(The Peruvian Association of Savannah put on the party on February 6th, 2010)

Once again it’s that first Saturday in February, and that means we celebrate Peru’s National Pisco Day, and my Peruvian husband and our friends all gather to dance and party and feast and enjoy each other’s company while celebrating that wonderful white grape brandy—the national drink of Peru! We all met at Sobeida’s neighborhood clubhouse, brought Peruvian goodies to eat, and Raul was the DJ. He played a great list of salsa, meringue and other Latin music all night, and helped create a cheerful atmosphere.

 He had also made a pan of papas rellenas, a Peruvian dish of mashed potatoes stuffed with beef, olives and eggs, then deep fried—needless to say, they disappeared fast! It IS wonderful to have a man who cooks, yes, indeedy! At New Years, for Jorge’s party he had made them as well, and even cold, they are SO good, that they were all gone in about 10 minutes!

Well, we hauled ourselves out in cold, rainy weather to go and though it was like sitting in a freezer sometimes, when we went out to smoke, it was still a great night.

Rosemary, Iris’ daughter came as well, and I was so happy to see her! We sat outside a lot smoking and talking, while another couple of young people joined us. We got into this conversation about anime and how teens love the style, at which point I had to interject some information—many American kids adore anime and go to sushi bars here, and end up crazy about Japan, but they do not research the history of the country or look very deeply into it. I’m all for Asian culture, but when they asked me why their Chinese friends hated Japan, I gave them a history lesson.

(Me & Miss Rosemary)

Iris had us all toast with Pisco Sours, which are always delicious. The original recipe calls for pisco, plenty of fresh lime juice, fresh egg whites and sugar, then place the mixture in a blender, pour it out and sprinkle a little cinnamon on top-magnifico! That night they used a pisco sour mix, then put on a bit of Angostura bitters—another way of drinking it (but my favorite is with FRESH lime juice), then Iris performed a Peruvian dance with the Pisco on the floor, swirling around the bottle and generating much applause.

Our friend John and his Peruvian wife Rosemary also came, with their two precious little ones. John is about my daughter’s age, and he’s one of those guys who may be considered a little freaky in the evening at parties, but is all business during the daytime—a lesson he has been instructing Merlin in! His kids are so pretty, with smooth olive complexion, and we often kid him about the amount of his genes that apparently were subsumed by Rosemary’s—they both look just like her!


Iris serving delicious Peruvian dishes: Cau cau, papas rellenas, papas a la huancaina, arroz con leche and much more!


The two best lookin' ladies in purple that night!


Our girls just wanna have fun! Sobeida & Iris livin' it up!


Sobeida and Iris both chose black and white outfits, along with Rosemary in black & silver--I think we all made some good lookin' Latinas (with me as an honorary Latina-by-marriage!)


The hostess toasts the DJ--Salud!


We had a great time, and I maintained a nice buzz all through the evening--which is a goal of mine at these get-togethers. Not drunk! Just sort of pleasantly inebriated. One warning though. When the rum ran out I had no recourse than to find something else (NOT beer) to nourish my party-buzz, so I mixed a big cup of pisco and Coke---EEEEEGADS! It was awful! Even after I added a teaspoon of the pisco sour mix, it was barely tolerable...bleeeeeeh! Something about the taste of pisco is just diametrically opposed to COKE! It may be a white liquor, like rum or vodka, but don't make the mistake of mixing it like them or you WILL regret it!
We ended the evening by drinking a chocolatey, half-frozen, coconut milk and cream confection that Alvin, Sobeida's husband had brought along--it was superb!! I'll post the recipe here if he lets me have it later! I love Pisco Sour Day!

When I was living in Beijing, I sent my daughter four books of ancient Chinese stories, including "Moonlight Pavilion", "The Peach Blossom Fan", and a couple of others--she never did read these, though they have English on one side and Chinese on the other, and gave them back to me in November. These contain small black and white illustrations in a distinct linear style that I always loved. One of my best points in drawing is a certain strength (and sometimes purity) of line, and I always find it easier to whip up a quick line drawing than do a soft sketch. I was looking up images during Christmas to paint on the scented-candles-in-a-jar which I gave to some folks as gifts, and ended up grabbing a couple of those Chinese books into the studio. One of them, "The Moonlight Pavilion" contained a line drawing of the two main male characters: Tuoman Xingfu (on the left) and Jiang Shilong (right). Something just struck me about the clean lines and quick impression and so I stopped my painting for a bit to quickly sketch out the picture. The result is what you see here. I may put up a couple more later, because I really enjoyed doing this one! Your opinions are welcome!

Recently, my friend Bao Huai in Beijing sent me a letter asking if I’d heard of fairy writing or sand writing, which he thought was similar to Ouija. Bao Huai is writing a movie script about a haunted garden in the Forbidden City so he wanted to have his sources straight. I’ve often wondered where the Ouija board came from and how old it actually is. Given that most ancient societies had some way of communicating with spirits, I thought it unlikely that the Ouija board was a “new” invention. Upon doing my research I found that the Chinese have something similar, begun sometime around 1000 years ago. It is called 扶乩 (fú​jī​).

I’m sure most people know about the “game” Ouija, which is not actually a game, but is a board with letters and numbers, the sun and moon, Yes & No, printed on it. It uses a device called a planchette--a triangular plastic piece on 3 very short legs (tipped in felt to make it move smoothly) & a clear window through which you can see the letters/numbers. Two people use the planchette, placing their fingertips lightly on one side or the other, and then ask questions of the spirit world.

Fuji is the Chinese version, probably the ancestor of Ouija, which requires two people who hold either a peach/willow twig, or in some areas, a basket shaped rather like a turtle shell with a pointer—they are called ‘jishou’ 乩手 "planchette hands". The Chinese call upon a ‘shen’ 神 "spirit; god" or ‘xian’ 仙 "immortal; transcendent", usually a specific entity, rather than simply addressing whatever spirit happens to be around at the moment (like many Westerners do). Since Chinese writing uses characters, not the ABCs, a table or special flat box, covered or filled with a shallow layer of sand is used instead of a flat board—the planchette will then write the characters in the sand. There are three essential helpers who are thus needed to operate this medium:  1) a ‘dujizhe’ 讀乩者 "planchette reader" who actually reads off the characters as they are written; 2) a ‘chaojizhe’ 抄乩者 "planchette copyist" whose job is to write down and record what is written; and a ‘pingsha’ 平沙 "level sand" who smoothes out the ‘shapan’ 沙盤 "sand table" when the next character needs to be written.

The Chinese, when using fuji, are very careful and respectful of the spirits they are addressing, and before this ritual is performed, incense it lit, spells are recited, and a charm written on a special yellow paper, called a ‘piao’, that calls up the specific spirit, god/dess or immortal. They understand that performing fuji is a ritual fraught with great importance and deserving a somber attitude, unlike most Westerners, who take the Ouija board as a kind of party game. I think it is interesting, as well, that the Chinese consider that the planchette is not moved by only the gods OR by the ones holding the planchette, but is moved by the mutual cooperation of both. During the Song dynasty, fuji was also used to summon the spirits of dead poets, who would compose poetry for the participants, so it was not always used to ask questions.

Now as to the Ouija board: it is the descendant of various means of divination that arose during the mid to late 19^th century during the Spiritualist movement. The board that most people are familiar with today, with it’s natural wood color and black graphics of the sun, moon, etc. was made popular by the game company Parker Brothers. Ouija was very popular in the 1920’s and 30s, and even the great illustrator Norman Rockwell painted its use on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post.

