Author: Derek

Friday, 1 November 2013

I was born in Hong Kong therefore the Hong Kong food really influenced my cooking. It was great to share parts of my root in Italy and Austria with great friends.  

My cooking is not very traditional anymore because of the time I have spent away from Hong Kong. There are my own interpretations which may or may not make any difference. 

Sweet and Sour Chicken was the number one in the 90s in my all time favourite chart. There are some changes to the “Sweet and Sour sauce”. I use my instinct and faith instead of precision when it comes to the mixture of water, ketchup, vinegar and sugar.  I use dried pineapple (substitutes majority of the sugar)  at the end and a high heat to finish and rescue the sauce.  

My time in Shanghai added a “drunken chicken” recipe. It is a cold dish for appetitiser. I observed that the dish is a cooked chicken in alcohol. It is a cold dish so the sweetness is not ready to come out because I don’t add much sugar to my food. It is the bitterness of the alcohol that makes the dish. 

The hot pot on the left is an aubergine and mince dish. Fresh chilli (one of) is used to add the hot and the sauce is build up with olive oil, garlic, onion and ginger. 

The steamed fish tends to be for a whole fish but I need the fishmonger to tell the time therefore i. I use salt quite heavily on the preparation of the fish to use osmosis to reduce the water within the cells so the fillets keep their shape during the cooking process. Steaming is my favourite way to keep the fresh taste. 

Saturday, 26 October 2013

Italian lessons

I had my first italian lesson today. I am not sure whether I overhyped myself, someone really rate or hate me and sent me to the advanced class. It turned out that I missed only around twenty lessons over almost a year . So I was about 40 hours, a textbook and 60 pages behind. This out of depth situation was familiar by now as we learnt this “future perfect conditional present tense”. This tense is used when you want something for the future but is dependent on the present, strangely applicable to the situation of me trying to learn italian.

“Challenge accepted.”

Like every situation, there is a light at every tunnel. I got to skip a lot of classes and homework which were probably quite boring. Sure they might have been rather critical for the learning process (blablablabla). My favourite italian phrase which means a repetitive coded phrase of wisdom from someone. Sadly, people say it a lot around me but I never received the true meaning. So far I learnt my Italian lessons through life. The two weeks of camping in Sicily provided useful vocabulary (for camping), and the argument with the fruit seller for 3 fruits instead of kilograms of fruits meant I can trade (Balls were broken there). The various dishes that ordered without really understanding the menu were all part of the lessons. Thankfully all restaurants served food. I knew the gaps in my knowledge. The fact that I never used the numbers between 11 and 16, meant I really should learn to count (something I can only do well in Cantonese). 

I asked for Italian lessons, and they gave me italian lessons. Therefore the only option was to react and stick with it.

The girl with the hiking boots is in Austria. After 12 hours of driving and some serious toll roads later, I really like hiking. 

Sunday, 15 September 2013

Milano, Gallarate, Como, Trezzano, Torino, Lago Como, Tremezzo, Menaggio, Arona, Lago Maggiore, Angera, Ispra, Stresa, Verbania, Lago d’Orta, Orta San Giulio, Biella, Pont St Martin, Fenis, Aosta, Pavia (Certosa), Genova, La Spezia, Rhomaggiore, Monterosso, Vernazza, Parma, Verona, Mantova, Osmate, Santa Caterina, Palermo, Catania, Siracusa, Noto, Avola, Milazzo, Taormina, S. Alessio, Messina, Vulcano, Salina, Stromboli, Etna, Brolo, Bergamo.

Every name represents a little of memory of Italy.

Monday, 19 August 2013

The Aeolian Islands were great for a range of activities. I am now an experienced camper, Level 13 with useful skill points like pack or unpack in 10 minutes, cold shower daily, pitched next to ant nests, eat my daily bread 3 times a day. 

Lessons learnt

When travelling in Sicily always hire a car (except on the Aeolian Islands)

My previous swim in June 2012 was not a fluke. However, I might need a bit more practise and life insurance before taking up diving. This is a 2014 challenge. 

The shorter the swimming shorts are more genuine italian the holiday becomes. When I am more fluent in Italian, I will wear something fluorescent, perhaps glow in the dark. 

Quadbiking was really fun. Motorcycling next, again a bit more practise and life insurance required.

