Beethoven In Trance - Episode 36

My grandmother is from Wuxi. Her family relatives usually brings in Wuxi pork rib from there to Shanghai where we live. I still remember the taste, color, and texture of the pork rib vividly. It comes in a cardboard box with wax paper lined inside. The pork rib is very tender (more than fork tender). The color of the meat is red (yes it's blody red), with no trace of soy sauce in color or taste. The taste is on the sweat side without noticable cinamon flavor. It smells wonderful, and nothing like 'five spice'. That was 20 years ago.

Every few years, we will have family visitors from Wuxi coming to Shanghai. They usually bring us Wuxi pork rib. I started to notice the change of the pork rib as the time went by. The color is not red any more (noticable soy sauce color). The flavor has changed too, with noticable five spice aroma. It did not taste like, looked like, and smelled like the Wuxi pork rib years ago any more.

I have given up the Wuxi pork rib years ago, as our family visitors from Wuxi told us in the last visit that there were many 'Wuxi' pork rib shop in the city now, and even the local couldn't tell which one is the best or the most authentic. I was disapointed, somewhat sad, and even angry.
I recently saw a food post online about a Wuxi pork rib recipe from the Gourmet magazine. The poster called the recipe 'authentic to the bone!'. I resisted the urgy to say 'you don't know what you are talking about', and red through the recipe. I was truely dissapointed. There is nothing in the recipe to give the meat the true 'red' color first of all, and the recipe is pretty much a 'five spice' soy sauce pork rib. One can easily re-package this recipe into a 'Red cook' pork rib (note that the color of Chinese Red Cook pork is not Red, it's dark brown).

Is this Wuxi pork rib recipe lost forever? I don't know, but I will certainly go look for it when I get back to China. There is a scene at the end of the movie Ratatouille when the food critics Anton Ego tastes the ratatouille and the dish brings him back his childhood. Yes, that's the Wuxi pork rib I am looking for, and I hope I can find it very soon.

Beethoven In Trance - Episode 35

2007 Colorado and New Mexico trip.

Open road, big mountains, sunny sky without a shredd of cloud, and a v6 engine car.
We started from Denver. Flight a red-eye there and started the day right after we got the rental. I didn't sleep well the night before as usual when I have to sleep early than usual in order to get up early next morning. I ended up taking the naps at the airport and plane. The seats there were so uncomfortable, and my butt still hurts.

Sat in the rental and finished the breakfast, we went for our first stop - Pikes Peak in Colorado spring. After 1.5 hr. drive, we saw some amazing rocks and reached the foot of the mountain. It took $35/car and 2hr. just to get up and down the mountain. The ride up the mountain is quite nice, blue sky, fall color leaves, low speed limit so that we can enjoy the view, zig zag paved road (for a while), and very often some overlook area for us to park the car and take picture of the nature's beauty. 19 miles total and 14000 meters to the top. I started to feel difficulty in breathing when we hitting the top, and when we actually reached the top, we went into a shop (the only shop), I grabed a Gatorade (@ $3.41) and we each got a free donuts (with coupon that we printed out before the trip). It was cold on the top, air is thin, some elder is carring a oxygen can with him. Mother-in-law started to feel dizzy and we quickly went back into the car and headed back. We stoped by in the middle of the road as there is a pretty amazing lake rested in the mountain. The tire took the some beat as the road is not paved half the way, rocks were grinded under the tire, setting off a strange, burning smell of rubber.

Finally, we got back down, and we headed to the next point of attraction. It was about 4pm already. The next attraction is not far away. Within half hour we reached Garden of God. We saw some interesting rocks, big rocks sitting on top of small ones without falling off. We took some pictures of the light brown rock with blue sky in the background. The dirt is also brown and red. Soon we found out the whole state is in this color as all the houses dress in this redish brown with a blue door.

We finished day 1 and got back to hotel afterwards. I didn't sleep well that night either.
Day 2 we headed to New Mexico. We drove by Trinity Welcome Center to get our free T-shirt (yes, they have free T-shirt available for order online), then we reached Santa Fe around noon. We walked around downtown Santa Fe (the Plaza), took pictures, got some "Canitas" from the food cart there for lunch ($5). There is another food cart on the other side of the town center square called "Fajitas", unfortunately when I finished my Canitas and wanted to have another beef fajitas ($4), they sold out beef already. They still had chicken, but chichen is for chicken. I left there with some regret.

Next stop Tent Rock in Albuquerque. It's an interesting place with rocks looking like tents. The road to get into the park was not paved at all, and it was a very bumpy ride to get into the park. Finally we reached the parking lot. We packed some water and Gaterade (that we got from a supermarket the day before @ $1 each). It's about 1.5 mile to get on the top, we saw some beautiful rock and scenery along the way. The hike wasn't difficult, but not wheelchair friendly either. We finished the day with me and father in law climbing into a rock cave 20 feet above the ground. We went to hotel afterwards and that was day 2. I didn't sleep well that night.