To anyone thinking of using the Ouija board, let me issue this warning: IT IS NOT A GAME AND IS NOT TO BE USED LIGHTLY FOR ENTERTAINMENT!! I say this from the depth of my own experiences with it, and those of my family. Keep in mind that there are many, many worlds beyond the one which we perceive moment to moment, with entities who are fully functional, active and eager to communicate with us. Would you go out into the dark night, blindfolded, and grab anyone who came your way and drag them into your home to answer questions? I think not. However, this is what most people who use the Ouija board do when they just sit down and start calling out to the spirit world.

If you feel you must use the Ouija board, take a hint from those people who have been using something similar for the past thousand years, the Chinese. To convert this into Western terms: draw a circle of white chalk or salt around the table and chairs where the board is to be read. You would draw the circle, leave a small space for you and your partner to walk into it, then enter and close the circle. Light incense and use a WHITE candle for purity. Say a prayer of protection and call on the power of the WHITE LIGHT to watch over and surround you. Announce that ONLY spirits aligned with the White Light may enter the circle. Compose your requests respectfully, then put your hands to the planchette. If at any time during the session you contact a spirit who is cursing, hypersexual, blasphemous, vengeful or angry, TAKE YOUR HANDS OFF THE PLANCHETTE, dismiss the spirit, and immediately ask God/dess to protect you—I also visualize angels surrounded me and my partner.

After the session is over—whether the spirits were negative or positive--, and this is VERY important, call on the power of the White Light once more and thank, then DISMISS the spirits who have answered you. ONLY when you feel the air around you is positively charged and clear, should you break the circle and walk out. I cannot stress this enough—to use the Ouija you must take these precautions, which are actually the bare minimum. I may write later on an incident or two that happened in my own family, but for the moment, do yourself a favor and play it SAFE.

 

Anyone who reads my blog knows how much I love China, her people and culture. I read a lot of books, from novels to marketing, history to economics, and more, on China and I would like to talk about one of these: Paul Midler’s “Poorly Made in China”. Now, this is not an indictment against the Chinese—keep in mind there are multiple levels of reasoning behind why things work the way they do there, and I blame neither the Chinese nor the Americans behind the recent incidents in the past year or so of various items that have proved to be contaminated or poorly constructed from Chinese factories. What I want to do is simply present some of the facts and let you in on how things like melamine in dog food or lead in Barbie dolls may come about. His book, along with Alexandra Harney’s “The China Price” will open your eyes as to why these problems occur. It is a complex story that I will only partially divulge here, but I encourage you to read these two books if you want the details.

 

Americans (and other nations, but I’m dealing with my own people here) want low prices, as low as we can get, on many items we buy every day, every week—our economy is riding out a recession and times are tough. When our importers found that China was quoting extraordinarily low prices for their products, many retailers hastened to sign contracts without really getting to know the culture or the people they were buying from—and this leads to major problems. Midler, who is a sort of liaison between Chinese manufacturers and Western importers/retailers, uses the example of one of his bigger clients to show how these problems occur. When the “China Price” is quoted to the Westerner, he was amazed, wondering how they could give such a low price. The Chinese manufacturer, a fairly new business called King Chemical, wanted the business of this big importer, and even set up a temporary fake factory, full of busy workers, to impress him. New manufacturers will do anything to get that first order—once they can say, I work for THAT big company, other orders will follow. They give a low, low price per unit to get that business—in this initial phase of negotiations the Chinese are helpful, happy, eager to please. So, the importer/retailer sends them the specs for the product line—in this case, it was a line of personal care items such as shampoo, body wash and lotions. Very specific instructions from how the bottle and label should look, to the chemical composition of the products are given to the Chinese manufacturers—be assured of that!

 

The manufacturer takes a profit loss on these products, and so he had to begin, very subtly at first, to shave off a small amount of plastic from the bottle, or use a cheaper brand of chemical or scent, make the label a bit smaller—all things that would not be noticed right away. The more they scrimp on the original design, the more money they save to go into their own pockets--Midler used bottles as one example. In the beginning, the first couple of shipments were perfect, and then things started to get a little dicey.  Eventually, after a few months, there were complaints from the retail stores that the shampoo bottles were not holding up, the walls of the bottle were too thin and broke during shipment causing a mess—at one point the bottles were not much more than slightly stiffened bags! In another case, the shampoo had begun to gel up instead of flowing smoothly, especially in cold areas of the country. The Chinese way is to keep things pleasant and not to cast blame too much OR accept blame either.  Thus when confronted with these problems it was difficult, to say the least, to get an explanation, especially if the Chinese seemed at fault. King Chemical even refused to show their product ingredients recipe to the importer! This situation is known as “quality fade” and it is nearly impossible, with the low quotes, to avoid this problem in Chinese manufacturing. Most factories do not have on-site Western monitors to keep up with how the products are made, and, in their opinion, if something needs to be fixed, the onus is on the importer/retailer. When the shampoo turned out so shoddy that it could not even be sold in China itself, the importer was expected to take care of chemical testing studies and pay for them himself. Such studies are extremely expensive, and most of the time, folks, the importer/retailer passes the responsibility onto the consumer, and hopes he won’t notice the difference.

 

Another problem, one of sanitation and contamination, is addressed in Midler’s book: he notices a young man with scaly, red, peeling hands filling body wash bottles, and asks the manager why that worker is still on the line--this, to the factory manager, is a cultural/moral dilemma—why take that worker off the line? He is fast and does good work—if you take him off the line he will perceive it as an insult or a punishment, so, he stays! Midler says he stopped using body wash after this, of any kind! This is all just the tip of the iceberg, folks. This problem of “quality fade” reaches into all areas of industry, from buttons that pop off your sweater because of cheap thread, to cheaply made metal parts that cause your cell phone to break down, or melamine-laced dog food that kills your pooch. Our importers/retailers are so eager to get that low price, and the pressure to keep it low is huge for the Chinese manufacturer, thus, the game goes on.

(Workers who lost fingers while working in their factory)

Not mentioned too much in Midler’s book is the case of the workers, the killer hours (usually 16 hour shifts, 1 or less weekends off a month), poor safety measures,  bullying and exploitation, health problems, crowded living conditions. When you look at the “China Price” for any item, these things should be taken into consideration as well. It is not a case of “sneaky” Chinese trying to put one over on greedy Americans—there are, as I said, many levels of reasoning and before judgments are handed out, it is best to do a lot of research.

Other excellent books on this include Leslie T. Chang’s “Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China” ,  or James McGregor’s “One Billion Customers: Lessons from the Front Lines of Doing Business in China”, both excellent and informative books, easy to read and memorable as well.

"In the end, as much as the responsability seems to lie with Beijing, it also lies with the global consumer. Our appetite for the $30 DVD player and the $3 T-shirt helps keep jewelry factories filled with dust, illegal mines open and 16-year olds working past midnight."     Alexandra Harney, “The China Price”

This afternoon my daughter Melantha came over for a visit, and brought “Oklahoma!” for us to watch—it’s a family favorite and I loved every minute of it! If you have seen the original Oscar & Hammerstein movie with Gordon McCrae and Shirley Jones, you know how it can bring a smile to your face. One of my favorite parts of the movie is the Dream Ballet sequence, where Laurey, pondering over what to do about her two beaux Curly and Jud, takes a whiff of the ‘Elixir of Egypt’ and falls into a dream. The parts of Laurey and Curly are taken by two professional dancers and the whole sequence is played with no words, only music, ballet and evocative gestures. Laurey is a Maiden, virginal, sweet and naïve, and though the dancer who portrays her is perhaps not quite as young, she manages to delicately convey the character’s innocence. You see her being courted by Curly, then amongst her friends who are preparing her for the wedding.

