Thursday, January 31, 2013

Asian-style Pork Stir-fry

By Joey de Larrazabal-Blanco for Yahoo! Southeast Asia – Mon, Jan 28, 2013 1:50 PM PHT
Photo by Joey de Larrazabal-Blanco
Preparation time: 30-35 minutes (including marinating time)
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Serves: 4
This dish is a good example of the vibrant personality of Asian flavors, and it is very easy to put together. You can substitute the mushrooms here with other Asian mushrooms such as shitake, or even button.  Feel free to add other vegetables as well.  Baby corn, broccoli, or asparagus will all work well.  Make sure to slice the vegetables into more or less similar sizes so they all cook at the same rate.  Serve this atop steaming hot white rice. 

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine (Chinese cooking wine)
  • 1 teaspoon black vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon hoisin sauce
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
  • 1 teaspoon cornstarch
  • 350 grams bacon cut pork belly
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 red onion, cut into eighths
  • 1-inch piece ginger, peeled and sliced
  • 150 grams oyster mushrooms
  • 150 grams shimeji mushrooms
  • 2 pencil leeks, white and light green parts only, sliced diagonally
  • Water, if needed

Preparation

  1. Mix the soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, black vinegar, hoisin sauce, sugar, sesame oil, and cornstarch in a bowl until fully combined. Pat the pork belly pieces dry and combine with the soy sauce mixture, making sure the mixture is evenly spread throughout the pork. Leave to marinate for 15-20 minutes.
  2. Heat a wok over high heat. When hot, add 1 tablespoon of the vegetable oil. Add the pork and marinade and stir-fry until pork is just cooked. Do not overcook.  Remove the pork from the wok and place the wok back on the stove.
  3. Pour the remaining 1/2 tablespoon of vegetable oil into the wok. Add garlic, onion, and ginger. Sauté, stirring, until fragrant and onion pieces start to soften. Add oyster mushrooms and toss. Add shimeji mushrooms and toss to combine. If the mixture looks a little too dry, add about a tablespoon of water and mix, sautéing until mushrooms soften.
  4. Add the leeks, toss once or twice, and then add back the pork. Give everything a final toss, just to get it all combined, then take off the heat and serve immediately.
    5. Visit Joey de Larrazabal-Blanco's blog at http://80breakfasts.blogspot.com.

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Saturday, January 26, 2013

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Friday, January 25, 2013

A $1 million luxury vehicle designed for China's year of the snake

By Ross Kenneth Urken | Forbes.com – 4 hours ago

MORE AT FORBES

The approaching year of the snake on the Chinese calendar will ring in a new era of opulence for DARTZ Motorz Company, the Latvia-based luxury tank manufacturer. The Black Snake, the company’s first non-armored vehicle, is based on the Mercedes GL 63 AMG and is geared only at the Chinese market with an even more sybaritic model, the Black Falcon, to arrive in the Middle East later this year.

The Black Snake is now the centerpiece of the brand with high performance, all-wheel drive offerings and the usual garnishings of diamond-encrusted hood ornaments. No price has been named, but it’s expected to cost well over $1,000,000.

The Black Snake tries to mimic the first-rate comfort of the S-Class with the performance of an AMG vehicle.The AMG 5.5-litre V8 bi-turbo engine has 557 hp and a maximum torque of 560 lb-ft of torque. The AMG RIDE CONTROL sports suspension provides high-level driving dynamics. It goes 0 to 60 in 4.9 seconds–enough to get your garden variety oligarch out of trouble in a hurry.

Run by Leonard F. Yankelovich, DARTZ goes by the tagline “Bullet Proof Trend Setters” and operates out of the old Russo-Balt factory in Riga. The company makes armored tanks like the T-98 Kombat (which goes for a measly $225,000) and the $1-million Prombron, which has the famous accoutrements like whale foreskin leather, the same as used on Aristotle Onassis’s yacht.

