Tea classes anyone?

http://www.worldteanews.com/index.php/20091110797/People/A-Dozen-Tea-Sommeliers-Emerge-From-New-Canadian-Program.html

Offered in conjunction with the Tea Association of Canada, the program began as individual events geared toward tea enthusiasts. It evolved into a formalized program consisting of two parts: four courses covering an introduction to tea, tea regions, and preparation and consumption; and four technical and business-focused courses covering menu, sensory development, service training and tea garden management. (For a complete curriculum, see the program's Web site.) In addition to these 140 hours of course work, graduates had to complete a 20-hour internship.

Home: documentaire disponible jusqu'au 15 juillet

Home: un documentaire à propos de notre maison à tous.

Soy Story

http://www.bonappetit.com/magazine/2009/08/is_soy_healthy

So what's the bottom line? If you're a woman who has been diagnosed with or has a family history of breast cancer, it's probably safest to avoid soy. Men hoping to father children should probably limit the amount of soy they eat, and parents would be advised to follow the Israeli guidelines in serving soy foods to their kids, especially infants and toddlers.

[...]

When it comes to soy and health, there isn't much consensus. But there is one thing that both the anti- and pro-soy camps seem to agree on: Fermented soy is good for you.

Best of Mountain View 2009

We've voted for Best of Mountain View 2009:

Restaurants
Best Chinese restaurant: Chef Liu's
Best coffee house: Neto Cafe & Bakery
Best Mediterranean restaurant: Mediterranean Grill
Best sushi/Japanese restaurant: Sushi Tei
Best vegetarian restaurant: Passage to India

Services
Best massage: Massage Envy

Food/Drink
Best noodle place: Ramen House Ryowa
Best pizza: Madonaldo's Pizza
Best place to buy fresh produce: Mountain View Farmers' Market
Best small (non-chain) grocery store: Mi Pueblo

Retail
Best bike shop: Performance Bike
Best new business: 99 Ranch Market

Fun stuff
Best entertainment: Computer History Museum

Theme Category
Best place for a Hero-Villain battle: Castro street
Best rooftop to shine the bat light from: Mountain View City Hall
Best superhero headquarters: Googleplex

Mountain View Farmers' Market

Every Sunday from 9am to 1pm, there is the popular Farmers' market in Mountain View. You can find all kind of organically grown, fresh fruits and vegetables in addition to various homemade products. It's great and Min Lin has her favorite stand to buy really inexpensive Chinese vegetables.

At the entrance there is a huge basket sampling many of the products of the market. The woman at the stand told us: "Go ahead guys, fill it out - you have a great chance to win since there are few people that filled it out!".

So we did.

And we won.

They called us up a few minutes later while we were going to buy additional vegetables from the Chinese grocery on Castro. They told us "You won! Please fetch it in the next 45 minutes... oh, and don't come by bike, there's just too much!" - "...but...but"

... oh boy, trouble...

So now we had to figure out who to call up to share our new bounty. We eventually reached Wenbo; his family had just landed a day ago so were indeed in need of food. Even after just picking up the stuff we wanted and leaving him with a very heavy basket and bag of oranges, we filled out both of my bike saddle bags!

Karen, the person who had encouraged us to participate, was nice enough to help us with additional plastic bags to split the stuff. She also gave us the basket!

We talked for a bit; she works as an assistant-manager for the California Farmer's Market Association and they organize many markets in the region. She also mentioned to look out for the number on stickers of fruits and vegetables; #4 is conventionally grown, #8 is genetically modified and #9 is organic.

What was in the basket:

Shitake mushrooms, salads with edible flowers, baby spinach, zucchinis, Chinese eggplants, baby eggplants, lettuce, tomatoes, corn, broccoli, carrots, celery, various herbs, bok choy, strawberries, cucumbers, plums, peaches, apricots, oranges, potatoes, onions, blueberries from Triple Delight, organic fresh black raspberries from Prevedelli Farms, wildflower honey from Morganic Hilltop, sweet jalapeño marinade from Bolani, dried apricots from Apricot King and much more!!