 A white veil floats from the sky, the maidens gather it up, and take Laurey off to don a lovely white wedding dress. She walks up to her beloved, with her head bowed under the white veil, however it is not Curly who lifts the veil, but the corrupt and evil Jud Fry. He drags her off to a saloon filled with beautiful but hard-faced women dressed in black & dark-colored dresses with low necklines and shortened skirts, patterned stockings, and elaborately styled hair dressed with tall black feathers.

I always relish the complete contrast between the Maiden Laurey and the Whores. She runs for help from woman to woman, from man to man at the gambling tables, but receives only stares—in this nightmare no one will help her. She knows nothing of such women and their lurid lifestyles--her expression is horrified and a little dazed.

Three of them, two short red-heads and a tall, dark woman with a cold face, walk up to her, to a rendition of Ado Annie’s “I Can’t Say ‘No’” made up of squawking brass horns—they lift their ruffled skirts to expose long legs sheathed in fancy stockings, shaking their petticoats at her with a smirk on their faces. Laurey looks shocked as the tall dark one drags her up, rips her white dress off her shoulder and tosses her to Jud—the woman then walks away with a roll of the shoulders as if to say, “That’s how things are, babe—get used to it!”

There are men who hang around the bar, groping the women—the backdrop is deep glowing red, with a fiery black chandelier hanging down from the ceiling—the grinning men grab the whores and dance crazily with them hillbilly style, and at one point they hold the women up like stiff, painted dolls. The whores hold up their legs and spread them open--even with ruffled panties, the idea is very plain—their rigid poses, arms squared and draped loosely at the elbow, legs up, heads tilted to the side, expressionless face tells us exactly what they are: puppets, sex toys used by the men; pretty, lifeless playthings who serve as receptacles for male Lust. All the time Laurey is watching horrified, yet somehow fascinated.

One of the men grabs her and throws her to the group of whores, who make her join their dance, though she does so with her hands covering her eyes. Then Jud, thinking that she is now ready to be ravished, takes her roughly by the arm—she escapes him and runs up a tall set of stairs that seem to lead nowhere, but actually are the entrance to the whore’s hallway of rooms…Laurey is trapped--Curly comes up to try and defend her but is strangled to death by Jud. . Jud seizes her and carries her off. The dream ends in a haze of red smoke.

I remember seeing this movie when I was young and innocent, and though, by modern standards, the sexuality of the movie and the brutality of the Dream Sequence Saloon scene is rather muted, it came through very clearly to me. I was wide-eyed, watching the Maiden in her white dress being surrounded by ‘bad women’: vampiric, hard as diamonds, yet darkly beautiful. I felt the pull of the dichotomy presented—yes, sex is a shadowy world where women, no matter how beautiful, were used by men—and yet I also hoped for that noble and handsome prince/cowboy to appear in my life to save me from the profane passions of the users, the cads, the perverted. It is a powerful part of the film and always made me sit up and take notice.

** I have shortened the description of the dream sequence here, but I suggest you rent the movie and take a look at it. It is highly symbolic but perfectly presented: the music, the backdrops with glowing red (lust) or a swirling cyclone (representing death and destruction), the costumes, the gestures, the choreography—all of it just superb!

A good friend of mine, Mary Ann R., was a successful day-trader for many years until she sort of burned out on it and went back to teaching for a while. These last few weeks she has been telling me a lot about stock market trading and I've been doing some research on my own. One of the things she recommends is picking 3-6 stocks and watching them like a hawk for 6 months -minimum!- before even attempting to trade. In other words, LEARN the stocks, up and down, backwards and forwards, research them all over the WWW, in chatrooms, Forbes, Yahoo, Motley Fool, wherever you see them online. Find out all about the CEOs, the upper level officers and the history, the splits, everything. Recently she was watching a stock, Origin Agritech, listed as SEED on the NASDAQ, a company in China that is creating hybrid seeds, mostly with corn, rice, cotton and canola. The office is in Beijing, but the Chinese name of the company, Ao RuiJin, indicates perhaps it was started in RuiJin county, Ganhou city, Jiangsi province, which is eastern China, somewhat near Fujian.

I think this is going to be a company to watch. Here is some of what I've found, which I posted in a letter to Mary Ann last week. She had been seen the company sitting at a low of $2.15 a share and wanted her daughter, who does all the  trading now, because she felt it was going to go up. Unfortunately her daughter did not want to deal with a Chinese stock and missed an opportunity to make a LOT of $$ because the stock zoomed to over $12 a share (this was in November 09). However, Mary Ann has continued to watch and study the stock--the following is an email I sent her on it:
<<Have you been reading up on SEED? Seems that the low you saw, then the big high was not the first of it's kind--Origin's shares reached all-time highs of more than $17 in early 2006 before beginning a long slow descent and then crashing in early 2009, sinking to less than $2. The company's been around since 1997 according to the profile on Yahoo--though a Businessweek article states that Origin was created from a merger of Chardan China Acquisition Corp. & privately-held State Harvest Holdings Limited on Nov. 8, 2005. According to the message boards, it's still a decent, but volatile stock--better for day trading than long-term investing though. Last Monday Fidelty disclosed in an SEC filing that it had acquired nearly 3 million shares of Origin Agritech, so I'm sure that was the source of last week's spike. However, just to play the devil's advocate here, Bill Nasgovitz, of  Heartland Advisors value fund, sold his entire stake in Origin in late 2009 -- some 3.8 million shares, or 16.7% of the company--because, he says, he thinks the stock price has run too high. The analyst Joe Giamichael, of Rodman & Renshaw, however, is backing Origin all the way.

Two thoughts to consider...

On the negative side--TWo years ago China and Japan had a run-in over GM rice which was said to have been poisoned by a dangerous insecticide, leading to a verified 10 deaths in Japan (from rice dough used in dumplings). The scientist at the heart of the scandal, Zhang Qifa, who is described as "China's leading biotechnology scientist", is associated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, an institution that Origin works closely with. Although there are no apparent ties between him and Origin, any whiff of impropriety on its part and the damage to Origin's reputation could be irreparable.

On the positive side--China has laws prohibiting any foreign company from selling GM seeds domestically (except for cotton seed), so that is going to knock out the biggies like Monsanto and DuPont from operating as competitors to SEED.>>
Now, I should say, right off, I am a total NEWBIE to the stock market investment scene, though I have done a lot of studying lately and have 5 books waiting for pickup at my local library. This is  the first entry I've ever done on stocks,and there will probably be more later on, as  discover interesting companies and other information. I am sailing in unknown waters. NO, I don't plan to invest right away, but when I do I will go with Scott Trade--$500 to open an account and only $7 for each trade--can't beat that! I'll do all my own research. Watch this blog for more upcoming info and news!

