Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 18, 2026
Sunday, August 10, 2025
Monday, August 21, 2023
Friday, April 7, 2023
Saturday, October 2, 2021
Yuanyang
https://www.tasteatlas.com/yuanyang
Yuanyang is a drink that combines coffee and tea. It typically consists of three parts coffee and seven parts black milk tea—a combination of water, black tea leaves, and either sweetened condensed milk or evaporated milk and sugar.
This coffee-tea combination originated in Hong Kong, where it is commonly sold by street vendors. Each vendor usually has a signature recipe that may differ in the choice of coffee and the proportions of both beverages. The name yuanyang (which refers to mandarin ducks) was given as a poetic reference because the ducks represent a symbol of conjugal love in which opposites attract.
It is said that this particular name was coined because it also shows how opposites, in this case, coffee and tea, attract and can function well together. The drink can be enjoyed hot or iced.
Wednesday, April 28, 2021
Saturday, August 15, 2020
Chinese restaurant calculation made easy
https://imagethief.com/2005/12/17/chinese-restaurant-calculation-made-easy/
For simplicity, let’s assume that we want a system that sticks to the Chinese rule of one dish per head. So if you have five people, you want an aggregate score of five. But we also want a system that weights dishes correctly based on their gustatory impact. For instance, there is no way that your pai huang gua or bowl of white rice has the same impact as an oil-and-chili drenched mapo doufu. Now I don’t have time to sit here and individually weight every Beijing and provincial standard that you can order in this town, for Chrissake. But I can roughly categorize dishes in a way that, I hope, makes sense. So here is my proposed weighting system for types of Chinese dishes:
Underweighted dishes:
White rice: .25 in aggregate (assuming everyone orders a bowl – if less than half the party orders white rice, ignore)
Dumplings (shuijiao): .25 per liang of five or .5 for an order of 10 to 12
Dumplings (guotie): .5 per liang of five or 1 for an order of 10 to 12
Cold dishes (pickles, cold meats, appetizers, hua sheng, etc.): .5
Plain breads (no meat): .5
Desserts: .5 (this is counterintuitive as Chinese desserts are unparalleled calorie bombs, but I’ve always subscribed to the “separate tank” theory of dessert consumption
Cooked green vegetables: .75 (that’s stir-fried or steamed green vegetables; di san xian,yuxiang qiezi, or anything in sauce counts as a full dish)
Standard weighted dishes:
Soups and noodles: 1 (soup is a trap; don’t assume that it’s lighter than other dishes)
Breads with meat (roubing, etc.): 1
Standards: 1 (most meats, poultry and fish; vegetables in sauce or gan bian style; and any cooked or sauced tofu; the vast majority of dishes)
Overweighted dishes:
Shuizhu yu or niu rou: 1.5 (I’m inclined to double weight it, but I’ll be generous)
Beijing roast duck: 2 per duck and, yes, a half-duck is 1 point (the duck is greasy and there are pancakes, plum sauce, etc.)
“Set piece” dishes: 2 (roast suckling pig, roast mutton leg, anything that serves as a centerpiece dish or that would be served at a wedding)
Hot pot: .75 per person (so if you have four people, it counts as a total of 3 points)
Intimidation dishes: 2 (bizarre organ meats; exotic animals; anything you are served by people trying to get a rise out of the laowai or that you serve to your “just arrived in China” friends to give them a taste of “the real thing”
So if you and five of your friends (six people total) are going out for dinner, you have an available score of six. Everyone has white rice, leaving you 4.5 available dishes. Two cold dishes leave you 3.5 remaining slots. Order two green vegetables and two standards, and it’s perfection. Or one standard, a duck and one more cold dish. Or, if this is a duck feast, six people qualifies for two ducks, a standard and two cold dishes. See how easy this is? For the sake of argument, I’ll even allow rounding.
Global modifiers:
Global modifiers affect the overall score of a meal. Positive modifiers are added to your available score to allow the addition of extra dishes, negative modifiers subtract from the total allowed dishes. For example, if you have four people, and, thus, a total available score of four, a global modifier of +2 allows you order dishes totaling a score of 6. Conversely, a global modifier of -2 would allow you to order only two dishes. Some global modifiers apply to specific numbers of people, and so must be modified for party size. Simple, isn’t it?
