Overseas Chinese Web Guide

Author: Ken Chan

  • Blame China

    Bloomberg.com: Chinese-Made Cribs Recalled After Three Children Die. The maker of Graco and Simplicity cribs recalled 1 million Chinese-made cribs after three children died.

    Another China scandal right? Or so the headlines would lead you to believe. However, if you delve deeper into the news story, it reports that “[t]he problem with the recalled cribs was caused in part by design flaws.” I’m guessing that the design work was the crib was done in America, not China. Why mention that the cribs were Chinese-made? It fits into the current hysteria around shoddily-manufactured Chinese goods.

    That’s not reporting. That’s propaganda. American-Designed Cribs Recalled After Three Children Die should have been the headline.

  • Below Market Housing: Buy Low, Sell Low

    Would you believe that you can find a place in Palo Alto for under $100,000? Yes, it’s true. Under the Below Market Rate Program, a buyer purchased a 2 bedroom 1-1/2 bath residence for $98,800 back in April 2007. However, to be a qualified buyer, you must meet the Palo Alto Housing Corporation’s income and asset limits. So, what’s the catch?

    With a deal this good, you have to join a long waiting list. Palo Alto Housing Corporation estimates a wait of 5 to 10 years or more for people currently seeking to join the wait list. If you are fortunate to be given the opportunity to purchase a residence under this program, well, there’s good news and bad news.

    The good news is that if you finance with a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, you can lock down your housing costs. You won’t be subject to changes in the general housing market, including interest rate fluctuations or annual increases in rent. The bad news is that unless you manage to dramatically improve your finances, you will not be moving out anytime soon. If you ever have to move, you do not benefit from the current market rate of housing in Palo Alto. Instead, you must sell to another Below Market Rate buyer at a price indexed to the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Buy low, sell low.

  • Kylie Kwong: Hits and Misses

    I tried another two recipes from Simple Chinese Cooking this past week. The Steamed Fish Cakes were exquisite. This dish features a marriage of fresh diced fish, spring onions, carrots, cilantro and shiitake mushrooms. I used fresh rock cod from the Farmer’s Market in my version. I loved the flavors and the fish cakes cooked extremely quickly. I loved the combination of all flavors. However, the prep work did take some time. Maybe I need a mandoline to quickly julienne my carrots.

    The Stir-Fried Beef with Sichuan Pepper and Salt and Lemon wasn’t as big a hit. Not sure what happened here but the flavors were quite ordinary in comparison to the other dishes I have prepared from this same cookbook. Also, I like to pair meat with vegetables when I cook. Not a big fan of straight meat dishes.

  • Stop Clogging Our Bank Branches

    San Francisco Chronicle: BofA squeezes another buck out of noncustomers. Bank of America is leading the way, pushing up its ATM charge for noncustomers to $3 from $2 at 10,700 of its cash machines across the country as of last July. Other big banks are expected to follow suit.

    The “money” quote is that Bank of America “argued that higher fees benefit its customers by driving away noncustomers who might clog up its branches.” How much does Bank of America spend on advertising and marketing to lure new customers? And, the moment a prospect walks into a branch, the Bank turns around and tries to nickel-and-dime them to drive them away and prevent them from clogging up their branches? How about wowing them with excellent service? If I was running B of A, I would want all these people to walk away thinking “Damn, my bank doesn’t treat me this well. I really should move my account here.” If you don’t like customers, you shouldn’t be in the customer service business.

  • Palo Alto Airport Day 2007

    palo alto airport dayI stopped by the Palo Alto Airport Day festivities this afternoon. I saw quite a few small planes on display, as well as helicopters from the Santa Clara County sheriff, U.S. Coast Guard and Stanford Hospital. The San Francisco Bay Area offers many fun activities and events. Many charge admission, but some are free. I really enjoyed the visit to the Palo Alto Airport. Wish I had time to join the Palo Alto airport tower tour though.

  • Review: Simple Chinese Cooking by Kylie Kwong

    I recently purchased “Simple Chinese Cooking” by Kylie Kwong and tested out some recipes. As a point of reference, I also own and use “Fragrant Harbor Taste” by Ken Hom, “Chinese Cuisine” by Huang Su-Huei (Wei-Chuan Cookbook) and Chinese Cooking at the Academy by the California Culinary Academy.