The company, which also builds the $1.6 million Dartz Prombron Monaco Red Diamond Edition, outfitted armored vehicles for Czar Nicholas II, Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky. Fittingly, admiral General Aladeen, Sacha Baron Cohen’s character in his film The Dictator, drives one such DARTZ vehicle, the auto distributor for princes, titans of industry, and (historically) Soviet leaders.

Superfluous Opulence

The body of the Black Snake is made from space aluminum using the Soviet “kapsula” technology first employed for Joseph Stalin’s armored car. The vehicle has a radiator grille with golden flourishes, and the hood of this Chinese edition vehicle will be covered with leaf gold formed like snakeskin. There’s even an optional diamond hood ornament from Smolensk Kristall.

The lap of luxury is yours with seats made out of the exotic leather of your choice–snake, crocodile belly, ostrich, and whale penis. The seats feature double topstitching in contrasting colors and DARTZ badges to commemorate the year of the snake. The dashboard, armrests and door paneling come in snake wood. The floor mats made from white shark skin.
Yankelovich despises the term SUV when used about his vehicles.

“For DARTZ customers who don’t use their big cars for off-loading, don’t deliver a mess from the farms nor weekly food from the supermarket, why do they still have to drive SUVs?” he asks.

Instead, he calls them BNOs (Bespoke, Noble, Opulent).

The ostentation of the  Black Snake will cater to the tastes Chinese market, but the price tag, with six zeroes safely slapped on the end, is a far cry from the average price for a new vehicle in the U.S.–just a hair under $30,000, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association.

So why do people need such a bespoke car?

“A lady will never go to party in the same dress as another,” Yankelovich said. “But still she will easily come to a party in the same black S500, or the same white Bentley GT, or the same gray Porsche Cayenne? It will be a serial car in serial style.”

That’s the wrong approach and plain complacency, according to Yankelovich. The hunger for distinctive elements in a vehicle, he feels, is necessary and symptomatic of a country like China with vastly expanding wealth and consumers who increasingly yearn to be unique.

For sports car lovers there are tons of labels who make bespoke cars like Pagani, Koeniggsegg, Zenvo, Panoz and so on. But DARTZ is the only company that dubs up your big car.

“It will be your bulletproof investment–and not because it will protect you from bullets,” Yankelovich said. “But because it will save your money, as the car is a 21-century masterpiece.” In other words, paying a premium for a car is in vain if it’s just like another Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupé pulling up to the Ritz.

If that’s not convincing enough, there’s something to sweeten the deal: Every owner gets 56 g of premium Mottra caviar delivered monthly for the two-year warranty time. There’s also the chance to purchase three types of RussoBaltique Vodka with your choice of a diamond filter.

Ready to roll?
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Friday, January 11, 2013