Auspicious occasion (wedding, deal closure): +2 for every five people
All just arrived in China: +2 (gotta experiment)
All female party: -1 for each four people
All teenage girls: -3 for each four people
Lunch: -1
Rugby team: x2 available score
In Guangdong: -2
In Sichuan or Hunan: +1
Any restaurant with a floor show: -2
Any restaurant with a government tourism or China Famous Brand plaque: -2
Any restaurant at a provincial 办事区: +1
Beer and other liquors: no impact
There. Drop that all into Microsoft Excel or a handy, slide-rule style device and you’re good to go. I’ve tested it not at all and I have very little confidence that it will hold up under rigorous examination. But, in the end, it’s as good as anything else you’ve got to work with. Suggestions for other weightings or modifications can be submitted via the usual methods. The Nobel committee can contact me care of this website.
For simplicity, let’s assume that we want a system that sticks to the Chinese rule of one dish per head. So if you have five people, you want an aggregate score of five. But we also want a system that weights dishes correctly based on their gustatory impact. For instance, there is no way that your pai huang gua or bowl of white rice has the same impact as an oil-and-chili drenched mapo doufu. Now I don’t have time to sit here and individually weight every Beijing and provincial standard that you can order in this town, for Chrissake. But I can roughly categorize dishes in a way that, I hope, makes sense. So here is my proposed weighting system for types of Chinese dishes:
Underweighted dishes:
White rice: .25 in aggregate (assuming everyone orders a bowl – if less than half the party orders white rice, ignore)
Dumplings (shuijiao): .25 per liang of five or .5 for an order of 10 to 12
Dumplings (guotie): .5 per liang of five or 1 for an order of 10 to 12
Cold dishes (pickles, cold meats, appetizers, hua sheng, etc.): .5
Plain breads (no meat): .5
Desserts: .5 (this is counterintuitive as Chinese desserts are unparalleled calorie bombs, but I’ve always subscribed to the “separate tank” theory of dessert consumption
Cooked green vegetables: .75 (that’s stir-fried or steamed green vegetables; di san xian,yuxiang qiezi, or anything in sauce counts as a full dish)
Standard weighted dishes:
Soups and noodles: 1 (soup is a trap; don’t assume that it’s lighter than other dishes)
Breads with meat (roubing, etc.): 1
Standards: 1 (most meats, poultry and fish; vegetables in sauce or gan bian style; and any cooked or sauced tofu; the vast majority of dishes)
Overweighted dishes:
Shuizhu yu or niu rou: 1.5 (I’m inclined to double weight it, but I’ll be generous)
Beijing roast duck: 2 per duck and, yes, a half-duck is 1 point (the duck is greasy and there are pancakes, plum sauce, etc.)
“Set piece” dishes: 2 (roast suckling pig, roast mutton leg, anything that serves as a centerpiece dish or that would be served at a wedding)
Hot pot: .75 per person (so if you have four people, it counts as a total of 3 points)
Intimidation dishes: 2 (bizarre organ meats; exotic animals; anything you are served by people trying to get a rise out of the laowai or that you serve to your “just arrived in China” friends to give them a taste of “the real thing”
So if you and five of your friends (six people total) are going out for dinner, you have an available score of six. Everyone has white rice, leaving you 4.5 available dishes. Two cold dishes leave you 3.5 remaining slots. Order two green vegetables and two standards, and it’s perfection. Or one standard, a duck and one more cold dish. Or, if this is a duck feast, six people qualifies for two ducks, a standard and two cold dishes. See how easy this is? For the sake of argument, I’ll even allow rounding.
Global modifiers:
Global modifiers affect the overall score of a meal. Positive modifiers are added to your available score to allow the addition of extra dishes, negative modifiers subtract from the total allowed dishes. For example, if you have four people, and, thus, a total available score of four, a global modifier of +2 allows you order dishes totaling a score of 6. Conversely, a global modifier of -2 would allow you to order only two dishes. Some global modifiers apply to specific numbers of people, and so must be modified for party size. Simple, isn’t it?
Auspicious occasion (wedding, deal closure): +2 for every five people
All just arrived in China: +2 (gotta experiment)
All female party: -1 for each four people
All teenage girls: -3 for each four people
Lunch: -1
Rugby team: x2 available score
In Guangdong: -2
In Sichuan or Hunan: +1
Any restaurant with a floor show: -2
Any restaurant with a government tourism or China Famous Brand plaque: -2
Any restaurant at a provincial 办事区: +1
Beer and other liquors: no impact
There. Drop that all into Microsoft Excel or a handy, slide-rule style device and you’re good to go. I’ve tested it not at all and I have very little confidence that it will hold up under rigorous examination. But, in the end, it’s as good as anything else you’ve got to work with. Suggestions for other weightings or modifications can be submitted via the usual methods. The Nobel committee can contact me care of this website.
