香椿豆腐 - Stewed Tofu with Chinese Toon

[中文]
今天到台北汐止的一家茶館去吃飯，名叫「福中居」，雖說是茶館但中午晚上都有供餐，買的都是古早味，樣式還不少，地方古色古香很有趣，也很多人會帶著狗狗去逛，而且前陣子頗紅的連續劇「台灣第一味」也有在那裡拍攝，他們的手藝也的確可算的上第一味，讓人多吃一碗飯回家後還為想再去吃。如果有機會可以帶老外去嚐嚐道地的台灣古早味，不過忘記問他們有沒有提供刀叉，否則老外不會拿筷子就要把白斬雞當手扒雞吃了。最下面提供地圖以免迷路。 ##CONTINUE##
本來想要每道菜都照一下，這樣我就可以慢慢寫，但是照完前兩道白斬雞和炒高麗菜之後，我就只顧著吃忘了拍其他的，等我想起來已經只有殘羹剩餚了，只好趕快從大家口中搶救還剩一半的香椿豆腐，所以上面那張照片不太上相啦，不過有此可見好吃到我欲罷不能呀。(迷之音：不知道誰以前去泰國為了吃小吃還丟了行李，貪吃不要找藉口！)

為什麼我要請大家口下留菜，趕快拍攝這道香椿豆腐呢？因為它是我們覺得最新奇好吃的一道菜，也許在一般市場沒有再賣香椿，所以大多都使用九層塔來調味，因此之前我從來沒吃過香椿，當然也不知道味道如何。當我與香椿豆腐初次見面時，香椿的香味撲鼻而來，讓我十指大動顧不得剛出爐的豆腐燙嘴，馬上來品嘗看看，果然一股似曾相似的特殊味道在味蕾散開，有點像西洋的奧勒岡葉之類的味道，但也是有自己的特色，的確我不是什麼調味料達人，這種葉片調味料都很相似也都有各自的特色，所以請大家自己去嘗試看看囉！我後來也有吃過香椿炒蛋，可是不知道是因為香椿加的不夠多，還是跟蛋一起炒的關係，總覺得沒有這家香椿豆腐夠味。另外它的外表該雖不討喜但也還不至於噁心，可能是我吃慣了「青醬」義大利麵，所以總覺得它也可以取個洋名字「青醬豆腐」。

後來我查了一些香椿的資料，才發現在中醫觀點中它有「開胃健腸」、「固精止血」之效，這「固精」一詞我要怎麼翻譯才好，傷透腦！而西醫發現香椿富含抗氧化效果，甚至有生醫公司專門研究香椿希望能提煉抗氧化劑。我們通常是拿它的葉子磨碎來當調味料，不過似乎味道比九層塔柔和，沒有這麼重的味道。網路上的菜單發現對岸大陸比較常用涼拌方式配豆腐，我吃到的這種這騰騰充滿香椿醬汁的煮法應該算是台灣風格吧，因此我姑且就分類為台式風味啦！

福中居可以參考別人的介紹

[English]
We go to a restaurant for today's lunch. This restaurant decorates with old things and offers antique dishes. You can see a black TV, gramophone records, pulse tone telephones, the 1st generation mobile phones, and so on. You can seat in a log cabin and eat dishes which my mom or grand mom was eating when she was a kid. Some of them can be seen nowadays but others only are eaten at this type of restaurant. I recommend you welcome and feel the ambiance of early Taiwan stage. The Map below shows where it is. But you need a local to take you there because of no buses and no English signs. Especially, they have no English menu.

I try to take pictures for all courses. However, they are so much delicious that I forgot take them except the first two dishes. Finally, I just take photos of leftovers and a photo of a half my favorite "Stewed Tofu with Chinese Toon". By the way, I remembered that I also forgot my packet in Thailand because cared only for eating a Thailand snack. It's a bad record :$

Why would I like to introduce "Stewed Tofu with Chinese Toon"? Because I haven't eaten it before, either. I never ate food with Chinese Toon. So we chose it when we first went to this restaurant. The taste of Chinese Toon is similar to Oregano but they still have their own unique flavor. We usually use Basil instead of Toons for cooking. I think the flavor of Chinese Toon is more soft than Basil. It is better to cook with tofu. Although the appearance of "Stewed Tofu with Chinese Toon" is not pretty, it looks like green sauce pasta. I think "Green Sauce Tofu" is also a great western name ;)

After I was back home, I looked up the information of Chinese Toon on Internet and found it has some curative effects. Traditional Chinese medicine says that Chinese Toon is able to strengthen humen intestine and stomach, and make humen sperm stronger. Attention please every gentleman, you mush try this dish for your future life :p Besides, modern medicine finds Chinese Toon is anti-oxidant and help people healthy. What a wonderful food it is!

Finally, I'm not sure what style this stewed cooking way is. According to my reference, a Chinese style seems cold tossed. So I decide to label "Stewed Tofu with Chinese Toon" as Taiwan Style.

