Mixed Seafood Rice Stick Noodles

In China , this dish is usually served as a snack. Diners help themselves from the communal dish placed in the centre of the table.

Ingredients:
¼ cup fresh or canned clams
1 lb rice sticks
3-4 tbsps oil
2 onions, thinly sliced
3 slices ginger root, shredded
3 slices bacon, shredded
2 tbsps salted mustard greens
4 large dried Chinese mushrooms, soaked for 20 minutes, drained, stemmed and shredded
1 ½ tbsps dried shrimp, soak for 15 minutes and drained
6 tbsps stock
3 tbsps soy sauce
1 tsp salt
2 tbsps lard
1/4 -1/2 lb broccoli, separated into florets
¼ cup shelled shrimps
¼ lb fresh squid, shredded
6 oysters (optional)
2 tbsps dry sherry

Directions:

1. If using fresh clams, remove from their shells. If using canned ones, drain. Cook the rice stick noodles in boiling water for 7 to 8 minutes; drain and rinse in a colander under cold running water to wash away any excess starch.
2. Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the onions, ginger, bacon, pickles (mustard greens), mushrooms, dried shrimps and clams and stir-fry over moderate heat for 3 minutes. Add half of the stock, 2 tbsps soy sauce and the salt; continue to stir fry for a further 1 ½ minutes. Add the noodles and mix well. Increase the heat to high and cook, stirring, for a further 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from the heat.
3. Melt the lard in another pan. Add the broccoli and stir-fry over high heat for 2 minutes. Add the remaining soy sauce and stock, the fresh shrimps, squid and oyster, if used; stir fry for 2 minutes. Sprinkle in the sherry and remove from the heat. Keep hot.
4. Return the noodle mixture to the heat and stir fry for 30 seconds until heated through, then transfer to a large serving dish. Garnish with the broccoli and fish mixture and serve hot.

Brazilian Shrimp and Fish Stew Recipe

Serves/Makes: 6 - 8
Ingredients:

• 1 pound shrimps, shelled and deveined
• 2 pounds sea bass fillets, or other white fish
• 1 cup dried shrimps
• 1/4 cup dende (palm) oil or olive oil
• 2 medium onions, grated
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 cup cashew nuts, ground
• 1 cup blanched almonds, ground
• 1 cup fresh bread crumbs
• 4 cups thin coconut milk
• 2 or more tablespoons dende (palm) oil
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Brazilian Molded Rice (Angu de Arroz), see the recipe below

How to cook Brazilian Shrimp and Fish Stew:

• Soak the dried shrimps in warm water to cover for 15 minutes. Drain the shrimps, then puree in a blender or food processor, or put through a food mill, using the fine blade. Set aside.
• Heat 1/4 cup dende or olive oil in a heavy skillet and saute the onions, garlic, cashew nuts, almonds, and the pureed shrimps for 5 minutes. Stir in the bread crumbs and the coconut milk, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the mixture has the consistency of a thick bechamel sauce. Add more bread crumbs if necessary. Remove from the heat and stir in 2 or more tablespoons of dende oil to taste.
• Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a skillet and saute the sea bass fillets lightly. Add the fresh shrimps, and saute for about 2 minutes, or until the shrimps turn pink. Fold the shrimp and fish mixture into the coconut milk sauce. Serve the Brazilian Shrimp and Fish Stew with Brazilian Molded Rice (Angu de Arroz) and a hot pepper sauce, if liked.

Read more: Brazilian Shrimp and Fish Stew Recipe (Seafood Mix ~ Poached/Simmered) http://www.all-fish-seafood-recipes.com/index.cfm/recipe/Brazilian_Shrimp_and_Fish_Stew#ixzz1Ct7TVsew

Vegetable Rice Mix

Make your own homemade vegetable rice mix for easy meals.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

• 4 cups uncooked long grain rice
• 1 envelope vegetable soup mix
• 2 Tbsp. dried minced onion
• 2 Tbsp. dried minced celery
• 2 Tbsp. dried minced green bell pepper
• 1 Tbsp. dried parsley
• 1 tsp. salt

Preparation:

Combine all ingredients and stir thoroughly to mix. Store in glass jar for up to 4 months. Vegetable Rice Side Dish: Mix 1 cup Vegetable Rice Mix with 2 cups liquid (water or broth) in a large saucepan. Add 1 tablespoon butter or margarine and bring to a rolling boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low, cover pan, and simmer 10 to 15 minutes or until rice and vegetables are tender and all liquid is absorbed.

