วันพฤหัสบดีที่ 30 กันยายน พ.ศ. 2553

Birthday Cake Design Ideas You Can Use Easily

Every birthday is a special day that deserves recognition and celebration. These are days that can commemorate the accomplishments of the past year or give good wishes for the year to come.

No matter whether the birthday is for someone who is six or sixty, a magnificent cake will help create an unforgettable memory. Any time you have to create a birthday masterpiece there are a couple of things to keep in mind: the celebrant's interests and your own abilities.

For non-bakers, consider getting yourself a cake decorating kit. These will have tools to help you create many different designs easily with your icing. Instead of simply writing "Happy Birthday _______", try to put some substance around it. A theme is a good idea. Many popular books, movies, and TV shows have toys, cards, and novelty items that can be used on a cake.

It is easy to make a basic rectangular cake, frost it green, make white, regularly spaced lines on it, and with a couple of plastic novelty toys you have a football field for the sports lover.

Another easy sport cake is a round cake frosted white with red, curved, dotted lines to make a baseball.

If you have a bit more baking experience you may want to build the cake up a bit. Creating a completely edible landscape cake can be lots of fun. If your child is interested in science you can bake one rectangular cake, two dome cakes (one baked in a 4-liter pyrex bowl and the other in a 2-liter bowl), and cupcakes. The rectangular cake is frosted green (or any other color to make a landscape).

The dome cakes are placed on the rectangular cake, the largest first and the smaller on top of it, with a cupcake placed on top of the smaller cake. This creates a mountain or volcano that can be covered with chocolate frosting.

If you want it to be a volcano you can scoop out the top of the cupcake and use a red frosting or homemade candy lava to put in the top of the cupcake and run rivulets down the side.

Use toys to place it in a forest or city, or use different colored frosting to put it near a river. If you want to use vanilla frosting, it can become a winter scene with a ski hill. Cakes can be really versatile!

Technically oriented individuals can try to take it to the next level: animated cakes. These cakes have moving parts and work well with a theme based cake. For example, if your child loves fairies you can make a rectangular cake. Using icing and fondant cover it with flowers, or other forest ground cover. A 30rpm motor will work with most things, but double check for yours. Place the motor inside half a plastic bottle covered in fondant to look like a stump. Use paper or light plastic fairies and attach them to the motor with thin wire to spin around the cake! You are limited only by your imagination.

วันพุธที่ 29 กันยายน พ.ศ. 2553

What Does The Word Naruto From the Anime in Japanese Truly Mean?

As enthusiasts of the animation Naruto, we've all heard about the word Naruto, but do you know what it truly means? In Japanese it actually stands for a type of Japanese fish cake. This particular fish cake is often seen with pink surroundings and designs that is seen as a simple spiral form.

Believe it or not, it is often eaten alongside with soups and noodles. Yes, this will include the ramen that Naruto from the animation that he enjoys. If you examine the fishcakes carefully, you would also notice that the head protector that Naruto wears looks very much the same as the food itself. From the head protector, thus you'll realize that Kanoha is really revolved around this food and it's kinda interesting to see that these little facts actually ties in together to the centric part of the storyline in this animation.

Besides the fact that it is being seen as a traditional Japanese dish fish cakes, Naruto is also an actual city in Japan located in Tokushima a bit towards the southern part of Japan from the central divider. The city itself is quite small with a population of only 63,784 currently shown on their city's official website. This city was founded in the March of 1947 and as you can see that the city itself is still relatively new in comparison with other parts of Japan. One of the most interesting facts about the city is that it contains the first two of the 88 Shikoku Pilgrimage Buddhist temples. Now what makes this fact stands out is the looks of the people from the temple and what they wear.

Yes, those traditional Buddhist clothings that pilgrims wear are closely resembled to ones that the Hokage's in the animation wear starting with how they dress all the way to their hats and accessories. So the next time you watch Naruto episodes again, you'll know exactly where it's origin as well as where the little facts tie up together. I truly believe a lot of time has spent in the making of this animation from the Japanese to implement various names, clothing, as well as signs to symbolize the meanings of the traditional Japanese culture. It is truly a masterpiece by all means.

วันอังคารที่ 28 กันยายน พ.ศ. 2553

Make Massive Profits Buying From Wholesale Craft Suppliers

If you are into the business of selling crafts, the way to ensure your success is by getting quality products at great prices. That is how wholesale craft suppliers come into the picture. If you are into a retail business, regardless of what you are selling, you need to get your products from wholesalers. This is the only way you can get the products at the lowest prices, allowing you to command more profit on each item. After all, buying in bulk allows for bigger discounts.

Therefore, if you have a store offering arts and crafts, you can get a good deal from a wholesale craft supplier. However, since there are a lot of them out there, how will you know which ones to choose? Below is a shortlist of the best ones in the market for your guidance. These wholesale craft suppliers are capable of giving the best discounts to bulk buyers.

One of the best choices is the Oriental Treasures which is based in Seoul, South Korea and offers accessories such as costume jewelries that can export the materials to your place of business. Another one is Toy Galaxy Order which offers free shipping and handling from NY, USA to your location of business as long as your order will not go lower than $1000.

Bulk orders will even give you a dollar a piece discount for selected toys. Handee Products of Canada and Craft-Hobby Wholesale of California are both wholesalers of assorted crafts and novelty items which can be perfect for your retail business. If you want to fill your own store with plastic stuff toys, Noodle Head, Inc of Washington, USA is a great supplier. For more crafts materials such as country wood crafts, figurines, laser crystals, candles, etc., you may outsource from Whimsy Doodles L.L.C. There are still a lot of great wholesale craft suppliers out there that you may want to try out like Worldus, Inc., Naturalstar, Inc., Fun Express and Rocky Road.

The good thing is, all these suppliers have a website in the internet that also displays and describes all the items they are offering for sale. They also indicate their prices and discounts as well as their minimums for each item. You can easily access their sites and browse the products. Once you are convinced with your choices, you can already order online and wait or the delivery in your location.

วันจันทร์ที่ 27 กันยายน พ.ศ. 2553

How to Make Sushi Part 1 - Extreme Sushi Explosion, Kapow!

Let's talk about Japan's greatest creation, just barely edging out Ghost in the Shell, bento, Otsuka Ai, Iron Chef, comedy routines based on torturing Morning Musume and Pocky. Sushi!

First, we have to clear up one of the most common misunderstandings in multicultural culinary experience. Sushi is a category of traditional Japanese food consisting mainly of rice mixed with seasoned vinegar, seaweed, vegetables and either cooked or raw fish. The fish doesn't have to be raw, people! In Japan raw fish is more often used, but it's still perfectly "authentic" using cooked. Actually, till now I've held a general rule that I won't eat raw fish unless I'm somewhere on the coast, but lately I've heard from a lot of people saying that this is mainly a paranoid fear story that we get fed, and raw fish off a fishmonger or supermarket shelf is quite safe to eat.

Anyway, on with the sushi thing. I'll talk about ingredients and preparation today, and construction tomorrow, as I think this is a subject which deserves detailed attention.

First, you need the right rice. This is easier to obtain than you might have been told - a lot of places (I see it mostly in health food shops) sell "sushi rice" which is usually overpriced and not particularly special. I have made great sushi from this, from arborio rice (italian risotto rice), pudding rice and regular big huge economy bag short grain rice. As long as it's short grain and cooked the right way, it'll be fine.

"Cooked right" means cooked the way I'm about to tell you, no deviations. This method of rice cooking is 100% bullet-proof and 99% idiot-proof. It's derived from the guidance of Yasuko-San, who is an actual bona fide Japanese mother. You do not mess with a Japanese mother when it comes to cooking rice. You shut up and cook the darn rice they way they tell you to. Actually I had to adjust the figures a bit because the rice we get over here has a different absorption ratio, but the principle still stands.

(for 2-3 people) Take one and a half cups of short grain rice, wash it till the water runs clean, and put it in a saucepan with 3 cups of water. The saucepan must have a tight-fitting lid. Now, put the saucepan on a medium heat, and simmer it for 15 minutes. DO NOT move the lid at any time or Yasuko-san will find you and beat you with her samoji*.

Now, crank the heat up to the top and cook the rice for 1 full minute. You should hear it start to sizzle at the bottom of the pan at the end of the minute. If you're using electric hobs (as I am cursed with, living in a high-rise), have a hob preheated to high heat and just slide the pan over onto it. Then take it off the heat, with the lid STILL TIGHTLY ON, and let it stand for 10 minutes WITHOUT TOUCHING THE DARN LID.

Rice cooked in this way will have the perfect consistency, will need no draining (because all the water is absorbed), and actually tastes better. For long grain rice, it will be firm and smooth - with a quarter teaspoon of salt added to the boiling water, I'll eat a plain bowl of white rice cooked this way with gusto. For short grain rice it will be sticky but the grains will keep their shape, perfect for sushi or rice balls. All hail Yasuko-san! Ganbatte! Ganbarimasu!

