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| Tofu in fresh tomato sauce (from Vegetarian Viet Nam, p. 67) |
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| Spinach soup with silken tofu and pork (from Land of Fish and Rice, p. 228) |
As a child growing up in Los Angeles, I disliked all forms of squishy tofu, relegating this Chinese-staple to the same realm as the quivering steamed egg custard that my parents served with soy sauce and minuscule dried silver fish. In true cross-cultural fashion, I next encountered tiny silver fish with black-dot eyes in my 40s, when I was treated to a fantastic Greek meal on the island of Naxos, but that is another story. I was in my 50s before I discovered that I could make truly delicious crave-worthy, tofu-based dishes.
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Sure, there are soy products related to tofu that I enjoyed eating as a child. It's all about the texture. One of my favorite versions of tofu translates to five spiced dry tofu 五香豆腐乾 (wǔxiāng dòufu gān) These come in firm brown, marinated squares, about 1 cm in thickness, with a hearty, firm cheese-like texture that can be sliced thinly. Sliced or julienned dry tofu is often stir-fried with strips of pork and Chinese chives. With my childhood prejudices intact, I happily substituted brown cubes of dry tofu for regular white tofu when dishes such as Susanna Foo's Tofu, Eggplant, Mushrooms and Sun Dried Tomatoes came up in my Wok Wednesdays cooking club. Finely diced dry tofu can be added to ground meats and sliced dry tofu to many stir-fries. The texture is innocuous enough that people don't even realize they are happily eating a type of tofu.
Hiking to the rock formation called Arthur's Seat is one of the best free activities in Edinburgh. Standing at the highest point in Edinburgh (822 ft), you feel like you are at the top of the world with views of the Royal Mile, gleaming Firth of Forth, rolling green hills, crags and lochs all around.
At the end of the Royal Mile, which connects Edinburgh Castle on its rocky perch with the Palace of Holyroodhouse, lies a 640 acre Royal Park known also as Queen's Park or King's Park depending on the current monarch. It was created by King James V in 1541 to enclose a royal hunting estate dating back to the 12th century. Arthur's Seat was formed from tilting and erosion to reveal volcanic rock filling the Lion's Head and Lion's Haunch vents of a volcano active over 300 million years ago. The park is open to the public and offers a majestic escape above the clamor of city life, melding rock or concrete with sky, green hills and water.
For just 1¾ hours round trip, the hike to Arthur's Seat yielded fresh air, wildflowers and an expansive view of wild green hills surrounding the city of Edinburgh. It took my daughter and husband 43 minutes, and me 50 minutes, with breaks to rest and enjoy the emerging views, to get to the plateau on top. After about 20 minutes taking photos and enjoying the summit, the return trip down was 35 minutes. Several types of yellow flowers, complete with pollinators, and other striking wildflowers invited a closer look on the way back down.
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| Looking east from Arthur's Seat |
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| Looking down from Point B on map, below. |
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| First view of summit from Point B on map, below. |
Traveling Back in Time to Colonial America: An Escape from Hurricane Dorian
September 08, 2019
Twelve years ago, our 11 and 6 year old children declared that the historic Williamsburg area was their favorite place to visit, choosing it over Disney, Rome and California. Last week, we had the opportunity to rediscover Colonial Williamsburg as adults. The perspectives of the gentry, tradesmen, free and enslaved African Americans, shopkeepers, religious minorities, military leaders and even lawbreakers in 18th century America truly came to life through conversations, tours, re-enactments and an Escape Room adventure set right in the original Public Gaol building of 1722!
We were stretching our legs on Labor Day, after driving 15 of the 18 hours or so to the Outer Banks from a midwestern family gathering. Our friends, the same family with whom we had explored Williamsburg 12 years ago, were already enjoying beautiful sunsets and early morning fishing, along with our son. Then we got the text... Although Hurricane Dorian was not predicted to reach NC for another three days, the county had just issued evacuation orders. Despite the beautiful current conditions, it did not make sense for us to push on into the evening for a single ocean sunrise before a mandatory evacuation. Fortunately, we found a great deal on a two bedroom suite at the Historic Powhatan resort in Williamsburg, VA only an hour away.
The resort was beautiful, with lakes and fountains and gazebos centered around a historic building, the manor home of the architect Richard Taliaferro, who designed the Governor's Palace and Wythe House in Colonial Williamsburg. The building is open for self-guided tours and ghost hunting (for a fee) in the evenings. Interestingly, Taliaferro reserved a special fireplace design feature for use in his own family buildings, which can be seen here. We enjoyed a fabulous dinner of meatloaf in tomato gravy and shrimp 'n grits at the Food for Thought restaurant, enjoying the many quotes and other tidbits on the walls.
The next day, after our friends arrived, we were very pleased that we had said "No" to the ticket discount offered by the resort, which would have cost us two hours of vacation time. It turns out, Colonial Williamsburg had a much better deal for us (see Tips below). We got annual passes for less than the price of a one day ticket. There is so much to see and experience, and a multiday pass is highly recommended. Even the programs that appear on the schedule every day, such as Order in the Court, Entertainments at the Play House and The Necessity of Order in Battle, cover different topics from day to day.
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| The Fife and Drum corps |
The resort was beautiful, with lakes and fountains and gazebos centered around a historic building, the manor home of the architect Richard Taliaferro, who designed the Governor's Palace and Wythe House in Colonial Williamsburg. The building is open for self-guided tours and ghost hunting (for a fee) in the evenings. Interestingly, Taliaferro reserved a special fireplace design feature for use in his own family buildings, which can be seen here. We enjoyed a fabulous dinner of meatloaf in tomato gravy and shrimp 'n grits at the Food for Thought restaurant, enjoying the many quotes and other tidbits on the walls.
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| Taliaferro Manor House at Historic Powhatan Resort |
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| Order of the Court |
The chow chow is an ancient breed of dog, so beloved according to legend that it was allowed to lick up the little bits of blue sky that fell when the stars were placed.
Dignified in appearance, but not always in behavior, chow chows are extremely versatile dogs, having been used as imperial hunting dogs, guard dogs, sled or cart-pulling dogs, herd dogs, pointers or as sources of fur and even food. Chows come in 5 colors, red, black, silver-cinnamon, blue and cream. Blue chows in particular are believed to scare away evil spirits, and one monastery in China was famous for breeding blue chows. Many of the foo dog statues that appear at the entrances to temples and other buildings are likely modeled after the 鬆獅犬 (sōng shī quǎn) or 鬆獅狗 (sōng shī gǒu), which roughly translates to "lion-like dog."
Of course, chow chows are also very lovable dogs, and may have enjoyed a position as a companion dog not only in our modern society, but also at least as far back as the Tang dynasty 唐朝 (618-907). This scroll painting from the collections of the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan, clearly shows a blue chow pup in a scene of domestic tranquility.
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| My photo of the bottom left corner of the painting. |
Through most of my married life, I have had the privilege of being loved by two chow chows at a time. Hence the double play on the name of this blog: Love2Chow(s). Our journey as devoted chow owners began because we were curious about what a "blue" dog could possibly look like, and came home with Aurora, followed in two years by little red Cedar.
Although we originally thought we would like adding a cream (red, white and blue chows) or trying a male, it seemed that fate intervened to steer us back to two more precious blue girls: Sierra and Melia. Sierra has the distinction of being the furriest of them all, and Melia has an unusual love of swimming. Most chow chows are waders and splashers, but dislike swimming. The red and cream chows we have known seem to like keeping their feet clean, but the blues don't mind a little mud!
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| On a doggie day hike, only little Melia had the courage to jump into Blue Hole. |
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