Here's a summer garden soup made by Min Lin with fresh vegetables and herbs from the basket:

Recipe of Min Lin's summer garden soup:

Ingredients:

• 1 big tomato
• 1 baby green zucchini
  
• 1 yellow zucchini
  
• some fresh basil
• some fresh coriander
• some water, salt, pepper, ginger powder and extra virgin olive oil

Cooking directions:

• cut all vegetables, put all in a pot and gently cook until vegetables gets soften
• serve with a few drops of lemon juice
  
• good for 3 servings
  

Coffee Drinks Illustrated

http://www.flickr.com/photos/two-eyes/1285147549/sizes/o/

Taiwan: A Fruit Lover's Paradise

If you love tropical fruits, you should definitely visit Taiwan in June-July, it is the best time to taste the most delicious tropical fruits in the world!! You will find lychee, mango, papaya, guava, pineapple, watermelon, sugar cane, carambola, longan, passion fruit, sugar apple, etc... I could eat just fruits all day long ;-)

Other than fruits produced in Taiwan, I also like the exotic taste of durian, imported from Thailand. It's smelly and sweet ;-)

Artisan Wine Depot

Dégustation de bières avec quelques bières Allemandes et Belges au nouveau Artisan Wine Depot à Mountain View.

Nous avons rencontré un des cofondateurs de Eye-Fi (carte SD avec transmetter WiFi!) Ziv Gellat qui a démontré son produit en prenant des excellentes photos de nous:

Olympia bakery, Taipei, Taiwan

Olympia bakery (3 places in Taipei, including one is Ximen) has surprisingly good cream puffs for 30NT$ (1US$) each. They are also very filling so you can't really eat more then one. Another surprise are the dim sum who are tasty and fresh.

Olympia (http://www.olympiafoods.com.tw)

Grand Formosa Taroko Western Restaurant, Taiwan

The decor is wood and a large slab of rock next to which are placed the various salad dish. Two more islands have most of the meat dishes and a chef speciality area. Tucked in a corner the desserts are layed out.

The staff is very accomodating and prompt, offering us good seats and are quick at picking up the steady stream of dishes.

The desserts are all delicious and include a mango mousse, an angel cake, fruitcake and more. There is also some watermelon and if you want to go French style you can get some of the tasty smoked gouda cheese in addition to a Min Lin's favorite, matcha (green tea) ice cream. The chef was nice enough to bring an extra plate of cheese when we scavenged the last piece.

Wait you'll say, what about the main dishes? Sadly, they are all messed up in their own special way with an uniform abuse of pepper in all dishes. The supposedly French style onion soup is an insult to France and even the spaghetti ranks as the worse I've had.

The buffet food is 590NT$ plus a 10% service charge. We recommend stuffing yourself on the afternoon tea (250NT$) and going for some stinky tofu next door for dinner.

4th day on Green Island

After breakfast at Shiacarl, we went hiking in the ancient across the mountain trail. We saw many lizards taking in the sun in the trail and scurrying into the bushes when we came by, except for two that took an aggressive stance when we were coming down the mountain - probably frustrated at having their sunbathing interrupted all the time. We also saw a deer (a smaller kind then the Sika deer) and a big shiny salamander in addition to many butterflied.

We had to checkout from Shiacarl since they did not have a room for us on Saturday night, so we moved to an hotel in the same village. As most buildings in Taiwan, the exterior looks of older buildings is awful but the actual room was nice, although the mattress was a lot firmer than I'm used to. Still, a very good alternative 20% to 30% less expensive than Shiacarl, although you don't get the same personalized experience and there is no breakfast.

Talking about hospitality, our hosts at Shiacarl invited us to BBQ! The food involved is much different than in north America... We had flying fish (salted and whole), sausage, squid, chicken tail, slices of pork, fish soup (I had an entire small fish floating in my bowl) and corn.

That day, we've also tried out the shaved ice downtown which is ice with red beans, tofu, seaweed, condensed milk and a few other ingredients that are very refreshing.

Shiacarl Cafe 夏卡爾, Green Island, Taiwan

The B&B also doubles as a small cafe for serving guests and outside customers. The eating area is nicely decorated with relaxing music and a soothing ocean breeze.

Our hosts and hostess Selena all take turn cooking and luckily for us they also make the best food on the island, although they quite humble about it.

