Thai Soup Hot!

         Thailand is a tropical country with ocean beside. The climate is hot, and have ample rain and sunshine every year. As a result, Thai has abundant green vegetable, seafood, and fruit, and the Thai cuisine is mainly made of these seafood, fruit, and vegetable. The special climate affects the Thais’ tremendous dependence to sour and spice, which are the two biggestfeatures of the Thai cuisine. The cooks in Thailand like to use various materials like garlic, chili, limes, fish sauce, shrimp paste and so on to make a very sour and hot pot of Thai delicacies. And the most famous one is Tom Yum.

Thailand

Thai's natural scenery

       Tom Yum is a unique sour and spicy soup in Thailand. The mainly materials are lemon leaves, lemon grass, and shrimps. The soup is very popular in Thailand. You can it the soup from luxurious hotel to ordinary residents’ dining tables, making Tom Yum the representative of Thai cuisine. Meanwhile, it is also prestigious in other Southeast Asian countries like Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia.

Tom Yum

Tom Yum

         In the name of Tom Yum, “Tom” means sour and spicy, and “ Yum” means shrimps. Actually, Tom Yum means sour and spicy soup. However, the soup is put in lots of green curry, and many people are obsessed with the green curry after being accustomed to it.

Green Curry

        There is a famous folk about Tom Yum. In 18^th century, the Chinese King Zheng ruled all the country. Once, his daughter was sick and didn’t want to eat anything. As a result, King Zheng than assigned his private cook to make some appetizer soup for the princess. To everyone’s surprise, after the princess finishing the soup, she felt excellent and got rid of the sickness soon. The king was jubilant and named the soup “national soup” from them on.

Thai's Princess

       Actually, making the soup isn’t hard and tedious, but you need some specific material born in the local. The most significant material is Thai lemon, which is a kind of distinctive fruit in Thailand. Besides, the spicy taste of the soup is from Thai chili, also considered to be the one of the spiciest chili in the world. On top of that, other garnishes like fish sauce and green curry are also the typical seasonings of Thailand. With all the variety material from crazily spicy to bland materials, the soup is sour, spicy, tasty, smooth and sweet. How wonderful it is!

The materials of Tim Yum

Germany-The Home of Eisbein

         German pig feet is a prestigious dish all over the world, and also a traditional German delicacy, especially popular in Bavaria area. The Germans call it” Eisbein” which means “ice leg” in German. It was because the Germans used the bone of pig feet to serve as the ice skates to slide on the frozen lake.

Eisbein is usually made of the hind leg with thicker fat. After being pickled, Eisbein will be boiled or roasted. Then the Germans will relish it with Sauerkraut and beer.

Eisbein

Eisbein and Sauerkraut

There are many ways to do Eisbein, and the ways are usually various form South to North. Generally speaking, people summarize them as” roasted in the South and boiled in the North.”

The South─Bavaria area

1)  Smoked Eisbein

      Smoked Eisbein is to smock the boiled Eisbein with German traditional seasonings. It has the aroma of charcoal and looks shiny and slick. It tastes soft but chewy, especially the part of fat. However, it is time-consuming to cook the dish. Not only do you need to prepare more the 20 kinds of seasonings, but also need to smock it slowly and patiently. But after finishing smocking, you then cut it in flake, prepare a glass of black beer or dark malt and you will find all of the effort worthwhile as soon as the chewy Eisbein melt in your mouth!

Smoked Eisbein

Smoked Eisbein

2)  Roasted Eisbein

     Roasted Eisbein is more easily to make. It can be roasted by ovens or charcoal fire, and it is also the most common way in Taiwanese restaurants. Roasted Eisbein features the crisp but not dry skin and chewy plump meat. Sometimes, the meat will be enjoyed with mustard, horseradish, and pepper. Finally, of course, you can’t taste the most authentic way of roasted Eisbein without a glass of cool beer beside!

Roasted Eisbein

The North─ Berlin area

       It is hard to roast Eisbein in the North because of the weather. The locals boil food more often. During boiling Eisbein, they often add some sauerkraut and many kinds of spices, which is like “stew” in Chinese culture. The taste is different far from the roasted one definitely. It tastes softer and blander, and most important of all, it has reduced lots of fat! The typical boiled Eisbein must has garnishes beside like German sauerkraut, mashed potatoes and potato. When you enjoy the boiled Eisbein, the locals will recommend you to eat the meat with all the garnishes and German mustard sauce. After being boiled for long, the Eisbein becomes soft and not greasy. The aroma of meat and sauerkraut will be soon full of your mouth, which is considered to be the feast to one’s taste buds!

Boiled Eisbein

Boiled Eisbein and German sauerkraut

The food from Aladdin’s magic lamp!

           The monsters from Aladdin’s magic lamp, the treasures hidden by the forty robbers, and various mysterious stories told in one thousand nights. To us, Arabia is too brilliant and unique. Not to mention the Arabic food, not only the salad with distinguished taste, but even the bread with the flavor of Middle East, all of which makes us hard to forget.

Arabian Image

Arabian Image

            Arabic people are good at cooking. Although they live in desert, their food is various. Especially, their food features sweet and greasy taste, good smell. Generally speaking, because of the religion, the Arabic doesn’t consume pork, creatures with bizarre appearance, such as turtles and crabs. Also, they don’t eat dead animal; as a result, hunters should cut off the prey’s throat before its blood was curdled, or it can’t be eat. Besides, they don’t drink; coffee and tea are the necessary beverages every day. Arabic food is famous for bread, rice, BBQ, and salad, and all of them have the distinctive flavors.