Exercise for Last Year

Romeo and Juliet


Love


Romeo and Juliet is sometimes considered to have no unifying theme, save that of young love. Romeo and Juliet have become emblematic of young lovers and doomed love. Since it is such an obvious subject of the play, several scholars have explored the language and historical context behind the romance of the play.
On their first meeting, Romeo and Juliet use a form of communication recommended by many etiquette authors in Shakespeare's day: metaphor. By using metaphors of saints and sins, Romeo was able to test Juliet's feelings for him in a non-threatening way. This method was recommended by Baldassare Castiglione (whose works had been translated into English by this time). He pointed out that if a man used a metaphor as an invitation, the woman could pretend she did not understand him, and he could retreat without losing honour. Juliet, however, participates in the metaphor and expands on it. The religious metaphors of "shrine", "pilgrim" and "saint" were fashionable in the poetry of the time and more likely to be understood as romantic rather than blasphemous, as the concept of sainthood was associated with the Catholicism of an earlier age. Later in the play, Shakespeare removes the more daring allusions to Christ's resurrection in the tomb he found in his source work: Brooke's Romeus and Juliet.
In the later balcony scene, Shakespeare has Romeo overhear Juliet's soliloquy, but in Brooke's version of the story her declaration is done alone. By bringing Romeo into the scene to eavesdrop, Shakespeare breaks from the normal sequence of courtship. Usually a woman was required to be modest and shy to make sure that her suitor was sincere, but breaking this rule serves to speed along the plot. The lovers are able to skip a lengthy part of wooing, and move on to plain talk about their relationship—developing into an agreement to be married after knowing each other for only one night. In the final suicide scene, there is a contradiction in the message—in the Catholic religion, suicides were often thought to be condemned to hell, whereas people who die to be with their loves under the "Religion of Love" are joined with their loves in paradise. Romeo and Juliet's love seems to be expressing the "Religion of Love" view rather than the Catholic view. Another point is that although their love is passionate, it is only consummated in marriage, which prevents them from losing the audience's sympathy.
The play arguably equates love and sex with death. Throughout the story, both Romeo and Juliet, along with the other characters, fantasise about it as a dark being, often equating it with a lover. Capulet, for example, when he first discovers Juliet's (faked) death, describes it as having deflowered his daughter. Juliet later erotically compares Romeo and death. Right before her suicide she grabs Romeo's dagger, saying "O happy dagger! This is thy sheath. There rust, and let me die."

Fate and chance

Scholars are divided on the role of fate in the play. No consensus exists on whether the characters are truly fated to die together or whether the events take place by a series of unlucky chances. Arguments in favour of fate often refer to the description of the lovers as "star-cross'd". This phrase seems to hint that the stars have predetermined the lovers' future. John W. Draper points out the parallels between the Elizabethan belief in the four humours and the main characters of the play (for example, Tybalt as a choleric). Interpreting the text in the light of humours reduces the amount of plot attributed to chance by modern audiences. Still, other scholars see the play as a series of unlucky chances—many to such a degree that they do not see it as a tragedy at all, but an emotional melodrama. Ruth Nevo believes the high degree to which chance is stressed in the narrative makes Romeo and Juliet a "lesser tragedy" of happenstance, not of character. For example, Romeo's challenging Tybalt is not impulsive, it is, after Mercutio's death, the expected action to take. In this scene, Nevo reads Romeo as being aware of the dangers of flouting social norms, identity and commitments. He makes the choice to kill, not because of a tragic flaw, but because of circumstance.