 
Many readers I'm sure are familiar with the comic strip 'Doonesbury', Trudeau's iconic and compelling pseudo-saga of 60's characters that age with time, and experience life in all it's craziness--Mike Doonesbury,  Zonker, Joanie, Rick, BD--but my favorite, all-time character in the series was always Uncle Duke, based on the look, life and times of the infamous writer, Hunter S. Thompson. I never tired of reading about Duke's insane exploits, and would devour any Doonesbury book that contained anything about him. Thompson hated the character, based on an alias of his, but I always found him entertaining in the extreme.  I discovered Hunter S. Thompson's work back in the early 1980s and never looked back. I was amazed by his piercing mind, crazed view of life, chaotic talent and vitriolic commentaries, and ended up collecting all his books. 
Well, recently, while roaming through my files after I got my computer back from the shop--in bigger, better format--I found an image I'd created to commemorate the death of Hunter S. Thompson. I was living in Beijing at the time, and saw online that he had killed himself--not entirely surprising, but still shocking in its own way. I am including the illustration here, along with the first and last paragraphs of the article I wrote the night I found out the news.

<<

The Great Gonzo’s Comet Explodes Over Colorado  

24 Feb 2005

 Ding, dong, the King is dead! Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, that mad, bad and

dangerous god of Gonzo journalism, has finally cashed in his chips. On the

cold, grey morning of February 20th he stuck a pistol in his mouth and sent

his brains hurtling the length of the leopard-print carpet of his Woody

Creek mountain compound in Colorado -- a death that amazed, but
 somehow did not surprise, those who knew him well. For a man whose hallucinatory

writings and vodka-soaked vitriol incited writer’s envy and high political

teeth-gnashing, who spent fine afternoons shooting propane tanks with a .357

Magnum, or dosing himself with the pineal extract of male iguanas, his was

the ultimate Exit--not for the Grand Gonzo sad days of depression and

despair, wasting away in a hospital after an accident had almost crippled

him last year. Even his final request, to have his ashes shot from a cannon,

has given fans one last chance to salute his individual brand of bad

craziness.
****<these are the 1st and last paragraphs only--copyrighted 2005>
Did the great Gonzo fall prey to despair? Did he accidentally shoot off

one of the many guns he had stashed around the property, as some have

suggested? Was it a fatal loss of courage or a lightning strike of insanity?

Looking back over his life and work, I believe he decided it was simply time

to leave this crazy place, his physical body just crashed and burned for the

last time, like an exploding star, and could no longer support that

simmering and poisonously gifted mind. My only real surprise is that he

didn’t take the house and family with him, in a grand flaming finale. He

left a glowing streak across the sky and a corpus of work that will cause

generations to wonder, be appalled, amazed, disgusted, fascinated and reach

for the next book a sadder but definitely wiser person.

 "I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone," he

once said, "but they've always worked for me."

 Copyright 2005 Cheryl Baisden

And just for the helluvit, a few of my favorite Hunter S. Thompson quotes...
"A word to the wise is infuriating. "
"America... just a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable. "
"For every moment of triumph, for every instance of beauty, many souls must be trampled. "
"If I'd written all the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people - including me - would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism. "
"The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over. "
 "The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side. "
(and one of my personal favs...)
"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. "

Well, since my computer was blitzed from mid-November on through my birthday, I’m going to put up a few photos, just a few, to show what I’ve been up to through the holidays. I kept pretty busy, but somehow didn’t take a lot of photos this year. It was a rather slim year financially, and worrying about getting together good presents for everyone, rent, groceries, etc. kept me away from grabbing the camera I think. In November Raul and I attended the Paso Horse Festival in Cochran, GA, where I helped serve at Iris’ Peruvian food booth. She was dancing the marinara with the vaquero on horseback, and also danced another version with her son, Ricky.

The festival was up at Andrea and Angel’s ranch, Rancho Loma Linda, and gathered quite a few folks to enjoy the horse show and rides. I had a lot of fun educating the gringos on the delights of Peruvian food, like Iris’ chanca sandwich, aji de gallina and anticuchos (see 2 July 2009 entry), selling the hell outta some chichi morada (sweet purple corn drink) and tembleque (Puerto Rican coconut pudding). Iris looked wonderful in her white dress and ornaments, and Andrea, who usually dresses pretty casual for the ranch (jeans and t-shirts, boots) put on a gorgeous pink dress with long skirt, ruffles and lace for her ride. When everyone had left, we all had a ball drinking Pisco and Rum, munching on chancho sandwiches, laughing and riding ‘round the ranch on the golf cart. Andrea was so kind and let us spend the night up at the ranch house, where Raul stayed up late fixing anticuchos for the next day’s festival booth.

 

Thanksgiving was a small affair this year. Like always it was a big decision as to WHO was having the dinner—my sister Lori was out (she hates having anyone over and also hates to cook)—Mary was working all day at the port—Boo and Mer had decided to give it one last year at their Grandma B.’s house and went to dinner with their dad (no kids this year, boo hoo!), sooooo, I decided to have a little dinner with my old buddy Falko, his wife Suzy, his mom Margot and her boyfriend Angel. It was a relatively small dinner for me, but then, I love to cook and dinner just isn’t FUN unless you have at LEAST six people at the table. I set up the lovely china with the yellow flowers and gold trim, the gold flatware, and made a little arrangement for the table. Margot brought me a box of those wonderfully delicious little hazelnut-cinnamon cookies, made in Germany, white icing—such a treat! Suzy had baked 2 big pans of her fruit breads (filled with apple or cranberry or blueberry)—so good for breakfast (still have half a big pan left in the freezer).

The turkey was so tender it almost fell apart, but I threw the grapes and orange halves on the platter anyway and hoped for the best. The vegetable dip was a big hit too, as was the sweet-potato casserole, and of the huge pan of dressing (which somehow escaped the photographs!), I had only a small square left—it’s a policy of mine when giving big dinners to make sure everyone has a nice plateful of goodies to take home, and the dressing was a favorite this year. Oh, and Raul made a very handsome Head of the House Turkey-Carver!

***A little note aside here…I remember, when I was growing up, my mom would always rise early on Thanksgiving, and one of the first things she’d do is put the giblets and turkey neck on to boil in a big pot, along with celery and onion halves. I eventually figured out that this was for the broth to make the dressing, and have continued the tradition myself. Also, the divine smell of onions and celery cooking in butter would make the mouth water—she always cooked this early too, for the dressing, and would toss them together so they could flavor the breadcrumbs. I absolutely love this smell! When I boil the giblets and neck of the turkey (for about 3 hours, with bayleaf, thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper), it makes a rich broth for the dressing—then I take the meat off the neck, and chop the giblets very fine to add to it (no chewy chunks, ewww). It gives the dressing a subtle meat flavor and herbal fragrance that really makes the meal more grand.

 

Every Christmas I do a lot of baking (though not as much as usual this year), but the most fun we have is with the Christmas cookies! Instead of the traditional sugar/butter cookies, this year I made homemade gingerbread—from a magazine which published McCormick’s Spice Company’s recipe—and they turned out PERfect! Boo was working so Merlin and I sat there and rolled out and decorated all the cookies—about 7 ½ dozen in all! We used Cookie Icing in the tube (red and white), with touches of purple gel icing, raisins, red and green sugar sprinkles and rainbow sprinkles.

As you will see from the photo, we created quite a spread! Merlin, being his usual lovable weird self, decided to make some of the cookies his own special way—including a couple of wounded teddy bears, a Xmas Squid, and what was supposed to be a bell, but turned upside down to make a face with a bloody mouth…Deck the Halls, folks! His buddy Corey came by later and made it a point to scarf the weird ones (for which I was thankful!).

