Neil's Chinese duck butterfly pasta.

Greetings Gentle Reader. Here for you is a simple but super tasty lunch I made for the family today.

Mmm..looks nummy

Ingredients

200g Smoked Duck breast
400g tricolour butterfly pasta
2 garlic cloves
Half red onion
Half green paprika
Half a large red chilli pepper
Half a bottle of tomato ketchup
Salt
Olive oil

Method

Chop the duck into fine little strips and fry gently in a little oil and some garlic.
Add the onion, paprika and chilli and continue frying.

Boil the pasta until it is al dente, drain the liquid and pour into the pan. Stir the duck and veg through the pasta and add the tomato ketchup.

Stir the pasta and keep stiring as it gently simmers.

Serve with a nice fresh salad.

#recipe #duckpasta

Today in History: June 30th

Hello there gentle readers its time to take your sharpened teeth of history and bite the ear of time itself.

1859: French tightrope walker Blondin walks above Niagara Falls.

1908: The Tunguska Event. An object, either a meteorite or small comet, impacts with the earth over Siberia. It is the largest such event recorded in human history.

1934: The night of the Long Knives: Hitler disposes ruthlessly of his rivals within the Nazi party.

1966: Former World Heavyweight champion Mike Tyson is born.

1971: The crew of Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 11 are killed when their oxygen supply leaks out through a faulty valve.

1997: The Peoples Republic of China regain soveriegnty of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom

#blondin #tunguska #nightofthelongknives #miketyson #soyuz11 #hongkong #todayinhistory #june30

Lena's Pork 'n' Potato plate

Hello again Gentle Readers. Lena in the past few weeks has become culinarily inspired and has come up with several dishes worthy of your attention.

After Taco's and Pelmenies, tonights dish is another prime example of simple comfort food at its best.

Ingredients
6 potatoes
250g pork fillet
2 cloves garlic
Half a red onion
2 red chillis
Olive oil
Salt.

Method

Peel and wash the potatoes and cut them into thin strips. Cut the pork into small pieces and place the meat into a frying pan with a little oil and salt. When the meat is browned add the potatoes and stir gently.

Chop the onion and the chillis and gently stir the potatoes mixing in the veg. Crush the garlic onto the potatoes and again stir gently.

Keep cooking on a medium/low heat until the potatoes are cooked and serve immediately.

We tend to eat salad everyday and this is a perfect dish to have a healthy salad with. Tonight our salad consisted of tomato, cucumber, red onion and green paprika.

It really was another amazing dinner. I hope you get the chance to try it for yourself and please comment if you try it.

#recipes #porknpotatoplate

Today in History 24th June

Greetings Gentle readers. Its time once again to dip our hand in the cookie jar of time and get caught up in the scandals of history.

1314: The battle of Bannockburn concludes with a decisive Scots victory over the English.

1812: Napoleon begins the invasion of Russia.

1947: The first widely reported sighting of a UFO is made near Mt Ranier, USA.

1987: Ballon D'Or winner Lionel Messi is born.

2013: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is found guilty of abuse of power and having sex with an underage prostitute.

#berlusconi #lionelmessi #ufo #bannockburn #napoleon #24thjune #todayinhistory

Lena's Taco delights

Buenos Dias gentle readers. Lena decided to go all Mexican yesterday for dinner.

Here for your delight is her recipe for her very delicious Mexican treats.

A Scotsman....and Taco

Ingredients.
Taco

Dumpling flour
Water
Olive oil
Salt

Method
Mix the ingredients in a bowl and need until the dough can be rolled.
Split the dough into around 10 equally sized balls and roll with a rolling pin until the tacos are flat and approximately 10-12 cm in diameter.
Place a little olive oil into a frying pan and cook the tacos 1 at a time until they are nicely browned.

Ingredients
Filling

500g beef mince
2 chillis
Half a red onion
Garlic
100ml tomato ketchup.

Method
Brown the mince in a frying psn and add the onion garlic and chillis. Add about 100 ml of ketchup and let it simmer for around 25 minutes.
When done, pour the mince into a bowl.

Dinner time

Grate some cheese into another bowl and chop some onion into another. Make a salad with tomato, cucumber and mayonaise.

Making the Taco

Place the taco on a plate and spoon on some mince. Add salad, cheese, onion and fold it carefully. Then shove it in your mouth trying not to drip on the table, the floor or yourself.

Very tasty and very messy.

#tacos #recipes

Today in History: June 20th

Hello Gentle Readers. Its that special summer blockbuster of an event where we use the sharp, pointy teeth of time to bite a huge chunk out of the fishing boat of history.

1893: Lizzie Borden is acquitted of murdering her parents with an axe.

1942: 4 Jewish prisoners dress up as SS officers and steal a SS staff car and drive out of Auschwitz and escape.