New Russian nuclear submarine enters service

By By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV | Associated Press – 18 hrs ago
MOSCOW (AP) — The Russian navy on Thursday hoisted its flag on a new nuclear powered submarine intended to form a key part of the country's future nuclear deterrent. It is part of an ambitious weapons modernization effort that comes as the military is preparing for a naval exercise off Syria's shores.
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the war games in the Mediterranean will be the biggest such exercise since Soviet times and involve ships from all four Russian fleets. The maneuvers have been seen as a demonstration of Russian naval power and a show of support for an old ally, whom Moscow has shielded from international sanctions.
Shoigu made the statement after commissioning the new Yury Dolgoruky nuclear submarine, which carries 16 Bulava intercontinental ballistic missiles. It is the first of a new series of Borei-class submarines that will replace older Soviet-built ships. Another submarine of the same type is currently undergoing sea trials and two others are now under construction.
President Vladimir Putin congratulated the Yuri Dolgoruky's crew during a conference call Thursday, hailing the ship as a "powerful weapon that will guarantee our security."
"Submarines of that class will become an important element of sea-based strategic forces, a guarantor of global balance and security of Russia and its allies," Putin said.
Commissioning of the new submarines is part of an ambitious arms modernization program that envisages spending over 20 trillion rubles ($657 billion) on new weapons through 2020.
Putin said Thursday that 4 trillion rubles ($132 billion) of that money will be spent on commissioning the new submarines and other navy ships. "Modernization of the navy is one of the most important priorities in our work to strengthen the armed forces," he said.
Putin said the navy will commission the total of eight Borei-class ICBM nuclear submarines and eight nuclear submarines of a different Yasen class intended to hunt for enemy ships.
The construction of the Yuri Dolgoruky, named after a medieval Russian prince who founded Moscow, began in 1995 but was slowed down by a post-Soviet economic meltdown and it wasn't until 2009 when it finally entered sea trials. The submarine's commissioning was delayed further by problems with the new Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile intended to arm it.
The Bulava experienced a string of failures during tests that dragged on for years, raising doubts about the future of the most expensive military project in Russia's post-Soviet history. Recent tests, however, have been successful, allowing the navy to finally commission the submarine.
Shoigu, who attended the commissioning of the new submarine at a shipyard in Severodvinsk, said that the Bulava is fully combat ready.
Facing questions about Bulava, Putin's chief of staff Sergei Ivanov also insisted that "the navy has no reason to doubt its reliability."
A hawkish Russian Cabinet member marked the ceremony with a tongue-in-cheek comment mimicking the Cold War-era diatribes of Soviet leaders. "You bourgeoisie tremble! You are screwed!" Dmitry Rogozin, deputy prime minister in charge of military industries, wrote on Twitter.
Rogozin, a nationalist politician in the past, has been known for his bellicose and sometimes crude statements.
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Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Seeing a professional at work! Claudia Galanti's 20-month-old son watches and learns as his model mother takes part in steamy shoot

By Daily Mail Reporter
PUBLISHED: 13:06 GMT, 2 January 2013 | UPDATED: 16:07 GMT, 2 January 2013
Model and embarrassing mother Claudia Galanti is at it again, this time by taking her toddler to her raunchy photoshoot.
Paraguayan model Claudia covered her ample chest with a leather jacket as she posed up at the shoot.
Claudia has not been separated from son 20-month-old Liam since his birth, which means her son is often keeping her company on shoots.
Mummy's working! Claudia poses up in a raunchy photoshoot in a black leather jacket
Mummy's working! Claudia poses up in a raunchy photoshoot in a black leather jacket
The brunette was also seen wearing a bizarre sleeveless dress with fur truim as she posed up, rolling around on the beach.
He toned legs were on show in the dress while her hair hung loose over her bare shoulders.
Claudia has been seen on South Beach with beau Arnaud Mimran relaxing before the dressy shoot.
Bizarre: Claudia's shoot meant the model had to roll around in the sand in a black leather dress
Bizarre: Claudia's shoot meant the model had to roll around in the sand in a black leather dress
Mummy, what do you do for a living? The model was wearing an odd leather dress for the shoot in South Beach
Mummy, what do you do for a living? The model was wearing an odd leather dress for the shoot in South Beach

Determined: Claudia wanted to get the job done
Determined: Claudia wanted to get the job done

With their frequent public displays of affection, rolling around on the beach in their swimwear, they make no effort to hide their mutual infatuation.
But for once the couple covered up as they joined Claudia's toddler son Liam, 20 months, on the beach in Miami.
Although it was a different story on Wednesday as the model put on her best pout and an array of of leather clothes.
Kiss for mummy! Liam puckers up as his model mum picks him up
Kiss for mummy! Liam puckers up as his model mum picks him up
Pose up: Claudia was ever the professional as she lay on the sands
Pose up: Claudia was ever the professional as she lay on the sands
World's most embarrassing parents? Claudia Galanti squeezes Arnaud Mimran's behind as they stroll on the beach with their son Liam
World's most embarrassing parents? Claudia Galanti squeezes Arnaud Mimran's behind as they stroll on the beach with their son Liam in Miami on Thursday