Arancini is the food of choice in Sicily. It has everything I need. Rice, meat, cheese and sauce. The fruits are sweet. I could work on my negotiations with the fruit seller for a more expensive deal because I did not need the volume of fruits on offer. 

Hiking boots are great for volcanoes. A gas mask would have been helpful too. The gases from volcanoes are apparently toxic. It did smell rather acidic.

Only two pairs of balls broken. I recognise the double hand gesture from annoyed italians. Only two people did that to me and that is a sign of progress. 

Friday, 16 August 2013

The Aeolie Islands consist of 6 main Islands, Lipari, Stromboli, Panerea, Vulcano, Alicudi, and Filicudi. The boat trips available from Vulcano were really effective to visit all the islands. I was camping in Vulcano which in fact was a volcanic island. The name gave a hint. Stromboli was another volcano which erupts regularly. 

The campsite I stayed in was called “Eden Park”. If you wondered what it was like camping 10, 20 years ago. That captured the essence of camping which is the few things in life that does not need to change. Daily  cold showers, The travel history of the owner was impressive. “Budget travel is not the same anymore”, he said. I guess I will find out for myself. 

Unfortunately, I missed the opportunity to go to Alicudi and Filicudi. I also did not go to Lipari. Well, I had a philosophy of only seeing part of the destination to give me a reason to visit the place again. I had two opportunities to go but I missed the boat twice. The first time, I was late and the second time, the boat was full.   

I sat there wondered how many other boats I missed. 

Wednesday, 14 August 2013

The August bank holiday was rapidly approaching therefore I will have to find whatever ride and public transport I could to get to my destination in Vulcano, among the Aeolian Islands. I was nowhere near my destination. I was not impressed with the bus therefore I was open to other options.  

I hitched a ride (first time) after I learnt that they were sensible people heading towards Catania, shared a taxi with strangers (first time) but they were very pretty dutch girls. I reached Catania at lunch but unfortunately my next stop involved purchasing a bus ticket. Sicilians take their lunch time nap way too seriously for 3 hours. In hindsight, I should have waited. I decided to take the train instead.  

Google IDed the potential next campsite along the coast to Messina and perhaps this was my first error that I was too conservative in estimating where I could go. 

The campsite was in S. Alessio where the sea was the only attraction and on an island that is not that special at all. It was a totally Italian destination.

The transport away from this part of Sicily basically none existent. I lost about 4 hours. 

Great if you have some terrible books that you want to read, for example Twilight Trilogy. The overall time penalty was about 2 hours exploring time in Messina plus 3 hours of waiting time. But I had to go there to not to go there again in the future. 

Milazzo was the key port that provided the ferries to Aeolian Islands. It was critical to use the bus to arrive into Milazzo because of the long walk from the rail station to the port. I explored the old town and took the boat to Vulcano at sundown. 

Saturday, 10 August 2013

The day was a Saturday. Therefore I have to travel to my next destination. A quick look at Google highlighted a couple of campsites south of Siracusa. 

I toured Siracusa, it was tough work in the Sicilian Heat. There were some pretty buildings and large yachts. I was a bit out of place. Everyone was casually strolling around with a camera. I had all my camping gear on me and a camera.    

The bus swiftly stopped at the bus stop for the Campsite which was 4km away.  I walked on the side of the road because there is no  path. That was pretty uncomfortable. Fortunately only one car decided to swive to see how close they could have got to me. I should have hired a car.

There were two campsites to chose from. The first one was a hi-tech industrial campsite which was terrible. The owners were not very approachable. The tents had to be parallel to each other, bathrooms with automatic doors and lights. The ground was too compact that I could not pitch my tent properly. However the location of the pitch was about 3m away from the beach. That was the only good bits but the campsite was designed to get through the holidays as quickly as possible. Therefore I will probably recommend this campsite to people that I don’t like. The second campsite was a lot more fun. It was ran by a friendly couple and that makes a big difference to the travel experience. It was camping “old school”, the way it supposed to be. The arancini were tasty and it was a well equipped campsite, not an industrial overkill. 

These campsites were a good base for Noto, Ragusa, and Siracusa. Noto was a beautiful baroque city, full of magnificent buildings. Another entry on the UNESCO sites ticked off. 

Sunday, I went to what was equivalent to a KFC and ordered a chicken. 