Kazimierz Piechowski the ringleader

1949: Singer Lionel Ritchie is born.

1975: The movie "Jaws" opens. It begins a Hollywood trend known as the Summer Blockbuster.

#Kazimierz Piechowski #jaws #lionelritchie #lizzieborden #june20th #todayinhistory

Pelmenies. Lena style.

PELMENIES

Yes Gentle Reader for the first time in 10 months we have had proper Pelmenies. Chinese Dumplings are OK but to taste proper pelmenies is truly amazing...and Lena made them herself.

I tried to help but was as much use as a catflap in an elephant house.

They are incredibly simple to make so here is the recipe.

Ingredients
250g beef mince
250g pork mince
3 cloves garlic
Half a red onion chopped finely.
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 egg yolk.
2 table spoons water
Salt and Pepper.

Method
Mix the beef, pork, onion and garlic together.

Make the dough and cut into small pieces. Flatten into circular thin discs about 5-7cm across.

Spoon some of the meat into the dough and fold the dough over the meat. Pinch the edges firmly sealing the dumpling. Finally fold the ends back around.
The finished dumpling should look a bit like an ear.

When you have made all the pelmenies, bring a pan of water to the boil and gently place the dumplings into the water. Boil them for about 4-6 minutes.

Serve with sour cream for best results. In China getting sour cream is not so easy so we used mayonaise.

Awesome.....very tasty.

#pelmenies

Today in History: June 17th

Hello Gentle readers. Lets slip into the tight, white, flared trousers of time and boogie to the pop of history.

1939: The last public execution my guillotine takes place in France.

1940: Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania come under the control of the Soviet Union.

1943: Singer Barry Manilow is born.

1967: China announces that it has successfully tested its first nuclear device.

1994: After a low speed car chase actor O.J. Simpson is arrested for the murder of his ex-wife.

#ojsimpson #china #barrymanilow #latvia #guillotine #todayinhistory #june19

Mmm...Double Egg delights

Just had a very nice breakfast gentle readers.
From a little place called Double Eggs.
Its a pancake shop that uses 2 eggs on every pancake and then fills them with a variety of fillings.

Lena and I had the cheese and bacon. Robert had the original flavour and they were very nice.

#doubleeggs

Back in Guangzhou (part 3)

Hello Gentle Readers here are some more pictures of Saturdays adventures.

Robert and the Tesla

Flying a Rainbow kite

Mmm...pancakes

Playing in the fountain.

And here are the pics from Brasil, the Meat buffet. It was really good and if you go pay with Alipay it is about 20% cheaper if you do.

#guangzhou #brasil

Back in Guangzhou (part 2)

Hey Gentle readers. We went for a walk and found some cool stuff.

Robert at the fountain

Happy in the Park

Just like me!

Top 10 fun filled facts about the Dragon Boat Festival

Hello again Gentle Reader. As I mentioned in my earlier post this weekend is the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival and we have Monday off school to celebrate. I thought I would take the opportunity to let you know a bit about it.

1. The Dragon Boat festival is called Duanwu in Mandarin and Tuan Ng in Cantonese.

2. It takes place on the 5th day of the 5th month of the Chinese Lunar calendar.

3. The Boats are designed to look like Chinese dragons.

4. The boats are raced by teams of 10-50 rowers.

5. It is believed that the winning team will have the best harvest.

6. The festival actually commemorates the suicide of Chinese poet Qu Yuan.

7. The boat race is to symbolise the boats that tried to save him from drowming.

8. Traditionally during the holiday special sticky rice dumplings called zongzi are eaten because the people who tried to save Qu Yuan threw them into the water so the fish would eat the dumplings, not the poet.

9. During the festival children tie coloured ribbons around their wrists and ankles to protect them from illness.

10. Mugwart and calamus plants are hung on doors to keep insects away.

#dragonboatfestival #quyuan

Back in Guangzhou (part 1)

Hello Gentle Readers. We have a long weekend this weekend because its the Dragon Boat Festival. We have therefore decided to celebrate Fathers day in style and we are staying in the very stylish China Mayors Plaza Hotel.

We found out about a cool restaurant called Brasil in a mall near here and I nagged Lena so we will go later to celebrate Fathers Day.
Brasil is a meat lovers paradise as its a meat buffet.

By the way. Dont tell Robert but he is paying for dinner.

I will be back later to tell you more

#brasil #guangzhou #fathersday #robertispayingfordinner

Today in History: 15th June

Hello there Gentle Readers. Lets check the small print of history and use the ball point pen of time to sign our name.

1215: King John of England signs Magna Carta a document that saw the beginning of British democracy.

1844: Charles Goodyear patents the process of creating vulcanised rubber.

1953: President Xi Jinping of China is born.

1964: Friends actress Courtney Cox is born.

#todayinhistory #15june #magnacarta #vulcanisedrubber #xijinping #courtneycox