A kiss for baby: Liam has a cuddle with his mother's boyfriend
A kiss for you: Liam has a cuddle with his mother's boyfriend
He in turn wore a bizarre pair of leather shorts and a T-shirt, as he carried Liam along the beach.
While French mogul Arnaud is not Liam's biological father, he is the father of his younger sibling Tal Harlow.
But Claudia didn't keep covered up for long - stripping off her shirt to reveal her black bikini as she enjoyed a game of soccer with her boyfriend and son.
The businessman and enthusiastic poker player is part of the Mimran empire - one of the richest in France with an estimated fortune of €1.2 billion and interests in much of West Africa. 
Holding on: Claudia chats to her son as she grabs hold of Arnaud
Holding on: Claudia chats to her son as she grabs hold of Arnaud
Taking a walk: The toddler points out something of interest to his parents
Taking a walk: The toddler points out something of interest to his parents

Back in 2008, she made her Italian TV debut as a showgirl before going on to become a contestant in the the seventh edition of the reality show The Famous Island  - which is comparable to I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here. 
However, she was eliminated in the fourth episode.  But things are looking rosy for Galanti, who seems terribly loved up with her beau. 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2256057/Claudia-Galantis-20-month-old-son-watches-learns-model-mother-takes-steamy-shoot.html#ixzz2GqyNVJHs
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Lost Bicycle Swallowed by Wash. Tree By Kevin Dolak | ABC News Blogs – 4 hours ago Email Share498 2 Print Lost Bicycle Swallowed by Wash. Tree (ABC News) Lost Bicycle Swallowed by Wash. Tree (ABC News) A young boy's lost bicycle has led to a unique piece of natural roadside art on Washington state's Vashon Island, over 50 years later. Traveling off of Vashon Highway, about 50 feet into the woods behind the local Sound Food Café, travelers will come across a peculiar site - an intact, 1950s-era bicycle embedded into a tree. In 1954 Helen Puz had been recently widowed when she received the bike as a gift from someone in the community, according to Discover Washington State. PHOTOS: Unusual Sightings "People were very sympathetic and generous," Puz reportedly wrote in a document on display at the Vashon-Maury Island Heritage Museum. "We were given a girl's bike and my 8-year-old son Don seemed the natural one to ride it." But Don Puz was none-too-pleased to be cruising the island, which is nestled between Seattle and Tacoma, on a girl's bike. One day he told his mother that he had lost the bike, and given that it was built for a girl, they decided to let it go. It wasn't until decades later that Helen Puz, now 99, found out what happened to her son's bike when she read in the local Beachcomber newspaper that someone had discovered the bike five feet high in the air, embedded in the tree. The tree had grown around it. One visitor reports on roadsideamerica.com that the front wheel still turns. The roadside marvel has been the inspiration for the Berkeley Breathed book "Red Ranger Came Calling" and a Japanese documentary. Also Read

Lost Bicycle Swallowed by Wash. Tree

By | ABC News Blogs – 4 hours ago
A young boy's lost bicycle has led to a unique piece of natural roadside art on Washington state's Vashon Island, over 50 years later.
Traveling off of Vashon Highway, about 50 feet into the woods behind the local Sound Food Café, travelers will come across a peculiar site - an intact, 1950s-era bicycle embedded into a tree.
In 1954 Helen Puz had been recently widowed when she received the bike as a gift from someone in the community, according to Discover Washington State.
PHOTOS: Unusual Sightings
"People were very sympathetic and generous," Puz reportedly wrote in a document on display at the Vashon-Maury Island Heritage Museum. "We were given a girl's bike and my 8-year-old son Don seemed the natural one to ride it."
But Don Puz was none-too-pleased to be cruising the island, which is nestled between Seattle and Tacoma, on a girl's bike. One day he told his mother that he had lost the bike, and given that it was built for a girl, they decided to let it go.
It wasn't until decades later that Helen Puz, now 99, found out what happened to her son's bike when she read in the local Beachcomber newspaper that someone had discovered the bike five feet high in the air, embedded in the tree. The tree had grown around it.
One visitor reports on roadsideamerica.com that the front wheel still turns. The roadside marvel has been the inspiration for the Berkeley Breathed book "Red Ranger Came Calling" and a Japanese documentary.
Also Read
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