 (Mama earlier in the day @ Cracker Barrel)

Christmas this year was odd. My sister Mary had the party at her house, but was in too much of a hurry to do anything special with the food (we ended up snacking back at home)—she’s working a lot at the port and didn’t have time, I guess. But we did have everyone there—my family took most of the photos—and she was so sweet to Raul—made him sit in the special lounge chair she’d just bought for herself, fixed him a plate, and made sure he was comfortable and supplied with a big rum and coke. 

(That's me and Boo, then Lori and her son William below)

The only one missing from the group was my Mary’s daughter Crystal who has moved to New York state with her boyfriend. I’d made my sister’s gifts this year: found these fantastically great smelling scented candles in a jar at A.C. Moores—just as sweet and strong as Yankee Candle Co.’s stuff!—took off all the labels, then painted things on them that would  go with each sister’s tastes: Mary’s had was pale green (lily of the valley scent), with a white Chinese fan painted on it, with pink flowers (matched her bathroom curtain), and I also made her a plaque with a poem by my favorite Chinese poet DuFu—I painted it Chinese-style and wrote the poem in Chinese (translation on the back)—she really loved it!

(My sister Mary & her guy, Ron)

Lori’s was painted with a basket of apples, and her plaque also had apples and dogwood on it –it was a sign that said “Welcome to Lori Ann’s kitchen”, which she also loved. One of Mama’s gifts was a plaque with the Family Tree painted on it (the roots were her mother and father, with her siblings included), leaving room for the children of her three daughters—and hopefully, later, our grandchildren. It made me feel good that they loved their gifts. Later, at home after the party, Christmas eve EVE, Merlin, Raul and I gave each other our presents, then went to bed early—Raul and I had to get up early Christmas eve to drive down to his brother’s home in Florida—we spent Christmas with them and his sister and her husband—more on that on a later post!

 

New Year’s Eve I officiated at the wedding of one of Melantha’s old friends from school, Marlina, and her man Stephen--Melantha was her Maid of Honor. They had a sort of Goth/Renaissance wedding held at a “castle” in Ludowici, GA. The cake was also a castle, made by Marlina (who works at the Kroger bakery). When I get more photos I will show them here—for now, here is just one. Raul and I attended two New Year’s parties, one on Dec. 31 and one on Jan. 3^rd (Saturday)—no photos here but a lot of fun! More info later when I get photos from our friends!

 

My birthday is Epiphany, January 6^th, and though it was much quieter and leaner than last year, my daughter made it special in her own way. She, Denise (her roommate), Merlin and I had dinner at Carabbas, a fantastic Italian restaurant here, and ate like kings! The shrimp scampi there, big, tender shrimp cooked in a lemon-garlic-butter sauce is to die for—Melantha tried it for the first time and had the same reaction I did when I first ate it—eyes-rolling-back-in-your-head GREAT! We came back here for the dessert, a rich chocolate, raspberry-filled, cream-cheese iced cake, with coffee and rum & cokes! I also now have the fifth season of ‘House’ to enjoy!

 

So that is some of what’s been going on in my life while my computer was being fixed up by my computer genii, Falko. I hope everyone’s holiday was special and full of JOY! God bless you all!

Since just after my last entry, an incredibly evil, deep-seated VIRUS began destroying my computer. One of my oldest friends (and my computer genius extraordinaire!) Falko, gave up in despair one night while he was over here working on it and had to just take it home to deal with--said he'd never, in all his years of working on computers, seen a virus that embedded itself so deeply and stealthily into a computer's file system. My laptop was practically decimated. He is now rebuilding another computer for me and transferring my files. Right now, I'm working on my husband's computer, which has none of the art programs, language programs or even MSWord for me to work on my blog. However, I will be starting my entries again this week.

As a word of warning--I was looking at an episode of "Fringe", from the first season, at a reputable looking site (I'll have to get the name of it for you later,something like ReelView) and suddenly porn buttons pop up on my desktop, and a window, that LOOKED like it came from my anti-virus program--I clicked on a couple of items and the virus embedded itself in the base files of Windows and could not be eradicated. Falko, after getting rid of it 6 times (with the Internet turned off), found that, as soon as the Internet was turned back on, the virus would propagate itself once more. So, he took the computer home and managed, after some intense work sessions and much brain sizzling effort, to get rid of it, but it ended up almost destroying the operating system, and made certain pre-existing problems worse, so ....now I am waiting for the rebuilt computer--no laptop this time, a good solid harddrive with monitor and keyboard--to arrive.Until then, I will continue to post, though perhaps not quite as heavily as before--also, with no art programs, I cannot produce illustrations much either. BUT,  I WILL continue!

Talley ho!

Another delicious dish from Cecelia Chiang’s cookbook—this time Hong Shao Rou, otherwise known as Red-Braised Pork, or Red-Cooked Pork. This rich and aromatic dish is a favorite of northern Chinese, especially in Beijing, during the dark, cold winter months. It is sometimes cooked with about a cup and a half of whole peeled chestnuts, which was apparently Chairman Mao’s preferred way. HongShao Rou is often served on a bed of pickled veggies, or, in nicer restaurants, on a bed of lettuce, but I think the best way is with a bowl of steamed white rice (‘sweet rice’, or ‘sticky rice’), a side of crispy greens and corn cakes. A note on the corn cakes—I found that in China the corncakes are made without salt (I could never figure out why), and fried crispy in oil. They tend to be a bit thicker and heavier than the ones we make here in the south, but they go really well with this dish. I remember a little place about 20 minutes bike ride from my apartment in Beijing, where you could get an absolutely perfect, melt-in-your-mouth Red-Cooked Pork, served on a bed of pickled veggies, with corn cakes, and a delicately steamed Grass Fish with ginger sauce. Riding out there on my bike, shivering in the frigid night air, watching the stars glide by, the people and packages and carts moving in and out of the hutongs (alley neighborhoods) was a memorable experience for me. Since this dish was so rich, I only had it about 4 times or so a year, but it was such a pleasure each time. The ingredients, though simple, produce an intense, complex flavor, and the tenderness of the pork was heavenly.

 

Here are the ingredients for Hong-Shao Rou—

You may have some trouble finding pork belly in your local supermarket, but talk to the butcher who can probably order a few pounds for you, or seek out an Asian or Chinese market. The dish calls for PORK BELLY, NOT pork maw, which is the stomach inside—the belly is from the OUTSIDE of the pig. It keeps well in the freezer, and in the cold months it can be quite comforting to know you have a supply on hand whenever the craving for red-cooked pork arises! The meat is fatty, very tender and the outer skin, though it seems tough and hard to cut (at least for my poor old knife!), will cook up tender and tasty. Fresh ginger is an absolute! Powdered ginger just will not live up to the proper strength and flavor! Shaoxing wine gives the dish an intensity and the dark soy sauce (I use mushroom soy sauce here) gives the dish it’s characteristic color. Use a good quality brewed soy sauce, like Kikkoman for the main soy sauce. The recipe is as follows—

2 lbs of pork belly

1 24 oz bottle of ShaoXing cooking wine

1 cup of soy sauce

3 TBSP dark soy sauce (like the mushroom soy sauce)

Fresh Ginger root --Six good slices (do NOT peel)

3 pieces of rock sugar OR 3 TBSP sugar

 

You will need a very sharp, good quality knife--cut the pork into one inch cubes—don’t skin the pieces, the skin will become fork tender as it cooks. Cut six good slices from the ginger root and set aside.