For the seasoned vinegar, combine a quarter cup of white wine vinegar (best of all rice wine vinegar), 1 and a half tablespoons of sugar and 3/4 teaspoon of salt in a small pan, and heat it just to boiling so it all dissolves. Once the rice has finished its 10 minutes rest, spread it out in a shallow container (I use my vertical-sided saute pan which is perfect) and drizzle the vinegar mixture over it, then dig it in well with a spatula or wooden spoon. Try not to squash the grains too much, you want them firm and well-shaped for perfect sushi.

Now you need to cool the rice before rolling. A real sushi chef would fan it by hand. Actually, scratch that, a real professional sushi chef would have one of his underpaid kitchen monkeys fan it by hand. Fortunately we have the benefits of modern technology, and an almost-total disregard for tradition. Stick it in front of an electric fan for about a minute, then dig it around with a spatula to bring the hot rice from the bottom to the top, and leave it there for another minute. This will leave the rice cool, and slightly drier (but still moist and sticky enough to shape well).

So you've got your rice ready, perfectly cooked and seasoned, awaiting your rolling skills. Now all that remains is the final transformation. Find out more tomorrow, as we venture deeper into the world of sushi! Thrills, spills and seaweed! There's danger at every turn!

* Rice paddle

วันอาทิตย์ที่ 26 กันยายน พ.ศ. 2553

Lobster Tanks

Lobsters are not fish, but air breathing animals. Thus, an oxygen-enriched environment is always essential for their existence. Without this, they would drown. Instead of blood and muscles, lobsters gain their strength from internal fluids that they keep pushing from one body chamber to another and hence known to be hydraulically operated. Lobsters have hard shells that have given them the name of crustaceans. Their body fluid is an integral part of their existence losing which the body begins to fall apart and the hard shells start becoming soft and slimy. The death of a lobster is marked by their body elements falling apart with the tail separating from the body first and exposing the meat. Keeping lobsters in tanks, therefore, needs special care and maintenance of specific environmental conditions.

One of the most essential aspects is to maintain the balance of environment in the tank. Biological filters such as pads, bio rocks, and other elements in the tank are required to support living bacteria, which break down the pollutants thrown out by the lobsters and in the process maintain the balance of the environment. The amount of bacteria is crucial to balance the system, as their levels rise and fall according to the amount of lobsters inside the tank. According to researches, the amount of lobsters needs to be equal to the amount of bacteria. In case of any disparity in the amounts of the two, the bacteria get outnumbered and hence are not able to destroy the increased amount of waste in the tank, leading to a fast destruction and death of the lobsters and the bacteria.

The load levels of the tank also need to be as consistent as possible, and need to be increased gradually over a period of days and never in seconds. Some of the essential equipment to maintain the tank environment includes air pumps, air stones, air tube assembly, and carbon pouches. Also essential are false bottoms or bio-pads, oxygen reactor, filter pads, clear plastic lids and water pumps. Carbon trays, carbon canisters, chillers, and pre-filter suitcases equally contribute to creating and maintaining the right environment. Lobster tanks of different shapes and sizes can be found and bought online.

วันเสาร์ที่ 25 กันยายน พ.ศ. 2553

Miku Hatsune "Scrap & Build" off articulate adaptation (HQ Audio )

From NicoNicoDouga: 【初音ミク(40㍍)】Scrap&Build【オリジナル】 www.nicovideo.jp "40㍍P" Original Off Vocal MP3 ━━━━ Romaji Lyrics ━━━━ 冷たい太陽が私を照らしたtsumetai taiyoo ga watashi wo terashi-ta 剥き出しの心が凍えてしまったmuki-dashi no kokoro ga kogoe-te shimatta 機動力を失って 燃料は枯れ果ててanata wo ushinat-te namida wa kare hate-te 私はここから歩き出せないのwatashi wa koko kara aruki dase-nai no 嘘のような真実と 本当のような妄想のuso no you-ona shinjitsu to honto no yoo na moo-soo no 狭間で私は 壊レテシマッタhazama de watashi wa koware-te shimatta むせ返るほどの熱い口づけをAh muse-kae-ru hodo-no atsui kuchi-zuke wo 私にください 愛してくださいwatashi ni kuda-sai aishite kuda-sai 汚れてしまった 私を許してyogore-te shimatta watashi wo yurushi-te あなたのその手で 私を壊してanata no sono te de watashi wo kowashi-te 錆び付いた記憶が蝕まれていくsabi tsui-ta kioku ga mushi-bamare-te yuku あなたの笑顔を思い出せないのanata no egao mo omoi dase-nai no 腐敗した心が朽ち果てる前にfuhai shita kokoro ga kuchi hate-ru mae ni もう一度あなたに会いに行きたくてmoo-ichido anata ni aini yukita-ku te 動き出した本能と 抑えきれない感情でugoki dashi-ta hon-noo to osae kire-nai kan-joo de 壊れた心が蘇っていくんだkoware-ta kokoro ga yomigaet-te yuku-n da 飲み込めないほどの冷たい口づけをAh nomi kome-nai hodo no tsumeta-i kuchi-zuke wo 私にください 愛してくださいwatashi ni kuda-sai aishi-te kuda-sai 消えゆく記憶に あなたを焼き付けるkie yuku kioku ni anata wo yaki tsuke-ru それ以外に ...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93QrwAEBhCQ&hl=en

วันศุกร์ที่ 24 กันยายน พ.ศ. 2553

Use Great Kitchen Appliances for Great Cooking Recipes

I love purchasing kitchen appliances online or in store and think there is nothing better than cooking for your family for a lovely evening in with a nice bottle of wine and food. I would always recommend purchase state of the art, good quality equipment so that you can prepare your food in the best possible way. I've written one of my favourite recipes below which would be prepared well with good equipment and is easy to prepare. I hope you'll find this recipe helpful and enjoyable.

I love beetroot, new potato and goats cheese salads and this should take around 10 minutes to prepare and should be cooked for around 50 minutes. It should also serve around four people.

For this salad you'll need 1lb of small beetroots, olive oil, cumin seeds, salt and pepper along with 12 oz of new potatoes, 100g of goat's cheese, watercress rocket and spinach leaves, honey and balsamic vinegar.

Before preparing your salad I would preheat the oven to 200 degrees centigrade. I would remove the skin from the beetroot and then cut them into ¼'s.

Get a tray for the oven and add the olive oil, cumin seeds, salt and pepper and 60 ml water and then place the beetroot in. Cover this with foil and roast of 40 minutes until tender.

Boil the potatoes in salted water over the hob for around 10 minutes until soft and then drain.
Mix a tsp honey, 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar and 3 tbsp of olive oil together and add any extra seasoning if you wish.

Add all the ingredients together and serve to friends and family. This recipe is great in the summer or as a starter.

วันพฤหัสบดีที่ 23 กันยายน พ.ศ. 2553

Discover Ipoh - Food, limestone caves, Ipoh Malaysia Hotel

If you take a full-circle panoramic view of Ipoh Malaysia, you will notice that the city is surrounded by limestone hill range at all angles. This unique natural landmark of Ipoh has made her well known as a hill city in Malaysia.

Limestone caves:

The hill city therefore has a lot to offer with its natural limestone arts. The formation of the stalagmites and the stalactites in the cavern are unique to any limestone hill. The stalagmites grow upward from the ground and meet with the stalagmites from the roof and form a solid column. The formation of these colorful arts by dripping of mineral-rich water from the roof has taken place since 400 million years ago.

The most visited limestone attractions in Ipoh are Perak Tong, Sam Poh Tong and Kek Lok Tong. These caves are the home to many Buddhas' statues. Some of these caverns have a few hundred meters in length, and are connected to a few small valleys at the back of the hills. The only way to access to these isolated valleys is by passing through the long cave tunnels. For those who prefer something a little more challenging, you can join the cave expedition tour at Gua Tempurung. There are four tours offered which will lead you to different segments of the limestone hills and caverns. The longest tour requires 3.5 hours to complete. If you go with this longest Grand Tour, you will need to turn on your torchlight and hike in the underground creek to move forward.

Ipoh food:

Ipoh is very popular for its Chinese cuisine. The symbolic food is Chinese dim sum, noodle dish of white rice and bean sprout oil and chicken cooked with soy sauce and sesame oil. The hill town is also famous for its fruits as Pamela, guavas and durian. Located in downtown Kuala Lumpur and Penang, Ipoh attracts visitors travel to the north-south motorway take stock of food.

Hotels in Ipoh:

There are a number of hotels in Ipoh for your holiday comfort. L 'Syuen Hotel Ipoh is located on the site strategy, the location offers easy access to shopping malls and restaurants in the area allowed. Other flagship hotel is the Impiana Casuarina Hotel Ipoh. Click belowfor more information on hotels in Ipoh.

http://www.all-traveldeals.com/clk_hotels/malaysia/hotels_in_ipoh.htm

วันอังคารที่ 21 กันยายน พ.ศ. 2553

4 Reasons to Visit Tokyo

Buzzing with excitement, this Japanese city is situated in the center of Asia Pacific travel. Fast-paced and complex, Tokyo is not only a popular tourist destination, but the trendiest place to live as well. Though there are a number of reasons to visit this bustling city, we've come up with the four main reasons for Tokyo travel.

