A year of sidestepping problems and clever manipulations, backed by intelligence and guile. Short-lived, transitory projects and the open exchange of ideas filters our emotions through an agile and razor sharp intelligence.  Read more..........

Humans tend to seek out and prefer the familiar reassuring foods of their native countries.  Famous historian, Brillat-Savarin once quoted, "Tell me what you eat and I will tell you who you are.  The foods that grow in a particular region, the cooking methods typically used, the seasonings, and the style of eating are all part of a communities shared behavior.  How often have you heard someone say, "ewe, yuck", in regard to  a dish they are not familiar with?  That same description is then reversed to, "oh yum", when the person is, many times unconsciously, familiar with the cultural significance and his or hers community acceptance of this dish as good.  Read more.........

Adapted from K.C. Chang, Food in Chinese Culture: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1977.

To say that the consumption of food is a vital part of the chemical process of life is to state the obvious, but sometimes we fail to realize that food is more than just vital. The only other activity that we engage in that is of comparable importance to our lives and to the life of our species is sex. As Kao Tzu, a Warring States-period philosopher and keen observer of human nature, said, "Appetite for food and sex is nature."1 But these two activities are quite different. We are, I believe, much closer to our animal base in our sexual endeavors than we are in our eating habits. Too, the range of variations is infinitely wider in food than in sex. In fact, the importance of food in understanding human culture lies precisely in its infinite variability -variability that is not essential for species survival. For survival needs, all men everywhere could eat the same food, to be measured only in calories, fats, carbohydrates, proteins, and vitamins. But no, people of different backgrounds eat very differently. The basic stuffs from which food is prepared; the ways in which it is preserved, cut up, cooked (if at all); the amount and variety at each meal; the tastes that are liked and disliked; the customs of serving food; the utensils; the beliefs about the food's properties -these all vary. The number of such "food variables" is great.  Read more.....

Leaving Year of the Horse and entering Year of the Sheep on February 1, 2003. It is a Year for all Chinese and the world to celebrate for the better to come. Let us be released from all the pains and suffers and wish all of us to have a peaceful and harmony environment to live.  Read more..........