Arabian cuisine

Arabian cuisine

       The first dishes on the table are bread and hand-grilled rice. Arabic bread is baked by the special-designed stove. The bread is crispy outside and tender inside. Not only is it fresh and delicious, but it is cheap. The bread has become the Arabic’s staple, and the Egyptian calls it “the life” as well. It isn’t hard to tell that the Arabic bread plays an important place on the dining table. On the other hand, hand-grilled rice is to steam the rice to half mature, then stir it with spiced salt, butter and keep steaming. After the rice is ready, then put in some fired condiments like minced lamb, tomato sauce, carrots, raisins, almonds, onion, red rice and so on. Hand-grilled rice is neither too hard, nor too soft. It doesn’t too dry and looks “shiny” owing to the oil. Most important of all, it tastes awesome!

Arabic bread

Arabic bread

hand-grilled rice

hand-grilled rice

          Then, Arabic salad is also special and worth trying. Because of the weather, there are no too much choices for vegetable. Tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, potatoes are common ones. However, through the hands of Arabic cooks, tomato salad, eggplant salad, eggplant salad with tahini or oat salad become stunning and delicious. The cooks considerably use olive oil, fresh lemon and garlic to season the salad. Even we can consider the source is the base of most of the Arabic food. Especially, Arabic salad not only serves as the appetizer but is also eaten with BBQ or bread. The delicacy does really accompany you when you in Arabia.  

Arabic salad 

Arabic salad

Hola! It's Cochinillo from Segovia!

      In Segovia, Southern Spain, Cochinillo is the most famous local delicacy, which attracts lots of visitors from all over the world to relish it. As a result, Cochinillo, roasted pork, is also called “the scenery on the dining table” and becomes the most significant dish in Segovia.

Segovia is near Madrid, the Spanish capital.

Cochinillo

      Cochinillo traditionally is made for mothers who just give birth to a baby, being under postnatal care. But why Cochinillo become so well-known? It is said that there was a king who liked to enjoy delicacies. He desired to taste the most delicious food in the world, and delivered an order to hold a gourmet competition. The cooks from all the countries tried their best to gain the championship. In the end, the Cochinillo won the title.

Gold Medal and Cochinillo

Cochinilla

         The pigs made into Cochinilla are chosen cautiously. They have to weight 3 to 4 kilograms, and can’t be order than two weeks. After being killing, the pork will be soaked into milk for 5 days. And then the cooks will cut the pork from head to tail, and put some spices in the pork. The final step is to roast it, and it is also the most critical process, which is the top secret in each restaurant and decides the taste of Cochinillo.

pickling Cochinillo

         In Segovia, eating Cochinillo can be considered to be a rite. First, we don’t cut Cochinillo with a knife but a plate. Besides, we need to pray before eating the dish: “Thanks to the king for giving us the privilege to enjoy the Cochinillo.” Then, cooks will take out a plate to separate the pork, and drop down the plate into shatter to welcome the guests.

         As for the reason why we cut Cochinillo with plates instead of knives, there some different stories. Some people believe that it was because Spain had wars against Islamic countries. The Spanish army wanted to irritate the rival after winning the war. The Spanish army cut the pork with plates and threw it away to boost the morale. On the other hand, some people believe that the cooks want to emphasize the tender taste of Cochinillo so the Spanish cut the roasted pork with plate and break plates to attract the attention of the guest. Actually, cutting the meat with plates is not a hard stunt at all. If the pork is roasted completely and exactly, Cochinillo with tender meat and crisp outside can be severed readily.

Cutting Cochinillo with plates

Revealing the secrets of the most noble cattle in the world!

    

       When it comes to Japan, lots of desirable food cross every gourmand’s mind, such as dessert, sashimi and so on. Today, I want to introduce one of the iconic food of Japan. Wagyu(和牛), a kind of cattle raised in Japan, can be totally regarded as the expression of “the unusual among the usual,” which represents the Japanese personality of pursuing the perfect and top in everywhere.

Wagyu

Wagyu

       You may consider” A cattle? Come on! I eat beef every day!” Well, it isn’t normal cattle. It is the rarely and expensive luxurious material and is viewed the “national treasure” of Japan!  

Wagyu and its liveing environment

        First of all, it doesn’t exaggerate to say that as soon as the herdsmen show the pedigree and health certificate than his cattle defeats a great herd of other cattle at the moment. The raising way and breed make wagyu stand out to be the most high-class and expensive beef in the world.

Wagyu's certification

     Japanese Wagyu is monitored rigidly on the fodder and rising way. First, each cattle has its own pedigree certificate released by the government when it was born and is banned to bear a cattle with other breeds strictly. As soon as the cattle is born, they start to enjoy every luxurious treatment. Wagyu’s daily diet are milk, “high-class” glass and certain formula. Besides, they will stroll in a heaven-like area to maintain a little exercise. Some professional farms even make them drink beer, listen to the classic symphony, take bathes with hot spring water, and even hire masseurs to massage the noble wagyu!

   The beef will be classified according to its colors and the distribution of fat into A1~A5. The A5 class is the most superb and only as the wagyu beef reaching A5 class is entitled to mark “Wagyu.” The most famous kinds of wagyu include Matsuzaka wagyu(松坂牛), Kobe wagyu(神戶牛), and Yonezawa wagyu(米澤牛).

Wagyu meat

Wagyu meat

There are many kinds of ways to relish the incredible gourmet. The popular ways are teppanyaki(鐵板燒), hotpot, Sukiyaki(壽喜燒). Also, you can eat wagyu in western style, such as grilling, roasting, and frying in shallow oil. 

Wagyu cuisine

Wagyu cuisine

Wagyu cuisine