mindedness of always forgetting something.. haha.

Bookmark and Share

Design Museum Boston

Last night DesignMuseumBoston hosted an event in collaboration with Office Environments of New England to not only eat, drink, and meet some wonderful people, but to also give some background and insight into what the Design Museum is trying to accomplish.  In addition to opening nomadic and ever-changing ‘pop-up museums’ in empty store fronts, DesignMuseumBoston partners with other local non-profits, such as Small Bean, to help solve design problems for those in need.

Design Museum Boston is a non-profit organization with the goal of creating and maintaining a network of virtual and physical exhibit spaces online, in Boston, and across New England.

These exhibits will educate the public on the role of design in their lives and the contributions of design within the creative economy. Design Museum Boston will also host events and programs related to design education to further connect the design community to the public.

Join their online community hosted by Ning to contribute ideas, start discussions, and get involved as their “intention is to create a hub for all forms of design, a place where anyone can come to experience and learn about the world we create.”

DesignMuseumBoston and the founders, Derek Cascio and Sam Aquillano, were first featured in a Boston Globe and FastCompany.
Now it’s confirmed, the first physical exhibit will be located at Boston City Hall entitled Creative Capital, opening in September! It looks like great things to come with advancing the design community in New England by educating the public :)

两个波士顿设计师刚刚开DesignMuseumBoston。 但不是我们平时认识的博物馆,他们用现在关的商店开游牧的博物馆给公众能看能学设计真的是做什么。在波士顿的市政厅九月会开第一个展览。很有意思!

Bookmark and Share