Taiwanese Snacks

Anchovies with Peanuts
Fishy salty and delicious, serve on its own or add it to congee.

80g dried anchovies (medium size about 5cm)
100g peanuts (shelled and plain NOT salted)
2 cups oil
2 large chillies, sliced
3 cloves garlic roughly chopped
3 spring onions chopped
1 tablespoon rice wine (Shaohsing)
pinch of pepper

Deep Fry fish in wok and drain. Remove most of the oil. Re heat and add chillies, spring onions, garlic and rice wine stir fry for 2 mins, add fish and peanuts and fry for a further 5 mins. If you like it spicy add chilli sauce or if you like it sweet add sugar. Or if you like it really fishy add fish sauce, yum.

Oyster omelette is apparently the most popular snack served in Taiwanese night markets (according to the China Post). I found a recipe here:
http://hipfood.wordpress.com

Playlist Tuesday 13th November 2007

• Suspicious Heart - Miss Yao Lee
  
• Playing Mahjong - Long Ge
  
• Grandma Plays the Numbers - Wynonie Harris
  
• Through the Bamboo Forest - Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon soundtrack
  
• Steal the Red String Box - Josephine Siao Fong Fong
  
• Scenery of Taiwan - Jin-Long Fang
  
• Brand New Second Hand - Peter Tosh
  
• Tsan Jo - Chung Woong Traditional Korean Music
  
• Lee Cross - Aretha Franklin
  
• Yombul T'yaryong - Chung Woong Traditional Korean Music
  
• Down by the River - Morgan Heritage
  
• Cantonese Opera
  
• Drinking Again - Dinah Washington
  

Okido Children's magazine

Lovely magazine for 2-7 year olds. See: www.okido.co.uk

Shaolin Girl

Just found out about this Japanese movie produced by Stephen Chow, to be released in 2008. It is in the same vain as Shaolin Soccer with a young lacrosse player (Kou Shibasaki) improving her game by learning Shaolin kung fu.

Thai ghosts advert

Cheers for this Simon.

Mackerel Tatsuta Fry Recipe

2 mackerel (filleted)
5 tablespoons sake/rice wine
5 tablespoons soya sauce
2" piece of ginger (peeled and grated)
cornflour
vegetable oil for deep frying
lettuce leaves
lime wedges
2spring onions (finely chopped)

Cut the mackerel into strips about 1.5cm thick. Mix the soya and sake in a bowl and add the grated ginger, put the fish in and make sure all pieces are well coated. Leave to marinate for 1 hour minimum. When ready to eat (perhaps your rice is gently cooking?) heat the veg oil in a wok (need lots for deep frying). Drain the fish pieces and coat them in cornflour (sprinkle some cornflour on a plate near the wok). Put them into the oil when it is ready and fry for 2-3 mins until golden. Remove from oil and drain on kitchen paper. You will probably need to to fry in 2-3 batches as to avoid overcrowding in the wok.
Arrange the mackerel on a plate of lettuce leaves, sprinkle with spring onion and serve with lime wedges. Delicious on its own as a starter/snack or with rice for a meal.

Playlist Tuesday 6th November 2007

• Band of Gold - Marcia Griffiths
  
• Let Me Hold You - Marcia Griffiths
  
• Here I am Baby - Marcia Griffiths
  
• Mazinga Z theme - from the cult manga series about a giant robot
  
• Half Idiot - Marcia Griffiths and Cutty Ranks
  
• Japanese Song - from Rock a Shacka volume 3
  
• Que Pasa Chica - Rock a Shacka volume 3
  
• My Boy Lollipop - The Dreamlets (Japanese female rocksteady group)
  
• I'm So Lonely - The Dreamlets
  
• Gone Away - The Dreamlets
  
• Bim Bam Boom - The El Dorados
  
• Little Girl of Mine - The Cleftones
  
• My Love - The Dovers
  
• Speedo - The Cadillacs
  
• Down In Cuba - The Real Holidays
  
• Churchbells - The Kingtones (Japanese doo wop group pictured above)
  