Friday, 9 August 2013

I am not religious but I am superstitious. My plan was still not defined because of my travelling without a plan approach. I waited for a sign. In Catania, the signs were clear. They all said Etn(e)a. What will happen on anything could happen Friday, a visit to Etna.  

The campsite was about 3km away from Catania city centre, Camping Jonio. I would actually recommend this to a friend as supposed to people I dislike. The campsite workers were super helpful and arranged the Etna tour at a reasonable price too. The Land Rover Defender was an useful vehicle to go up the volcano. 

Etna is a big volcano, (biggest in Europe) just over 3000m high. She had a history of big activities as evident by the black lava flows. It was incredible that a giant volcano was just one hour away from the city centre of Catania.  

I am not religious but I am superstitious. My plan was still not defined because of my travelling without a plan approach. I waited for a sign. In Catania, the signs were clear. They all said Etn(e)a. What will happen on anything could happen Friday, a visit to Etna.  

The campsite was about 3km away from Catania city centre, Camping Jonio. I would actually recommend this to a friend as supposed to people I dislike. The campsite workers were super helpful and arranged the Etna tour at a reasonable price too. The Land Rover Defender was an useful vehicle to go up the volcano. 

Etna is a big volcano, (biggest in Europe) just over 3000m high. She had a history of big activities as evident by the black lava flows. It was incredible that a giant volcano was just one hour away from the city centre of Catania.  

Io non sono religioso, ma sono super-stizioso. Il mio piano non è stato ancora definito a causa del mio viaggiare senza un piano approccio. Ho aspettato per un segno. In Catania, i segnali sono stati chiari. Tutti hanno detto Etna(e). Cosa accadrà il tutto può succedere Venerdì, una visita all’Etna. 

Il campeggio era a circa 3 km dal centro di Catania, Camping Jonio. Vorrei consigliare a un amico come supposto da persone che non mi piacciono. I lavoratori campeggio sone stati super disponibili e hanno organizzato la gita sull’Etna ad un prezzo ragionevole. Il Defender Land Rover è stato un veicolo utile per salire sul vulcano. 

L’Etna è un grande vulcano, (il più grande in Europa) poco più alta 3000m. Ha avuto una storia di grandi attività, come evidente dalle colate laviche nere. È stato incredibile che un vulcano gigante è solo un’ora di distanza dal centro della città di Catania.

Wednesday, 7 August 2013

What happens in the next 2 days will influence the next week and a half. The theory is the butterfly effect. For every equipment I buy for comfort, it will bring discomfort of another part of the trip. I think the best way to apply the butterfly effect is not to think about it. 

I bought a pair of Italian swimming shorts, factor 50 plus sun cream, a roll mat and a stool. After 4 months in Italy, I am understanding the fashion theme in Italy is generally shorter, tighter and brighter. These shorts fits the bill. 

Che capita nei prossimi due giorni influenzerà la prossima settimana e mezza. La teoria è l’effetto farfalla. Per ogni apparecchiatura che compro per il comfort, porterà disagio di un’altra parte del viaggio. Penso che il modo migliore per applicare l’effetto farfalla è di non pensarci. 

Ho comprato pantaloncini, fattore 50 plus crema del sole un tappetino rotolo e uno sgabello. Dopo 4 mesi in Italia, sto capendo il tema della moda in Italia è generalmente più breve, più stretto e più luminoso. Questi pantaloncini si inserisce la fattura.

Monday, 5 August 2013

A wise man once said, “Travelling is more fun when there is no plan.” Therefore the “plan” was to not use my plan (the original one). However, I pondered whether by using this “plan” to travel with “no plan” means that I am actually travelling with a plan. I spent the next hour debating with myself. The conclusion was as long as I decide where to go when I am actually there. It would count as travel with freedom. I have never been this unprepared for a trip but equally, I have never been this prepared for the unexpected.  

You may notice that since I am writing about this trip that I am thankfully still alive. It was awesome but at the same time, I will not do this again. 

Through chance, I combined the possibly the worst place in Italy for trains, possibly the worst place for buses, possibly the worst place for english speakers, worst hot weather travel conditions and carrying about 20% of my own body weight in my rugsack. I still had a great time! 

Un grande uomo ha detto fa, “Viaggiando è più divertimento quando ce non è un piano.” Perciò il piano è stato di non usare il mio piano. 

Allora, sto scrivendo qui sono ancora vivo. La mia esperienza è stato fantastica, ma io non farei la di nuovo.