German Zoo Keeper Drowned in 200 Pounds of Elephant Dung

This is a sad but freakly true story.

A German Zookeeper named Friedrich Riesfeldt wanted to help a constipated elephant named Stefan to relive himself, ended up dead in elephant dung.

Apparently, Zookeeper Friedrich fed the animal 22 doses of animal laxative and various concoction of fresh fruits, hoping that the animal could relive itself. Little did he expected that the animal would start reliving himself while he was standing directly behind it, trying to administer an olive oil enema.

I guessed the elephant had been suffering from constipation for quite some time as it excreted 200 pounds of dung that day. Without warning, Friedrich was pinned violently to the ground by the load. In course of action, he slammed his head against concrete floor and was knocked unconscious. Sadly, the elephant continued to excrete on him and Friedrich eventually suffocated beneath the dung.

Friedrich was discovered an hour later, dead.

http://www.8bm.com/diatribes/volume01/022/435.htm

Hungry Ghost Festival

Every year’s 7th month of the lunar calendar is known to the Chinese as the “Ghost” month or 七月 in Chinese. Chinese believed that Hell will open its gate for the whole of the month to allow spirits and ghosts to roam the earth freely. According to legend, 7th month is an important month for hell’s spirits and ghosts as they were normally not allowed to eat, whatever that touched their mouth will become ashes. However during this special month, they were given concession to eat and to be fed.

The 15th day of the 7th month is known as the Hungry Ghost Festival 中原节 or 普渡. Some people would confuse this day with Qing Ming 清明节. Although both festivals honour and pray to the deceased, but they are different in nature. During Qing Ming, people prayed and make offerings to their ancestors in remembrance of their roots. However, in the case of Hungry Ghost Festival, people not only make offerings to their ancestors, they also make offerings to roaming spirits as well as demigods “working” in hell.

(Picture above shown offerings: Red Candles, Tea Leaves, Joss Sticks and Joss Papers)

Many of the roaming spirits do not have a “home” or decedents to pray for them, so in spirit of giving, people often prepared additional offerings for them. Chinese prayed to the demigods too as they believed that getting into “good books” of the demigods, they will be blessed for the year. This year’s Hungry Ghost Festival falls on the 3rd of September. Our family, like many other families, make offerings too.

Joss papers came in various forms. Some of it has chants scripted on it, when you burnt them, it is like you are chanting “good” for them. While some others are more “mundane” things, money known as hell notes, colours papers which are supposed to symbolise cloth for making clothes.

Chinese steamed-cake. Chinese usually include one of these steamed-cake when praying as they symbolised prosperity.

Some of the joss papers have to be folded, a bit like origami, to look like gold ingots.

Unique to Hungry Ghost Festival, people would lay a table full of their daily food stuff as offerings to the spirits. It is also believed that people will be blessed eating those food that has been offered before.

More pious Chinese would even get whole roasted pig as offerings.

In order to invite spirits and demigods to come and feast on the offerings, one need to stick a joss stick and specially-made flags on every food items.

The offerings are left outside for a while, so that the spirits and demigods have “time” to feast on them…

看着烟袅袅的升起 它是否带着人们的祝福和期望到祂的耳边？

Have you all seen the above before? Always wondered why people did that? Scroll down for answer…

After praying, the folded joss papers are brought down to the streets to burn. Chinese believed that the deceased can only received them through burning them.

My mum said that burning joss papers in the chalked area meant that it is for a specific recipient usually for ancestors.

I did not manage to take photo of all joss papers. As you can see from this photo, there are many varieties.

Hell notes, one form of the joss paper, usually comes in big denominator i.e. millions. A TV drama once joked that hell has serious inflation problems due to people printing them in big denominators.

Of course in Singapore, we cannot anyhow burn joss papers as they constitute to littering as well. Often, town council would prepare metal bins for people to burn joss papers.

As I watched the joss paper engulfed in flames, I hope those who are in need would be able to receive them and blessed our family in return…

Problems Uploading Photos on Blogger? Read here for solutions!

Anyone got problems uploading photos on blogger? I did. In fact, weeks ago and the errors lasted for two weeks.

When I login in, the frames were missing. All the buttons became underline links.

Or

The frames will be there, but when clicked on the picture button, the status bar will show error in the pop-up window.

I almost tear my hair out and I cannot blog for weeks. Also, I have no ways to contact Google/Blogger about it. They direct you to help forums or something.

I google about the problem and found this amazing blog! It actually listed errors which blogger had and how they can be resolved!

http://knownissues.blogspot.com/

For those who are lazy to click on the link, but wanting to know how to start photos onto blogger, try this:

Depress "Control and F5" together to force the page to refresh. It turned out that Google had always been informed of any errors almost immediately and users only needed to reload their page to see the patched work.

Strangly, I tried clearing my cache earlier, but it did not work. I did "Control and F5" and the system was back to normal.

:)

Dedicating This Song to Aunty !

As per title, I dedicate this song to my aunt! ;)

Others: If you don't understand, never mind. Well, it is just a family joke.