 (pork after cooking for 10 minutes, then rinsing)

Put the pork into a heavy pot and cover with cold water 2 inches over the meat. Cook on high for 10 minutes until the foam arises to the surface of the water—skim foam, pour meat into a colander, discard water. Rinse meat chunks with cold water, wash out the pot and place them in the pot again. Pour in the bottle of ShaoXing wine and the ginger slices, then cover with just enough water to 2 inches over the meat. Bring to a boil, then turn down to a medium simmer and cook for 50 minutes until meat is fork-tender. Pour in the soy sauce, uncover and cook for another 30 minutes. As a last addition, pour in the dark soy and sugar, stir well, and cook another 10 minutes on a little higher heat until sauce thickens. Pour into a large dish and garnish with chopped green onions. Serve with rice.

I stir-fried two bunches of Chinese oil cabbage (you cai) with two cups (packed) of fresh bean sprouts and a TBSP of minced garlic, in 1 TBSP sesame seed oil and 1 TBSP vegetable oil. When oil is heated well, stir the vegetables around to coat, stir-fry for 3 minutes, then pour ½ cup of chicken bouillon over it. Stir until cabbage is slightly wilted, but still crispy, then pour into a bowl—this makes a great accompaniment with the pork dish. Let me know if you cook this dish and how it went--comments welcome!

As you would know, from  checking out this blog previously, I really enjoy going to The Tearoom here in Savannah, having a pot of tea, sandwiches and something deliciously sweet. Last month, during my mother's birthday party, I thought of doing just four quick little paintings celebrating the art of Tea. Each piece is painted in acrylic on acid-free 5" X 5" canvas, and sells for $50 each. Each piece is an original work of art, and would be a good first item for an art collector who is just starting out, or a gift or personal pleasure for someone who loves tea.  These also make lovely and thoughtful Christmas or birthday gifts--everyone loves a gift of genuine art! I do plan to put these up in my New Works section soon, but if you would like to purchase them, please contact me at myroseblooms@yahoo.com

(Tearoom 1)

(Tearoom 2)

(Tearoom 3)

(Tearoom 4)

Thanks for taking a look! If you like Tea and Tea Rooms, and would like to request a painting similar to these, just e-mail me!

I check out books on China regularly from our local library system, which is really simple to use—just go online with your library card, search around the system, comprised of 20 branches covering 3 counties. You search ALL branches and get some good results. Non-fiction, fiction, language (though not much on Chinese) and DVDs as well are available. A book I recently found was called “The Seventh Daughter—by Cecilia Chiang—was a combination of biographical sections with short sections of recipes. Mrs. Chiang came here in the 60s to help a sister who was going through a difficult time, and ended up buying a restaurant, which she renamed “The Mandarin” in Los Angeles. Her specialty, which no other place offered at the time, was Northern Chinese cuisine. I was surprised to find that the book had recipes—I thought it was a biography only—but pleased to find some of the dishes I really enjoyed in Beijing. One of these was “Mongolian Lamb”, a simple but tasty dish that was especially good during the winter months. I did change the recipe slightly, to suit my taste for a bit more intensity, but it remains basically the same. Instead of 1 TBP of oyster sauce or dark soy (I use dark mushroom soy sauce), I put 2 TBSP and instead of white pepper (which I am out of at the moment), I used cracked black pepper, freshly ground.

 (A note on where to find ingredients for Chinese cooking...)

There is an excellent Chinese market here in Savannah, Chinatown Market at the corner of Price and Henry Streets (1215 Price Street), owned by David & Jing Lee. I have been buying there, off and on, since about 1999, and have watched the market change and grow. When you first walk in, you will see a general convenience store with all the usual products you’d expect to find. Move to the right and to the back, though, and you will find a door by the butcher shop (stocked with all kinds of freshly cut meats)—and you step through the door into a little piece of China! David & Jing have a huge variety of every kind of sauce, noodle, soup mix and condiment you could want, but the best part, for me, is the new frozen meats section and expanded frozen food sections. I was looking for pork belly to make Hong Shao Rou, or Red-Cooked Pork, a delicious red-glazed winter pork dish served in Beijing and mostly in northern China—none of the 3 American grocery store chains had this type of meat, but Chinatown Market carries it at only $2.99/lb. They also have a wide variety of thinly sliced lamb, beef, pork and chicken for Beijing Hot Pot—though I bought the lamb and beef for my stir fry. There are also many kinds of fish and seafood to be found, as well as numerous styles of dumplings and steamed buns, cakes, mantou (steamed bread), & soup balls (riceballs flavored with fish, shrimp, beef, etc.)—the selection is superb—it’s difficult not to just go crazy and spend $500 on goodies there! There is also a walk-in cooler filled with bags of delicately crispy beansprouts, bok choy, emerald green snow peas, and many other kinds of Chinese vegetables, including a vacuum-pack of lily root, the white, crispy root stir-fried with celery for one of my favorite dishes, Xi Qin Bai He. I highly recommend this store to anyone shopping for Chinese foods, vegetables, meats, spices, condiments and even woks, dishes, knives and chopsticks. Happy hunting!

 

The ingredients for Mongolia Lamb are as follows—

1 ½ lbs thinly sliced lamb (or you can cube a top round of lamb)

2 TBSP Oyster Sauce

2 TBSP  REAL Brewed Soy Sauce (Kikoman is best)

2 TBSP Peanut or Vegetable oil

1 TBSP Freshly ground black pepper (the book calls for white pepper-your choice)

3 bunches of green onions, shredded (or chopped, as you prefer)

1 bunch of cilantro, chopped (remove stems)

¼ cup peanut oil for stir-frying

 

Mix the oyster sauce, oil, pepper and soy sauce and pour over the meat—mix it well in the bowl until all pieces are thoroughly covered, then marinate not less than 2 hours, or overnight.

 

Chop half the green onions. Heat the wok with about ¼ cup of peanut oil until a drop of water dances on the surface. Pour in your marinated meat and the green onions. Stir fry briskly until meat is done and tender, about 10 minutes for the thin-sliced lamb, or 15 minutes for the cubed lamb.

 

When the meat is done, scoop it up into a bowl with cooked sticky rice (also called ‘sweet rice’ or ‘sushi rice’), top with the other half of the green onions (chopped or shredded) and the chopped cilantro.

 Serve with extra soy sauce on the side, a dish of green vegetables or a salad, and mantou (steamed buns). This makes a wonderful autumn or winter night dish and goes well with cold beer (Tsingdao or Yanjing) or a dry red wine. I would like to hear from anyone who makes this recipe, and see how it turned out for you—as always, comments are welcome! Enjoy!