While the downtown is bland or excessively bizarre, their food strike the right balance between original and good taste. Of particular note is the fruit salad that is common to most of her dishes. They are also accommodating of their mixed carnivorous and vegetarian guests, serving versions of both for any dishes to me and Min Lin. the vegetarian version is also not an inferior version of the meat dish, but delicious in its own way.

I love the fact that we don't have to choose the dishes; we just tell them when we want to eat and the dishes are served, a pleasant surprise everytime.

Dragon water tea house, Jiben, Taiwan

After the hot spring cooked eggs, we decided to keep walking towards the Jiben royal hotel. We saw another family of monkeys on the side of the road. They are easy to spot because they get very noisy (like Taiwanese tour groups) and jump from branch to branch when someone walks by.

Our plan was to either find a restaurant or call up the one that was advertising free pick up. However, we then found a sign indicating that the restaurant was 600m away so we decided to walk... uphill.

550m... 500m... was this such a good idea?... 400m... 300m... maybe we should have called them?...200m... the farmer that we had seen coming up earlier with a bag of vegetables is now coming back down with a quizzical face... 100m... we've worked up quite a sweat... 50m... an ugly old shed on the side of the road is not confidence inspiring... "you are almost there".... "just right around the bend"...

The vista opens up on the cloud covered mountains, an orchestra of singing birds, scratching insects, croaking frogs, howling monkeys and foliage dancing in the wind.

The restaurant is a bamboo patio built as an extension to a private home where 5 generations of the same Taiwanese family lived.

As dusk comes, we can see the lights of the nearby city, Taitung. A counter in the restaurant offers wood carved products, rare teas, a variety of body oils. The lady, somewhat surprised to see us without reservations, welcomes us and demoes a mint essential oil to help cold down our overheated bodies. She takes our order for dinner and two drinks (one from a flower and the other prune, both very strong).

The food is zen; simple but tasty, including a mountain vegetable in a light black bean sauce. Eating slowly while admiring the show that nature is putting on is very relaxing.

We soon take our leave, pay our dinner (700$NT total) and use the free ride back to the hotel...

Tonight in Rainbow Hotel 泓泉溫泉渡假村, Jiben, Taiwan

Another two hours by train and a taxi ride brought us in a remote area in the mountains with many hot springs resorts. We are staying at the Rainbow Hotel 泓泉溫泉渡假村 in Jiben hot spring area. Very basic accommodations since the hotel is pretty old. The facilities are small but have one major advantage compared to spa resorts; the water is naturally heated by geothermal energy and with a large quantity of minerals doesn't need chlorination.

We went for as small walk and saw a monkey. Apart from that the trail is again littered with all kinds of garbage, including an entire bath!

We then went for a walk in the hope of finding something better than the ghastly restaurant at the hotel. We found a place where you can buy and cook eggs in the boiling hot spring water - a Min Lin's favorite.

Beard Papa's!

Aujourd'hui j'ai été avec ma nièce à un centre d'achats à Taipei et nous avons trouvé un magasin de Beard Papa's, le meilleur chou à la crème que j'ai jamais mangé! J'ai connu Beard Papa's il y a 6 ans à Tokyo, c'est un magasin à Ueno qui a toujours une file d'attente d'amateurs de chou à la crème. Il existe maintenant des succursales de Beard Papa's un peu partout dans le monde, Ricky et moi nous avons déjà visité celui à Londres et à San Francisco. Il y a 8 saveurs de chou à la crème, mais mon préféré est toujours le saveur au thé vert matcha ;-)

鮮道素食鹹酥G (Casse-croûte végétarien)

Taiwan a une très grande population végétarienne, il est très facile de trouver de la bouffe végétarienne partout. Taiwan est aussi très réputé pour la diversité de "petits plats" 小吃. Un de mes petits plats favoris est le casse-croûte végétarien, il s'agit d'une diversité de viandes végétariennes à base de soya et tofus frits ou cuits dans sauce soya.