We got up early (3am) in the morning the next day. Day 3 was supposed to be the highlight of our trip, 2007 International Balloon Festival. We bought "Park N' Ride" tickets and got on the bus fairly soon after we arrived the bus stops. Still there was a line about 50 people already in front of us when we got there. The ride to the balloon park is about 30 minutes. The bus took the short cut by passing through a General Mills factory (where I smell cinamon buns). We finally arrived the park when it was still dark. But the park was packed already, we stoped at the food court at the gate for the 'Award Winning' breakfast burito ($5) and cinamon bun (that I heard about from Fudor.com when I was doing my research on the trip). I was content. The breakfast burito is essentially egg, cheese, sausage, and frys wrapped in the tortilla. We went into the park only found out the park is surrounded by food tents selling breakfast burito. I felt hungry very soon and bought another burito ($4, location does matter here). Soon trucks started to stop in the park and people started to pull out giant balloons. Before we realized it, balloons started to be blown up one after another. Then, it comes the light, the sun showed her face, sky turned blue, and balloons had a golden coat of color. I started to run around the park with the camera in hand capturing the lauching and flying balloons in the sky. By 9:30 am in the morning, most of the balloons are in the sky. It was pretty.

There was not much to see after 10am, we wondered around the park and got some freebies - Spam in a pack, and potato chips with apple or cheese flavor (which turned into a major food source for our trip later on). We walked out of the park, and ran into the traffic of people waiting to get out of there at the same time. We were roasted in the sun for almost 1 hr. before we got on the bus. It was a chaos. Finally we got back to the hotel and we took some rest. There was still evening session in the park that night, so we went again around 4pm. When we got there, it was still early, I took some black and white pictures of the people in the park (as I think it captures the character and feature of the locals). Around 7pm, we saw the the fireworks for about 20 minutes. No balloon though, as it was windy that night. We left the park afterwards. That night, I got some red bell pepper, ground beef and cheese from the local Safeway, and cooked in the hotel room (yes, we brought a electric burner and tow pots for cooking instant noodle). I sauted the beef with cheese (as oil alternative), and added pepper, and some potato chips (as we didn't have salt). I toped it with avocado, and it turned out great, and I instantly felt I became a travel chef. That was Day 3. I had a good sleep that night (I think leaving air condition on in the afternoon helped).

Day 4. I felt well after a good night's sleep. We were leaving New Mexico for Colorado again. We passed an overlook where we saw a zig zag of canon from a distant (the locals call it horseshoe). We dropped by Tao, and visited a local church, where we took some pictures. We arrived downtown Tao around noon, and again, pictures. I bought a T-shirt there for $4.99 and only found out it was too small for me. My wife took it gladly.

Next stop Sand Dune park. It's an interesting park with sand dune as its attraction. We didn't have time to explore the park, only hit the sand dune as soon as we arrived the park. It was late afternoon. My wife and I started to climb up the sand dune. It took us about 1 hr. 15 minutes to get to the top of the highest dune. It was windy up there. We couldn't wait getting down there, and we didn't even remember to take a picture. Anyway, we got down with 4 shoes of sand. I still have sands in my shoes today. we drove to the hotel afterwards. It started to turn dark, and we drove through the mountains and arrived Salida (which we noticed is writting next to 'Exit' in an airplane). We stayed in a Days Inn and that hotel was the best in our trip. clean towel with light scent, clean beds with 2 pillows for each, a square table for us to sit down together to have dinner, and a view of the forrest through the window. The only reason we got this room is because I talked to the manager (who is from Russia interestingly, consider all the other hotel managers seem to come from India) and he said he remembered me as I stayed with them before. "Well, ok, if I stayed here before, would you give me a discount?" I asked him, he said "no, but I will put you in a nice room". Works for me. I didn't have a good sleep that night though.

Day 5. We headed to Royal Gorge, the world's highest suspenion bridge that across the two sides of the cayon. It suprised me to see cars are allowed on the bridge. I felt pretty comfortable and safe walking on the bridge though. we also took the air tram to cross the cayon. It was a smooth ride. Down under the cayon was the Kansas River. We also took another tram to get down to the cayon so that we can feel the river better. I found the mini old western town very interesting, and took many pictures of them. In the afternoon, we left the park, and headed to Seven Spring. When we arrived 7 springs, it was almost 5pm. The gate keeper told us that we were late, and we were paying a full day's price for only 30 minutes. We turned around and found we were in another state park (as a matter of fact, 7 springs is only an attraction in the state park). So, we drove into the mountains again, and took more pictures, and saw the creek drifting down along the mountain. It was nice. We got back to hotel, and my wife and I went out afterwards to find some food for dinner. We shopped in Safeway, and I found some scallops. One guy in the shop was nice enough to tell us that we could ask the cashier to give us a shop card with the application so that we could get the discount today. We tried and worked. Money saved, and we were happy. We got back to hotel and made seafood noodle with scallop. Very yummy.
Day 6, say good bye to Colorado. We drove from Colorado spring back to Denver for the flight. We put in too much gas in the tank though. We purchased a full tank from the rental and planed to return it as empty as possible. Well, we didn't plan well, we still have more than a quarter of a tank left. So, I turned on the air condition, with windows open, I break, accelerate, drove around downtown, just tried to use the gas, and it was not successful. The 2008 Hyndai Sonata is a keeper.

