Bizarre Food【3】 Tsampa

         The first time I saw Tsampa was in a movie "Hoh Xil", which talks about much Tibetan live including the environment and food. Tsampa is a Tibetan staple foodstuff, particularly prominent in the central part of the region. I have never tried it, but I am curious about it. According to the recipe, Tsampa is roasted flour, usually barley flour and sometimes also wheat flour or rice flour. It is usually mixed with the salty Tibetan butter tea.



How you eat it?

              You leave a little buttered tea in the bottom of your bowl and put a big dollop of tsampa on top of it. You stir gently with the forefinger, then knead with the hand, meanwhile twisting your bowl round and round until you finish up with a large dumplinglike object which you proceed to ingest, washing it down with more tea. The whole operation demands a high degree of manual dexterity, and you need a certain amount of practical experience before you can judge correctly how much tsampa goes with how much tea. Until you get these proportions right the end product is apt to turn into either a lump of desiccated dough or else a semiliquid paste which sticks to your fingers. Sometimes you lace this preparation with a form of powdered milk, made from curds which have been dried in the sun.
                Tsampa is quite simple to prepare; indeed, it is known as a convenience food and often used by sherpas, nomads, and other travelers. While traditional tsampa is prepared with tea, water or beer are sometimes used in its place. It may also be prepared as a porridge.
  salty Tibetan butter tea

Cultural significance

         Tsampa is sometimes called the national food of Tibet. Besides constituting a substantial, arguably predominant part of the Tibetan diet, its prominence also derives from the tradition of throwing pinches of tsampa in the air during many Buddhist rituals. It is believed that tsampa throwing actually predates Buddhist beliefs in the area, originally used as an offering to animistic gods to request their protection. The tradition was consequently incorporated into Buddhism as a "mark of joy and celebration" used at celebratory occasions such as marriages and birthdays. Today it is particularly known in that regard for its use in New Year celebrations, where it is accompanied by chanted verses expressing the desire for good luck in the forthcoming year, for both oneself and others. Tsampa-throwing also occurs at most Buddhist funerals, where the action is intended to release the soul of the deceased.
        Tsampa is used in a number of other ways. Mashes of tsampa and cumin are sometimes applied to toothaches or other sore spots. Tsampa is also known among Tibetan sportsmen for its ability to provide rapid energy boosts; the roasting of the flour breaks it down to an easily digestible state, allowing the calories therein to be quickly incorporated by the body.
        Reflecting its foundational role in Tibetan culture, "Tsampa" is also the name of a Tibetan typeface.

Bizarre Food【2】Garlic Ice Cream

What does Garlic Ice Cream taste like?
Garlic and Ice Cream can match? It is bizarre for me! I have not tried it. According to what people say online the garlic ice cream tastes like vanilla ice cream flecked with minced mild garlic. The sweet ice cream seems to tame the garlic, which holds its flavor but didn’t take over.

Where can find Garlic Ice Cream?
Gilroy, California is the self-proclaimed "Garlic Capitol of the World." Their annual festival features garlic being used in virtually everyway imaginable. So it's no surprise that it ended up in an ice cream recipe. Each year Vic's is contracted to produce three gallons of garlic ice cream for the Gilroy Garlic Festival in Gilroy, California. 




How to make Garlic Ice Cream?
Makes 1 quart
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:
2 cups whole milk
1 clove garlic, minced
1 vanilla bean, split in half, and the seeds scraped out and reserved
1 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
8 egg yolks

Preparation:
1. Put milk, garlic, vanilla pod and seeds in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat and remove immediately.
2. In mixing bowl, whisk the cream, sugar and egg yolks until combined. Whisking constantly, slowly strain the hot milk mixture into the egg and sugar mixture.
3. Return the mixture to the pan and stir continuously over low heat until it thickens slightly, and coats the back of a spoon, about 10-12 minutes. Do not boil!
4. Pour in a bowl and chill over an ice bath. Pour into ice cream machine and churn until done. Freeze until ready to serve.

Bizarre Food【1】: Century Egg

Chinese Bizarre Food - Century Egg

This is a common food in my daily life. I often eat it with porridge and tofu. Once, my roommate, an Australia girl, found it was unbelievable that I was eating a "black egg". Then, I found that this is a bizarre food for some people who have never seen it. Century Egg is also known as a “thousand year” or “preserved egg”, century Egg is a traditional Chinese delicacy, which is very popular. Unlike the name suggests, the duck, quail or chicken egg in question is not really a thousand years old. The eggs are actually preserved in an alkaline mixture of lime, tea, salt and wood ash for several weeks or months. The preparation method makes the shell look aged and the egg-white shiny amber. The gray yolk develops rich, pungent flavor compounds, often reminiscent of strong cheese or even ammonia. Myriad condiments, sesame oil and soy sauce help to round out the powerful, distinctive taste of the eggs.

How to make it?

The traditional method for producing century eggs is a development and improvement from the aforementioned primitive process. Instead of using just clay, a mixture of wood ash, quicklime, and salt is included in the plastering mixture, thereby increasing its pH and sodium content. This addition of natural alkaline compounds improved the odds of creating century eggs instead of spoilage and also increased the speed of the process. A recipe for creating century eggs through this process starts with the infusion of three pounds of tea in boiling water. To the tea, three pounds of quicklime (or seven pounds when the operation is performed in winter), nine pounds of sea salt, and seven pounds of wood ash from burned oak is mixed into a smooth paste. While wearing gloves to prevent the lime corroding the skin, each egg is individually covered by hand, then rolled in a mass of rice chaff to keep the eggs from adhering to one another before they are placed in cloth-covered jars or tightly woven baskets. The mud slowly dries and hardens into a crust over several months, and then the eggs are ready for consumption.

How to cook it?
Century eggs can be eaten without further preparation, on their own or as a side dish. The Cantonese wrap chunks of this egg with slices of pickled ginger root (sometimes sold on a stick as street food). A Shanghainese recipe mixes chopped century eggs with chilled tofu. In Taiwan, it is popular to eat century eggs on top of cold tofu with katsuobushi, soy sauce, and sesame oil in a style similar to Japanese hiyayakko. A variation of this recipe common in northern China is to slice century eggs over chilled silken (soft) tofu, adding liberal quantities of shredded young ginger and chopped spring onions as a topping, and then drizzling light soy sauce and sesame oil over the dish, to taste. They are also used in a dish called old-and-fresh eggs, where chopped century eggs are combined with (or used to top) an omelet made with fresh eggs. Some Chinese households cut them up into small chunks and cook them with rice porridge to create "century egg and lean pork congee". This is sometimes served in dim sum restaurants.

• cold and dressed with sauce

• Century eggs with tofu

• century egg and lean pork congee

  -Kexin Yu
Feb.1,2012