NoodleGal

Carrie Bradshaw has a nick name for her IM account. All you Sex and the City addict of the TV show must know, it's "shoegal". Whenever she's down or upset with Big, she goes shoe shopping and that brings a smile back to her face.

Well, there's something else that does the same effect to me, as beautiful shoes to Carrie. That is Noodles! After a long day at work or some tough stretch from yoga class, nothing more smoothing than having a bowl of noodles.

Probably that's why I love my little nickname, noodlegal. I've got the nickname after a holiday with my friend, Deserie the shopgal. We went to Vietnam Ho Chih Minh (HCM) City a few years ago. It was one of those long-weekend trip to reward myself after months of stress from work. It was a perfect holiday for both of us, as we all got what we wanted. While Deserie spent most of the time bargaining for delegate and beautiful handbags and art pieces, I went to get my Pho Bo (beef noodles)... everyday!


My favorite Pho 24 in HCM City!

For most southern Chinese, particularly Hong Kongers, the daily carbo is rice. I grew up having rice everyday. But now my daily carbo has completely changed. In fact, I don't really have a regular daily carbo, but only weekly carbo, which consist of noodles, rice, bread. But noodles is definitely the most frequent one among the three.

I love all kinds of noodles, Cantonese Wonton Mein, Chinese DaimDaim Mein, Japanese Ramen, Vietnamese Pho, Thai Pad Thai and Indonesian Mei Gorang are just some of my favorites. Among them, Vietnames Pho has to be top of the list.


Ramen with Butter! It's the specialty in Hokkaido.

To me, noodles, especially soup noodle, is the most fascinating type of food! There are many different elements within a bowl of noodle: the soup base, the noodle, the toppings and the add-on (which are the herbs, spring onion and dried garlic). They can be mixed in different combination and create a total different experience, all out from that little spoon.

OK, I know it may sound a bit exaggerating for people that are not big fan of noodles. But the best thing about soup noodle is the mix and match I can create in every mouthful. In one spoonful, I could have some soup with the noodles, in the next spoonful I could mix the soup with toppings, without noodles at all, and in another spoonful, the add-ons with noodles, they all create a total different taste and texture.

I have a special routine when eating my favorite noodles. It always start with a spoonful of soup and the noodles would come second. Soup base is the most important element, it is like the signature of the noodle shop. No matter what kind of soup noodle it is, the effort the chef put into the stock makes a big difference to the bowl of noodle.

The second most important, apart from the noodles, is the add-ons. The spring onion in Wonton Mein and Ramen, the basil and coriander in Vietnamese Pho are as important as the noodle itself. They are like the Parmigiano in Italian pasta, it brings a whole new experience when added on the noodles.

Probably the reason why I love Vietnamese Pho so much is the importance of the add-ons. It's rare to find a good Vietnamese Pho shop in Hong Kong. But recently, I've discovered a great Pho shop, Pho 26.


My favorite Pho shop in Hong Kong and it's Pho Bo!


One of my favorite pho shop in HCM City is Pho 24 and I think this Pho 26 is even better!! The tasty soup base has an intense beef favor, combined with chinese herbs and lime, is one of the best soup base I've ever tried. Of course, most importantly, is the add-ons. They are very generous with the add-ons. The onion, spring onion, basil and coriander basically covered the entire bowl of noodle. It certainly was a great to myself after a long day of work.


I almost forgot to take the pix of my Pho :-p

US Politics Vs TV Series

I've been following the US election in the past couple months. This is not the normal me. The only site I'd visit religiously is my daily horoscope. But recently I've been following the US elections like... TV series.

Actually, I don't see much of a difference between the two. This is why:

1) The season basically starts in July and end in November. Not exactly the summer season, it's a good 4 month show. Btw, Season One, the Democrat primary election, that lasted for months before this. I wonder will there be a Third Season....

2) There is always a very funny character involve:
John McCain Vs Steve Martin



3) There is always a very serious character involve:
Barack Obama Vs Charles Philips (President of Oracle)



4) When the TV show becomes popular, Saturday Night Live will always make fun of it.

For full coverage check out here, it is really quite hilarious.


I think it is quite sad for Americans. We outsider seeing their presidential election as a TV series, an entertainment, rather than a serious matter. But I have to give them credit for generating interest of politics for people like me.

I didn't even pay attention to the Hong Kong Legco election until 2 weeks before that. (Though, the HK Legco election is a much shorter series, that last only for 2 months) At least I voted. The turnover rate for the once-every-4-year-Legco-election was only 45.2% this year. What I want to say is politics has never been a pretty alien topic for me, until early 1980s, when the discussion of Hong Kong's sovereignty began.

My encounter with local politics, or any kind of politics, in my entire has been a number less than Elizabeth Taylor's marriage. The first encounter of politics is probably when I was 10. I remember one day I discovered a stack of pocket-size lime green-covered books at my Dad's study room. The cover was plain, with simple black font. It says something like Hong Kong's Transition to Chinese Rule. That's the first green paper consultation published on the political system reform in HK.

The title resonated from terms I heard on TV about the transition of HK's sovereignty. So I flipped through it. There were words that I recognized, but they form phrases and terms that were incomprehensible. So I tossed it aside. A couple days later, in the study room, I saw my Dad holding those books in his in his study room. But with his head resting on the chair, glasses on, but eyes closed and mouth wide opened... snoring. That's my first encounter with politics!

So, I should thank the entertainment value that US Election brought, making politics a lot more interesting that I thought.

On top of these reasons, I do believe this US Election is set at a very controversial period. The on-going war in Iraq, the continuous disappointment and idiocy from the current US President, also the latest wall street crisis, these are rating the US in its worst credit for decades. People around the world are looking forward to find out, are Americans really that dumb, to get a comedian, whose partner loves her lipstick, to be the next US President.