One of my favourite music genres is jazz.  Jazz is an American musical art form which originated around the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions (Source: Wikipedia).  Jazz puts you in different types of mood depending on the category type.  Generally, some categories make you feel upbeat, happy and light on the feet (e.g. ragtime and big-band style swing), a few have a nostalgic, melancholic and sombre effect upon you while others tend to put you in a relaxed and romantic mood.  A jazz singer must have a very strong and emotive voice to carry the music well.       

Recently, I downloaded a few albums from some of the jazz greats ranging from contemporary musician Diana Krall to the classics Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Billie Holiday.

Diana Krall has a deep and sultry sexy voice; E thought that she sounded like a man! :)  Her music has a very contemporary feel which will appeal to the sophisticated urban-ites who frequent jazz clubs.  Ella Fitzgerald has a wide voice range which of course means that she can carry and interpret any song she sings in her unimitatable style. It’s no wonder she was called ‘First Lady of Song’.  Most artists’ albums comprise of a few good song tracks and the rest are just so-so but not her; I get a good nostalgic feeling listening to her songs.  Sarah Vaughan has very powerful vocals and amazing scat singing skills.  Scat singing is basically vocal improvisation using nonsense words or no words at all to create an equivalent of instruments using the singer’s voice.  I have a soft spot for Billie Holiday.  Hearing her sing makes me sad as her voice brims with emotions.  The difficult childhood which adversely affected her life and career is reflected in her music.

Here’s a song composed and sung by Billie Holiday, ‘Fine and Mellow’ (1939).  It was famously performed by ‘Lady Day’ (Billie Holiday’s nickname) and several jazz legends in 1957 during a television special ‘The Sound of Jazz’ captured in this video (sorry, I’m unable to post it here).

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Happy Left-Handers’ Day to all lefties (i.e. people who are left-handed; not referring to political leanings)!  For those not in the know (I just discovered this through Facebook), the day of celebration is on the 13th of August.  It is an annual event to celebrate the ‘right’ (pun intended) to be left-handed and promote public awareness of the advantages and disadvantages of left-handedness.  Left-handers make up 5 to 7 percent of the world’s population.

Of course this day is pretty close to my heart seeing that I’m a left-hander myself.  My parents were accepting of that fact although my ‘amah’ (nanny) from China tried to teach me to write with my right hand but to no avail.  I know of many left-handers’ parents who ‘force’ their children to write and/or use their right hand.  Whatever the reasons may be, I think it’s a clear discrimination of left-handers; why try to change which side of the hand they’re going to use for life?  It’s plain superstition and hypocritical (if I may say frankly) that the left side is originally connected with evil and that we do all ‘unhygienic matters that cannot be mentioned in polite society’ (if you know what I mean) with our left hand.  As the Lord Jesus Christ says in Matthew 15:10-11, ‘…Hear and understand:  Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man’ when He was rebuking the Pharisees (Jewish religious leaders) for being hypocrites in their self-righteousness.  Jesus later explains these words more clearly to His disciples in Matthew 15:17-20, ‘Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated?  But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man.  For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses, blasphemies.  These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man’.  

My family has a history of left handers.  On my father’s side, there’s a left-hander in each of his siblings’ families which includes yours truly as the sole lefty in my family.  As for my mother’s side, my ‘kong kong’ (grandfather) was originally a left-hander but due to parental influences, he was able to use both hands (the proper term for being adept at using both hands is ambidexterity) and my uncle is also a left-hander himself.  The left force is strong with us, haha!