*Poke Vesparado - LOL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thai Asparagus Looked Like This ?!

I was at NTUC yesterday. Had wanted to pick up some parsley when I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. See below. Did you spot the error?

Thai Asparagus looked weird, I thought… How can asparagus looked…leafy. Hmmm…



A second look confirmed that it is parsley…

Photosophize can now drive!

Did I mention this? I just got my driving license !

I hope to drive around Singapore soon !

:)

La la la la...

Marina Mandarin Peach Blossom - A La Carte Dim Sum Buffet

Earlier on, I took one week leave from work to finish up several personal errands. During which, I took my parents and brothers out to an a-la carte Dim Sum Buffet lunch at Marina Mandarin Hotel’s Peach Blossom.

I was quite excited about the occasion as it was the first time that the whole family could take time out from whatever that we needed to do for a proper sit-down lunch together.

I had first read about Marina Mandarin Peach Blossom’s a la carte Dim Sum Buffet from one of UOB’s credit card brochure. I was quite surprise that a five start hotel Dim Sum buffet only charges $18.80 ++ per pax. I decided to try it out to see if it was really that worthwhile.

I did some research before we went. Read online that for that special lunch time price, Peach Blossom only offered 20 items for the ala carte buffet.

Dim Sum Trinity:

What is Yam Cha 饮茶 (Cantonese: Tea) without Dim Sum Trinity - Har Gao 虾饺, Siew Mai 烧卖 and Cha Siew Bao 叉烧包? So, how is their Dim Sum Trinity?

Steamed Pork Dumpling with Mushroom

I am glad that the steamed dim sum came piping hot. I had thought that their Siew Mai size is a bit dainty compared to Har Gao. It could do with a slight “upsize” so that it would looked more equal. When bite into it, it had a slightly Q texture and one could taste the fish/prawn paste in it which enriched the common Siew Mai with a rich seafood flavour. However, I thought Siew Mai’s highlight should be the pork flavour and texture, but I could hardly taste it.

In fact, many of their dim sum dumplings used too much of “prawn meat paste” that all of them had a similar seafood taste. Perhaps, they should vary the proportion of the prawn meat to give each of the dim sum a different taste and characteristic.

Steamed Prawn Dumpling

The Har Gao came in a good size. The prawn meat filling was quite fresh and springy. I especially like that the chef sprinkled some chopped seaweed flavoured herb onto the dumplings which gave it an additional edge.

Steamed BBQ Pork Bun

Perfectly cooked Cha Siew Bao must “smile”, or rather must have cracks on the dough which allowed one to peek-a-boo at the bits of the amber red pork fillings. In case one does not have this before, the red pork filling is actually Cha Siew. It should have a slightly sweet smoky taste. Their Cha Siew Bao not bad.

Steamed Dim Sum:

Steamed Pork Dumpling with Chinese Chives, Mushroom and Prawn Paste

Apart from the distinct chives flavour, this interesting green-coloured dumpling had the texture and taste is similar with the Siew Mai. Nothing much, really.

 

Steamed Seafood Roll in BBQ sauce

This dim sum dish is essentially bean curb skin and seaweed wrapped around crabsticks, with a bit of prawn paste and enoki mushroom. It was drizzled and steamed with a bit of salty sauce which I realised now that it was BBQ sauce. Don’t understand what this dish is about.

Steamed Lotus Leaf Bun with Roasted Pork

When it was served, I could not recognise the dish. It was huge. I guessed the chef decided to get creative with this traditional bun dish.

Instead of braised meat cooked in dark soy sauce, the chef used roasted pork which are stewed in bean sauce. While I applause for this creativity, but I think the portion scared us a bit and the meat is too fattening (in my opinion) for our liking.

Spare Ribs in Black Bean Sauce, Minced Garlic and Diced Chilli

This is another traditional must-have when eating dim sum. I remembered when ordered this at other places, the spare ribs still got meaty bits. For Peach Blossom’s version, they are all bones. I can hardly find meats on it. Not good.

 

Chicken Feet in Szechuan Spicy Sauce

Unlike the spare ribs, this traditional must-have is properly executed. The chicken feet are braised and steamed to perfection. It is so tender that one hardly need to bite and the meat would fall off the bones naturally.

Steamed Pumpkin Cake with Dried Shrimps and Mushroom

I personally quite like this dish. It is a cross between Chwee Kueh and Wah Kueh. The steamed pumpkin cake has a delicate texture which is almost like a bean curb. The soy-sauce tasted like those Hong Kong Rice Roll’s sauce which has a hint of sweetness to it. There is also dried carrot bits (chay poh) on it.

 

Fried Carrot Cake with Chinese Sausage with X.O Chilli Sauce

I was quite surprise when seeing this as they are not quite what I expected. It has a very fragrant aroma, but it was a tad too salty.

Soups:

Dumpling Soup with Choy Sum

I have to be blunt here. This dumpling soup is uncalled for. There is nothing extraordinary about the dumpling. It is more like a wonton (without prawn kind) in fact. It tasted so common that in comparison, the aunty selling Wonton noodles at the coffeeshop near my place make a better wares than them.