1 Food, Food, Food - There are over 200,000 restaurants and bars scattered throughout the city and, while you obviously must indulge in some quality sushi if you're enjoying some Tokyo travel, there are a range of cultures and countries represented in the city's eateries. Like everything else, meals are a constant in Tokyo and you'll find many restaurants open 24 hours or until the wee hours of the night. Restaurants range from stand up noodle shops and pizzerias to sushi and kaiseki restaurants, which offer an elaborate multi-course meal. Because the apartments and living quarters are so small in the city, most of the locals dine out quite often, so be ready to mingle!

2) Shopping - Tokyo has become a major shopping destination for those who crave everything from designer duds to the latest and greatest in technological advances. Whether you're browsing the cheap finds in one of the city's many indoor and outdoor marketplaces or indulging in a more relaxing, upscale environment amongst designer stores, you can rest assured that if you need something, you'll find it here. When in doubt, try one of Tokyo's impressive department stores, which are the biggest out of any city in the world.

3) Nightlife - From traditional pubs and classy bars to nightclubs and discos, there's always something to do at night in Tokyo. Those lucky enough to enjoy Asia Pacific travel should take advantage of the city's late-night lifestyle and let loose a bit. Surrounded by lit paper lanterns and bright neon lights, the entertainment districts in the city are every bit as busy at 4am as they are at 9pm, so be prepared to party early in to the morning.

4) Culture - Beneath the city's busy, modern appearance is a world of old Japanese culture and history waiting to be discovered. Enjoy Tokyo travel with visits to one of the city's many temples or take in a traditional Kabuki performance. Just because Tokyo is more westernized than any other city in the east doesn't mean that all that culture isn't there, you just have to know where to find it!

วันจันทร์ที่ 20 กันยายน พ.ศ. 2553

World Tour - Ethnically Diverse Neighborhoods of Sydney Offer Culinary Delights

When most people think of the Australia, they think of the iconic Sydney Opera House, or perhaps the Harbour Bridge or even cuddly koalas and kangaroos. But in addition to beautiful buildings, landscape and an abundance of unique wildlife and plants, Sydney offers a variety of international cuisine that has caused even some of the world's best chefs to take off their chef coats and see what is happening in the ethnically diverse kitchens down under.

In the inner west neighborhood of Haberfield, known for its great Italian patisseries and restaurants, locals and visitors arrive early in the morning for some of the best coffee and croissants in the city. It is not uncommon to arrive early just as the baker is wiping off his chef pants and serving the morning's first batch of almond croissants. Combine the flaky pastry with a flat white and locals and tourists alike are ready to start the day. By dinnertime, the smell of pizzas and homemade pasta begin to permeate the air. In warmer months, many restaurant patrons chose a table outside on busy Ramsay Street, the city's most famous street for a good Italian meal. Most restaurants are BYO, so guests can opt to bring their favorite wine to accompany the meal.

In nearby Ashfield, Chinese food reigns supreme. You might not be able to read the menu or correctly pronounce the name on the chef jacket, but this friendly, laidback neighborhood offers everything from Northern Beijing-style cuisine to staples such as dumplings and duck. Try the shallot pancakes, garlic green beans and salt and pepper prawns for an evening to remember. Ashfield represents another colorful Sydney neighborhood where you can eat and feel like a local.

The Sydney suburb of Marrrickville is known for its strong Vietnamese influence. There is not a better way to battle a cool Sydney day than by warming up with a hot bowl of Pho. This is a traditional raw beef and noodle soup served with lemon wedges, chili, mint and bean sprouts. Patrons can flavor the soup from hot to mild. And after warming up with Pho, you can sample some handmade prawn rice paper rolls to complete your meal. Most of the restaurants in the area are very affordable, which leave more money to explore the other sights and sounds of the city.

วันอาทิตย์ที่ 19 กันยายน พ.ศ. 2553

History of the Noni Fruit

Traditional cultures have long used the fruit, bark, leaves, and roots of noni fruit. They have used it as food, medicine, and dye. The noni tree is native to Southeast Asia, but also grows in neighboring India and the Pacific Islands, and as far as New Zealand, Australia, and South America.

It is said that Polynesian Islanders first cultivated and domesticated the noni tree over 2,000 years ago. They used the leaves and fruit as a topical medicine, applying it to boils, lesions, and other skin maladies.

Various other cultures have used the fruit as famine food, livestock feed, topical and internal medicine, and dye. People in China, Japan, and Hawaii have used noni to treat fever, as well as problems with eyes, skin, gums, throat, stomach, digestion, and respiration. In Malaysia and the Philippines, the leaves have been used to relieve cough, nausea, colic, and arthritis. In Indonesia, the fruit has been eaten for asthma, lumbago, and dysentery.

The noni tree, and more specifically its fruit, has been scientifically studied for decades. In 1972, a scientist named Maria Stewart reported that native Hawaiians solve many of their medical problems by drinking noni fruit juice. A University of Hawaii professor named R.M. Heinicke latched on to this idea and began a 20-year study into the properties of noni fruit. In the 1990's, when he pronounced the existence of an unknown molecule responsible for noni's health value, people began paying more attention to the fruit. A multi-level marketing company called Morinda began marketing products made from noni fruit. Since then, demand for the fruit has increased dramatically.

วันเสาร์ที่ 18 กันยายน พ.ศ. 2553

Cool and Innovative Branding - The Forbidden Fruit of Information Technology

Today the Apple brandmark stands for innovation, reliability and cool products. It reflects functionality, balanced with product beauty. The company has managed to turn the box of wires hidden in the study into a "must-have" lifestyle item. Few people realise that we could have had iPod and iPhone mobile digital devices (iPod and iPhone) and iMac computers (iMac) 10 years earlier. Still fewer people realise how Apple is going to change their lives and affect their future.

Chased out of paradise through the Windows of Bill Gates

In the late 1970s, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak created the Apple Macintosh, commonly shortened to Apple Mac, the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a graphical user interface (GUI, pronounced gooey) instead of a command-line interface.

In the early 1980s, Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential of the mouse-driven GUI. Jef Raskin, an Apple employee, who envisioned an easy-to-use, low-cost computer for the average consumer, wanted to name the computer after his favourite type of apple, the McIntosh, but the name had to be changed for legal reasons. The brandmark, an apple with a bite taken out of it signifying the tasting of the forbidden fruit, truly delivered just that. In 1985, the combination of the Mac, Apple's LaserWriter printer and Mac-specific software such as Aldus PageMaker, enabled users to design, preview and print page layouts complete with text and graphics - an activity which would become known as desktop publishing (DTP). Initially, DTP was unique to the Macintosh (yes, there was life before Microsoft and Bill Gates), but eventually became available to IBM PC users as well.

The company's substantial market share dissipated in the 1990s as the personal computer (PC) market shifted towards PCs that were IBM-compatible when Microsoft started running its Windows operating system (Windows) instead of the outdated and cumbersome MS-DOS operating system (MS-DOS). For many serious computer enthusiasts, Windows was seen as a rip-off of Apple's operating system, compliments of Mr Gates. That did not stop Bill's appetite; The Microsoft Internet Explorer Internet browser (Internet Explorer) is another rip-off - this time with Netscape as the victim.

In 1988, Apple sued Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard for infringement of its copyrighted GUI, citing the use of rectangular, overlapping and resizable windows. Unfortunately for PC users worldwide, the case was decided against Apple after four years, as were later appeals. I say unfortunately because the world would have been a better place if Apple had been allowed to become the dominant desktop computer. Imagine what life would have been like if we had the iPod, iMac and iPhone 10 years earlier!

In 1998, Apple consolidated multiple consumer-level desktop models into the "Bondi Blue" iMac G3 all-in-one, which was a massive sales success and revitalised the Macintosh brand. One of the first products made under CEO Steve Jobs since he left the company in the mid-1980s, it brought Apple back into profitability. Its translucent blue plastic case, later in many other colours, is considered an industrial design hallmark of the late 1990s. By introducing colour, Steve Jobs shifted the paradigm from Henry Ford's (Gates/Dell) famous statement that you could have any colour as long as it was black (grey) to any colour you wanted. Companies treated Apple Macs as a fashion accessory. Receptionists displayed iMacs on their desks, regardless of the suicide blonde (dyed by her own hand) receptionist's own computer literacy.

Apple's focus on design has allowed each of its subsequent products to create a distinctive identity, and Steve Jobs famously declared that "the back of our computer looks better than the front of anyone else's." The iMac was recognisable on television, in films and in print. This increased Apple's brand awareness and embedded the iMac in popular culture.