    1. Visually Stunning. “Simple Chinese Cooking” is a visually stunning masterpiece that features gorgeous photos of the finished dishes. These really inspired me to cook and try out her recipes.
    2. Step-by-Step. Kylie Kwong’s cookbook includes step-by-step photos for some recipes—a helpful if you are a novice in the kitchen and can’t quite parse the language of cookbooks.
    3. New Ingredients. To test out some of her recipes, I had to visit the local Asian grocery store. I keep a well-stocked kitchen, but she called for some ingredients not found in my other cookbooks, such as ketjap manis, fish sauce, and malt vinegar. The ketjap manis and fish sauce may come from a pan-Asian influence. Not sure about the malt vinegar. Actually, I had to find the malt vinegar at a specialty food store. My local Asian grocery store didn’t carry it, and I haven’t come across many Chinese recipes that call for vinegar except for sweet and sour sauces.
    4. Chinese Salad. The book is expansive in its reach and is divided into the following categories: stocks, soups, beef, pork, chicken, duck, seafood, eggs, tofu, vegetables, salads, rice, noodles and wontons, and side dishes and pickles. When I saw the salad listing, I had to see what dishes she had in mind. By salads, she means cold vegetable dishes, such as bean sprout salad, chilled cucumber salad, and tofu, black cloud ear fungus, Asian herb and sesame salad.
    5. A Good Second Cookbook. If you are looking for 10 ways to cook beef, this isn’t your cookbook. Just five beef recipes. And four pork recipes. By way of comparison, the Wei-Chuan had 39 beef and pork recipes and Fragrant Harbor Taste has 24 meat recipes. In other words, “Simple Chinese Cooking” is not an exhaustive compilation of Chinese recipes. However, if you already own one of those encyclopedias of Chinese cooking, “Simple Chinese Cooking” is a good second cookbook to add to your collection.
    6. Stir-Fried Hokkien Noodles with Prawns, Chili and Bean Spouts. I couldn’t find Hokkien noodles at the market, so I substituted Shanghai noodles instead. I think any thick Chinese noodles will do. I also used red peppers instead of red chilis since I am not a fan of spicy foods. The dish came out well and received good reviews. Oh, the other thing I noticed is that a lot of recipes in this cookbook call for red onions. My other cookbooks usually list brown onions instead.
    7. Sweet and Sour Tomatoes. Listed under Side Dishes and Pickles, this is really a simple tomato salad. Tasty, even with raw red onions.
    8. Steamed Silken Tofu with Stir-Fried Spinach. I loved this dish. Used regular salt instead of sea salt. Also, used baby spinach instead of the standard bunch. Really easy to make, if you have a steamer.
    9. Steamed Fish Fillets with Ginger and Spring Onions. Unlike every other recipe for steamed fish that I’ve previously tried, this one calls for pouring a 1/3 cup of water over the fish before steaming. I guess the net effect is that the fish is steamed and poached at the same time. The fish did cook faster than I expected. Will need to test this recipe again with a different type of fish.
    10. A-. Hopefully, I’ll be able to test a few recipes each week and eat my way around the cookbook. Although some recipes call for non-standard ingredients, overall, the cookbook does offer a simple recipes to delicious Chinese dishes. I do wish that she would have included Chinese names to all her dishes so that I can tell what each dish aspires to be. Otherwise, every author can translate their dishes differently.

    P.S. I rarely set foot inside a bookstore these days. So, if you are a cookbook author, create a website that lists all dishes included in your cookbook. Before I buy a cookbook, I want to know what new dishes I can prepare. This will really help me decide whether or not I want to buy your cookbook.

  • The Las Vegas of China

    New York Times: BiggerThanLasVegas?That’s Macao’s Bet. Las Vegas’s days as the capital of excess may be numbered. The $2.4 billion Venetian Macao Resort, scheduled to open here Tuesday, will give Sin City more than a run for its money.

    My favorite line from the article? “But Macao’s average gambler is still a day-tripper from Hong Kong or nearby Chinese cities in the Pearl River delta. These visitors are so frugal that they often bring their own food and do not rent hotel rooms.” 🙂

  • iPhone Phone Book

    So I just received my first wireless phone bill book from AT&T. Talk about not being able to teach an old dog new tricks. Despite all the time AT&T spent working with Apple, none of Apple’s minimalist design philosophy rubbed off. I mean a 35 page bill? I’m waiting for Greenpeace to ding Apple again for selecting such an environmentally unfriendly partner. A big chunk of the bill was the itemized list of all data transfers over the (lagging) EDGE network. Since the iPhone plan provides unlimited domestic data transfers, why itemize it? 8:41 AM – 1 KB. 8:49 AM – 24 KB. 9:08 AM – 23 KB. 9:23 AM – 49 KB. 9:42 AM – 23 KB. 10:00 AM – 31 KB. Talk about worthless information. Save a tree.

  • Review: Sushi House in Palo Alto

    bento boxI stopped by Sushi House in the Palo Alto Town and Country complex for lunch today. I saw some respectable reviews on Yelp and decided to give it a shot. I ordered the tempura and salmon teriyaki bento box with a side order of hamachi (yellowtail). The hamachi and tempura were good. The miso soup was exceedingly salty. Wasn’t a big fan of the salad. I don’t think the dressing was well incorporated so some bites were seasoned and others were just plain lettuce. But, worse of all, the salmon teriyaki was overcooked. I don’t like dry, overcooked fish. And, to top it off, they charged me 75 cents for a cup of tea. C’mon. Do you really have to nickel-and-dime me on the tea? Let’s say that while the tempura was good, it wasn’t good enough to overcome the overcooked fish. 🙁

  • Vienna Teng at Bol Park

    Vienna TengI attended the free Vienna Teng concert at Bol Park in Palo Alto last night. For those who have never heard of her, Vienna earned a B.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University, only to forgo software engineering for a career in music. Awesome performance. I’m always excited to see successful Asian Americans in careers other than medicine, law or engineering. Not that I have anything against doctors, lawyers or engineers, but I believe these artists, journalists, writers, actors, chefs, etc. all enrich our collective culture and experience. I’ve been listening to her music for some time (iTunes), but the concert was the first time I heard her live. She sounds very different live. She sang with a deeper and richer voice than I was used to.