Asian Culture, Arts & LifeStyle

Those streets in Melbourne CBD are mixed of modem style and 19 century's old buildings. See my experiences in Melbourne on  https://goo.gl/042DpP The state of VIC government office building in Melbourne. The Team room build in 19 century in Colin Street. The new shopping center in CBD.

Chinese art captures the natural beauty of this mysterious and diverse country. Famous for traditional ink wash painting, it often features landscapes, mountains, flowers and birds.  We built the online gallery www.artinkbrush.com to present you with traditional and modern Chinese contemporary art that captures the cultural, bold colours and strong forms. Artist - Mr. Dawei Hao Mr. Dawei Hao is a national certified Chinese painting artist based in China, professor of Guangzhou University Arts faculty and a member of The Guangdong Artists Association.  There were many unforgettable paintings in his works. He normally focus on traditional Chinese realistic painting. Following paintings: "Spring in February" , "Red October" and "Champion and Juan Antonio Samaranch" have been awarded in national arts exhibitions and competitions. Below are some sample of his painting. A tiger is looking for food in winter, ink on rice paper. Lotu...

My favour restaurant in Melbourne is - The European   located at the top end of Spring Street and facing the Parliament House. Reminiscent of old world Europe, The European mines the traditions of rural France, Italy and Spain. I highly recommend this restaurant with its high standard service and creative dishes, especially the hot Chocolate tastes very well with good price around $4! Steam Barramundi

ChenPi is sun-dried tangerine (mandarin) peel used as a traditional seasoning in Chinese cooking and traditional medicine. They are aged by storing them dry. The fresh peel has a pungent and bitter taste. The more longer stored ChenPi has better taste and greatly reduced the volatile oil and flavonoids content will be increased which the medicinal value can be reflected. It's used to treat cough, rheum and  stomach pain especially in winter season .The below image is a fifteen years old ChenPi. It smells very nice like French Truffles! It can be used in cooking as well such as soup and slow cooking dishes. Mandarin usually grow up in Middle and South China. You can use IMPERIAL mandarin to make ChenPi in Australia. You need to dry the peel and keep them in dry condition for at least one year. 

Sweet Rice ball (Tangyuan) in Fermented Glutinous Rice Soup is a very traditional popular snack in middle China area. It's cooking rice ball in Fermented Glutinous Rice Soup and then adding a small amount of sweet-scented osmanthus when it's ready. Fermented glutinous rice balls has refreshing fragrance, but not strong alcohol taste and so it's good for both adults and kids.

Stewed Chicken with Three Cups Sauces (Soy sauce, Cooking oil, Chinese rice wine) - is a popular dish in mainland China and Taiwan area. [You will need] : Chicken Breast or middle chicken wing,  Ginger, Spring Onions, Ground Chili, Parsley Light Soy sauce, Sugar, Taiwan Rice Wine, cooking oil [To do this] : 1. Slice Ginger, chop chili and spring onions parsley, slice chicken into 1cm strips and set aside. 2.  Heat the wok，Add cooking oil and heat it for a while，add Ginger and cook it until brown. 3. Add  chop chili (or some garlic). 4. Add chicken and fire, keep the wok with high temperature. 5. Add a grass of Taiwan Rice Wine, a cup of light soy sauce and 2.5 Tablespoon sugar. Continue fire. 6. Turn to medium heat, and then place lid on the wok to cook for a while around 4 to 5 minutes. 7. Remove the lid. Fire a while. Now You should smell the taste of chicken. :) 8. Add spring onions parsley and then cook for 20 secs. Tips : Add " Lao Gan Ma Chili Bla...

Click here to see image in Pinterest.com Lucky money   - The spring festival (Chinese New Year) is the loveliest in China,  especially for some children or teenager is "lucky money". Lucky money means the old generation‘s love to the young and hope them can have a good luck in this new year. The lucky money which is the favour of young generation. Money is placed inside red envelopes or red packet as a monetary gift  given by the Senior / married people and represents luck and wealthy. Red means auspicious in Chinese society. The left side image is a collection of red packets for Chinese New Year.

Stir Fired Fresh (ShaHe) Rice Noodle is a popular traditional snack with a long history in Southern China. [You will need] : one bag of (ShaHe) Fresh Rice Noodle (it can be found in Asian Groceries shop),   Bean sprouts,   sliced scallion and sliced Ginger 　　 [Source] :Light Soy Sauce 2 spoon,  Sugar 2g 　　 [ To do this:] :  1. Heat pan with high temperature, and then add the right amount of cooking oil, heat for a while, add sliced Ginger. 2. Whilst ginger is cooking, add (ShaHe) Rice Noodle, light soy sauce , stir fry, heat with high temperature until rice noodle is almost dry. 3. Add bean sprouts and sliced scallion to fry with noodle. Cook them over low-medium heat for 2 minutes. 4. Ready to serve. 　　 Tips : Add " Lao Gan Ma Chili Black Bean Sauce "  which makes the most sophisticated, toothsome hot sauce we've ever tasted to this dishes. The deeply caramelized chilies, garlic, onions, fermented soybeans and peanuts give this chili paste...

Guangzhou Flower market is a traditional market to sell and buy flowers and a great place to watch lighting during Chinese New Year period.    The above video showing the street view during Chinese New Year period.   Street view during Chinese New Year period.  