The iMac and other Macintosh computers can also be seen in various movies, commercials, and TV shows (both live action and animated). The iMac has also received considerable critical acclaim as the "Gold Standard of desktop computing". Forbes magazine describes the original candy-coloured line of iMac computers as being an "industry-altering success".

The "blue and white" artistic look was applied to the Power Macintosh. The later iMac and eMac computers were accompanied by a new design, dropping the array of colours in favour of white plastic. Current Mac systems are targeted mainly at the home, education and creative professional markets, and use aluminium enclosures. Today many PCs are more design-conscious than before the iMac's introduction. Multi-shaded design schemes are now quite common and some desktops and laptops are available in colourful, decorative patterns.

Apple's use of translucent candy-coloured plastics inspired similar designs in other consumer goods. Grilling machines, portable electronics, pencil sharpeners, video game consoles and peripherals (including the Nintendo 64, which was released in special edition "Funtastic" colours), featured the translucent plastic. Apple's introduction of the iPod, iBook G3 and iMac G4, all featuring snowy white plastic, inspired similar designs in consumer electronic products.

In recent years, Apple has seen a significant boost in sales of Macs. This is due, in part, to the success of the iPod, a halo effect where satisfied iPod owners purchase more Apple equipment. iPods have recaptured the brand awareness of the Mac line that had not been seen since its original release in 1984. From 2001 to 2007, Mac sales increased continuously on an annual basis. In October 2007, Apple reported a shipment of 2 164 000 Macs, exceeding the previous company record for quarterly Mac shipments by more than 20%.

The ability and option to run Windows on the same hardware means that the much larger Windows software base is not excluded. Apple have made their technology more accessible and reduced some of the resistance to change that the PC Windows users might have felt. In the first quarter of 2008, Apple Mac computers made up a total of 66% of all computers sold above US$1 000 and 14% of all computers sold. Market research indicates that Apple draws its customer base from a higher-income demographic base than the mainstream PC market.

Steve's new job in paradise

Steve Jobs, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Apple Inc and the former CEO of Pixar Animation Studios, is a quirky, individualistic Silicon Valley entrepreneur, emphasising the importance of design while understanding the crucial role aesthetics play in public appeal. Steve Jobs himself can be seen as a large part of Apple's branding success. Steve Jobs is Apple. Some brands use superstars - Apple used Steve. His work in driving forward the development of products that are both functional and elegant, has earned him a devoted following.

Today, Apple computers are recognised for their innovative, easy-to-operate GUI and reliability, which includes resistance to viruses. This is due to a smaller user base, which equates to a smaller target. In addition, in the average hacker's code of ethics, Microsoft is seen as the baddies, and Linux and Apple as the goodies, resulting in fewer viruses being targeted at Apple's operating system.

Moreover, Apple computers did not suffer from the Y2K syndrome because someone used his noodle when writing the code for the date line. I think Y2K was a case of Revenge of the Nerds. The fact that countries where very little was spent on tackling the Y2K bug (such as Italy and South Korea) fared just as well as those that spent much more (such as the United Kingdom and the United States) has generated a heated debate on whether the absence of computer failures was the result of the preparation undertaken or whether the significance of the problem had been overstated.

In recent years, Apple Inc has branched out, introducing and improving upon other digital consumer electronics. With the introduction of the iPod, iTunes application program and the iTunes Store, the company has made forays into consumer electronics and music distribution. Apple focused its development on the iPod line's unique user interface and its ease of use, rather than on technical capability. The Apple iPod, like the iMac, has become a fashion accessory and is sold alongside lipstick, clothes and other fashion goods. For Valentine's Day 2009, Apple Online Stores offered free engraving on the iPod which comes in nine vivid colours with a curved, all aluminium and glass design.

Teenagers think it is the ultimate status symbol that outclasses all other MP3 players and Apple's famous brandmark is often displayed on vehicles, signifying the owners' status as an iPod owner. iPods have won several awards, ranging from engineering excellence, to most innovative audio product, to fourth-best computer product of 2006, and PC World says that the iPod line has "altered the landscape for portable audio players". Several industries and companies such as Sony Ericsson and Nokia are modifying their products to work better with both the iPod line and the AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) format.

In addition to their reputation as respected entertainment devices, iPods have also become accepted as business devices. Government departments, major institutions and international organisations have turned to the iPod line as a delivery mechanism for business communication and training - Duke University in the United States has provided iPods to all incoming freshmen since 2004.

Interestingly, in 2006 analysts downgraded Apple's forecast earnings, citing the market saturation of the iPod as the reason. They were wrong; in April 2007, it was announced that Apple had sold its one-hundred-millionth iPod and, by September 2008, more than 173-million iPods have been sold worldwide, making it the best-selling digital audio player series in history, with a market share of 73%.

 In 2007, Apple entered the cellular phone business with the introduction of the cool iPhone, a multi-touch display cellphone with a magnificent user interface, iPod, and Internet device. The Apple iPhone, like the iPod, rivals all competition such as the geeky Blueberry and the H◊@$& Windows something. Damn, I can never remember Hdpt Tytn and had to look it up on Google. Judging from the geeks' blogs and the rapid decrease in market share, it is no surprise: the Hdpt Tytn abortion runs on Windows Mobile software (Windows Mobile) developed by Bill's army of self-absorbed pizza-gobbling techies and Window Washers.

 There are currently more than 25 000 applications available for the iPhone and even an application called Kindle for iPhone. It supports Amazon's Kindle, a software and hardware platform developed by Amazon.com for reading e-books and other digital media. No other smartphone is capable of this, so now you can read a Kindle e-book on your iPhone.

 In 2001, Apple entered the retail market with its first Apple Retail Store, dealing in computers and consumer electronics. As of February 2009, Apple has opened 251 Apple Retail Stores worldwide, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Australia, Switzerland, Italy, Germany and China.

The stores carry Apple computers, software, iPods, iPhones, third-party accessories and other consumer electronics such as the Apple TV. Many stores feature a theatre for presentations and workshops, the Studio for training with Apple products, and all stores offer a Genius Bar for technical support and repairs, as well as offering free workshops to the public.

Every Apple Retail Store has a variety of highly trained staff members for specific tasks. A Concierge performs assorted customer service tasks, a Specialist answers technical questions about Apple products, as well as third-party accessories, and a Genius at the Genius Bar diagnoses issues with Apple products, as well as making repairs or providing replacement services. Creatives provide training sessions on a variety of Apple professional software for music composition and film editing. All Geniuses and Creatives are trained and certified at Apple headquarters in the USA.

Store openings have become special events among avid Mac users, attracting thousands of customers who line up before daybreak or even the night before. The first thousand customers receive a free T-shirt bearing the store's name. Apple has received numerous architectural awards for its store designs. Testimony to the company's innovative visual design philosophy and standards is one of the most striking Apple Retail Stores situated on Fifth Avenue in New York City. The glass cube containing a giant suspended Apple brandmark is the only portion of the Apple Retail Store rising above plaza level. Once inside, customers take a central cylindrical transparent glass elevator or surrounding spiral staircase to the sales floor below.

The Apple Retail Stores also give the company an ideal platform to glean some valuable input directly from the customers visiting their stores, such as their likes, dislikes and suggestions. Before the advent of Apple Retail Stores, this information was traditionally passed on from a third-party reseller and was often inaccurate, incomplete and distorted.

The forbidden fruit back on the shelf

Microsoft groupies should take note that, at the end of 2008, Apple Mac computers had a market share of 14% of all computers sold and iPhone sales surpassed Research In Motion's (RIM) BlackBerry sales of 5,2-million units in late 2008 after being on the market for less than two years. Apple iPod has a market share of 73% of all MP3 players sold. For the final twist of the knife now that it has been pushed in nice and deep, Mozilla's Internet browser, Firefox (the Phoenix that rose out of the ashes of Netscape's demise by Microsoft's Internet Explorer), has increased its market share to 23,3% in August 2009. Apple's Safari application program (Safari) has a market share of 4,1%. As a result, Microsoft Internet Explorer's market share plummeted to 66%, the largest loss since 2008 and in spite of the launch of Internet Explorer 8 in March 2009.

Apple Mac computers have always been reliable and innovative, and have the world's most advanced operating system, but potential customers only discovered this after owning an iPod or an iPhone. These two products are less than half the price of an Apple Mac computer and have exposed the customer to Apple products' legendary brains and beauty. This has created the halo effect that inspires people to buy and try Apple's other products, such as the MacBook (Apple's version of a laptop) - currently responsible for most of Apple's increasing market share - and Internet browser, Safari. Slowly the world is demanding and is being allowed a taste of the forbidden fruit.

With Goliath firmly in David's sights, it is no wonder Steve Jobs was listed as Fortune magazine's Most Powerful Businessman of 2007, which named Apple Inc the most admired company in the United States in 2008 and in the world in 2009.