To conclude, here is a short list of famous left-handers (a longer list can be found here):

> James A. Garfield (yes, Garfield the Cat was named after him for his fiery orange full beard), Harry S. Truman, Gerald Ford, George Bush Senior and Bill Clinton (former U.S Presidents)

> Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Michelangelo, Prince Charles and Prince William of England, Henry Ford, Hellen Keller (Miscellaneous)

> Lewis Carroll, Mark Twain, H.G. Wells (Authors)

> Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins, Judy Garland, Jimi Hendrix, Paul McCartney of The Beatles, George Michael, Cole Porter, Seal (Musicians)

> Tim Allen, Amitabh Bachchan, Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker (wow, both husband and wife are left-handers!), George Burns, Charlie Chaplin, Tom Cruise, Robert DeNiro, Fran Drescher, Greta Garbo, Whoopie Goldberg, Cary Grant, Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman, Marilyn Monroe, Keanu Reeves, Julia Roberts (Actors) 

The Left-Handers’ Day official website is at http://www.lefthandersday.com/   

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Finally, I managed to capture a step-by-step pictorial guide (haha, sounds very professional, eh?) in making Tofu Soybean Paste Stew (Dubu Doenjangjjigae in Korean), a very commonly eaten stew in Korea.  This dish is very healthy and nutritious as there’s virtually no oil used and the ingredients that go into the stew make for a balanced meal by itself.  For this round, I added an additional ingredient which was hot pepper paste or better known as ‘Gochujang’ in Korean.  I couldn’t resist purchasing a tub priced at approximately RM15 from Jaya Jusco during a ‘Korean Fair’ promotion recently.  If you read my previous post on Pork and Kimchi Stew, one of the ingredients needed was ‘Gochujang’ which I substituted with normal chili paste.  When I made the same stew again using my home-made fermented Kimchi (please refer to Kimchi and Kaktugi post for the recipe) and the red pepper paste, the dish tasted really different; it was thicker in consistency and less spicy.  The stew was delicious-there’s no real substitute for ‘Gochujang’ if the recipe calls for it!

After checking out Maangchi’s food blog for a side dish (banchan in Korean) inspiration, I decided to make a steamed egg side dish called ‘Gye Ran Jjim’ in Korean.  This recipe is included in here too as it’s simply SO easy to do!  For those who want to eat an easy and quick-to-make yet healthy and nutritious dish, I highly recommend this steamed egg recipe.

Here’s the Dubu Doenjangjjigae recipe (serves 4 people):

Ingredients:

3 pieces of soft tofu, cut into medium-sized cubes (I personally prefer soft tofu; you can use whatever tofu you like) 

1 white onion, cubed

1 zucchini, cubed

6 shiitake mushrooms, soaked in hot water until soft then thin sliced

1 medium-sized potato, peeled and cubed

1/2 green chili, seeded and thin sliced

1/2 red chili, seeded and thin sliced

1 tbsp minced garlic

1/3 cup dried anchovies (ikan bilis in Bahasa Malaysia), cleaned

1/3 cup dried shrimps (har mai in Cantonese), rinsed

2 tbsp soybean paste (Doenjang in Korean) (I used Chinese soybean paste as a substitute)

1 tbsp Gochujang

2 stalks spring onions, chopped

700ml water

Method:

1) Put the dried anchovies and dried shrimps into a pot.  Pour water into the pot.

2) Add soybean paste and dilute in water. 

3) Boil the mixture for 10 minutes.

4) Add all ingredients except chilies, spring onions, tofu and Gochujang (soup should just submerge the ingredients).  Boil over high heat for 15 minutes.

5) Stir in Gochujang.  The stew will turn into a nice orange-ish colour.

6) Add tofu and chilies.  Boil for another 5 minutes.

7) Garnish with spring onions and your stew is ready to go!

Whilst preparing for the above, you can easily whip up Gye Ran Jjim:

Ingredients:

3 large eggs

1/2 cup water

3 tsp fish sauce

2 stalks spring onions, chopped

Method:

1) In a microwave-safe bowl (for cooking purpose), place all ingredients and beat mixture with a fork.

2) Put into microwave oven and cook for 5 minutes.  Serve with Dubu Doenjangjjigae and rice (or you can have it with rice only!)  Wasn’t that easy peasy lemon squeezy? ;P

Enjoy the meal, folks!