Duality (light and dark)

Scholars have long noted Shakespeare's widespread use of light and dark imagery throughout the play. Caroline Spurgeon considers the theme of light as "symbolic of the natural beauty of young love" and later critics have expanded on this interpretation. For example, both Romeo and Juliet see the other as light in a surrounding darkness. Romeo describes Juliet as being like the sun, brighter than a torch, a jewel sparkling in the night, and a bright angel among dark clouds. Even when she lies apparently dead in the tomb, he says her "beauty makes This vault a feasting presence full of light." Juliet describes Romeo as "day in night" and "Whiter than snow upon a raven's back." This contrast of light and dark can be expanded as symbols—contrasting love and hate, youth and age in a metaphoric way. Sometimes these intertwining metaphors create dramatic irony. For example, Romeo and Juliet's love is a light in the midst of the darkness of the hate around them, but all of their activity together is done in night and darkness, while all of the feuding is done in broad daylight. This paradox of imagery adds atmosphere to the moral dilemma facing the two lovers: loyalty to family or loyalty to love. At the end of the story, when the morning is gloomy and the sun hiding its face for sorrow, light and dark have returned to their proper places, the outward darkness reflecting the true, inner darkness of the family feud out of sorrow for the lovers. All characters now recognise their folly in light of recent events, and things return to the natural order, thanks to the love of Romeo and Juliet. The "light" theme in the play is also heavily connected to the theme of time, since light was a convenient way for Shakespeare to express the passage of time through descriptions of the sun, moon, and stars.

Time

Time plays an important role in the language and plot of the play. Both Romeo and Juliet struggle to maintain an imaginary world void of time in the face of the harsh realities that surround them. For instance, when Romeo swears his love to Juliet by the moon, she protests "O swear not by the moon, th'inconstant moon, / That monthly changes in her circled orb, / Lest that thy love prove likewise variable." From the very beginning, the lovers are designated as "star-cross'd" referring to an astrologic belief associated with time. Stars were thought to control the fates of humanity, and as time passed, stars would move along their course in the sky, also charting the course of human lives below. Romeo speaks of a foreboding he feels in the stars' movements early in the play, and when he learns of Juliet's death, he defies the stars' course for him.
Another central theme is haste: Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet spans a period of four to six days, in contrast to Brooke's poem's spanning nine months. Scholars such as G. Thomas Tanselle believe that time was "especially important to Shakespeare" in this play, as he used references to "short-time" for the young lovers as opposed to references to "long-time" for the "older generation" to highlight "a headlong rush towards doom". Romeo and Juliet fight time to make their love last forever. In the end, the only way they seem to defeat time is through a death that makes them immortal through art.
Time is also connected to the theme of light and dark. In Shakespeare's day, plays were often performed at noon in broad daylight. This forced the playwright to use words to create the illusion of day and night in his plays. Shakespeare uses references to the night and day, the stars, the moon, and the sun to create this illusion. He also has characters frequently refer to days of the week and specific hours to help the audience understand that time has passed in the story. All in all, no fewer than 103 references to time are found in the play, adding to the illusion of its passage.


^{Antony and Cleopatra}


Source


The principal source for the story is Plutarch's "Life of Mark Antony" from Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans Compared Together, in the translation made by Sir Thomas North in 1579. A large number of phrases within Shakespeare's play are taken directly from North's prose, including Ahenobarbus's famous description of Cleopatra's barge, beginning "The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne/Burned on the water." However, Shakespeare also adds scenes, including many of the ones portraying Cleopatra's domestic life, and the role of Enobarbus is greatly developed. Historical facts are also sometimes changed: in Plutarch Antony's final defeat was many weeks after the battle of Actium, and Octavia lived with Antony for several years and bore him two children: Antonia Major, paternal grandmother of the Emperor Nero and maternal grandmother of the Empress Valeria Messalina, and Antonia Minor, the sister-in-law of the Emperor Tiberius, mother of the Emperor Claudius, and paternal grandmother of the Emperor Caligula and Empress Agrippina the Younger.

