dooraggity (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} dooraggity) wrote,@ 2006-11-05 00:47:00 |
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international festival is this weekend. i don't know how many people know. but today (saturday) i went to go volunteer at the bazaar (merchandise booth) and had the opportunity to try out this new candy at the chinese cafe booth. this uncle (i'm sure he's the dad or grandpa of some kid i know from somewhere) was making "dragon whisker candy"!!! i loved it. it's made out of strands of honey with corn starch powdering, and peanuts. it's delicious! i decided i wanted to try my hand at making it tomorrow (since i'll be alone- my mom and dad are going back to the int'l festival tomorrow to volunteer again) and tried to look it up on the internet (don't you just love the world wide web??).
turns out this candy is more widely known as "dragon beard candy", and is actually an artisan craft. it takes years to perfect it. my goal is to perfect it in ONE AFTERNOON. we'll see how that goes. but honestly, it is amazing stuff (you eat it and it's like your mouth is clamped shut- you're too busy trying to eat the peanuts and honey) and just knowing that it's one of those ancient "emperors only" type of food makes it so much cooler. anyway, the online recipe seems to use many more ingredients, so i think i'm going to just try it with the simplistic ingredients and try to figure out from there. sort of like going at it backwards from the end product. reverse engineering!
here's a video i found online for people who are interested:
http://www.yuzumura.com/bamboogarden/mas
also, i wanted to touch on the bazaar volunteer experience. in the past, i've been surrounded by good friends and really eye catching toys so we just spent our time playing with the toys (those "chinese yo-yos" that are long strips of paper wrapped around a stick, and you fling it out and it extends) and laughing a lot (i think people are drawn to booths with smiling happy people) and stuff would just sell itself. well, this year, i was surrounded by.... moms of my friends. so i knew it'd be a lot harder to sell things to people. like EXTREMELY hard. chinese people tend to keep things blunt. if it's crab dumplings, it's going to have the direct translation, "dumplings stuffed with the ovary and digestive glands of a crab". it isn't going to be like "pig eyes and intestines" --> "hotdog" or "bologna". with that kind of bluntness, honestly, what is going to be sold? so i started trying to read people, and trying to hold conversations with people passing by instead of just answering questions only when asked and then sitting down and drinking hot tea the rest of the time. (no, i'm kidding about the second part; they only did it twice) and it was kinda fun actually, doing a little bit of customer service. like if a boy came over and looked at the little gold happy buddha statues, i'd tell him about how you're supposed to rub his tummy, and he'd bring you good luck, and i'd point out the things he was holding, joking around that he held a fan cause there wasn't air conditioning back in the day. or if a little girl and a mom went to look at all the different kind of fans, i'd say "hey, ever watch mulan? remember when she fought on the roof with the bad guy? remember how she got the sword out of his hands using only her fan? it's like these fans!!" or if a couple came around with the wife intent to buy buy buy and the husband rolling his eyes at his wife, i'd remind them that "christmas is coming!" and laugh at how the gears would start turning in the wife's head and see the husband's eyes get wide, silently mouthing, "no no no!!". it was pretty fun.
turns out this candy is more widely known as "dragon beard candy", and is actually an artisan craft. it takes years to perfect it. my goal is to perfect it in ONE AFTERNOON. we'll see how that goes. but honestly, it is amazing stuff (you eat it and it's like your mouth is clamped shut- you're too busy trying to eat the peanuts and honey) and just knowing that it's one of those ancient "emperors only" type of food makes it so much cooler. anyway, the online recipe seems to use many more ingredients, so i think i'm going to just try it with the simplistic ingredients and try to figure out from there. sort of like going at it backwards from the end product. reverse engineering!
here's a video i found online for people who are interested:
http://www.yuzumura.com/bamboogarden/mas
also, i wanted to touch on the bazaar volunteer experience. in the past, i've been surrounded by good friends and really eye catching toys so we just spent our time playing with the toys (those "chinese yo-yos" that are long strips of paper wrapped around a stick, and you fling it out and it extends) and laughing a lot (i think people are drawn to booths with smiling happy people) and stuff would just sell itself. well, this year, i was surrounded by.... moms of my friends. so i knew it'd be a lot harder to sell things to people. like EXTREMELY hard. chinese people tend to keep things blunt. if it's crab dumplings, it's going to have the direct translation, "dumplings stuffed with the ovary and digestive glands of a crab". it isn't going to be like "pig eyes and intestines" --> "hotdog" or "bologna". with that kind of bluntness, honestly, what is going to be sold? so i started trying to read people, and trying to hold conversations with people passing by instead of just answering questions only when asked and then sitting down and drinking hot tea the rest of the time. (no, i'm kidding about the second part; they only did it twice) and it was kinda fun actually, doing a little bit of customer service. like if a boy came over and looked at the little gold happy buddha statues, i'd tell him about how you're supposed to rub his tummy, and he'd bring you good luck, and i'd point out the things he was holding, joking around that he held a fan cause there wasn't air conditioning back in the day. or if a little girl and a mom went to look at all the different kind of fans, i'd say "hey, ever watch mulan? remember when she fought on the roof with the bad guy? remember how she got the sword out of his hands using only her fan? it's like these fans!!" or if a couple came around with the wife intent to buy buy buy and the husband rolling his eyes at his wife, i'd remind them that "christmas is coming!" and laugh at how the gears would start turning in the wife's head and see the husband's eyes get wide, silently mouthing, "no no no!!". it was pretty fun.