We got back to cleveland late that night as there was some delay at the airport. It was a great time, and there was some good food made in hotel. I will bring the burner for sure in my next trip and a bigger pot too. The Days Inn manager in Salida recommend us to visit Aspen and Glenwood for the hot spring and amazing mountains. Well, we will, along with Rocky mountains.

Beethoven In Trance - Episode 34

So we had our very first car accident in the US yesterday evening.

We were driving on the main road, and we switched the lane to the left after signal. Right after that I noticed another silver car just ran out from another side of the street. I honked and it didn't help. Before my next move, it hit my car on the left side of my car's rear bumper. I came out, and he came out. He said 'you changed lane on me'. 'What?' All I could think of at that time is what happened to my car. I looked at my car, left side of the rear bumper was scratched and jacked out of place. I said 'let me call the insurance company and we will see what next.' I went back into my car, paused, pulled out my wallet, and found my insurance card. I didn't know if I was shaking or not, but I suddenly know I was when the policeman came around. I sat back into the car, dialed 911, and told them my phone number and give them the location (which was not the correct as it turned out). Then I dialed the insurance claims number only was told I might want to call agent first. Well, ok, it was 5:40pm, and I didn't believe any insurance agent worked that late. The guy said 'let's get out of the road'. Ok, let's do that (ding, ding, ding, ding ding!!!, big mistake). We drove to a small parking place on the side of the road, and waited the policeman. He asked what police department I called, and I said I might called the wrong city. He got the number for the correct one, well, we called again, and I let him do the talking, he gave the location and he said 'it's a fender bender'.

We waited, and it started to rain. I called my best friend Mark, and was told the other guy would get a ticket because he didn't yield to the traffic on the main road. I was somehow relieved to hear that. Policeman finally arrived (two eventually). I talked to the policeman, described what happened, and I was asked to fill up a police report. I did. I wrote down what happened the best I could (quite tough for a Chinese to write down a car accident in foreign language for the first time when I was still in shock and shaking, and it was raining). The best thing I did though in the report is to draw a picture of what happened. Then, the second policeman came and I asked him some questions like what the green dividing section in the middle of the road is called, and what the left lane called in this accident (it's called left through lane, and right through lane). He also corrected a street name for me. When I was talking to him, the first policeman went to talk to the other guy in the car. Both parties filled out the forms.

Then he left first, the first policeman gave us his card with report number on it, and told us to call insurance agent tomorrow and give them this number so that the agent can get the report. He also told us that he pretty much decided who was at fault and gave the ticket to the other party. We were relieved and drove away.

Though it was 'small accident' but I can't believe how stressful and intense it was. The car just didn't feel right afterwards.

So this morning I called the insurance agent. The agent asked for the other party's insurance company information and I didn't have it. Well, we didn't exchange insurance information at the accident. So we have to wait for the police report come out before we can do anything. I called the police department noon to check on the status and I was told it needs to be approved, and it might be done by the end of this week. This week? It's only Wednesday, how many rubber stamps need to be put on there? Then I asked the lady over the phone nicely about the other party's insurance company information and she was glad to give them to me. Thank you!.
I called the agent again and gave her the insurance company information. She called the other insurance company and filed the claim, then she called me and gave me the claims number, adjuster's name and phone number, she also told me that the adjuster would call me today or tomorrow.

The adjuster did call. I picked up the phone and was asked what happened. I told him what happened the best I could over the phone. He told me a different story he got from his insured. I was shocked and enraged. I was in the office, and I couldn't talk loud, and I kept my temper as much as possible. I asked him again about the story and I picked out something I thought wrong. The adjuster said he needed to look at the police report before he can decide what to do next. And we hang up.

I was still in fury when I got off the phone and I had to walk outside for a while to calm me down. I talked to Mark again and told him about the story I heard from the adjuster. I told him how disappointed I was. At that point, I probably misunderstood some details about the story, and thought the guy lied to the adjuster. Come to think of it now, he did what he could to make the best case scenario.



So what are the lesson learned:

Take Picture!!!!!!!!!Take picture before move away from the scene of the accident!!!! That's the single most important evidence I can have!!!! Got a Camera Phone? Time to use it! No camera phone? Get a disposable one from CVS, Walgreen or Walmart and put it in the glove compartment at ALL TIME!

Exchange insurance information!

In police report, write down if anyone turns left or right, switches lane, drive straight on mainstreet or speeding. In my case, I should emphasize he was turning from a small road into a main traffic without yielding.

Write down not only what happened, but also what was said and told through out the accident.

Write down the name of the road and travel direction, and draw the picture!

Ask policeman to prove read your report, make sure he understands you completely. Ask him to repeat if have to.

Before the adjuster called you, prepare your story, and prepare for hearing a different story.


Keep a bottle of water in the car. I was dehydrated throughout the accident(I guess due to stress).

Ask for a copy of police report as soon as it's available.

Drive defensively!