Being an artist is wonderful and I feel extraordinarily blessed to have this Gift, and yet, it is also intensely frustrating as well. I know I have a Gift for creating beautiful art—not meaning to sound too proud—and I love the act of creation from the inspiration, through the sketching and painting, and of course, the divinely wonderful feeling when I can stand back and look at the finished piece, happy to have completed another work of art (that is, when I don’t let my inner-critic take over). There are other moments, though, when being a creative person can bring such sadness. Sometimes an artist has a difficult time getting their work shown, not because it’s badly done, but because of a lack of the proper contacts. Sometimes an artist has many ideas for great paintings, illustrations or designs in their mind, but may not have the time, money or opportunity to get them down on canvas (or paper, etc.), or, once created, may not be able to find the right venue, store, customer or gallery to present those works. Sometimes a customer may request a special commission then, when it’s all ready started (or even finished!), they change their mind (because of financial difficulties or whatever) and decide they don’t want the piece after all—the anticipation, work, and then disappointment is difficult to deal with. There are also stresses in an artist’s personal life that may hinder their self-expression, from finances & health problems to relationships and time management. All of this was broiling and bubbling in my heart when I sat down to do the following sketch, which I present here. It is just a small window into the troubled heart of an artist…

I was watching a video on China not long ago  which included “street foods”, and, invariably they showed the street markets at Wangfujing, filled with funky things like fried goat lungs, scorpions and centipedes on a stick and other disgusting items. It always frustrates me when I see this because that is NOT what most folks in Beijing go for when they look for street food! This is the kind of exoticism that Americans love to film, as if they want us to go, “EWwwww! I always KNEW Chinese would eat anything!” So, I decided to put up an entry here that showed the kinds of things most Beijingers would eat when out and about—most of which, Americans would love! Following are 12 of my favorites, in no particular order...

TANG HULU – This is usually seen in the colder months, though sometimes in the Spring as well. My personal favorite was the candied crab apples, these little round, light reddish, sweet-tart fruits, usually without seeds (though you had to ask to make sure). The sugar on the fruits is thin and crackly, just heavenly, and the perfect  thing when you’re craving something sweet. I began to notice, my second year in Beijing, that the vendors would sell orange slices, banana slices and strawberries in the warmer months—it was all fantastic! It was also interesting to watch them boil the sugar and dip the fruits, which came out in jewel-like golds, reds and oranges.

 

BAOZI – This is steamed dumplings served in bamboo trays, sometimes with a couple of tables and wobbly chairs nearby so you could sit and eat. The most popular filling is pork and chives, but I also recall having them stuffed with shredded carrots, spinach and other veggies (which were cheaper, of course). The dough is thin and the center is juicy, so watch your clothes! This was a popular breakfast food as well, and I was always seeing folks dip them in a hot chili oil or soy sauce. A tray of about 10 costs around a dollar. JIAOZI – Small steamed or fried half-moon shaped dumplings, which are also boiled in soups. These come in a wide variety of fillings, very delicate and delicious! There are restaurants in Beijing devoted mainly to jiaozi with fillings like shrimp, pork, venison, chicken, quail, fish, you name it! The ones you get here in the States are too thick, and only filled with greasy sausage—the Beijing dumplings are delicate, tasty and a real treat, whether steamed or fried golden!

 

YOU TIANR – This is a long, twisted fried dough stick, crispy, golden and best served hot from the oil. The Chinese don’t usually put sugar on it, but you can always request it. It is served with warm soy milk, and sometimes dipped in it. I admit that it was a little plain without the sugar, but most stalls had some under the counter for us spoiled Americans! This is a common breakfast food in Beijing, and sells for about 50 cents for a foot long one!

 

JIAN BING – There is nothing like this fragrant dish when you’re starved. The pancake batter is spread out thin, then an egg broken on top and spread out, then the whole thing flipped and spread with either a dark bean sauce or a hot sauce, followed by chopped green onions and cilantro. The last ingredient is a big flat square of some kind of delicately crispy fried noodles—then the whole thing is folded up into a quarter, wrapped in a paper napkin, then tucked into a plastic bag for you to eat. I always said that if any of these guys came to the States, they could easily sell these for $4-$6 each, but in Beijing, they went for 40 cents. They’re also quite filling and relatively healthy, made with little oil and lots of fresh veggies.

 

HONG SHU – Roasted sweet potatoes! When the weather begins to get cold and chill winds blow, the fragrance of the sweet potatoes roasting will draw you like nothing you’ve ever seen! It’s like those old cartoons where the starving guy is floating on a long curling whisp of cooking food smell, onward towards the real thing. These are generally quite cheap, 50 cents or so, roasted and soft and served with a napkin or piece of brown paper bag. No butter or sugar—that’s a Western taste—but when you’re freezing to death on a street corner waiting for a cab, and hungry as well, they can make a wonderfully delicious tummy-warmer!

 

CHA JIDAN (left) – Tea eggs are boiled in a brew of soy sauce, black tea and star anise for a few hours—they’re basically cracked about half way through, so when you peel them they have a webwork of dark tea color on the outside of the white. Really good quick snack with a cold Coke.

XIAN YA DAN (right) – Salted duck eggs—I’m still not sure how they make these, though I think it is a kind of pickling process where the eggs sit in super-salt-saturated water for a few days. This pickling “cooks” the egg and renders the white solid and a little meaty, as well as making the yolk, which exudes a kind of rich reddish-orange oil, a golden red .  The Chinese love these and generally eat only the yolk, which is very rich.  I was just the opposite, eating only maybe half the yolk, but loving the super salty whites! The shell is a light and lovely pale green. In the hutongs, or alleyway neighborhoods, the vendors would ride through the alley singing, “Xian ya dan! Cha ji dan!”, with duck eggs on one side of the bicycle cart, and the other side filled with tea eggs.

 

HUNTUN – Wonton soup is very popular for breakfast, especially served with bits of spinach or a kind of small dark green cabbage called ‘you cai’ (oil veggie). The filling was usually pork, and the dumplings quite delicate, lying in a pork or chicken broth.

 

ZHOU – This is a simple rice porridge, made thin and served hot with pickled vegetables usually or red-cooked pork or green onions. You could also get it plain and ask for a little sugar. There were whole restaurants, albeit little ones, that served ONLY different kinds of zhou. This is a hearty, filling, tummy-warming breakfast, and very good with a cup of warm soy milk. It’s one of best deals too, at 24 cents a bowl, a little more if you want meat or veggies on it.

 

XINJIANG NAAN – Xinjiang is China’s far west province, filled with mostly Muslim Chinese, and famous for their incredibly delicious golden flatbread. There are little midnight bakeries all around Beijing where you can see fathers and sons baking and loading the breads into the little display window in the front of the store. Sometimes they also sprinkle a little onion or garlic on top, and the result is heavenly! Also very cheap at around 50 cents per bread.

 

MATANG  - Another Xinjiang specialty, which is like a huge energy bar! These are made really large, like 24” X 36” and served off of a cart—they will cut you the size you want. They’re made of dried fruits (apricots, white raisins, date, etc.) and nuts like almond and hazelnuts, along with honey. These chunky goodies are rather chewy but oh so good, and give you energy on your long walks around the city.

 

YANGROU CHUANR – Also originally from Xinjiang, the Chinese eat these lamb kabobs like we eat hotdogs and hamburgers! Everywhere throughout the city you’ll see these guys in alleys or around the corners of buildings with their little grills. They sprinkle a kind of cumin-curry-??? spice on them, and roast the tasty bits over an open flame. Usually you can get them with a little chunk of lamb fat in the middle, which is a little crispy and like a kind of cracklin’—may sound weird, but it’s incredibly good! One stick goes for around 11-24 cents. In restaurants you’ll pay a little more, but still cheap—and the sticks are bigger! Nothing like chuanr for a quickie lunch—add a Yanjing beer and you’ve got a great meal!