Pan Xi - it's of the three big traditional Chinese garden-style restaurants in Guangzhou city South China. Because it is surrounded by five small streams, including one called Panxi, and so the restaurant is named "Pan Xi restaurant". The restaurant connects with the Liwan Lake Park which occupies an area of 12,000 Sm. and was the Imperial Garden "Chang Hua Yuan" of the king of Nan Han Dynasty in 1000 years ago. It was founded in 1947 and designed by Chinese famous landscape architect Mo Bozhi. It gathers the landscape essence of Southern China and is condensing the cream of China's history, culture and nationality arts and crafts. More photos are in http://pinterest.com/littlepointa/travel/ It has many specialities such as Steamed Whole White Gourd Soup, Garden Herbs Chicken and Assorted Platter. The most famous are its pastries. The famous pastry is Pan Tang horseshoe cake ( Chestnut cake) which is the steamed mixing water ch...

The dinner on Chinese new year's evening - just like Christmas dinner , it is the primary meal traditionally eaten on New Year's evening and a great time for entire family getting together. People usually go to restaurant to have this most important dinner. Below are the typical dishes in the Chinese New Year Dinner. Steamed Pork shoulder Steamed Prawn Tofu & Vegetable Pork & Vegetable Dumpling Vegetable & mushroom Beijing Duck

Orange bonsai means good luck in Chinese culture. They are usually showed on the street during the period of Chinese New Year. It's also as a New Year decoration within the house. 

Chinese New Year - "The Spring Festival" is the lunar new year, commonly known as have the Spring Festival, generally refers to new year's Eve and the first lunar January. It's traditional, the biggest, most exciting and important festival in China. I will write serials posts of Chinese New Year. Shops selling traditional ornament God of Wealth - a traditional God means bring wealth to people

Sweet and Sour Pork Ribs - a very delicious and health food for everyone. [ You'll need: ] Pork ribs, Thai sweet and sour sauce , cooking wine, Salt, Soy sauce, Corn starch, Sugar, Ginger, garlic , strawberry or orange [ To do this: ] 1. Pork ribs clean and then dry , adding the right amount of oil , salt , cooking wine , a little soy sauce and sugar , cornstarch , a little ginger and garlic . Stir marinate for half an hour . 2. Finely chop the strawberry or orange.  3. Add ginger and garlic to a preheated oiled pan. Whilst ginger and garlic are cooking, add Pork ribs to fry for 10 minutes. 4. Add Thai sweet and sour sauce to pork ribs. Fry for 10 - 13 minutes until ripe.  5. Add the strawberry or orange. Cook them over low-medium heat for 2 minutes. Enjoy!  

Chinese New Year Snacks usually have Fried dumplings, Egg power and Fired lotus root.     Fried dumplings: means future life is rich and full. It looks like fried dumplings . But the stuffing is sweet , mixed with shredded coconut , fried peanuts, sesame seeds and red beans mash ​​, wrapped with dumpling skin . Egg power: Are made from flour , gluten flour , eggs and lard . Mixed all ingredients and then  drop them to the oil pan , deep-fried to a pale yellow color. Picked up, and then dipped maltose to serve.     Fired lotus root: Sliced Lotus root dipped in flour and then into the pan, until golden brown color.

Fai Chun is one of the traditional customs in Chinese Lunar New Year.  Post New Year Fai Chun in the front door of residential means goodbye to the old and welcome to new year. Below is a video of writing Fai Chun.

Cotton candy is a soft candy, loose and porous, with certain elasticity and toughness. It's a very traditional Chinese snack. The making process is pour ing the sugar into cotton candy machine to make ​​out of sugar wire , and then wrap sugar wire a round the stick . You always can find the candy sales man in South China area.

Sesame Pumpkin Pie - Pumpkin is a health food which contains vitamins , rich nutritious , and also low in calories and defenses cancer as well. See below recipe to make Sesame Pumpkin Pie. [ Ingredient ] : Pumpkin , flour , honey , sesame seeds , Peanut oil [ To do this: ] 1. Wash the pumpkin , remove the skin and flesh , cut into pieces at the end , and then put into the steamer to steam for 10 minutes.    2. Press into pumpkin mash , add honey , flour tortillas and sesame, and then made ​​the same size , and then stained with bread bran . 3. Flat hot wok , add peanut oil, and then low heat and fry on both sides to slightly golden colour. 4. Ready to Serve. Enjoy! These keep well in the freezer/fridge, and are great microwaved to serve hot.

Beggar Chicken - a traditional dish in China with over hundreds years history. It was said that a beggar got a chicken one day, but he didn't has cookware and seasoning. Finally, he found a way to cook the chicken: wrapping the chicken with soil, and then grilled in the charcaol mill about 3 to 4 hours which made a rare and unique cuisine. Nowadays the modern cooking is wrapped chicken in lotus leaves and encase it in clay, and then grilled or baked.

Chinese Steam Stuffed Bun - a traditional Chinese snack with over 2000 years history. It's made in surface skin, stuffing packets into a food mixed with vegetables, meat or sugar. It's still 100 % hand made and then steam for 5 - 10 mins to serve. Based on the size of the Bun , the minimum can be called dumplings , followed in the Bun, big Bun . The above image is showing the process of making Bun and the bottom images are dumpling (left) and Big Bun (right).