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Question: What do TGIF and the Beijing Olympics have in common?

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Answer: It falls on the same day today i.e. 8th of August 2008!

(Okay, bring on the rotten tomatoes and eggs for Mei Leng’s lamest of lame riddles, people!)

Haha…my sincerest apologies for the stuttering start as I’ve been feeling like a lil’ old slug, a sloth, a big and bumbly hibernating bear, etc…i.e. which means I’m more comfortable lying prone on anything horizontal (which I can’t since I have my-cough, cough-work commitments) and bumming around the house doing nothing (Industry and Productivity, where art thou?).  Yup, I’m in my ’sleep/cranky/lazy’ mode today!

I found this short and sweet food personality test while surfing the Internet called What Condiment Are You?  Do try it out for some harmless fun and most importantly, don’t take the test too seriously, yeah?

Here’s my Condiment Personality:

You Are Mustard

Your personality is strong and distinctive. You are beyond quirky. You can stand alone in the world well. You are a strong individual. You sometimes work well with others, as long as there aren’t any other strong personalities involved. Your taste in food tends to be simple yet high quality. You can really get into a perfectly prepared sandwich or simple fresh salad. You get along best with ketchup and barbeque sauce personalities. Get you with a salsa personality, and things might become downright nasty!

Hmm, true or not?

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When I was still single and staying at my parents’ home, I remember my mother buying Chinese-style roast pork (’siew yoke’ in Cantonese) from the wet market for special occasions such as Chinese New Year reunion dinner.  She will cut a portion from the huge chunk for immediate consumption while the rest of the meat was placed into the freezer for future use.  I loved dipping the roast pork into oyster sauce and listening to the crunch, crunch and crunch of the crispy skin as I munch on the pieces  :)  You can have different dish varieties with roast pork; eat the meat on its own with a sauce dipping (Tip: to make the skin crispier, pop meat into the oven OR wok-fry the pork pieces WITHOUT oil for 5 to 7 minutes .  You will see the pork sizzling and oil oozing out emanating a delicious aroma, bliss!), stir-fried with leeks, stirred into fried rice and fried noodles, served with curry laksa, and eaten with plain white rice.  I’m sure you can think of more ways of eating if you’re a pork aficionado!

Buying roast pork is pretty expensive and you can’t be certain with the consistency of taste and quality.  Therefore, I decided to do it myself at home.  After a few trials and errors, here’s the recipe for Chinese-style Roast Pork:

Serves 4 to 6 people

Ingredients:

1.5kg pork (pork meat part-sam chang yook in Cantonese)

1/2 tsp salt

Vinegar Mixture: 

2 tbsp rice vinegar

1 litre water

Marinade: 

1 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp Chinese five-spice powder

2 pieces red fermented beancurd (nam yee in Cantonese)

1 tsp Chinese cooking wine

1/2 tsp sugar

(Tip: I have to admit that I’m quite clueless with pork meat parts, so what I do is to tell my regular butcher what I plan to cook and he will give me the part required.  For the ’sam chang yook’, ask your butcher to score the pork skin as you’ll need to prick the skin during roasting) 

Method:

1) Combine water and vinegar and bring to boil.

2) Scald the pork skin with hot vinegar mixture.

3) Rub salt onto skin.

4) Rub meat with marinade and leave aside for 2 days.

5) Place marinated pork with meat side up on an aluminium foil-covered oven tray and roast at 200°C for 25 minutes.  Remove meat.

6) Prick pork skin with a sharp knife several times.  Put meat back on the tray with skin side up and roast at 200°C for 45 minutes until skin turns crispy.

7) Note that the roasted pork has shrunked in size.  Chop the roast pork into bite-sized pieces.

Now it’s time to devour your home-made crispy ’siew yoke’ :P  Hope you like the recipe! 

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