黄豆芽，豆腐丝（俺们美国内陆小城也有豆腐丝卖！）开水抄一下
其他的原料：胡萝卜，黄瓜（$1.79一根的英国黄瓜），香菜。
切啊切啊切啊切
装盘，加盐适量，然后倒上醋，淋上少许花椒油，就可以上桌了。
色鲜清脆美味健康爽口。
此冷盘是用来招待同事来家party的七菜一汤之一。还有一大盘是不加香菜的。极受欢迎，尤其得到印度素食夫妇青睐（我们一共做了四个素菜）。
生米凉水泡24小时。
猪肉馅和用food processer打碎的油菜（现在健康第一，已经不习惯吃纯肉丸子），生姜，盐和馅。
泡好的米平扑在瓷盘里。
包好丸子，在瓷盘里打几个滚儿，让米粒儿沾满丸子的表面。
装盘，上蒸锅蒸半小时左右，就可以出锅了。
健康美味，
As a Chinese living in the US, I have a weak spot for expat writing. I particularly love to read blogs written by western people living in China. They are easy to love because they are funny, they look at things I know from a different perspective and they are honest. One of my favorite is Violet Eclipse, an English teacher living in Yantai. Today I came upon this entry about ordering banana in a Yantai restaurant. In short, they tried to order fried banana, an entry on the menu, but were always denied. They finally brought a banana and the restaurant gave in and cooked for them.
And my first reaction was: I miss China!
It’s been a while, but at least I’m picking up the topic again.
Last time I talked about reading American celebrity blogs—Mark Cuban and Donald Trump. While Mark Cuban is a poster child of the new rich, it is hard to label Donald Trump (save for the now contrite hair joke)—he made his fortune a long time ago (so long that I thought he was long dead) but recently enjoyed an even grander comeback, thanks to the Apprentice gig. He takes the word “unabashed” to a new extreme.
While I, like many people, often find his excessive self-promotion uncomfortable, I have a genuine respect for the man for what he does and has been able to accomplish. This happens especially after I read his blog, which despite his busy schedule, he still finds time to write some interesting stuff once in a while. And I began to ask myself, “what can I learn from him?”.
Well, the question is not hard to answer if you read his recent piece here. Here’s a quote:
Everybody I met, once I told them I’m from Beijing, expressed interest in the 2008 Olympics. They all want to come and watch the game. However, when I read an article from the New York Times, I am not so sure the Marathon athletes are as excited.
The article is about training to compete in a marathon held in a hot, humid and polluted city. You can read it here.
The article is long and only towards the end it brought up something I knew was true but never was willing to accept. Here’s some excerpts:
In America, celebrities are often what I call “deserving” celebrities, because most of them are 1) smart; 2) talented and 3) hard-working. Observing their behavior, I always thought they deserve to make the amount of money they make for their work, the sacrifices they, and often their family members, have to make. They take the word “professionalism” to extreme in everything they do. Including blogging.
Of course, most celebrities are too busy to write a blog, if people like me only have time to update a couple times a month (although I’m trying to pick up). But many have found it a good marketing tool–after all, they are all confident that the more people know about them, the more they’ll be liked, and the easier for them to sell whatever they need to sell. (I think this notion is generally true here in the US, however I am not sure about its applicability to celebrities in China. It’s more often the case that the more we know about a Chinese celebrity, the less we like them. But this point deserves another blog entry by itself.)
Getting back to my list. I subscribe to two blogs by American celebrities.
I use NetVibes as my feed reader and subscribe to quite a few blogs. They fall in the following categories:
1. Friends: not many, as quite a few are in MSN Space and thus can notify me through MSN Messenger.
2. Econ blogs: such as Freakonomics Blog, Greg Mankiw’s blog.
3. “Thinking” celebrity blogs:
This category includes both Chinese and American celebrities. The reason I emphasize “thinking” is because too many celebrities do not think, especially (and sadly) Chinese celebrities.
4. Major newspapers: such as Wall Street Journal’s Most Popular articles, New York Times Most Emailed Articles.
What blogs do you read? I’m always on the lookout for new ones.
今天看见有人讨论回国可以带的礼物还有出国从中国带的东西,我想了想几年来自己的经验,列了个单子:
都是对岸买不到,或者差价大到不带对不起自己的程度
美–>中
1. 名牌运动商品:T-shirt,裤子等等
2. 名牌双肩背书包
3. 名牌衣服,运动鞋和帽子:这个要知道礼物接受人尺码
4. 化妆品
5. 补品:多维,鱼油,卵磷脂之类(国内假的太多)
6. 电动牙刷(Sonic, OralB 或 Braun充电的那种,大约$100)
7. 好的牙保健产品(美国这边经常有新产品出来,国内要慢很多,或者根本买不到)
8. 纯棉袜子
以上1-3可以到outlet或者Ross, TJMaxx, Marshalls之类的减价商店买.4 等到mall里
The once-every-four-years World Cup is nearing its final stage. Never a football player growing up, I used to be a fan before I left China, like everyone else. I still watch a couple of games here and there, most recently the England-Portugal game and the France-Brazil game. Yet I was greatly disappointed. Below are my random observations and thoughts.
1. The penalty kick shootout is a joke. Given the randomness of the result from the penalty kick, it is insulting to the two exhaustic teams to base the outcome of the game on making a shot any serious amateur player can make. You might as well toss a coin and let the two teams play heads-or-tail! How ridiculous that two of the four quarter-final matches were determined by this pure random act? Whoever designed this rule should be hanged, or more appropriately, secured to a pole and be shot at point blank range by a flying football.
2. The game is booooring!
Freakonomics的博客上,Steve Levitt解释了为什么尽管根据统计规律,射点球的时候应该射向球门中间–守门员最佳的策略是扑向左或右边,而不是在中间等着,还是很少有人这么作.
因为对球员来说,面子比赢球更重要.如果往边上射,即使运气不好,被守门员扑出来,也不会有人责备你–运气不好而已. 可如果你向球门中间踢过去,虽然大部分时间可能进球,但在小概率事件发生,球被守门员拦住,你就会立刻成了历史罪人. 所以很少有人在罚点球的时候选择踢向中间. 用他的话说;:”So even though the middle is a great play statistically, kickers don’t choose it very often. There are some things that are even more important than winning, like not looking like a fool.”
太精辟了!
最厉害的是最后他还引用昨天合众社的报道来证明球迷的看法:
The first kicker from Ukraine missed his shot. Then it was the Swiss player’s turn. The story from the AP describes the Swiss player’s shot as follows:
“Marco Streller’s effort for Switzerland was worse—low and directly at Shovkovskyi.”
The second Swiss player also missed. Here is the AP’s description:
“Barnetta hit the crossbar.”
Not pejorative at all…hitting the crossbar is apparently acceptable.
But then the third Swiss player kicked it, to the following description:
“Ricardo Cabanas looked almost amateurish on his shot directly into the middle of the goal—and again, right at the Ukranian goalkeeper.”
最最最精辟的是最后一段第一句话:
“It is not just whether you win or lose, but how you play the game.”
