South American festival at Bondi

Hey guys!

I know it's been a while since I did an update but now that I've got a laptop, I can write away on how awesome was that South American festival

was. I couldn't help not resisting those mouthwaterig churros, the long sugary donuts flavoured with chocolate or caramel. I can't help tasting the beautiful blend of cinnamon and sugar which melts in my mouth.



One of the food highlights was the Cuban salad. It has this beautiful

tangy combination of salt, black pepper and vinegar. I loved how the chickpeas and red capsicum go so well together. I have to say how this was a refreshing change to the usual green salads I have during the week.

Besides the food, the performances were eye catching, especially the brilliant combination of martial arts and acrobatics, known as capoeira.

Everytime I head to a Latin-American festival, I always tell myself that I have to watch it. I loved the beats playing as the performers make impressive moves.

Tea Zensations

Since no one has done a blog entry on tea sampling, I thought I'd be the first one to add a tea twist to it given that Chinese New Year celebrations are still going on at the moment. As sweltering as it was today, I couldn't resist the opportunity to get in touch with my culture I was brought up in. Since this was an indoor thing, I much preferred to do something like this where I'd be surrounded by tea fans and foodies, as opposed to dancing in the heat at an outdoor music festival. As I stepped in, I was awed and impressed by the range of clay and porcelein teapots displayed. Immediately, I knew that I was in the right place.


I couldn't wait to sample the different teas. I was surprised that there

were cold teas like the Hibiscus Blossom Tea which was a perfect summer thirst quencher. I couldn't help admiring the ruby red colour which could have been mistaken as a juice. What was even more perfect was the fact that we drank the tea in combination with eating steamed lightly-salted fresh soya beans. Gee, this is really healthy I thought.



Next came along the green tea Long Ching (Dragon Well) tea which comes

from Hangzhou. This is considered to be the most premnium green tea all around. The tea leaves are shaped like a flat sword which gives a cleansing nutty flavour and bitter aftertaste. I could always recall Raymond always smelling the teas and chewing the tea. This went beautifully when eating when buckwheat soup noodles.




Thirdly, there was the Milky Oolong which came from Taiwan. I tried to

emulate and learn how Raymond poured the tea in a cute little cylinder-shaped cup and placed the small bowl-shaped cup on top of the cylinder. He then places his thumb and 2nd finger and turns it upside town and rolls the cylinder in both palms while smelling it at the same time. I could smell and taste the sweet vanilla aroma.

Second last was the Pu-Erh (Vintage Black teas) which was presented as a cake form. I loved it how Raymond described the tea as being "deceptive because most people thought of it as being high in caffeine levels with its dark appearance than green tea leaves when it is actually milder than most green teas. This went perfectly with the assorted Dim Sims.





Then there was the bouquet tea which I could clearly describe it as having

a sea urchin and floral appearance. As I poured, it gave a lovely golden colour. During the numerous tea demos, I noticed how Raymond prepared one of the teas by cleansing the little cups and pouring the tea onto a clay teapot. He emphasised that a good clay teapot should have a lid that tightly seals the fitting. More shots from the session can be seen here.

Chinese New Year markets

I can't believe Chinese New Year has finally arrived! Here I was in Belmore Park across Eddy Ave. I was surrounded by traditional red lanterns hanging in the tree, numerous food and craft stalls, stage performances, cooking demos and more. Interstingly enough, some people were wearing red since red symbolises good luck and fortune especially at this time of the year. Besides the food, I couldn't help checking out the numerous performances happening throughout the day and the mainland Chinese art and craft stalls.



I loved noticing and tasting the variety of Chinese foods, including the

har gow (prawn dumplings), martarmek (Indonesian savoury pancakes filled with shallots, onion and chicken), satays, and Malaysian style sweetpancakes given the variety of stalls. Having tasted the martamek, I thought it was a refreshing change from the spring rolls which is typical of Chinese food. The outside felt like the crunchiness of spring rolls.

But there is more to the markets besides the food. Observing the folk art and the performances helped me to keep in touch with my culture. It raised my awareness of how rich in culture it is, artistically speaking. I personally reckon that these performances and folk art should be done at the Art Gallery of NSW if we are to promote and raise awareness on aspects of Chinese culture, especially for Chinese New Year. I admired the bamboo carvings which dictates scenes of ancient China, papercrafts, traditional Chinese paintings and woodblock printing, and the folk embroidery works on shoe soles. More pics from the markets can be seen here.