[地圖-Map]


檢視較大的地圖

新標籤 - New Labels

[中文]
我想除了介紹我的超級母親大人所燒的菜以外，也可以寫一些在外面餐廳吃的東西，老外應該也會有興趣。所以會有一個新分類「上館子 - Outside Dish」。
而且以後也有機會介紹其他地區或國家的風味餐，因此也會新增各種風味的標籤，像是「台灣古早味 - Taiwan Style」、「日式風味 - Japanese Style」等等。

[English]
A new label "上館子 - Outside Dish" will be coming soon. I am going to introduce what we eat in outside restaurant so that you can see some different dishes that my mom is unable to cook.
And because we eat not only Chinese food but also other styles' food such as Japanese food, I will add style lables for each dish such as "台灣古早味 - Taiwan Style", "日式風味 - Japanese Style" and so on.

粉蒸肉 - Steamed Pork Slices with Glutinous Rice Flour

[中文]
粉蒸肉也是我很愛的一道菜(迷之音:你哪道不愛)，因為有外層的調味糯米粉包裹，所以更有味道也更下飯，換言之就是味道更重啦。粉蒸肉以前算是麻煩菜吧，肉要先醃過就算了，要調理出絕佳的蒸肉粉更是門學問，不僅加入的調味料多樣又複雜，而且要調出漂亮的比例那更是需要豐富的經驗。##CONTINUE##
我查了一些資料，粉蒸肉的做法還真是五花八門，光是配料就有好幾種組合，不過一定會有的就是五香粉和糯米粉。而糯米粉似乎也有分租細，有些就真的是粉狀，但我媽用的是還有顆粒狀糯米的蒸肉粉，這種口感比較好，有點像是配著飯吃肉的感覺，味道更豐富。還好現在都有現成外賣的可以用，我媽就是直接去買辣味的蒸肉粉，要不然生在古代我應該沒辦法常常吃到這到菜了吧！
糯米應該算是真正的華人食物，除了韓國人死鴨子最硬非要宣稱粽子也是他們發明的，我想沒有任何人反對吧，畢竟我們用糯米做出來的食物數也數不完，除了最有名的粽子、湯圓，還有酒釀、年糕、米糕、麻糬、油飯、糯米腸等等等(原來我還有這麼多題材可以寫)。
除了用的蒸肉粉千變萬化之外，搭配的副菜也是令人眼花撩亂，從最傳統的荷葉粉蒸肉，到富涵台灣味的地瓜粉蒸肉，還有看到搭配南瓜的金瓜粉蒸肉，不過我媽當然是什麼都沒配，直接放在電鍋裡和白飯一起蒸囉。

這邊有別人推薦的蒸肉粉牌子，可以參考看看。

[English]
You can see the yellow one, the minced pork with corn, and green one, Chao vegetable. A small piece of stewed spareribs with brown sauce lay on top right. Only one dish is new of today's lunch, which is "steamed pork with glutinous rice flour".

This dish has a distinctive appearance because the glutinous rice flour should be covered over meat. The white grain you can see is glutinous rice which play a main role of flour.
The glutinous rice is undoubtedly a genuine Chinese food. There are a lot of food made by it, such as "Zongzi", "Tangyuan", the most famous traditional Chinese food, and others less famous but common food. (It means so many food wait for my introduction:p) This rice is a special sort of rice and would become sticky after heat. That's why call it "glutinous rice". Because of its sticky feature, over-eating may cause indigestion.

Except glutinous rice, other seasonings are important in flour, too. Very many combinations of seasonings are used and bring many flavor on this dish. However, the five-spice powder is most often used in every combinations. If you want to find out the best steamed pork flour, an abundant experience is indispensable. I can image how hard to cook this dish for my forefathers because of complex procedure. I couldn't have change to usually eat "Steamed Pork Slices with Glutinous Rice Flour" if I was born in ancient time. Fortunately, we have instant flour package nowadays. My mom just marinates meat and covers ready-made flour. Then put it into TATUNG steamed cooker. Finally, I can eat a savory Steamed Pork Slices with Glutinous Rice Flour.

In addition, before steaming, you can wrap the meat with lotus leaves for traditional Chinese style, or put some sweet potato under the meat for Taiwan style, or substitute pumpkin for sweet potato. It's more complicated but more delicious.

小修正 - Small Changes

[中文]
我已經設立了純英文的Blog，將來這裡就以中文為主吧，免得外國朋友看到中文介面就跑掉，然後自己人看到英文也跑掉:p
另外怕文章太長加了一個外掛，以後請按[詳全文...Read more]來看整篇文章吧。

[英文]
I set a pure English Blog to serve someone can't read Chinese. So this site would be Chinese mainly. Otherwise foreigners run away because of Chinese interface and Chinese or Taiwanese also run away because of English articles.
In addition, I add a plugin to avoid too long post. So please press [詳全文...Read more] to read all article.