 The one thing that Bill with all his money and power would love to copy the most, but this is sadly lacking at Microsoft, is Apple's brand equity: the Apple brandmark that stands for cool innovation and reliability. Sorry Bill, fortunately, this time around it is intellectual property and you may not touch it. This brings me to the Macintosh clone issue. By 1995, Apple Mac computers accounted for about 7% of the worldwide desktop computer market. Apple executives decided to launch an official clone programme to expand Macintosh market penetration. This entailed the licensing of Macintosh ROMs (read-only memories) and system software, which generated quick revenue for Apple during a time of financial crisis.

Would you buy a Hackintosh?

Soon after Steve Jobs returned to Apple, he backed out of the recently renegotiated licensing deals with Mac OS operating system software (Mac OS) licensees, as they still proved to be not financially viable. The clone makers' licences were valid only for Mac OS 7 and, with Apple's release of Mac OS 8, the clone manufacturers were unable to ship current Mac OS versions. Apple bought Power Computing's Mac clone business for US$100-million, ending the clone era.

 Wikipedia reports that: "Jobs publicly stated that the programme was ill-conceived and had been a result of 'institutional guilt', meaning that for years, there had been a widely held belief at Apple that had the company aggressively pursued a legal cloning programme early in the history of the Macintosh, consumers might have turned to low-priced Macintosh clones rather than low-priced IBM/PC-compatible computers. Had it pursued a clone programme in the 1980s, in this view, Apple might have ended up in the position currently occupied by Microsoft - an extremely powerful company with high profit margins and a wide base of consumers perpetually dependent on its system software products.

Jobs claimed it was now too late for this to happen, that the Mac clone programme was doomed to failure from the start, and since Apple made money primarily by selling computer hardware, it ought not engage in a licensing programme that would reduce its hardware sales.

 Subsequent to a major gain in computer market share for Apple after the success of the iPod, large computer manufacturers such as Dell have expressed renewed interest in creating Macintosh clones. Apple vice-president of Worldwide Product Marketing, Phil Schiller, said the company did not plan to let people run Mac OS X on other computer makers' hardware. "We will not allow running Mac OS X on anything other than an Apple Mac," he remarked.

 However, modified versions of Mac OS X v10.4 and 10.5 called Mac OSx86, can be used on generic PC hardware. In April 2008, the Psystar Corporation announced the release of a computer with Mac OSx86 preloaded, called the OpenComputer, making them the first commercially distributed "Hackintoshes". In July 2008, Apple filed a lawsuit against Psystar. A counter-suit filed by Psystar Corporation was dismissed in November 2008.

In December 2008, Psystar Corporation filed revised claims and, in May 2009, Psystar Corporation filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which would allow the company to pay off its debts and re-emerge as a business in the future. In spite of this, the company continues to sell its computers with Apple's Mac OS X Leopard installed. Would you buy a Hackintosh from them?

 Der PC mit Mac OS X (the PC with Mac OS X) is the slogan of PearC, a German firm which exploits an alleged legal loophole in German law allowing PC hardware to be sold with Mac OS X pre-installed in central Europe. Its brandmark is a clever pass-off of the Apple brandmark. The design is a pear complete with a stem and leaf (positioned in the opposite direction to that of Apple) at the top of the fruit. End-user licence agreement for Mac OS X forbids third-party installations of v10.5 Leopard and v10.6 Snow Leopard and we will have to wait and see what action Apple will take in future.

 So why doesn't Apple want to run the successful and popular Mac OS X so superior to Windows on other computer makers' hardware? The clue is in the words of Apple's Phil Schiller: "... and since Apple made money primarily by selling computer hardware, it ought not engage in a licensing programme that would reduce its hardware sales." Apple has taken a long-term view on the market as a whole: the company does not restrict you from owning Mac OS X but it comes with the Apple hardware. The same applies to other hardware and software vendors, such as Garmin.

However, Apple's Mac is the only hardware that can run Mac OS X and Windows.

This is the heart of the brand's unique special property or proposition (USP) that makes it uniquely valuable to existing and future customers. This ability now allows the customer to have the best of both the PC and Mac worlds. In time, with Apple's increasing market share (which could result in a reduced price), its growing reputation for great designs and its reliable hardware platform that runs stable operating systems including Windows, customers will increasingly migrate to Mac computers. Thanks to Apple, there is indeed a brave new world waiting for us.

Apple, Apple TV, eMac, iMac, iPhone, iPod, iTunes, LaserWriter, Leopard, MacBook, Macintosh, Mac OS, Safari, Snow Leopard and are trademarks or registered trademarks of Apple Inc, registered in the United States and other countries.

Internet Explorer, Microsoft, MS-DOS and Windows Mobile are trademarks or registered trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.

The author respects the intellectual property of others and all trademarks and registered trademarks contained in this article are and remain the property of their respective owners.

 This article is an independent publication and has not been authorised, sponsored or otherwise approved by Apple Inc.

วันศุกร์ที่ 17 กันยายน พ.ศ. 2553

Japanese Hibachi Cooking - Free Recipes Inside

Are you a fan of yakitori? Japanese food is one of the healthiest foods worldwide, and so it is not surprising to know that the Japanese often grill their food. This grilling is called hibachi, and Japanese hibachi cooking is not only famous in Japan, but in other parts of the world as well. These meats on sticks are a favourite of many, as these taste good, and come fresh and hot; grilled over direct fire.

The best way to do Japanese hibachi cooking is to grill over fire-and not a hot plate. The fire gives your meat a smoky, authentic flavour, which lacks in those which are prepared using metal plates. One example of Japanese hibachi cooking is the sukiyaki. A favourite among many, sukiyaki involves grilling thin slices of beef and then adding vegetables and noodles or rice.

But whether it is beef or chicken you want to grill, the principle holds the same: use authentic over the fire grillers. Also, many agree that one of the secrets of great Japanese hibachi cooking is the sauce.

A great recipe for shrimp sauce is this: you will need two cups of soy sauce, a cup of whipped cream, one-third cup of ground, roasted sesame seeds, a pinch of garlic powder and a teaspoon of dry mustard (dissolve it in a teaspoon of water). Place all ingredients except the cream in a blender for fifteen seconds. In a saucepan, put the mixture and the whipped cream, stirring it over low heat.

Another example of great sauce is simply a mixture of the following: a cup of mayonnaise, a couple of teaspoons of sugar, one and a half teaspoons of chilli sauce, a half teaspoon of paprika, half teaspoon of garlic powder, half teaspoon of lemon pepper, a quarter teaspoon of black ground pepper, one and a half tablespoons of catsup, and a pinch of salt. Use these sauces and your grilled meats will have that extra zest and tanginess.

วันพฤหัสบดีที่ 16 กันยายน พ.ศ. 2553

Backpacking Information on Thailand


Population: 64.1 million (UN, 2005)
Capital: Bangkok
Area: 513,115 sq km (198,115 sq miles)
Major language: Thai
Major religion: Buddhism
Life expectancy: 66 years (men), 74 years (women) (UN)
Monetary unit: 1 baht = 100 satangs

Thailand is one kingdom of beautiful places and smiling faces. Up until the onslaught of the Red Shirts that caused uproar of travel alerts prohibiting travel to these parts, Thailand has been one of the ultimate destinations of South East Asia, the "backpackers" Gateway to the South East. "In fact, the land of smiles, people with one of its most difficult years whizzed Pearlies flashing their teeth and everything. And how hard and violent political situation is under the earth must speculate if the smile is still real. Like home the Phad Thai, Muay Thai, satay and Lady Boys, have every reason to smile. Despite the sensationalism of Thailand, and the secret beauty masksEntertainment, the basis for the "final destination" for the award and famosity remains, even in Pattaya, Koh Lipe, in the Chao Phraya, Kanchanaburi and Chiang Mai. The Kingdom of Thailand, the heart of Asia-Pacific region is a country of interest in culture, or price range with its magical balance between ancient and modern world.

GEOGRAPHY

Thailand (15 00 N, 100 00 E) points to its coordinates in the geographic heart of Asia-Pacific region, sothe aviation hub of SEA. The Kingdom has total area 513,120 km 2, slightly smaller than France, but big enough for thick green forests and crystal blue seas and everything in between. The terrain is generally mountainous, particularly to the north of the country with the highest point the Doi Inthanon at an altitude of 2,576 m. To the centre, the land is mostly flat and low, the Chao Phraya River Valley, but overall roughly diverse regional topography features.

CLIMATE

The climate is a peculiar tropical wet and dry Savannah climate with seasons that range from warm to hot and hotter, with a quick cool to 19°C from November to December. Expect roasting temperatures in big urban cities, and cooler ones at the highlands. The overall climate in Thailand is a very important consideration for travel specifically because if it's too hot, travel is stressful, if too wet, a little more dangerous, pertaining to water activities at least. Notably, the best time for travel is during the generally cooler months from November to mid of March, the peak season unfortunately. Whatever the weather, a visit to this sin paradise is of the utmost necessity.