• Doraemon theme - classic anime about a blue robot cat from the future
  

Pumpkin Curry

small pumpkin or butternut squash

for the paste:
1 or 2 cloves garlic, chopped up
2" piece ginger, sliced
2 tablespoon tumeric
1 teaspoon coriander seeds ground up or ready ground coriander
1 teaspoon shrimp paste or yellow curry paste (optional)

1 tin coconut milk
a little water
dashes of fish sauce
1 tablespoon honey
juice of half a lime
a little oil (groundnut or veg)

Cut the pumpkin into chunks (take off skin and de-seed). Chunks should be about 2". Make the curry paste by pounding together all paste ingredients in a pestle and mortar. Don't worry about making the paste totally smooth.
Put the oil into a medium hot wok, add the paste and the pumpkin chunks and coat. Pour the coconut milk in and top up with water add a few dashes of fish sauce. Heat up and simmer for 20 mins. Then add th honey and lime - taste to check the balance is right. Serve with rice and tung choi.
If you like you can add a couple of halved crabs to the curry 10mins before it is ready. If doing this definitely add the shrimp paste to the curry paste. Sprinkle with chopped fresh coriander before serving.

Playlist Tuesday 30th October 2007

• Black Magic Woman - Dennis Brown
  
• Hot Rod Hades - Charlie Ryan and the Timberline Riders
  
• Loch Ness Monster - King Horror
  
• Evil Cult intro - from the Jet Li film dir. by Wong Jing
  
• Vampire - Upsetters
  
• Evil Cult girlfight
  
• Vampire - Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra
  
• Werewolf - Gary Warren
  
• Ghost Dance - Prince Buster
  
• Zombie Jamboree - Lord Jellicoe
  
• Pumpkin Belly - Tenor Saw
  
• Bells of Death - Augustus Pablo
  
• Chinese Ghost Story - Leslie Cheung (theme from the movie of same name)
  
• Dracula - King Horror
  
• Uzumaki - trailer for the Japanese horror film
  
• Yaraba Shango - The Tiger
  

Happy Halloween

Phi Ta Kon - 'Thai Halloween'

Sublime Frequencies have a DVD out of the 'Thai Halloween' festival Phi Ta Kon. The festival is held every year in June/July in Isan, Northern Thailand. People dress up as ghosts and spirits and dance all night to mo lam (Thai country music from Isan). Lots of rice whiskey is glugged down.

You can watch a clip on Yout Tube here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0VyM6B_v4o

Order the DVD here:www.sublimefrequencies.com/item.asp?Item_id=29&cd=Phi-Ta-Khon:-Ghosts-of-Isan
Read more about the Phi Ta Kon festival here:
www.utopia-asia.com/ghost.htm

Chin Tsi-Ang dies

China's first lady of onscreen martial arts and Sammo Hung's grandmother has died age 99.


Read the story on monkeypeaches.com.

Taiwanese Beatbox TV show

Check out the crazy on screen graphics and does that guy on the panel have an afro? The beatboxer is pretty good - Stand by Me with singing and beatbox at the end!

East Asian Food at Borough Market

Chicken cooking outside Fusebox (above) for the satay wraps they sell. I didn't rate the wraps, not enough flavour (more chilli, garlic ad fish sauce please). The shop sells noodles, Japanese chewing gum, soya sauce, kaffir lime leaves etc but prices are inflated. Better to try your local Chinese or Vietnamese supermarket or head to Chinatown.
Next door to Fusebox on Stoney Street is sushi restaurant Feng Sushi which I haven't had the chance to check out. Read a review here.




Tuesday's show was all about East Asian food at Borough Market. I was joined in the studio by Alex Fraser from East Teas (see above) who have a stall in the Green Market. Alex kindly brought in some delicious teas for us to taste. From chilled sparkling Jasmine tea to Gyokuro Jade Dew which was full of umami. As you can see from the pictures above East Teas also sell beautiful cermaics - tea pots and tea cups and bowls with strainers. Just to the left outside the picture there are really cool Vietnamese shopping bags for sale.