Bamboo Shoot with Sliced Pork - 竹筍炒肉絲

[English]
The bamboo shoot with sliced pork is above, the middle of the stewed spareribs with brown sauce I introduced before, following fired vegetable, and the roe lay on the right.
##CONTINUE##
Every Taiwan child has heard of this dish even if he or she has never eaten. It's a funny extended meaning. We usually use "meat"instead of "pork" for Chinese food name and put the word "fry" into the major and miner material names. We also cut the meat into strips. So for example of directed translation, the "Chao bamboo shoot with sliced pork" would become a "bamboo shoot stir-fries meat strips". Besides, earlier on, Chinese teacher often punished students by slashing their palms(fingers) with bamboo pole. So use your imagination. A punishment that a bamboo is swung over some fingers(meat strips) becomes a name of a dish. This course is so popular but not because people like it; instead children hate it. :p

I have never seen foreigners eat bamboo shoot. Of course, I have never seen the bamboo except in Asia. The bamboo shoot tastes crisp and a little sweet. Sometimes we eat just with salad scream while finding the superior one, in order to enjoy its original flavor, juicy and tasty. It is also very suitable material for soup. The essence of bamboo shoot could be enhanced by simmering. Even though flavored with soy sauce, its fresh and juicy characteristic can make a dish more delicious.

[中文]
今天來講講有名的竹筍炒肉絲，尤其是在以前還沒有什麼「愛心教育」之前最有名，為什麼有名呢？當然是因為這個名字也是體罰的代名詞啊。外國人一定很好奇為何被老師打手心要叫做竹筍炒肉絲，這當然是因為以前那個年代，老師都會準備一支棍子，用來處罰不聽話或考不好的學生，而當時竹棍最普遍，打在那可憐學生的小小手掌上，一定也會打到手指啦，所以竹子在肉條(手指)上揮舞就是這到菜的由來啦。你問我愛不愛吃？我只愛吃我媽煮的，不喜歡老師給的。(迷之音：怎麼以前老師總覺得你很喜歡，時常來領「賞」)
在國外好像沒有看到老外在吃竹筍，不過除了亞洲好像連竹子都沒有，那沒吃過竹筍也是當然的囉！但在台灣應該從小就常常可以吃到，那脆脆的口感配上甘甜的味道，如果能買到上等貨就直接切塊加點沙拉醬涼拌，要不就煮筍湯，都可以吃到原味也就是筍的精華。那就算拿來紅燒或炒肉絲也都因為它那清新的特色而不會油膩，真是好吃又健康的食材呀！

Refine the structure - 更新文章編排

[English]
I decide to change titles of my introduction to the name of the dish instead of the previous boring name like "Someday Lunch". It's because I thought I would introduce more than one dish before. It should be more interesting and can draw the attention much more.
I would like insert a picture on the top of article and then divide into English part and Chinese part below. In previous articles, the picture is embedded in English part.

By the way, I'm considering create a new blog site which place all English environment. We can introduce Chinese food and even Taiwan food to more foreigners.

[中文]
以後文章的標題不會是以前無聊的「星期幾的午餐」什麼的，因為以前以為一次會寫很多道菜，但現在只有精力寫一道菜而已，我想直接就寫上菜餚的名稱吧！這樣比較有趣也比較有重點。
而且文章編排將會是先是圖片，再來才分為英文和中文，以前圖片都直接加在英文裡面，現在想想既然一次都只介紹一道菜，圖片就是重點啦。之前也有想要拍某一道菜的特寫，可是裝在便當裡都不好看，所以還是以整個便當的圖為準，不好意思啦！

另外我在想說成立一個全都是英文的版面，也讓外國人看看正港的中國菜甚至是台灣菜。

Chao eggplant with hogs' intestine - 茄子炒大腸

[English]
Here are three dished in my lunch: Zha(pan-fried) pork, Jian(deep-fried) tofu, and Chao(stir-fried) eggplant with hogs' intestine. OK! I know the strangest one for foreigners is the fried eggplant with hogs' intestine. So let's talk about it. You can see it on the top of picture.
For Chinese food, eating eggplant and hog's intestine is very common. But I also eat the combination of them in my first time. My mother must buy the Chao hogs' intestine outside and then process it with eggplant. She, a career woman, sometimes prepared meals with ready-made dishes from whether overleft or outside to save her time.
In my impression, the eggplant I saw overseas is indeed round like an egg. I have eaten baked eggplant with cheese in western-style restaurant before. A ball-shape eggplant was cut half and covered cheese. I can't forget its savor smell so far. However our eggplant is long slender form like a cucumber and we cut it to block shape to cook. And the eggplant would become soft and meshed. Even many Chinese hate the eggplant. But I love meshed eggplant.
After hogs' diaphragm I introduced, the intestine of hog is the second organ of pigs I talk about. You can see how we like to eat the internal organ. Maybe foreigners regard them as offal but their nutrition and special taste lead them to become common materials. Furthermore, the large intestine of hogs is most popular organ in Chinese food. Many of famous dished are made by large intestine. Its chewing feeling is elastic but the superior one should be dissolved after chewing a few times. The best way you can figure out is tasting by yourself. Ha!