PEOPLE

And here are 65,998,436 more reasons to come visit, the Thai population who probably invented the word "party crashers" - a concept with positive connotation that is if anything, a proof of their hospitality. Theravada Buddhism is the primary religion, the religion of the state that is practised by a really big 94.6% of Thais. Muslims and Christians are a tiny minority standing in comparison to the Buddhist demographic.

LANGUAGE

THAI, a Kradai language like Lao, is the official language of the state, accounting for the 75% of Thai population in the kingdom. ENGLISH is the secondary official language and is a compulsory subject and language to learn in school as early as preschool, although CHINESE, Teochew in particular, is more widely spoken by more than 14%, the Chinese population here in Thailand. On the other hand, YAWI is the primary language of the 4.6% of Malay Muslims living in the south near the Malay border, while the remainder of the population in outlying provinces in the north speak Lao and Thai dialects.

ATTRACTION

Thailand has been as widely infamous for its beach paradises as its alternative sex travel attractions. And for the former, the latter, or both, Thailand has loads to offer like Phuket and Ko Lipe with its four more than awesome, Pattaya, Sunrise, Chao Ley, and Karma beaches. However, as the 17th in the world by number of populations with HIV/AIDS, the traveller needs some caution and lots of protection. Bangkok has for so long offered the best introduction to the traveller with a boat ride up the Chao Phraya, the bloodline of the city, where one can marvel at the intricate opulence of the temples that lay not asunder but very much intact.

But the City of Angels may have been evacuated for the time being by these heavenly creatures with what political chaos plagues the great city of Bangkok. Had it not been, as sure and hopeful as most are that peace is not a far goal, BKK also makes an incredible haven for shopping, counterfeits need it be said, either in modern JJ Market (Chatuchak), MBK, or Ampua for tradition's sake. Why not Patpong for a little bizarre ping pong show for the different kind of visitor? Muay Thai is also a huge tourist magnet for travellers, who can be either play spectators or students.

While nothing beats Chiang Mai in terms of culture and temples with around 300 wats sprawled all over town, Kanchanaburi is the nature-lovers haven and nowhere can superior water fun be had than here. Erawan, Pha Thad, Huai Khamin, and Saiyok waterfalls are surely worth an entire day's visit each, no doubt a different experience each time. The ultimate way to travel is explore what has not been applied once on an adventure of life discovered Thai, and of course the time spent with the locals, in more ways than one, the main attraction ... and then there's the food.

FOOD

You can not enjoy a visit to the maximum in the Kingdom does not know the food culture. Thai food is suitable for powering a king. Thai food is more than enough reason alone for a holiday in these parts. We say that Thai cuisine is a feastFusion of Indian, Chinese, Cambodian, and all Asian and well, and it all starts in the streets. Rice is a staple food in many forms and is sprinkled with rice noodles and sticky rice with mango dessert. Khao Suai is the generic term for white rice is usually consumed with meals, while the Khao Phat is a basic fried rice with pork or chicken mixed with street food culture is an integral part of Thai identity as a group of people with a natural inclination to food, cooking andeating both. The streets are a cultural and culinary crossroads where people can offer their home-cooked specialty to the rest of the world for a very small cost. In doing so, the Thais don't mind making a modest profit for, at the end of the day, cooking is what they love to do. A modern Thai would eat 9 times a day from a THB 25 phad thai off the street or a $100 10-course meal-anything that involves putting something edible or nearly edible to the oral cavity.

Thai cuisine is highly regarded all over the world for its special flavor that anyone from anywhere enjoys, and this can never be better represented than by the national dish, phad thai. This healthy noodle dish with a great combination of sweet, sour, salty, and spicy is the epitome of Thai cuisine because it is light, healthy, balanced, spicy, flavorful, and aromatic. Tom yam and Tom Kha Gai are favorite soup dishes while som tam (papaya salad), sticky rice, and kai yang (grilled chicken) are a favorite meal combo. Indian culinary influence is quite strong especially with its curry dishes like green curry, although Thai cuisine has its distinctive quality now more than ever, take pandan chicken for example. Pandan is a flavorful leaf, which works like spice to Thai desserts, similar to vanilla, but more versatile as it also gives a wonderful flavor to meat, in this case, as the chicken is cooked wrapped in these leaves. Chiang Mai, the ancient capital, is the foodie wonderland of Thai and world cuisines from British fish and chips to Italian pizza and pasta delights.

Thais love things that are all nice and sweet, especially for dessert, but the Thai concept of dessert is not like the western after-meal dessert model. As it is in general Asia, dessert may pertain to a sweet snack eaten as a small meal per se. Inasmuch as it can be eaten after a meal western-style, this is more for preference than a custom. Desserts like khanom (cookies or snacks), khao nio ma-muang (sticky rice with mango and coconut milk drizzle), or waan yen, a heap of shaved ice on a bed of "toppings" like corn and kidney beans drizzled with syrup and coconut cream, are desserts that are mostly consumed as a snack or fill-upper. Yes, they snack on bugs and roaches too, which without a doubt is an acquired taste.

วันพุธที่ 15 กันยายน พ.ศ. 2553

Snow Cones From California Carnivals to Cuba

Carnivals, fairs and festivals all sell America's favorite icy summer treat. Crushed ice in a paper cone topped with a variety of sugar water flavors have become a international phenomenon known as snow cones. Americans everywhere crowd the concession stands to get a taste of the icy cone. What does the rest of the world call the American shaved cold candy called a snow cone?

Mexico has a popular ice treat called raspa or raspado. This finely shaved ice concoction is heavily covered with a thick syrup. Raspar is spanish for scrape, so raspado means roughly scraped ice. This Mexican version comes in a variety of Mexican flavors like cucumber, guava and pistachio. Raspa also comes in more traditional Mexican staples like picocito, lemon and chile powder, and leche, sweetened milk and cinnamon.

Cuba has its own frozen dessert called a granizados, Spanish for hailstorms. This Cuban creation has been taken on by a large American city. In Miami, Florida the granizados are now sold in typical Cuban flavors like anise, made from extracts of star anise spice.

Puerto Rico's delights in a pyramid-shaped frozen food flavored with fruit syrup. The Puerto Rican food is called a piragua, found not only in Puerto Rican, sold at a wooden pushcart, but can also be found in some parts of New York.

Japan also has its own cold creation called a kakigori. The kakigori is almost completely identical to an American snow cone as possible. There are only two minor differences between the kakigori and the snow cone. Kakigori has a rougher consistency than the American version and is often sweetened with condensed milk. Kakigori is often mixed with several different flavors like sweet plum, green tea, melon and colorless syrup.

Patbingsu is a shaved snack or dessert in South Korea that is topped with sweetened red beans, canned fruit and soybean powder. Patbingsu is available in green tea and coffee flavors. Patbingsu is featured at many fast-food restaurants in the summer in South Korea.

Malaysia and Singapore have a treat similar to the American frozen specialty called ais kacang. the Ais kacang is a literal translation from red bean ice. This snack is a crushed ice base covered in a mixture of red beans, sweet corn, grass jelly and coconut milk. Snow cones are a treat that can be found in a convenience store, at the carnival the next town over, and all over the world. They can also be made at home with a snow cone machine.

วันจันทร์ที่ 13 กันยายน พ.ศ. 2553

วันอาทิตย์ที่ 12 กันยายน พ.ศ. 2553

วันเสาร์ที่ 11 กันยายน พ.ศ. 2553

Does Green Tea Taste Like Grass?

According to Chinese legend, green tea was invented by an emperor who was out in the forest, and had just boiled a kettle of water on his campfire. Suddenly, a freak gust of wind put out his fire and blew leaves from a nearby tree into the emperor's hot water. When he came back, the emperor was upset, but still decided to drink the water - only to find that it now tasted excellent. Realising what had happened, he took some of the leaves from the tree home with him, and so invented tea.

Whether that's true or not, there is no doubting that tea has a long and noble history in China and many other Asian countries, and most of the tea they consume has long been either white or green tea. It is known to have been consumed as long ago as the 9th century in Japan, and has long been a social drink and a status symbol, as well as a drink that is considered to have a wide variety of health benefits.

The difference between green tea and Western black tea isn't that they are different plants - they are both made from camellia sinesis, the tea plant - but that the leaves are treated differently after they are picked. Black tea is first dried out and then fermented so that it will last longer, while green tea's treatment stops after the drying stage, while the green colour of the leaves is still present. While this means that green tea doesn't stay fresh for very long, it also means that it has a much fresher taste than black tea, and many believe that it is much better for you.

The first time you taste green tea you will probably think that it somehow tastes 'green', or grass-like, but it is hard to describe. The best way to figure out whether you'll like it or not is to just give it a go.