I visited the Tofu HQ in East London of Clean Bean Tofu who also have a stall in the Green Market. They sell fresh, organic tofu which is very delicious. Plain or marinated - soya, ginger and sesame or five spice. The beans they import are organic from Northern China and they use nigari (a by product of natural sea salt) for the coagulent. Neil from Clean Bean recommended Fuchsia Dunlop's Ma Pao Tofu recipe.

For more info on Borough Market see: www.boroughmarket.org.uk

Playlist Tuesday 23rd October 2007

• Stone Cold Dead in the Market - Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Jordan
  
• Mei Hua, Plum Blossom - Li Xiang-Ian (Shanghai Divas' Lounge)
  
• Tiki Tofu - Calypso King and the Soul Investigators
  
• Fallen Petals - Lu Ming (Shanghai Divas' Lounge)
  
• Monkey Brand Oolong Tea - Shonen Knife
  

Chinatown Strike

Two weeks ago the British Immigration Authority raided restaurants in Chinatown, cracking down on illegal workers. They invited the media along and turned up in bullet proof vests and riot gear. Understandably the residents of Chinatown were not best pleased with this and thought the BIA were using the Chiense community as a scapegoat to meet government targets to deport illegal immigrants. The following week Chinatown went on strike for one hour in protest. Read more here:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/10/384046.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7039952.stm
It is probable that in fact the entire catering trade in London relies on immigrant workers, not just Chinatown. BIA say other raids will be carried out too but so far no news of any in the media....

Pickle Your Own Vegetables

Cheap, easy and delicious, you can keep the vegetables in an air tight jar in your fridge for a few weeks.

Ingredients:
225g Chinese Leaves
2 Fresh Chinese Chillis (don't use Bird's Eye - too spicy)
225g Carrots (peeled)
300g Turnips (peeled)

Pickling brine:
2 tablespoons Ginger
2 tablespoons Garlic
50ml Rice Wine
50ml Rice Wine Vinegar
1.5 litres Water
75g Sugar
50g Salt

Don't feel constrained by the measurments, you can do it by eye and just keep checking the taste is right.

Prepare all the veg - cut the carrots, turnip and washed Chinese leaves into 1inch chunks. Thinly slice fresh chillis, keep the seeds.
Mix all teh pickling ingredients in a large bowl, put the veg in and cover. Let it sit in the fridge for 3-4 days (longer=saltier and spicier so you decide). Drain the veg and rinse well in cold water before putting into an airtight jar. Keep in the fridge for 2-3 weeks.

Serve as a side or just snack on them whenever you feel peckish.

Playlist Tuesday 16th October 2007

• Reggae Popcorn - Laurel Aitken
  
• Movie Stars - The Tiger
  
• Rainbow - Jia Peng Fang
  
• Father and Son Vocal with Erhu - Streets of Lhasa CD on the Sublime Frequencies label
  
• Erhu Solo - Streets of Lhasa CD
  
• Butterfly and Sword Intro - soundclip from the movie
  
• Cats Claw - soundclip from Snake in Eagle's Shadow
  
• Baar Baar Dekho - Mohd Rafi
  
• Heart is Cold - Miriam Yeung and Raymond Lam
  

Yellow Earth Theatre

Phillipe Cherbonnier of Yellow Earth Theatre joined me on my show to talk about Typhoon Live - 2 plays curently being performed in a double bill at The Oval House. Marriage by Yi Kang-baek (South Korea) and Dogs by Elangovan (Singapore).

Two plays are about relationships, Marriage is about the beginning of love, a surreal fable. Whereas Dogs is a cruelly funny story about the end of love.

If you missed the interview it is repeated on Friday at 2pm on 104.4Fm or listen at:
www.resonancefm.com
Find out more at:
www.yellowearth.org

Made in Hong Kong Film Season at ICA

A season of films from Hong Kong is showing at the ICA 12th - 16th October. Ringo Lam's 1997 thriller Full Alert, Ann Hui's Ordinary Lives and the more recent 2006 musical Perhaps Love plus others.....

Ringo Lam is pictured right.