this is a maxim that I always hold on to.
from Stefan Landsbergers amazing collection:
Author Archives: brushduck
Where to go in China town (part II) – ‘mouth tingling’ chicken
Red n Hot at 59 Charing cross road.
At £18 a head (no booze) we had a veritable feast.
Red n Hot is a chain restaurant that has hit the Chinatowns of London, Birmingham and Manchester and represents part of a growing trend towards Sichuanese food in the UK. Although it is not as good as Bar Shan/Bar Shu round the corner, it is a bit cheaper! We went for some classic Sichuanese dishes:
fish fragrant aubergines 鱼香茄条
cumin flavoured lamb 孜然羊肉
gongbao prawns 宫保虾球
dumplings in chilli oil 红油水饺
and my personal favourite – sichuan ‘mouth tingling’ chicken 四川口水鸡
Red n Hot was full of people eating hot pot – which is reasonably priced at £20 a head. I took the challenge of trying to beat that price by ordering a la carte. Red Hot is slightly off the main Chinatown beat (Gerrard St) but it represents a good value and serves up some authentic Sichuanese dishes so is well worth it!
Filed under Food
Where to go in Chinatown? (part one)
I love Chinatown. It is probably my favourite part of London, but everytime I am there I find it hard to decide where to go. So I thought I would make a multi-part guide to a few places I like in Chinatown.
PART ONE – Jen Cafe
This place is perfect for a quick meeting for some milkbubble tea (banana flavour is the best), a crispy pork and rice dish, or a dumpling soup. Alternatively you can watch them make the dumplings in front of you. roughly £6 a head.
Filed under Food
Chinese Government mess with nature… and win
How do you make it rain in the desert? What do you get if you cross the desert with the sea? How do you drown a scorpion?
No, these are not classic Christmas cracker jokes, but actually environmental policy ideas in China. The answer is 6 years, 62.8 billion RMB and a lot of planning permission. These are all things that come easily if you are the Chinese government. The plan seems to be to bring water from the Bohai (east China sea) to the far western province Xinjiang. The project is known as 南水北调工程 or the South-North Water Transfer Project. It seems rather poorly named to me. One only needs a rudimentary glance at the map of the proposed project to see that East-West water transfer might have been a better name.
The idea of the project is to pipe a lot of sea water 5,000 km to the desert in the Xinjiang, create some artificial lakes and then pray for rain. For a bit of distance comparison. That is like London to Istanbul. Or Los Angeles to Ney York and then to Tennessee. Basically, a hell of a long way. Some scientists don’t think it will work, but that hasn’t stopped the CCP before.
http://www.danwei.org/environmental_problems/bohai_xinjiang.php
Filed under environment, News
El Avispon Verde!
Ok. One of the great things about having a blog is that you can use it to review movies, music culture whatever. I am going to do a review of Green Hornet based on its trailer as I think I will save my money by not watching it.
I was really looking forward to this film as it has some good talent involved. Directed by Michel Gondry, starring Seth Rogen and co-starring the Justin timberlake of China – Jay Chou.
However, from what I can gather it looks like an attempt to fit too many squares in triangle shaped spaces. Seth Rogen plays stoners quite well, Michel Gondry does quirky sentimental DIY movies and Jay Chou can sing and dance in Chinese. The idea of putting the three of them together to make a superhero movie seems rather odd.
Green Hornet was never a particularly successful or interesting character. The 1960s TV show was famous for launching the career of Bruce Lee who played the Hornet’s sidekick ‘Kato’.The recent trend to ‘revamp’ old superheroes has found its way to reviving the Green Hornet. The project has been through a succession of actors who have pulled out – Kevin Smith, George Clooney, and Jake Gyllenhaal and also Kungfu hustle actor Stephen Chao. Stephen Chao is a natural martial artist and great comic actor and probably would have been perfect for the role. Jay Chou on the other hand can sing and dance and probably sell more movie tickets in China.
Anyway I haven’t seen the film and my advice is don’t go and watch it.
Spanish Hornet
Filed under Film
Plastered – Beijing’s original T-shirt brand
Just stumbled across this website which I think is awesome. They have some great desgins for T shirts and also some handy computer wallpapers if you want to spruce up your desktop Beijing style! I am their new fan!
Filed under Fashion
Chinese news website reports news
In a breaking news story we can report here that a Chinese news website has in fact reported some news. The People’s Daily online has reported two hot off the press stories.
the first concerns Young Japanese girls wearing kimonos at a ‘coming of age’ festival
the second piece of news concerns a porridge festival in north west China 
All this news is obviously reported on a day in which the Guardian and other Western media outlets report on the missing human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng’s torture ordeal http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/10/missing-chinese-human-rights-lawyer
The guardian have clearly missed out on the top stories.
how to look like a badass in pyjamas
My firm belief is that Chinese old people are much cooler than english old people has been confirmed by this ‘how to’ video on China’s version of Youtube (which incidentally translates as ‘Potato’) see link below. You may have to watch an ad for Chinese KFC, which is equally amusing.
Pyjama badass
http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/ztg-g6g4H4Q/
Filed under Uncategorized
Sleeping like a panda
After having slept like a panda for over 12 hours. I was impressd by my ability so I thought I would make a small comparison.
In fact, although pandas sleep for 10-12 hours a day. They actually nap more often than sleep. Furthermore you can tell how long a panda has been sleeping at a spot as they defecate whilst sleeping. Fortunately, I do not share this habit and have woken up once again with clean sheets.
I have no idea where the above picture came from, or who on earth made it, but it does remind me of a story from Chengdu a few years ago –
after a panda that had been released to nature died shortly after, the Woolong Nature Reserve said they were going to teach pandas to fight by making them watch attack dogs in action. Only in China.
Filed under comedy
Imperial Chinese Clobber at the V & A
Go check out the imperial robes exhibition at the V and A. Get some ancient imperial Chinese fashion tips. I’ve already ordered a pair of these boots. the exhibition runs til the 27th Feb 2011…
Filed under Uncategorized
brushduck 