Date and Text

Many scholars believe it was written in 1606–07, although some researchers argue for an earlier dating, around 1603–04.Antony and Cleopatra was entered in the Stationers' Register (an early form of copyright for printed works) in May of 1608, but it does not seem to have been actually printed until the publication of the First Folio in 1623. The Folio is therefore the only authoritative text we have today. Some Shakespeare scholars speculate that it derives from Shakespeare's own draft, or "foul papers," since it contains minor errors in speech labels and stage directions that are thought to be characteristic of the author in the process of composition.
Modern editions divide the play into a conventional five act structure, but as in most of his earlier plays, Shakespeare did not create these act divisions. His play is articulated in forty separate 'scenes', more than he used for any other play. Even the word 'scenes' may be inappropriate as a description, as the scene changes are often very fluid, almost montage-like. The large number of scenes are necessary because the action frequently switches between Alexandria, Italy, Messina in Sicily, Syria, Athens and other parts of Egypt and the Roman Empire. The play contains thirty-four speaking characters, fairly typical for a Shakespeare play on such an epic scale.

Themes and motives

Many scholars of the play attempt to come to conclusions about the ambivalent nature of many of the characters. Are Antony and Cleopatra true tragic heroes, or are they too fault-ridden and laughable to be tragic? Is their relationship one of love or lust? Is their passion wholly destructive, or does it also show elements of transcendence? Does Cleopatra kill herself out of love for Antony, or because she has lost political power? In the play, Octavian is another ambivalent character, who can be seen as either a noble and good ruler, only wanting what is right for Rome, or as a cruel and ruthless politician.
One of the major themes running throughout the play is opposition, the main being: Rome/Egypt, Love/Lust, and Male/Female. One of Shakespeare's most famous speeches, Ahenobarbus's description of Cleopatra on her barge, is full of opposites. Cleopatra herself sees Antony as both the Gorgon and Mars (Act 2 Scene 5, lines 118-19)


Why Do Hawks Hunt Chicks?

One upon time, a hawk fell in love with a hen. The hawk flew down from the sky and asked the hen, “Will you marry me?”

The hen loved the brave, strong hawk and wished to marry him. But she said, “I can not fly as hight as you can. If you give me time, I may learn to fly as hight as you. Then we can fly together.”

The hawk agreed. Before he went away, he gave the hen a ring. “This is to show that you have promised to marry me,” said the hawk.

It so happened that the hen had already promised to marry a rooster. So, when the rooster saw the ring, he became very angry. “Throw that ring away at once!” shouted the rooster. The hen was so fightened at the rppster’s anger that she threw away the ring immediately.

When the hawk came a few months later, the hen told him the truth. The hawk was so furious that he cursed the hen, “Why didn’t you tell me earlier? Now, you’ll always be scratching the earth, and I’ll always be flying above to catch your children,” said the hawk.

Posted by mahatir mohamad

Once upon a time, a hawk fell in love with a hen. The hawk flew down from the sky and asked the hen, "Will you marry me?"
The hen loved the brave, strong hawk and wished to marry him. But she said, "I cannot fly as high as you can. If you give me time, I may learn to fly as high as you. Then we can fly together."
The hawk agreed. Before he went away, he gave the hen a ring, "This is to show that you have promised to marry me," said the hawk.
It so happened that the hen had already promised to marry a rooster. So, when the rooster saw the ring, the became very angry. "Throw that ring away at once!" shouted the rooster. The hen was so frightened at the rooster's anger that she threw away the ring immediately.
When the hawk came a few months later, the hen told him the truth. The hawk was so furious that he cursed the hen, "Why didn't you tell me earlier? Now, you'll always be scratching the earth, and I'll always be flying above to catch your children," said the hawk.

