Neil's Chinese chicken Hoi Sin Fusion

Hello there recipe fans. It has been a while since I posted a recipe. Its quite hard to find lots of fun things to do with noodles.

China is a country of flavours and one of my favourite flavours is Hoi Sin sauce. Here is my recipe for a delicious hoi sin dish.

Ingredients (serves 3)

1 large chicken breast
1 large carrot
3 med/large potatoes
half a green bell pepper
half a red onion
2 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons of quality Hoi Sin sauce
half cup water.

Method
Peel and cut into small pieces the potato and carrots and parboil them for 15 minutes.

Cut the chicken into small pieces and brown with the onion, pepper and garlic in a wok or large frying pan with a little oil.

When the potatoes and carrots are cooked drain the water and pour into the wok and gently fry for a few more minutes until the potatoes begin to go a little crispy.

Drizzle the Hoi Sin sauce over the chicken and potatoes and stir. Pour in half a cup of cold water and continue cooking until the water and sauce combine to form a dark gravy like sauce. Bring the sauce to a boil and immediately serve.

#china #hoisin #recipes

Top 10 Fun filled facts about Beer

Hey there Gentle Reader. For over 30 years I have loved beer. Beer is good in many ways. It is a social adhesive that brings people together. As with all adhesives you can get sticky however, so dont use too much.

Here is my beer top 10. Enjoy in moderation.

1. There is actually a phobia called Cenosillicaphobia which is a fear of an empty beer glass.

2. A Scotsman once had a 4 week hangover after consuming 60 pints of beer.

3. The worlds strongest beer has an alcohol content of 67.5%.

4. Slugs like beer.

5. In Russia, beer was not even thought of as alcohol until 2013.

6. Top prize in Finland's Wife carrying competition is the wifes weight in beer.

7. More Guiness is drank in Nigeria than Ireland.

8. In France, Germany, Spain, Holland and Austria you can buy a beer in McDonalds.

9. Beer has the same pH as a vagina (about 4.5)

10. Carlsberg Special Brew, the beer of choice of alcoholic homeless people in the UK was originally made for former UK prime minister Sir Winston Churchill.

#beer #10funfacts #churchill #carlsberg #mcdonalds #cenosillicaphobia

Today in History: September 6th

Greetings Gentle Readers its time again to  set sail on the ocean of time in the big old sail boat of history.

1522: Ferdinand Magellan completes the first circumnavigation of the globe.

1620: The Mayflower sets sail from Plymouth taking the first puritan settlers to the New world of America.

1972: Nine Israeli athletes are murdered by Palestinian terrorists at the Munich olympics.

1991: The Soviet Union officially recognises the independence of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania.

1991: St Petersburg has its original name restored after having been changed to Leningrad in 1924.

#magellan #mayflower #USSR  #munich #latvia #stpetersburg #september6 #todayinhistory

Mmmm...its quite tasty

Hello Gentle Readers. As a tribute to Robert and as way of letting me delete photos from my phone, here for your pleasure are some of the wonderful new foods we have tried in the 3 weeks we have been in China.

The name of this post "Mmmm, its quite tasty" is Roberts response to most new things that he tries.

Yellow Watermelon

Mmm....chicken feet

Sausage....on a stick

Papaya

Numb and Spicy Hot Pot crisps

#mmmmitsquitenice #china

More China photographs

Hello Gentle Readers here are some of the best photographs we have taken in last 2 weeks.

Enjoy.

Little Lion Man

Flag corner in my classroom.

End of first day family selfie.

Yuhu

Our building..we are on the 36th floor.
 There are 37 floors.

Robert looking for tadpoles.

Lena scoots.

OMG! We cannot escape "The Donald."

#yuhu #citiclakecommunity #family #trump

Durian: The Marmite of Fruit

Hello again gentle reader, welcome back. A few months ago while we were still in Latvia, Lena and I watched a video blog posted by a Russian couple who lived in Guangzhou about a fruit called a durian.

I had never even heard of the fruit which as you can see resembles a very large horse chestnut.
The one thing that came across in the video was how divisive it was. The Russian couple and their children seemed to agree that it had a pleasent taste but the smell of the fruit was terrible.

Suitably intrigued by what many people in Asia call "The King of Fruit" we told ourselves that when we got to China we would try it.

Durian has such a pungeant odour that many hotels have banned it.

After looking at it several times and not buying the fruit we finally tonight took the plunge with some durian flavoured wafer biscuits.

Durian Wafers

I'm glad we bought a small packet.

They really stank and I mean stank. Others have likened the smell to raw sewage. I thought it smelled like a babies nappy that had been filled with skunk fur and set on fire. Truly revolting smell. I actually bit one and the taste was not that bad.

Millions of people love durian. Many dont. There is no middle ground.
It truly is the Marmite of fruit.

#durian #kingoffruit #marmite

Mmm....nummy treats

Hello again Gentle reader....as promised here are some of the more unusual things we bought at Aeon supermarket in Baoli yesterday.

1. Fruit: We got a coconut and papaya and mini bananas.

We have bought coconut before but I had never even tried papaya before. When we bought it I wasnt even sure what it was.

Mini banana next to Oreo cookie.

Papaya

2. Sausage with Cheese on a stick.

Very common in China to buy stuff on a stick. We have not seen frog or snake on a stick yet.

3. Chicken Feet.

Comes in many different varieties. I bought the spicy, chilli sauce covered ones. These are a very common sight in China. I found them very tasty to eat but horrible to look at. They are basically like chicken wings but with less meat.

4. Fried Dough

A strange one this, our school serves them for breakfast. Its bread dough that has been deep fried. Very tasty.

#aeon #sausageonastick #chickenfeet #papaya #minibanana #frieddough