[中文]
煎豬排、炸豆腐、茄子炒大腸是今天的午餐，我想說老外一定覺得茄子炒大腸比較特別，所以就來介紹這道菜吧！本來茄子和大腸對我們來說都還算滿平常，但這次我媽把兩者混在一起炒就連我也沒吃過了，八成是用在外面買的大腸回家加工。對職業婦女來說，買外面的東西或是用剩菜來加工是簡單又方便。
我以前有吃過焗烤茄子，後來發現國外的茄子都是又大又圓，難怪它的英文名字叫「植物蛋」，真的跟雞蛋的形狀很像。但我們這邊的茄子好像都是長棒狀，然後都會切成塊狀煮來吃，煮完之後就會變的軟軟糊糊的，我個人還滿喜歡吃這種軟趴趴的茄子，可是有人就會覺得很噁心，我看外國人大概也食不下嚥吧！
上次介紹完豬肝連以後，這次講到大腸不知道有沒有把老外嚇到了，不過咱們本來就是很愛吃內臟的民族，當我在查「內臟」這個單字的時候，有一個字「offal」也是指牲畜的內臟，但也有廢物的意思，可想見外國人都把內臟當廢物處理。但對我們來說什麼器官沒吃過勒，尤其「豬大腸」應該是最常見用於食材的器官了，許多有名的食物都有大腸在裡頭。下次一定要介紹老外吃吃看這個有嚼勁的食物，不過也要拿好一點的給他吃，以免他咬不爛。哈哈！

Tuesday Lunch - 週二午餐

> Fried pork with dried tofu

I love all soy food. We think the dried tofu is different from tofu, like tofu skin. Although they are made by the same material - soy bean, their shapes are unlike at all whether for looking or eating. You mush be amazed at what many varieties of tofu. The dried tofu is indeed made by dehydrating tofu, but I consider from cooking aspect the dried tofu should be classified to its own sort. It is because dried tofu is harder and more flavorful than normal tofu. It is hard so that can be cut to many shape, such as slice or stick. And its structure easily let seasoning into inside. We Chinese call this feature "flavor-entered". Furthermore, the number of dried tofu dishes are never less than that of tofu dishes.
In Dasi, one town of Taiwan, the residents even developed a special variety of dried tofu, called Dasi dried tofu, which can be treated (eaten) as a snack.
Of course, my mom fried dried tofu and pork with soy sauce and sometimes with chili. It is appropriate to eat with rice. Chinese says this dish is "rice-swallowed", means people can eat lot of rice with it.

[中文]
今天有三道家常菜，一個有香菇攪和著我看不出來的綠色青菜，這到菜不知怎麼介紹，下次要先問問大廚；而另一道麻婆豆腐雖然很有名，可是被塞在一個角落實在不上相；最後就介紹我也滿愛吃的「豆乾炒肉絲」。
豆乾的英文名字算是滿貼切的，就叫做「乾豆腐」，剛好豆乾的全名就是豆腐乾。豆乾製作過程跟豆腐大同小異，差別就是脫水脫的比較乾。我在wiki百科裡看到豆乾算是豆腐的某一個種類，可是若以料理的角度而非原料的角度去看的話，我寧願視豆乾是獨立出來的一種，就像豆皮。豆乾因為比較硬，可以切成很多形狀，而且組織比較鬆散，可以比較入味。(真不知道要怎麼用英文形容「入味」)
由於我媽是個職業婦女，能每天燒飯做菜就已經很了不起了，因此豆乾也沒有切的像餐廳一樣這麼細。還記得以前小時候上館子，全家人最愛去永康街附近的「六品小館」，他們家的豆乾炒肉絲真是一絕，豆乾切的跟肉絲一樣細，再加上小辣椒絲，真是下飯(這個詞又難倒我了，有誰位「下飯」的英文呀)。可惜後來換廚師之後味道就不如以往了。
我在文中也有提到大溪豆乾，不過這幾乎不像是菜了，反而像是零嘴了。

Another Topic - 增加話題

Because my mother is busy recently and my digital camera was broken, we won't have mom's dishes and even if we will, I can not take picture for them. Hence, let's talk about another topic, such as our TV shows.

Moreover, I have an idea that let visitors to guess something interesting, absolutely related to culture aspect.

Friday Lunch - 週五午餐

[English]
There are two kinds of fried vegetable, black pepper beef with onion, and fried eggs with soy sauce in today's lunch. Yes! My favorite fried eggs with soy sauce again. My mom would add this course to supply my lunch if dishes are not enough. Especially it is very simple and quick to deal with it.