Many years ago, before my children were born, I studied Wicca, the craft of the Wise Ones, and became a High Priestess. Wicca is a form of white magic, usually in the Celtic style, which was revived during the 19^th century and is one of the fastest growing religions in the world. It is composed of beautiful, old pagan rites which date back to the dawn of time, rites that changed and formalized over the centuries—it was the religion of the people before the Church came about—a pagan, grassroots, nature religion that is as old as mankind. Some people think that it proceeded only from studies of the Golden Dawn or the ceremonial religion founded by Gerald Gardner in 1954, but it is actually much, much older. While Gardner and others may have popularized the faith, and written down details of the rites, these were all based on studies of historic nature religions, specifically the ones found in the British Isles. Each country has it’s own version—the strega of Italy, the witches of France, the shamans of Siberia, the medicine man of Native Americans—all of these are forms of an ancient faith. Magic circles, casting spells, rituals for health or prosperity, handfastings and betrothals, masses for the dead, birth rites—these have existed since the beginning, with the forms changing as humanity developed and grew—they are common to each civilization.

 (Samain/Halloween altar)

The rites I followed were basically a Celtic form, since my family on my mother’s side is from the British Isles. I came to understand that the image of the Creator as God AND Goddess, masculine and feminine, yin and yang, that the religion recognized, was one that made sense to me. Whether you think of the Goddess as the Virgin Mary or Diana or Isis, she is essentially the same entity—the feminine face of God. I was quite comfortable practicing my Catholic faith alongside the Pagan one because I could see the wider picture of it all and it was plain to me that the faiths were connected, related in a deep way. The magic I practiced was White, pulling its power from the earth and sky, fire and water, and was used only to help and not harm. My children also participated in Circles, which were held during important times of the year, such as the Fall and Spring Equinoxes, and the Summer and Winter Solstices.

 

Wicca celebrates these changes in the season, as well as the Full Moon. Wicca has NOTHING at all to do with Satan—it is simply an expression of an ancient belief in the powers of nature, the elements, the seasons, and the worship of the Creator in both the masculine and feminine forms. The circles and spells are really no different than a prayer meeting or a church service, where concentrated energy or prayer is used to call down God’s power to assist his/her Children. Like anything created by humans, it has it’s darker side as well as the Light side—there are those who choose to follow that path and emphasize the dark energy that can be called up—BUT, there are many more who simply use Wicca and the Craft to follow the ancient ways of worship, and to add good to this world by it. It is up to each individual which way to follow, just like it is up to each Christian or Jew or Muslim to take what is fine and good in those religions and live by their precepts, rejecting the possibilities of the Dark Side. I have chosen the Path of Light.

 

Though it has been about 6 years or so since I practiced with any kind of regularity, I am still known among my close friends as a High Priestess. Recently my friend Danny called and wanted to introduce me to a couple who wanted to be handfasted. Handfasting is an old rite that can be found from the British Isles to Asia—it is a kind of marriage ceremony, or betrothal ritual, for a couple who wish to show their commitment to each other and be bound together as one. In Northern Europe and the British Isles this usually came with the time limit of “a year and a day”, which meant staying with each other for that period, after which the couple could make a more permanent commitment. In some cultures, the ritual was a regular wedding, such as in Asia and India. Betrothal and marriage ceremonies in many parts of the world include a part of the ritual where the bride and groom are tied together, usually their left hands, with a red cord. In Celtic countries this is called Handfasting. In the case of this particular couple, Brenda & Nathan, they wanted this to be the traditional “year and a day”, and have their large family wedding next fall on November 1^st. They have known each other for 15 years, and been together for over 2 years—this Halloween, they wanted to have a handfasting to announce their love and commitment. Halloween is a time of harvest, fruitfulness, as well as a special holiday for those in Wicca. They asked me to perform the ceremony. I wrote out the ritual for them, which they approved, and we held the handfasting at Nathan’s parent’s home, in their back yard. It was really moving and quite beautiful. The following photos are just some of what we took…

This is the ‘smudging’, a ritual where the guests and attendants of a ceremony have a smoking stick of herbs, usually sage, passed around and over them in order to dispel any negative energy. American Wiccans tend to use sage a lot because it is based in Native American culture-- though the use of incense and smudging can also be found in ceremonies all over Europe, Asia, Africa and South America as well.

Whenever a ritual is performed, anywhere in the world, there is a sacred space created—this can be a church, mosque, synagogue, or, in the case of ancient cultures, a circle. The circle is measured, then delineated in salt or chalk, stones, shells or paint—this one cast in sea salt, a universal symbol of protection. The bride and groom walked within, then I closed the circle. This created a special, protected and sacred space in which we would hold the handfasting.

Once in the circle, I used sea salt in water to create a kind of ‘holy water’, with an incantation I’d used for many years-“Salt and water by casting thee, no spell nor unknown purpose be, except in true accord with me, and as I will so mote it be.” You close your eyes, hold a hand over the water and salt, picture pure white Light pouring into the water until it glows, and chant the words. The liquid is then cast around the circle and on the altar and the couple to bless and protect them.

The presence of the Lord and Lady, Blessed Father and Mother are called into the circle to empower it—Brenda does not use any particular names for the deities except those. Some people may say Isis and Osiris, or some other pair whose name relates to their culture—she wanted to keep it simple. The Four Quarters are then called—these are the Spirits of the four directions--East, South, West and North-- and their accompanying Elementals—Air, Fire, Water and Earth. An athame, or short sword, is used to call them up (the handle did not reflect in the photo, but that’s what I am holding).

The rings are blessed and given, the individual Vows are spoken. This is a very sweet moment in the ceremony, and I almost started crying. It was very plain to all of us how much Brenda and Nathan loved each other, and their personal vows were really lovely.

At this point, the handfasting cord is held up and blessed—it is a red cord, 36 inches long, either 3, 6, or 9 pieces braided into one. This cord represents the binding of the two in marriage and some form of it is used in many cultures around the world—for instance, in Chinese ceremonies it is a red scarf with a large lotus shaped bow on top, in India it is a red cord as well. Red is the color of passion and love. It is not mean to be a symbol of anything restrictive or limiting, but rather a bond of flexibility and strength.

The new couple shares wine with each other and then a kiss. Brenda and Nathan also lit a special marriage candle,--you can see it flaming brightly in front of them.

After they are joined, the group then holds hands and draws from the earth, sky, water and air a stream of White Light energy,--this is sometimes called the ‘cone of Power’ or ‘cone of Light’—which is then pulled together by the Priestess, then sent towards the ritual’s  target (health, prosperity, love, etc.), or, in this case, toward’s the handfasted couple. It was very intense that night, and I could feel a low humming sensation as I closed my eyes and gathered in all their love and light. I could see, in my mind’s eye, that the energy had formed into a large sphere of White Light, so I continued to mold it until it got too big to handle, then projected it toward Brenda and Nathan—even the palms of my hands were red and burned slightly.

The energy is then grounded, pushed into Mother Earth for safe keeping. The Elementals and powers are thanked then dismissed, then the circle is opened.

Afterwards, we all went back to their house for cake and sandwiches. I was the caterer as well and made four trays of tea sandwiches : chicken salad, egg salad, cucumber with dill sauce, and Pineapple-cream cheese-walnut spread—all of them really delicious! My piece-de-resistance though, was the wonderful vanilla cream cheese poundcake which was their wedding cake! I have many many kinds of desserts in my life, but this was my very first wedding cake—I used vanilla cream frosting, and Brenda put a crystal on top with an angel in it—I think it turned out rather well!

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The ritual I used combined bits from here and there with my own writing and years of doing ceremonies. Brenda and Nathan loved the ritual and it made me happy to see them so pleased. If you would like a copy of the ritual for your own or a friend’s handfasting, please don’t hesitate to e-mail me. Blessed be!