วันศุกร์ที่ 10 กันยายน พ.ศ. 2553

Cooking by Feel Not Formula ~ Episode 9: Japanese Beef Yakisoba

Yakisoba (焼きそば?), literally "fried noodles", is a dish often sold at festivals in Japan, but originates in China. The dish was derived by the Chinese from the traditional chow mein, but has been more heavily integrated into Japanese cuisine like ramen. Even though soba (Japanese Noodles made from Buckwheat) is part of the word, yakisoba noodles are not made from buckwheat, but are similar to ramen noodles and made from wheat flour. Yakisoba usually refers to sōsu yakisoba, flavored with yakisoba sauce. It is prepared by stir-frying ramen-style noodles with bite-sized pork, vegetables (usually cabbage, onions or carrots) and flavoured with yakisoba sauce, salt and pepper. It is served with a multitude of garnishes, such as aonori (seaweed powder), beni shoga (shredded pickled ginger), katsuobushi (fish flakes), and Japanese mayonnaise. Yakisoba is most familiarly served on a plate either as a main dish or a side dish. Another popular way to prepare and serve yakisoba in Japan is to pile the noodles into a bun sliced down the middle in the style of a hot dog, and garnish the top with mayonnaise and shreds of pickled ginger. Called yakisoba-pan, pan meaning bread, it is commonly available at local matsuri (Japanese festivals) or conbini (convenience stores). Sometimes, Japanese white Udon is used as a replacement of Chinese style Soba and called Yakiudon. This variation was started in Kitakyushu in Fukuoka Prefecture. ------------------ Instant yakisoba Instant yakisoba ...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmMQ_TMGbOo&hl=en

วันพฤหัสบดีที่ 9 กันยายน พ.ศ. 2553

la corda d'oro- CRESCENDO (with lyrics)

Anime- La Corda D'Oro Song- CRESCENDO By- Stella Quintet I don't own anything!!! Here's the lyrics: ichibyou goto ni kimi ga ITOSHII zutto... mune no kodou ga hibiite iru futari de aruku kaerimichi futo damarikomu bukiyou de tsutaerarenai omoi ashi haya ni yuku shiki no naka donna Scene demo sugu soba de kimi wo mite itanda futo guchi zusamu suki na Phrase moshimo kimi nara donna ne iro wo kanaderu darou ichibyou goto ni yaki tsuketetai kimi wo suneta shigusa mo warai kao mo kimi wo irodoru subete ga ima, kaze ni mai nagara yasashiku tsutsumu... kimi ga hitomi wo kagayakase hanashite kureta hateshinai yume egaku Story ano toki kimi wa, mayotteta boku no senaka wo sarige naku oshite itanda ne 100% ima wo ikiteru kimi wa dare yori kirameite iru taiyou no you ni tatta hitori ni deaeta kiseki fukaku kimi wo shiritai kizutsuite demo ichibyou goto ni kimi ga ITOSHII zutto...mune no kodou ga hibiite iru itsuka wa kitto tsuyosa to iu tsubasa wo hirogete mamori tsuzukeru dare yori kimi wo



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBDr3w6dm3Y&hl=en

วันพุธที่ 8 กันยายน พ.ศ. 2553

Luciano & Serafin - Yaki Soba

Luciano & Serafin - Yaki Soba Minimal Techno



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyo49gt7rhs&hl=en

วันอังคารที่ 7 กันยายน พ.ศ. 2553

Sushi & Grill - Cozinha Japonesa

SUSHI & GRILL Gostinho oriental com jeitinho brasileiro O restaurante oferece a você, pratos tradicionais da culinária japonesa, a seguir algumas opções de nosso cardápio: Entradas -Harumaki - Karaague -Guioza - Tebazaki (tulipinhas de frango picantes) -Shimeji ou shiitake Saladas - Sunomono de pepino - Sumissô - Harusame - Smoked Salada (com salmão defumado) - Green Shake Sashimi - Atum - Degustação - Polvo - Salmão - Robalo - Tilápia Temaki - Salmão - Soft - Filadélfia - Atum - Califórnia - Skin Sushi *dispomos de opções de mini sushis verificar em nossos cardápio - Negui Shake - Califórnia Zen - Salmão skin - Kari Kari - Filadélfia Roll - Kimuti zushi (sushi picante) - Hot Filadélfia (sushi frito) Sushis especiais - Shake zushi - Generoso - Shimeji chik - Sensação - Smoked Salmon Roll - Tombo zushi Combinados - Sushi do Chef I - Salmão Boat II - Combinado Simples - Barco combinado especial - Combinado Salmão Pratos quentes - Tempurá - Yakisakana - Yakisoba - Frango Xadrez - Sukiyaki - Teppan - Sea Soba - Yakimeshi



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-NaLy_144U&hl=en

วันจันทร์ที่ 6 กันยายน พ.ศ. 2553

A adviser for actuality distinct in Mimasaka, Okayama Prefecture

"A Tsuyama singles scene?" scoffs single Mimasaka resident Hiroyiki Matsuda. "There isn't one. If you want that, you go to Okayama City."

Farmer Toru Mizushima, 55, echoes the statement.

"I don't even go there as far as Mimasaka's concerned," he says. "I've lived in Mimasaka for 18 years, raised a family, and can tell you there just isn't a singles scene -- it's a family-oriented town. That's why we moved here in the first place."

It is, unfortunately, a common sentiment -- in a community built primarily around families, finding ways for the underrepresented single adults to mix and mingle can be a daunting task. When questioned about such opportunities, Yoshimi Tabata of the Mimasaka Community Center just laughs.

"We have open-gym basketball and volleyball, both of which are cheap, co-ed and attract a younger crowd," she notes. "But other than that...."

Yet while trendy bars, dance clubs and hip hangouts may still be the exclusive domain of the big city, Mimasaka residents shouldn't lose heart -- even out here, there remain a few local youths where the age-old hunt for love continues.

For the religiously inclined, a local temple can be a powerful tool for both meeting other singles and getting over the shock of being single again due to death or now rising divorce. Endaiji Temple is currently in the process of putting together a singles group, and the Endaiji Taiko group, while not host to a group of its own, refers interested lay believers to Endaiji for Re-Singled and Singles in Aso.

At Endaiji, single Buddhist band together for a veritable treasure trove of networking opportunities. In addition to its "Bereavement" and "Divorce and Beyond" support groups, the temple helps organize everything from singles dances to hikes, ikebana, tea ceremony, yakisoba socials to house-building trips for the less fortunate in Vietnam.

With close to 20 events per month, not counting the regular support-group meetings, singles clued in to the goings-on at Endaiji can quickly find themselves with more fun, upbeat social opportunities than they know what to do with.

For the nonreligious, things get a bit harder. While it's always possible to take your chances with the karaoke bar scene -- Jet 5554 and the Sukesan Izakaya appear to be generating the most buzz -- many singles prefer to take a more direct approach. That's where Junichiro Komatsu and Pink Tomato Dating Service step in.

Pink Tomato Dating Service specializes in an activity more widely known as "speed dating," is a simple concept. Working with between 15 and 30 adults matching a target age range and set of interests, events coordinators like Komatsu set up a series of up to a dozen six-minute-long "speed dates" at a local bar, café or restaurant.

Afterward, participants make note of any other individuals that interested them, with mutual interest resulting in both parties' receiving the others' contact information, allowing them to set up their first "real" date. Of those who participate, over two-thirds receive at least one match.

"I've been doing this for over three years now, and I just love it," says Komatsu, who ran the first Mimasaka event in quite a while at the now defunct Mimasaka cannery on June 7. Ultimately, Komatsu hopes to make the Mimasaka sessions a monthly affair.

For more customized dating help, singles like local computer analyst Yuji Shiraishi look to actress-turned-matchmaker Reiko Ando. Her new company, The Fantasy Cupid Dater, is a Mimasaka-based organization embodying old-time matchmaker values and offering everything from speed dating and date coaching to "wingman/wingwoman" services, in which a client hires an outgoing "friend" by the hour to help introduce him or her to people and make him or her look good.

"Reiko and I met a few times," says Shiraishi, 61. "I had a lot of inhibitions, and she coached me on meeting people and introducing myself. She even went into a large Tokyo-based dating service I had been using without success, and re-did my profile and pictures with me, which really helped."

A lot of Mimasaka singles run into the same problems, Ando said.

"Most of the people I work with are divorced and in the rural area with no idea what to do," Ando explains. "They need to figure out what their interests are outside of the couple -- many might not even be used to buying their own clothes.

"We tell them the dos and don'ts of dating -- yes, we're here to introduce our clients to people, but we're also here to work on whatever's holding them back. We're a support system."

A support system, it should be noted, with a hefty price tag -- fees for The Fantasy Cupid Dater's customized matchmaking can run anywhere from $1000 to $10,000. The company's speed-dating events cost about $300 each.

Yet for those who'd rather shop from home, the Internet offers a bevy of convenient dating services that allow you to browse other users' profiles while posting your own pictures and personal information. While there are thousands of services to choose from, one company stands head and shoulders above the competition where Mimasaka is concerned.

At one of major Internet provider's Personals section, a single click brings profiles from literally hundreds of singles in Mimasaka, with the inclusion of nearby cities increasing the selection exponentially.