(Adapted from : Look Ahead 2)

Takikomi Gohan

It is a local Japanese mixed rice dish seasoned with dashi and soy sauce along with mushrooms, mixed vegetables, meat and sea food.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cup Japanese rice
• 4 shiitake mushrooms
• 1/4 gobo (burdock root)
• 1/4 konnyaku
• 3 inches carrot
• 1/4 lb.boneless chicken thigh
• 1 tbsp sake
• 2 tbsp soy sauce / 1 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp mirin
• 1/2 tsp salt

Here's what to do:

Wash Japanese rice and drain in a colander. Set aside.

Cut chicken into small pieces. Season the chicken with 1 tsp of soy sauce.

Shred gobo thinly and soak in water for a few minutes. Drain the gobo.

Boil konnyaku once and cut it into small rectangles. Peel and cut carrot into small rectangles. Remove stems from shiitake mushrooms and thinly slice them.

Put 2 1/2 cup of water in a pan. Add sake, mirin, 2 tbsps of soy sauce, and salt. Heat the soup.

Add chicken, carrot, gobo, shiitake, and konnyaku in the soup and simmer for about five minutes, skimming off any foam or impurities that rise to the surface.

Stop the heat and cool it off. Separate the simmered ingredients and the soup, using a colander. Add some water in the soup to make 2 1/2 cup of liquid.

Put washed rice in rice cooker and pour the liquid over the rice. Place simmered ingredients on the top. Start cooking the rice.

The history of why I made this blog

I created this blog because of school work, but I'm glad to get this job because it can learn about creating a blog and others.

I am glad to learn to create a blog and the topics chosen are also interesting. That's cool. And again that I select themed mixed rice, because I liked the food.

I chose this theme because the recipes of rice mixed very nice and tempting.

Simak

Baca secara fonetik

But I'm sorry if my vocab is not true.

Zakkoku Mai Onigiri—Japanese Mixed Grain Rice Balls

 

Inevitably when I make a pot of rice to go along with dinner we don’t eat it all.  More often than not, the rice that is left over isn’t enough to accompany another meal.  So what to do with that little bit of leftover rice?  This conundrum presented itself the other day after we had zakkoku mai with our roast chicken.  I had a little less than a cup and a half of rice left.

So I did what I always do with leftover rice–I made onigiri (Japanese rice balls).  There are many different ways to make onigiri, but I went with a simple no fuss method and made small onigiri.

How to make Zakkoku Mai Onigiri

To use this method, you will need:

• 1/4 cup measuring cup
• a sheet of plastic wrap
• a clean spray bottle filled with water
• salt
• leftover zakkoku mai (or steamed Japanese rice)
• leftover salmon/tuna (or you can use canned salmon/tuna)

1. Add some leftover salmon to the rice (just eyeball it),and then mix it with a fork so the salmon becomes evenly mixed throughout the rice.
2. Then cut a large square of plastic wrap and rest it over the measuring cup.
3. Lightly spray the plastic wrap with the water bottle, and then sprinkle it with a bit of salt (the water helps the salt stick).

4. Then spoon some of the rice mixture into the cup (roughly 1/4 cup of the mixture).
5. Gather the plastic wrap up around the rice.
6. Then twist the plastic wrap, sealing the rice inside, and firmly press the rice into a ball shape (don’t press too hard or you’ll turn everything into zakkoku mai mash . . . eeeeew!).

7. Unwrap the ball, set it on a plate and repeat the process with the rest of the rice mixture!

You can eat the onigiri plain or wrapped in nori (sheets of seaweed), or however you darn well please.  Squirrel likes them both ways, but chose to eat hers au naturel this time around.

Onigiri make great snacks, or lunches.  You can keep them wrapped in saran wrap and add them to a bento lunch.  Just make sure you use Japanese rice (shorter grain rice).  Using a long grain rice won’t work because the grains of rice won’t stick to each other.  By spraying the plastic wrap with water and sprinkling it with salt, the salt sticks to the rice when you form the balls.  This helps add a bit of seasoning to the balls, which makes it so you don’t have to add any extra salt to the rice or fillings that you add.  I find that they are a fabulous way to use up leftovers, and to sneak more vegetables into a child’s meal.  You can add chopped up steamed veggies, leftover roast chicken, the sky is the limit!