Soup of the Day:

 

Watercress Soup

Another salty soup without much edge. Can be missed.

Porridge:

Fish Fillet Porridge

This porridge is typical Cantonese style. The rice grains has been cooked till non-existence, very smooth. Because it is a fish porridge, there is a hint of ginger flavour in it. A pity, there could be more fish fillet.

Century Eggs and Lean Meat Porridge

Instead of the ginger flavour, there were century egg bits in this. Though it was stated as century eggs and lean meat porridge, but I could hardly find the lean meat. Maybe they were so lean that I missed them out. :P

Fried Dim Sums:

We quite like their deep fried mango roll with shrimp paste and fried prawn dumplings Dim Sum. However, the batter crust of bacon roll and mango roll could be thinner as the thick crust tasted too greasy.

Deep-Fried Yam Dumpling

I like how the size of this dim sim is just nice. The tart strawberry slices rids off the greasy taste.

Conclusion:

For $18.80, you get to enjoy a la carte buffet at a five star hotel – it can be considered worthwhile. Tea charges separately and per pax. Depending on the variety, it can cost up to $12 plus per person.

I like how they allowed people to order the dim sum by the number of pieces. All of the guests will be ensure one piece of the dim sum when served and it allowed us to order more of those which we like more.

 

I am however rather disappointed with the service crew. Firstly, I thought they should spend some time explaining to customers what they are serving for the first time, but no. More than often, I could not get their attention for my order. The same thing happened when I called for bill. The only consolation was that they do cleared the dirty plates quite often.

Lastly, the repeatedly use of prawn paste in every dim sum really gets on our nerves. Every dim sum almost tasted similar and it kind of get very sick of it at the end of the buffet.

Because of their reputation as a five star hotel Chinese restaurant, I suggest they should improve the quality of their buffet. No point sacrificing quality for “quantity”. Reputation worth more, in my opinion.

Ch 8 抢摊大行动 - Bedok Reservoir Rd Chicken Rice

Ok, anyone watched the channel 8 show - 抢摊大行动’s Bedok Reservoir Chicken Rice episode just now?

I felt so sorry for the hawker – Xiong. He lost the gold medal because of one vote!

I have been a fan of the show and have watched several episodes this season. Out of so many hawkers who participated, Xiong showed the most enthusiasm. I was pretty impressed by him from start that he appeared to be positive despite his plight. Also, different from the usual 抢摊hawkers who always appeared blur and slow, he do not even need to be prompt by the host Quan Yi Feng and Zhong Qin to listen or to start asking questions and even took initiative to ask the Chef relevant questions. Of course, one might argued that he had 20 years of experience to begin with, thus appeared to be at ease and could learn the rope fast. But what is more heartening is that he displayed positive attitude throughout the show.

I thought he had a high chance of getting gold, but too bad he met a difficult食客 (eater)。 She commented that the rice was too hard and that the chicken meat was uncooked. I was slightly flabbergasted when hearing her comments. Indeed, I did not taste the chicken rice myself, but from what I see the chicken meat looked quite decent, the boiled chicken looked quite tender. Rest of the 29 eaters also thought that the food is nice. Furthermore, Chef Judges also gave their thumbs up. Contrary to that eater’s controversial comments, executive chef from Fairmount rebutted that the rice texture was just nice, not too hard nor too soft. Chef Daniel commented that chicken meat is also perfectly cooked.

I wondered if there were any selection criteria for those eaters? Though the show (not sure whether out of politeness) addressed them as foodies, but I doubt that they are really foodies. You see, anyone off the street can eat and tell you their preference, but not everyone knows how to eat. Eating and knowing how to eat are different skills sets. It is not easy to be a food critic. Now you know, food blogs are more than beautiful photos and tempting words.

Not sure who is more unlucky, the female eater who happened to have eaten a piece of uncooked meat, or Xiong who served her that fateful plate of alleged uncooked chicken meat…

I wish Bedok Reservoir Chicken Rice all the best and hope he would keep up the standard.

How to differentiate a good Chicken Rice?

Actually, what the lady said was incorrect. Good chicken rice texture should be slightly firm, flavourful when eaten on its own and most importantly emitting fragrance of the fried onions and ginger. Unless she is referring to chicken rice balls, otherwise no one eat soft chicken rice.

Usually, when eating boiled chicken meat, you should be able to taste the tenderness and moisture in the meat. In order to retain the tenderness and moisture, cooking time and method are the crux of a good boiled chicken. Boiled Chicken are not boiled all the way, they are in fact boiled for 20 - 30 mins and left soaking in the hot water for 20 - 25 mins. This cooking method allows chicken meat to retain moisture and is usually just done. It is also common to see blood in the bones and thigh meat near the bones, but most of the time, they are not undercooked.

Boiled Chicken meat should also not have texture of the roasted chicken meat. Roasted Chicken (usually fried) is more well done and would have a firmer texture, less moisture.