> Fried eggs with soy sauce
Most time to fried eggs is just to put salt, not soy sauce. Mixing with soy sauce is our private dish. It is so easy that I could do it when I was a elementary school student. Sometimes we visited my uncle Yang when I was young, he would cook lots of fried eggs because he raised many chickens.
Another story for soy sauce is interesting. The importance of this sauce for Chinese is just similar to curry for Indian, cheese for European, and catchup for American (I guess:p). We almost cook everything with it. You can see my meals before; soy sauce is unavoidable everyday. Like cheese, there are so many sorts of it by difference of ingredient, consistency, brewing process and so on. It is mainly made by soy bean, but also made by fish or Kombu (a kind of kelp) especially in Japan. Because of brewing by salt, it tastes salty and comes little sweet like savoring wine. Hence when cooking, we usually replace salt with soy sauce. However, a bad soy sauce tastes only salty but not sweet. So the dish must fail, too.

[中文]
今天的照片是用手機拍的，所以有點模糊，而且下班回家後還有電視要看，本來一直在考慮今天到底要不要寫，但想說繼續偷懶下去的話，以後就會越來越懶，乾脆提起精神把它寫完。

> 醬油炒蛋
會介紹醬油炒蛋也是因為這個禮拜就吃了兩次，我是完全不會吃膩，但不知道其他人會不會好奇這到菜，因為平常看到的炒蛋頂多就是加點鹽，或加入其他食材，應該很少人跟我們家一樣是用醬油來炒蛋的。尤其這到菜的簡單易懂，成為我第一個會做的菜，小學在家就常給自己加菜。
另外這幾天介紹下來，發現「醬油」的使用頻率頗高，不愧是華人甚至東方人最愛用的調味料，不論煎煮炒炸蒸滷烤沾都有機會使用，我想大概就跟印度人喜歡用咖哩、歐洲人喜歡用起司、還有美國人愛用番茄醬(我猜的啦:p)一樣吧！而且廣義來說，醬油的種類可多的勒，不同的原料、濃度、釀造的方法都會成為不同的醬油，像是在日本還可以看到用魚或昆布做的醬油呢。
而好的醬油不只是有鹹味，還有甘甜的味道會慢慢散發出來，有點像品酒一樣，不過我不會用英文描述「慢慢散發出甘甜的味道」，有沒有人可以教我一下，像我直接寫「sweet」感覺很奇怪，好像在醬油裡面有加糖一樣。

Thursday Lunch - 週四午餐

[English]

Because busy on Wednesday, I just took terrible pictures. You wouldn't want to see the fragmentary dishes. Anyway, I bring my lunch made by Wednesday overleft today and can still introduce my mom's works. So today's target I choose is more acceptable for foreigners.

> Steamed salted duck's eggs

As you can see on top right of my lunch box, this dish mixed yellow and white looks like a strange steamed egg. Chinese originally have a traditional steamed eggs. But my mom's way is a little different. She puts more ground pork and less water. Hence, it becomes drier than traditional steamed eggs.
In addition, salted duck's eggs are used instead of chicken egg. It tastes salty and has special flavor. The chicken egg has no savor like it. Furthermore, my mom uses soft boiled egg. The yolk is solid and white is liquid. Then put ground prok and a little salt to enhance the taste.
Finally, after steamed in TATUNG steamed cooker, a savory steamed salted duck's egg with ground pork comes out! And the steamed way is unusual for home dish, but usual for restaurant. It requests much works so that you can see that the most dishes I posted are fried, not steamed. However, the invention of TATUNG steamed cooker makes steaming convenient.

[中文]
星期三又因為回家太晚了，殘羹剩餚的照片實在不上相，而且這麼晚回家也沒精力寫了，乾脆跳過直接寫禮拜四的吧，反正今天便當就是帶昨天晚餐的菜。

> 鹹蛋蒸肉
你可以看到便當右上方黃白交錯的蒸蛋，這道菜應該比較特別，不僅是外國人，連台灣人都不常見吧！其實在某些餐廳或到香港去，可以看到很類似的「蒸水蛋」，我到香港有吃過一次，但是還是比較喜歡我媽煮的這道菜，因為她沒有放「水」或是「高湯」，所以蒸起來比較乾，而且還有放一點絞肉，吃起來很對味。
另外比較特別的是使用了「鹹鴨蛋」，但並不是平常配稀飯吃的固體鹹蛋，而是蛋白液體蛋黃固體的半生鹹蛋。而且對於我們來說，鹹蛋是鴨蛋還滿普遍的，雖然也有雞蛋啦，可是對老外來說鴨蛋就很特別了，尤其是鴨蛋的味道比雞蛋重，不過我說不上那是什麼味道。
最後放到電鍋裡蒸，香噴噴的鹹蛋蒸肉就出爐了。尤其是這種用「蒸」的方式比較麻煩，在一般家庭比較少見，大多數的菜還是用「炒」的居多，只有在餐廳或在香港才比較常見，還好有大同電鍋可以輕鬆的做出「蒸」的料理。

Tuesday Lunch - 週二午餐

[English]

This is my lunch today. You can see fried vegetable, fried egg with soy sauce, and fried bacon with mungbean sprout. In fact, it is a good opportunity to explain significance of soy sauce for Chinese because I love the fried egg with soy sauce so much. However, I prepare to talk about it someday else when I have enough time. Now I want to talk about the other special dish.

