Overseas Chinese Web Guide

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Entries from January 2008

Haday Superior Light Soy Sauce

January 31st, 2008 · 1 Comment

I usually use Pearl River Bridge soy sauce. However, because I have been busy as of late, I had to send others to shop for groceries in my place. As a result, we have started to venture into other brands of foodstuffs, like Haday Superior Light Soy Sauce. Not being familiar with this [...]

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Tags: Food

Interest Rate Cut

January 31st, 2008 · 1 Comment

The Fed’s second interest rate cut in just over a week really confused me. Instead of being merely aggressive, it appeared a bit desperate. Perhaps, the national economy is faring much worse than I had believed. The problem for home owners and real estate investors is that our perspective is often local. [...]

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Tags: Real Estate

Guanxi Marketing

January 29th, 2008 · No Comments

Last night, as I was cooking dinner, I received one of “those” phone calls. The ones you usually hope to avoid by signing up with the National Do Not Call Registry. As the seller started her sales pitch, I didn’t hang up. This time, I responded enthusiastically and placed a sizeable order. [...]

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Tags: Chinese Culture

Review: Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook by Fuchsia Dunlop

January 23rd, 2008 · 1 Comment

Amazon just sent me Fuchsia Dunlop’s Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook. This cookbook exhaustively covers Hunan cuisine. Literally. I was exhausted from reading the cookbook. The introduction? 43 pages. Four paragraphs on bean curds. Two paragraphs on garlic. It all adds up.
The first recipe is Sweet-and-Sour Spare Ribs. All [...]

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Tags: Food

Sony Dream Machine ICF-C218

January 22nd, 2008 · 1 Comment

I was looking for a cheap alarm clock. Real cheap. I found the Sony FM / AM Clock Radio Dream Machine on Amazon for $11.00. Yes, that cheap. Who needs a stereo alarm clock that plays CDs? Anyways, their marketers are good. On Amazon, the product is called an [...]

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Tags: Chinese Culture

Dennis Kucinich Pick-Up Line

January 20th, 2008 · No Comments

I stopped by the local farmers market this morning and was bombarded by all the political activists hawking their own candidates. Among the Democrats, representatives from Hillary, Obama and Kucinich were present. For the Republicans, I only spotted the Ron Paul contingent. For the most part, all the reps kept to themselves, [...]

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Tags: Chinese Culture

Time Magazine is Wrong About China

January 20th, 2008 · No Comments

Time: Kentucky Fried Rice. Starbucks has the gall to sling its lattes for coffee connoisseurs in Vienna, and Budweiser peddles its brew in Belgium. So why shouldn’t Yum Brands–the Louisville, Ky.-based company that owns KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and more–sell dumplings in a fast-growing market where Chinese food is just called food?
In an attempt [...]

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Tags: China · Food

Not Invented Here

January 17th, 2008 · No Comments

New York Times: Solving a Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery Inside a Cookie. Fortune cookies, Yasuko Nakamachi says, are almost certainly originally from Japan. Her prime pieces of evidence are the generations-old small family bakeries making obscure fortune cookie-shaped crackers by hand near a temple outside Kyoto.
I heard the hidden messages in moon [...]

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Tags: Food

KMT: The Pro-China Opposition Party?

January 13th, 2008 · 1 Comment

Christian Science Monitor: Opposition Win May Bring Taiwan Closer to China. The resurgence of Taiwan’s opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), which picked up a majority in Saturday’s parliamentary vote, could usher in a significant thaw in cross-Taiwan Strait relations with China, especially if it goes on to win the presidency in March.
It’s all relative, [...]

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Tags: China

Good Riddance Governor Richardson

January 9th, 2008 · No Comments

Reuters reports that New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is no longer seeking to be the 2008 Democratic candidate for President. No surprise here. With three strong candidates running ahead of him, it would be tough to catch one of them, let alone all three. I’m glad that Governor Richardson has abandoned the [...]

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Tags: Law