Ceci est un kiosque de casse-croûte végétarien ouvert par nos amis 鮮道素食鹹酥G (Xian Tao Casse-croûte végétarien), leur menu contient plus de 60 items et ils ont des items qui viennent de leur recette secrète qui ne se trouvent pas ailleurs! Parmi les items dans le menu, mes préférés sont les champignons pleurotes frits, les huîtres croquants, octopus frits, patates sucrés, les boules aux fromages et les tofus fermes cuits dans la sauce soya avec des épices maison.

Aya's Cooking

En plus de son blog habituel notre ami Guillaume, qui travaille au Japon pour la même compagnie où nous avions fait un stage, a maintenant un nouveau blogue à propos des recettes de cuisine de sa petite amie, Aya; Aya's Cooking.

Comme le proverbe français dit "La voie royale pour le coeur d'un homme passe par son estomac"...!

Charles Shaw @ Trader Joe's

Deux bouteilles de vin Charles Shaw (Merlot et Shiraz) et une pizza individuelle chez Trader Joe's ...

7.30$!

... et le vin est moins cher que la pizza et est très bon! Il s'est même mérité plusieurs prix en compétition. Un prix étonnant pour un vin qui vient en bouteille et utilise un bouchon de liège.

Le surnom de ce vin est le "two-buck-chuck" et est très connu des locaux. Il y a quand même plusieurs légendes urbaines qui se sont créés autour de ce prix implausible.

Ah oui, et le caissier du Trader Joe's m'a carté:

• caissier: "May I see an ID please?"
• moi: "yes, of course, here you go" en lui donnant mon passeport
• caissier: "Canadian passport..."
• moi: "yes"

Le caissier regarde ma date de naissance, regarde ma photo, regarde moi, regarde encore la date de naissance et avec un petit sourire me remet mon passeport... Je fais pas mon âge je crois!

Nola et Gary Danko

Nous avons eu deux sorties "Bon Voyage" (une expression française que les Californiens connaissent bien) à un de nos collègues qui s'en va. Il va travailler dans le bureau de Shanghai pendant 5 mois dans le cadre de notre programme "ambassadeur" pour apporter la culture d'entreprise aux employés chinois.

Lundi, c'était la sortie au bar. Nous sommes été au Nola Restaurant est dans la ville voisine Palo Alto. C'est un resto style "Nouvel-Orléans". J'ai eu trois boissons différentes, la première s'appelle le "Hurricane" et était très alcoolisé. Les deux autres étaient le Pomegranate Martini et un Grey Goose Pear Martini. J'ai aussi eu des calamaris qui goûtaient très bon. Tout ça payé par un de nos patrons bien sûr ;-).

Mardi, c'était une sortie à un resto très réputé dans la région; le Gary Danko. C'est un restaurant luxueux et très dispendieux de San Francisco qui s'est valu une étoile Michelin (au grand désarroi des locaux qui pensent qu'il se mérite au moins deux étoiles). Un de ses sous-chef (Scott ...) est d'ailleurs devenu un des chefs d'une de nos cafétérias au travail!

Mes choix:

• Glazed oysters with Osetra Caviar, Salsify and Lettuce Cream
• Roast Maine Lobster with Morel Mushrooms , Asparagus and Tarragon
• (un plat de bison)
• (un plat d'agneau)
• Baked Chocolate Soufflé with Two Sauces

Le dessert et le homard était très bon et le reste était bon mais je trouvais peut-être pas à la hauteur du prix... C'est le genre d'expérience où ont s'attends à avoir un orgasme culinaire à chaque bouchée, mais ce n'était pas le cas ici. Un peu de ma faute; dans ce genre de sortie, vaut mieux sélectionner les plats de fruits de mer pour vraiment apprécier.

Le service était très bien (franchement, tellement bon que c'est un peu intimidant!) avec deux exceptions; ils ont oublié d'apporter le "wine pairing" pour accompagner un des plats de la personne qui avait choisi cette option et nous ont donné la mauvaise facture. Oui, je suis très critique, mais je pense que c'est normal de s'attendre à la perfection quand le total équivaut à 7 repas à un autre restaurant!

Quand même, je suis très privilégié de pouvoir faire ce genre d'expérience!

Inn Noodle (Londres)

Pour référence future: notre restaurant préféré à Londres était le Inn Noodle (j'en prends note ici car certains de nos collègues cherchaient pour une recommandation aujourd'hui...).