> Fried bacon with silver sprout
We usually name mungbean sprout "silver sprout" because it looks shiny and glossy just like silver. And it sounds more expensive than cheap mungbean. A noble name is able to rise its value. The mungbean sprout which can grow up every place and every season is easily gotten. We even experimented with it in natural course while I was a elementary school student.
We eat soybean sprout, too. It is similar to mungbean sprout. But I doesn't like it because of too stony. In other words, the soybean sprout is hardly cook to soft and tastes raw.
Moreover, mungbean can mix with a lot of materials. Its chewing feeling, cheap cost, and appearance let mungbean sprout become a common dish in the menu of bargain restaurants.

[中文]
今天的便當有炒青菜、醬油炒蛋(有人沒聽過吧)和培根炒豆芽，本來可以趁機介紹一下醬油炒蛋，順便講一下我們東方人愛用醬油的歷史，但我可能要多一點時間準備，所以還是介紹另外一道菜好了。

> 銀芽培根
我特別使用「銀芽」這個在餐廳菜單上才會看到的名字，讓老外知道我們取名字是很有學問的，因為豆芽的顏色與光澤就如同銀絲一樣，取了這個名字就可以掩蓋豆芽本來的不值錢。尤其豆芽非常好種，不論什麼地點什麼季節都長的出來，想當年國小的時候都會用綠豆來做實驗，鋪個棉花就可以發芽變成綠豆芽了，難怪這麼便宜。
而豆芽除了綠豆芽之外還有黃豆芽，可是我比較不喜歡黃豆芽，因為它比較硬吃起來又感覺沒有熟，味道怪怪的，還是脆又不硬的綠豆芽好吃。
而綠豆芽可以搭配很多的食材，應該可以頒發最佳配角的獎項給它，像是它本身味道不重，外型又好看，口感也好，甚至自己當主菜也能夠勝任，因此變成自助餐廳中不可或缺的一道菜！

Monday Lunch - 週一午餐

[English]

I brought my lunch from home today as usual. It's an opportunity to introduce some rest of yesterday's lunch because today's lunch was made from Sunday's leftovers. Except stewed spareribs with brown sauce, there are fish stick, fried cabbage and fried pork with corn. So today, I just talk about my second favorite, fried pork with corn.

> Fried pork with corn
The word "Fry" seems not to be able to explain the Chinese cooking way because more than three sorts of cooking in hot oil translate into the same word, all called "fry". The first one and also most common one, fast cooking with big fire by turning over and over, is called "Chao". The key point is "turn over". The second one, cooking with much oil such as fried chicken and French fries, is called "Zha". The key is much oil usage. The third sort, cooking without much oil and without turning over, is called "Jian". In this way, oil can not cover the material and material is heated on one side. You can say that the "Jian" is the middle level between "Chao" and "Zha". If you use too much oil which covers the material, it's "Zha". And if you move and turn the material over and over, it's "Chao".
For this dish, my mom "Chao" pork and corn with soy sauce. You must ask me why soy sauce again. That's a long story. In addition, it is also very important for the size and shape of sliced pork. However, I have no time to explain now. Any way, we have a lot of tomorrows :p

[中文]
今天剛好便當裡是昨天的剩菜，可以用來介紹「玉米炒肉絲」，當然除了昨天講的紅燒肉以外，還有鱈魚條和炒高麗菜。不過重點還是擺在我第二喜歡的「玉米炒肉絲」吧！

> 玉米炒肉絲
因為這次的材料簡單易懂，所以我就來解釋咱們「炒」這個字。以前就一直覺得很奇怪，翻譯「炒、炸、煎」的時候全都是用「Fry」這個單字，因此我決定好好介紹這三種截然不同的料理方式。雖然這三種方式都是用熱油來烹煮，但「炒」的精髓應該是在於使用大火翻攪的動作，西方人好像除了沙拉以外，並不會把食材攪和在一起，要吃牛就一大塊牛排，要吃魚就一塊魚排，但「炒」這個方式卻是我們最常使用的，難怪英文的「cook」我們則是翻譯成「炒」菜。而「炸」對西方人來講就比較普遍了，像是炸雞、炸薯條，就是把食物泡在一大鍋油裡，我倒覺得「Fry」這個字根本就是來形容「炸」。最後「煎」就比較難解釋了，我是說油不能蓋過食物，而且也不會去常常翻動它，似乎剛好介於炒與炸之間。這文化的差異還真大呀！

Sunday Lunch - 週日午餐

[English]
Because I came home late and just ate leftovers, I could not take the beautiful pictures in time for today's dishes. So I chose my favorite one to introduce. And another excuse is that it's simpler to introduce one dish than all dishes. Maybe I would continue this pattern from now on: only choose the best one or the most special one a day, until I have enough time. Or please give some advices.