More importantly, all ages and lifestyles are represented en masse -- whether you're straight or gay, 18 or 80, there's undoubtedly an Mimasaka resident worth checking out on Yahoo! Personals. Though creating a profile and browsing others is free, e-mailing and instant messaging said singles costs anywhere from 3,000 yen a month to 10,000 yen a year.

A word of warning, however: while most online dating services are a pay-to-play venture, there are also free alternatives that offer almost identical opportunities, sometimes with even greater results.

For instance, there is a completely free networking service that allows individuals to post profiles with pictures, bios, Web blogs and more, and the service's "browse" feature allows members to search profiles by age, location, keywords -- and relationship status.

When this type of networking service search for Mimasaka-area singles interested in dating returns over 250 hits for free, it's hard to imagine paying for a service. For the slightly more adventurous, free classified-ad sites may boast indescribably huge readerships in the Mimasaka area, as well as ad forums ranging from "strictly platonic" to the risqué "casual encounters."

In the end, Matsuda and Mizushima are probably right -- a town like Mimasaka will never have the same singles scene as a city like Okayama City. But maybe that's not so bad. The big cities keep their cover charges and two-drink minimums, their greasy karaoke bars and snobby brushoffs.

Mimasaka residents got other options.

วันอาทิตย์ที่ 5 กันยายน พ.ศ. 2553

Japanese Food

As with Korean cuisine, rice, combined with fish (or more recently other meat) and pickles, called tsukemono forms the base of most meals. Anybody who's eaten a Japanese diet for any length of time would agree that it's just plain healthier than the Western diet

Popular Japanese healthy foods high in proteins such as soybeans, miso, sushi, tofu, green tea and noodles are becoming more familiar to westerners as we look to curb our obesity and diabetic epidemic.

Although cooking ingredients are largely similar to other countries, preparation makes them distinctively Japanese.

Japanese food, regarded as one of the healthiest national cuisines gets the bulk of its protein from seafood and soybeans. Soybeans are an integral component of Japanese cuisine and are used to make tofu and soy sauce called shoyu which is one of the most common flavoring ingredients of Japanese cuisine. Soybeans, or a fermented soy bean paste is also the main ingredient in the most common of Japanese soups, miso soup. Combined with fresh vegetables, fish or other ingredients it is enjoyed at breakfast lunch and dinner.

Being an island nation the Japanese eat considerably more seafood than westerners. About 80 pounds per person per year. Compared with 15 pounds per person in the US. Most seafood these days is grown in fish farms which keeps seafood prices comparatively low. The more popular sea foods are: shrimp, tuna, mackerel, salmon and octopus. Seafood is used in a variety of tasty ways from raw, called sashimi, or with seaweed, called sushi,to barbecued and braised with a myriad of tasty sauces such as teriyaki sauce. Seafood is also added to soups, stir fries, noodle dishes, hot pots or deep fried in a thin batter and called tenpura.

Beef, although getting cheaper is still considered expensive and thus is used sparingly. It is typically thinly sliced for eating. Less expensive than beef, pork has also been well integrated into Japanese cuisine. Chicken is widely popular and used in a variety of dishes. A distinctively Japanese chicken dish is yakitori which is chicken pieces skewered onto bamboo, barbecued then braised with an assortment of sauces. Lamb is not popular in Japan due to its perceived odor.

Noodles, which are high in starch and originated in China, have become a popular Japanese staple with entire restaurants and restaurant chains specializing in them. The three main varieties are: Udon, made from wheat flour, is a thick white noodle. Soumen, made from wheat flour is a thin white noodle. Soba, made from a combination of buckwheat and wheat flour is a thin brown noodle. All three are generally served with a soy based fish or vegetable broth.

Another popular noodle dish which made its way from China in the early nineteenth century is Ramen or Chinese wheat noodles. Like the other noodle dishes Ramen is served with a variety of vegetables, seafood, and meat enhancers.

Along with traditional Japanese cuisines called (washoku), meaning "Japanese food", there are a number of foreign dishes called (yoshoku) meaning "foreign food" that have been imported, adapted and now considered part of the Japanese menu. Two examples are Currie Rice which made its way from India via the United Kingdom in the early nineteenth century and Hamburger Steak which is a ground beef patty mixed with breadcrumbs, onions and perhaps tomatoes and served with rice, chips and vegetables. It is much like in any hamburger or beef patty found throughout the world.

A traditional Japanese breakfast could consist of a bowl of rice, gohan, a bowl of miso soup and a couple of other dishes including pickles, and seaweed called nori. Lunch could be noodles, or a main dish filled out always with a bowl of rice and miso soup. Dinner usually consists of a main hot dish with a variety of vegetables, rice, miso soup, pickles and sauces.

Most Japanese eat with chop sticks. Usually before a meal it is customary to say "itadakimasu", which roughly translates to "thank you, I appreciate this meal that has been prepared for me". Similarly when a meal is finished it is polite to say "gochisosamadeshita", which roughly translates to thanks for the wonderful meal that I enjoyed eating.

The art of Japanese Cuisine is to conspire ambience, sound, food preparation, and dishware to create an oasis of calm. An opportunity for social interaction, bonding and celebration.

วันเสาร์ที่ 4 กันยายน พ.ศ. 2553

วันศุกร์ที่ 3 กันยายน พ.ศ. 2553

How Do Different Cultures Barbecue?

We all like to think that we invented barbecue. The truth, however, is that different cultures in different countries throughout the world have their own homegrown styles of barbecue grill, some of which go back thousands of years. Any fan of barbecued meat that avoids these other styles is missing out on learning some new techniques and eating some great food. This article will give you a brief, whirlwind tour of different barbecue traditions and techniques across the globe.

To appreciate other styles of barbecued grill, we'll have to leave behind some comfortable American notions about barbecue. When we think of barbecue, we think of pork and beef cooked low and slow over indirect heat for some truly fine tender and juicy meat slathered in a sweet and spicy tomato-based sauce. Barbecue grill in other cultures, however, cook lots of other meat in addition to beef and pork, and use their own native spices and sauces. And while we see an important difference between grilling and barbecuing indeed, may even come to blows over it after a few beers in a Texas roadhouse, few other cultures make such a distinction. So for this article, we'll have included grilling as part of barbecue.

European countries have had their own types of barbecue grill for centuries. Before refrigeration, smoking was one of the standard ways to preserve meat for the winter. Europeans smoke just about any animal that walks, swims, or flies. Central and Eastern European countries are famous for their sausages smoked over oak or hickory wood. Ireland smoked meat over peat instead of a charcoal or wood grill, creating a distinctive flavor in the process, and the Irish make a mean smoked potato. France, Italy, Greece, and other Mediterranean countries have a tradition of meat delicately seasoned with persillade (garlic and parsley), brushed with olive oil to seal in the juices, and smoked over grapevine wood.

The Asian barbecue tradition evolved completely separately from western barbecue grill over thousands of years. The kamado cooker burns lump charcoal, and is tightly sealed to keep in moisture, the ceramic cooker walls radiate the low, indirect heat all around the meat for hours. Southern China serves Char Sui, pork marinated in soy sauce and honey and grilled in long narrow strips. Korea sports Bulgogi, thinly sliced beef, pork, or chicken marinated in soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, and chili pepper, and is grilled right at the table. Japanese barbecue is marinated in soy-based sauces such as their famous Teriyaki, and sport some of the world's finest techniques for barbecuing seafood and vegetables. They even barbecue [http://www.mybbqonline.com] fried noodles, known as Yakisoba. The southeast Asian countries such as Thailand and Vietnam boast the world famous Satay, meat skewered on bamboo, BBQ grilled over charcoal, and marinated and basted with a thick, gooey curry-peanut sauce.

There are many other barbecuing traditions across the globe that merits at least a brief mention. In the Middle East, the world-famous Persian grill kebab is deeply entrenched with many regional variations. In South Asia, the Indian Tandoori barbecuing grill tradition marinates chicken and lamb in yogurt and spices, then cooks it in a charcoal-fired clay oven. In the Pacific Island style of pit-smoking, of which Hawaiian Kalua is perhaps the most famous, salted pork is laid in an earthen pit lined with banana or Ti plant leaves and filled with hot stones, then covered in more leaves and burlap, then reburied to steam all day. Lechon barbeque from the Caribbean and Philippines roasts a slowly turning pig on a spit over charcoal.

Thanks to the glories of the internet, exotic new barbecue recipes, cooking instructions, and even barbecue equipment from around the world can be found within seconds from our homes and offices. Any barbecuer worth his salt can learn a new trick or two from the different cooking and seasoning styles of other cultures, and would do well to take advantage of this vast and ancient resource.

วันพฤหัสบดีที่ 2 กันยายน พ.ศ. 2553

Bree ed i mitici Yakisoba!!!

yakisoba, ossia gli spaghetti giapponesi (soba) saltati (yaki) in padella o sulla piastra. Mi è rivenuta fame *ççççç* Quei cosi sopra che si muovono semplicemente sono scagliette di pesce ne non erro.. mosse dal vapore^^



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPVbSMeg3sE&hl=en