Home-made sausage - Live demo in Kamakura 鎌倉

As we all know, almost everything was invented into China (and then subject to multi-levels of corruptions through some get-rich-quick con scheme) and perfected in Japan. You might be surprised that sausages have gone through the same process. Chinese sausage 臘腸 was first mentioned some 2600 years ago but nowadays you don't know what additives you are really eating if you buy them from China, while mum and dad prefer those made in Canada. For a broader perspective, check out the wikipedia entry here.

nb There are a surprising number of things you normally associate with the western world, which are claimed to be invented in China. Golf, sphagetti, pizza....... Not going to hurt you to believe they were invented there, as long as you don't presume the inventing country produces the best product. Otherwise you might end up buying golf clubs where the club head will sever if you hit the ball too hard!!

Back to the pictures. In Kamakura along the main shopping district, which is basically small street connecting the train station and Hachimangau temple, there stands a small shop selling imported ham and sausages. When mum and dad took their first bite at the sausage, it tasted remarkably like the sausages that they have made at home. It's only when they walk pass the shop again, they saw a bunch of raw sausages lying there with a saucepan of sausage casings. Shortly afterwards a guy from the shop decided to stuff a new batch of sausages there and then. The whole action sequence was captured in video. Perhaps it will get posted when dad gets round to editing it.

nbb - The shop's name, Arukamak is just Kamakura in reverse.

Tapeo Wyndham St

Do you ever wonder why anyone would bother reading blogs written by complete morons like us? Perhaps you are less likely to pick dodgy places than going to places recommended by the "true" gourmets who get paid handsomely to endorse trendy places with their taste buds.

There was a small article in the latest Cathay Pacific in-flight magazine, Discovery, about a Tapas bar on Wyndham Street called Tapeo. Invariably, you get the usual dose of how wonderful this little restaurant is. Or what a rare find you get tucked in this chic corner between Wyndham Street and Holywood Road. You can get a taste of the article from TimeOut here.

First imagine the places that we, mutts walk past all day long; then read this.

You get your wonderful Veuve Cliquot champagne or the Burdundy white wine served to you ice-cold and the wine bottles are kept that way in an icebox. But little do you know that, the cocktails and the ice water that you get served are from the same icebox. Yes it is like "Sleeping with the Enemies". The sight of the barman shoveling ice cubes from that box literally had dad frozen at the bar. Now roll back 10 seconds and think the places we walk past........

Melamine and us

After killing so many of distance cousins in the US last year, melamine is now found to be hitting human kids and babies now. As the article attached in the link below suggest, you should get your mum and dad to check where are the ingredients of your feed are coming from.

http://www.naturalnews.com/024261.html

We don't want kidney stones and we don't know how to tell even when we get them. So please check.

Now even mum & dad's kid-time favorites, white rabbit candies are found to have this horrible stuff. They never needed additives before because there are test standards to meet. Protein contents etc........

Why bother checking?