> Stewed spareribs with brown sauce
Stewing something with brown sauce is the common method for Chinese food. Even in some dishes, this cooking method is just one step of whole cooking procedure. And Chinese also cook fish, beef, chicken in this way. It can be regarded as one of the most important methods in Chinese food. Maybe foreigners do not like it, but we have not only "Sweet and Sour" way.
Yes! You may guess it. The main material is soy sauce, Chinese favorite. It's the reason why it looks brown. We stew spareribs with soy sauce, sugar and other flavoring. Although this is common dish in Chinese families, it doesn't mean everyone can easy prepare the delicious and good-looking stewed spareribs. Not only the quality of material but also heating control, sequence, and flavoring process are indispensable. I am so lucky to have a great mother on cooking.

[中文]
因為今天沒有趕上全家吃中飯的時間，所以只有杯盤狼藉的畫面等著我，再加上我也沒有時間介紹每一道菜，因此乾脆就只介紹我最愛的一樣菜。而且我想說以後也都一次講解一道菜好了，等到我有多一點時間再介紹多一點。還是有人有更好的想法，希望能跟我分享一下。

> 紅燒排骨
雖然我媽說燒的是「京都排骨」，但經過我的查證，京都排骨要用蕃茄醬帶出甜味，而我媽放的是糖然後再燜煮，有點類似「無錫排骨」的作法，可是甜味並不重，因此我就當作是比較特別的紅燒排骨吧。(京都排骨vs無錫排骨請參考冰冰好料理)
我想這道菜應該是很普遍的，而且很多菜都是同樣的作法，像是紅燒魚、紅燒雞、紅燒牛腩等等，尤其是有些菜還要先紅燒過再加工，所以應該算是很基本的一道菜。不過在國外似乎比較少看到，好像外國人提到中式排骨就只知道「糖醋排骨」。倒是我猜老外一看到「紅」燒的那種顏色，應該可以猜的出來是使用咱們最愛用的調味料～醬油，但當然不是只有醬油囉，否則就只是滷肉而已了。雖然這算是一道基本菜餚，可是要做的好吃也不容易，我媽就說她這次沒有偷懶，先混和調味把排骨煎炒到外表熟了，才放到醬汁裡燜煮，以免肉汁流失，所以這次特別好吃，而且火侯也在她豐富的經驗下控制的恰到好處，才能讓我今天多吃了半碗飯還意猶未盡。哈哈！我真幸運呀！

Saturday Lunch - 週六午餐

[English]
There are four dishes this noon. They just satisfied us. I'll try my best to introduce them one by one:

1> The diaphragm of hog:
Our Chinese eat almost every parts of pig. The pork as you see is the diaphragm muscles located between the 12th ribs and the 14th ribs. Because the muscle connects with the membrane, it tastes more flexible not like other general pork. The feeling of chewing is similar a bit to chewing the part adhered to the bone when eating spareribs. We usually eat them with garlic soy sauce.


2> Edible tree fungus flavored shredder pork:
There are two main materials. One is general pork, (unnecessarily explain!) and the other is black jelly ear fungus, which scientific name is Auricularia Auricula. It tastes like the harder jelly. It's so difficult to describe. Moreover, they was fried with silk ginger.


3> Fried sweet potato leaves with thousand-year-old egg
Sweet potato (yam bean) leaves were so common in Taiwan farm home in early age. According to the statement from my grand mother, these leaves was so cheap that the farmer fed pigs with them. However nowadays, people want to eat healthfully, so eat every easily available vegetables. Because modern people don't like to eat simply but creatively, they add the thousand-year-old egg to flavor. The thousand-year-old egg is a sort of preserved egg. The old Chinese preserved the duck egg with tea under special soil. Many foreigners hate it because it smells like urine. When I was young, my parent also kid me and said it was made by horse urine.


4> Fried Chinese cabbage
This the simplest dish of four. My mom just sliced the cabbage and fried it with less garlic.

Finally, I may introduce our rice later.

In conclusion, it is so very very difficult to explain Chinese food. So many materials even have no name in English or never be ate by foreigners. I spend about 4 hours to look for their names and post here. I am so tired and not sure it's a good idea to keep posting my home dishes.

