Envision

Nowadays people really get health-concious. Never before have we seen people control their diets so seriously.

A traditional, authentic Hakka dish namely Lei Cha will surely spur the health-fanatics to go gaga over it. In chinese, "lei" means grind and "cha" means tea. Clearly, this "grinded tea" is made of a certain type of tea lead grinded with peanuts and mixed with hot water to produce superbly fragrant green soup.

The chef has to cook several dishes of vegetables to complement the soup, alongside the must-have rice. After this, just simply mix the the vegetables, the rice, the soup, with peanuts and taufu; as a consequence it is a very healthy yet tasty dish: Lei Cha Fan.

*Note that not everyone will appreciate this dish, some loath it mainly beacuse there is no meat!

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My father once told us a story. This story, on the surface is nothing much, but it symbolises a deep meaning within. Here it goes...

Bill Gates, the richest man in the world, invited China's president Hu Jintao for a dinner. In this meal, Bill provided the president with a fine-dining western-style dinner with three courses: appetizer, main course and dessert. A simple meal, albeit from the richest man in the world. 

Bill asked Hu: "Are you full?" and Hu nodded, adding that for Western food, just enough will do.

In return, the president then invited Bill to a dinner when Bill went to China. Instead of the classy, subtle Western style, Hu ordered a table full of Chinese delicacies. Abalone, shark fin's soup, and plenty of meat filled up the entire table. Bill asked the president, "how can we finish all this?" Hu said, "if you can't finish all, nevermind. It's important we try every Chinese delicacy when you are here."

"Isn't just three or four dishes enough? Like you said, enough will do?" Bill bombarded Hu. He just realised, the richest man in the world treated him to such a simple dinner, but he called on a payload of dishes, ready to stuff the Microsoft boss with food. Who does he think he is? It was in his blood, in his culture to feast that way. Hu was caught speechless.

Ever since the 90's, China's economy soared after they opened up to the world, cancelling out the communist enclosed rule. Investments worldwide poured in. Before this, China was a relatively poor country with little cash flow due to the overwhelming population. Due to this economic boom, Chinese businessmen suddenly got rich, and they don't know where to splash their cash.

One way of doing this was to imitate the emperor's meal we often see in TV series. The all-powerful emperor would order a table full of rare and expensive delicacies to feast upon. Chinese businessmen probably want to do the same, savouring all types of food. For over a decade, this had become a culture.

When I was there not long ago, I asked the tour guide, why do they order so much food, and leave so much unfinished food. She explained, "If you order a portion just enough to fill your stomach, it is peer pressure that brands you not rich, and suppreses your social status. If  you wipe the table clean of remaining food, it is again, peer pressure that makes you seem like a hooligan who hasn't eaten any food for the past three days."

Such a waste of food should not occur anymore in this world!

But of course, the Chinese got rich all of a sudden, and splash their cash in this. This shows that their mentality are still third-world. Look at Europe. They are rich, but they do not spend their money on wastage of food. It is a bad investment which causes more people living in poverty to die of hunger. By the time the next generation of Chinese take over, hopefully their status as rich and high social calibre would cool down, and begin the first-world mentality shown mainly by the British and the French.

The wastage of food shows how barbaric they really are, as citizens of their very own civilizations.

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The bitter melon. Not much of a bitter flavour, but full of fragrance and benefits to life.

1 Anti-Malaria
A lab study proves that the bitter compounds within the fruit is made of quinine - a beneficial drug. Quinine's unique trait allows it to treat and prevent malaria. Laboratory studies have confirmed that various species of bitter melon have anti-malarial activity.

2 Anti-HIV
Lab studies also believe that bitter melon is effective to HIV infections, as most compounds isolated from bitter melon that impact HIV have either been proteins or glycoproteins lectins. It is possible oral ingestion of bitter melon could offset negative effects of anti-HIV drugs, if a test tube study can be shown to be applicable to people.

3 Anti-Diabetes
Plenty of folk wisdom suggest and often insist that bitter melons helps prevent or counteract type-II diabetes, although scientific claim is limited. Bitter melons contain bioactive compounds that activate a protein called AMPK, which is well known for regulating fuel metabolism and enabling glucose uptake, processes which are impaired in diabetics.

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Oh yeah. The ultimate authentic Malaysian food paradise. The atmosphere's perfect at night, the food's absolutely awesome. It's time for mamak.

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Some say it taste like heaven, others say it smells like hell.

In Malaysia, approximately 70% of the people love durians. It's a staggering 70%! Compared to other (tropical) nations, Malaysia has the highest percentage of durian lovers.
Outrageously, some Mat-Salleh (white skinned people), take eating durians as a challenge. They show extreme disgust when seeing, smelling, touching or eating durians.

This happens in Malaysia too, if you don't know. The obsession for durians has a large contrast. Those durian lovers would be waiting for the season to come, and buy in dozens, enjoying them with relatives and friends. Others, loath it so much, they would say 'yuck' repeatedly to durians and stay away from the durian-eaters as far as possible.

See this:

And, no one likes durian like any other fruit. People would either love them or hate them. No one in between.
If I could just get my hands on one now...

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