[中文]
今天中午有四道家常菜，剛好夠我們一家四口享用：

1> 豬肝連
這實在很難形容給外國人聽，他們一聽我們幾乎吃遍豬的所有部位大概會昏倒，所以我只介紹豬肝連是豬的橫隔膜，在其他網頁查到的資料是位於第12根與14根肋骨之間。接著我形容他的口感就跟吃豬肋排的時候靠近骨頭邊的肉差不多，因為都是肉上面還連著筋膜。而我們通常會沾著大蒜醬油一起吃。

2> 黑木耳炒肉絲
這道菜最難形容的就是木耳了，剛開始查他的英文名稱只查到學名，什麼「像耳朵的耳朵」(照字面翻譯)，後來有查到比較通俗一點的名字，叫「類果凍的耳朵狀真菌類」。他的口感也讓我頭大，要怎麼形容那種又有點QQ又有點脆脆的感覺，我乾脆就說是硬掉的果凍。畢竟連台灣都不是人人都有吃過黑木耳。而這道菜還有用薑司提味，不過我不知如何形容「提味」，若有人知道怎麼寫的話請告訴我。

3> 皮蛋炒地瓜葉
這道菜也是一絕，一開始地瓜葉就有兩種說法，我選擇了「甜馬鈴薯」的稱呼。而且還提到我外婆說以前地瓜葉都是用來養豬的，因為實在太普遍了，反而現在人為了健康還去吃以前豬吃的。不過我們家喜歡變化一下，所以加了皮蛋，最好玩的就是皮蛋的英文名字了。因為外國人看到皮蛋就怕，所以替它取了「千年蛋精」這個響亮的名號。據我查詢的結果，皮蛋是用鴨蛋加茶下去醃的，最後會有一股尿臊味，但真正醃的好的皮蛋會有一股臊味但跟尿臊味還是有差。可是以前我爸媽都會跟我開玩笑說皮蛋是用馬尿醃的，害我小時候都不敢吃皮蛋，尤其是他的蛋黃。

4> 炒高麗菜
還好最後一道菜比較簡單，但是國外依然沒有高麗菜這個名詞，包心菜、甘藍菜、高麗菜全都是一個名字。

本來還想介紹一下我們台灣米，但今天沒有力氣了。

現在才知道要用英文解釋中國菜是多麼難的一件事，加上中文版的話我花了四個小時寫這篇文章，因為實在是太多東西根本沒有英文名稱，甚至大多數的外國人從來沒吃過，搞不好也沒看過。這篇文章確實讓我心力交迫，看來之前想的主意是失算了，我可沒時間天天寫這種文章，以後可能要調整一下了！

[參考]
這是大陸那邊為了奧運所以給中國菜名取英文名的網站，還滿有趣的可以參考參考。

Direction - 未來走向

[English]
I found the popular Blog like Wan Wan or Mr.6 which have a clear topic and update frequently. I consider these two points are the root cause of a popular Blog. Everybody waits for their new artical like watch a series. Absolutly only these two factors are not enough to attract people but it's impossible to miss them.
Hence, I pop an idea which people may be interest in it and which can be easier updated by me. That is I will post the dish made by my mother everyday and introduce how to do every week. Nowadays most people eat outside instead of home. It is unusual for my mom to cook almost everyday and make a lot of snack. It should be more fun than I post my English learning process.
However I have no idea if I should focus on one topic or can write everything I thought. Maybe I make some channel so that poeple can read what they want.

[中文]
最近歸納出為何熱門部落格會受歡迎的兩個主因，像是彎彎和Mr.6，第一是有一個明確的主題，第二是時常更新文章。這讓大家好像在看連續劇一樣的，每天盯著這些部落格等著作者出新文章。若能把握住這兩個因素，我想就可以吸引許多人的目光。當然這並不表示只靠著這兩個作為就能讓自己的部落格變紅，只不過去掉這些條件應該就沒什麼前途了。
因此我想到一個主意，這或許能吸引人們的目光而且又可以時常更新。那就是我想要把每天老媽做的菜都放到部落格上，也許每個禮拜都還可以來個教學，等於出個食譜。尤其現今大家都外食的年代，我有這個什麼都會做的老媽，應該會有很多題材讓我可以跟大家分享。所以請大家拭目以待，等著許多美味的佳餚和點心吧！這絕對比我學習英語的心路歷程好玩多了。
不過我在想到底是要維持部落格的主題一致化，還是想到什麼都寫什麼？也許可以提供一些頻道，讓觀眾可以自己選擇。

My First Step - 第一步

[English]
I am going to try writing my blog in both English and Chinese. The first cause is to practice my English and the second is to let people all of the world can read my words. Most people may read so hard because of my poor English. But I think it will be better after writing for several month.
Moreover, I am going to prepare 7 vocabulary and 1 essay a week. The essay may be some memorable dialogs or article on high school text. To memorize them would be helpful.
Of course, I am going to write some subject like life, 3C, food, and so on. I'll try my best to maintain my blog to avoid letting it become a mummy.

[中文]
因為我是個懶人，有時很不想動筆，卻遺留很多想法在我腦袋中，以前在MSN space寫的部落格也沒有更新了，希望這次能維持下去。
我也會利用這個部落格來練習我的英文，每篇文章都會以雙語撰寫，希望有人也能幫我修改英文文章。而我希望能在每個禮拜介紹7個單字和一篇文章，可能是經典對白或是以前的課文，而且希望我每個禮拜也都能把它們背起來。
當然，我有任何想法也都會寫在這裡，像是生活、3C、餐廳等題材。