Watermelon As The Comfort Food

Fruits are my favorite food, especially watermelon. Watermelon is a source of Vitamin C and contain about 91% water and 6% sugar. Watermelon is watery and great for relieve thirst. Also the sweet taste also make me feel better when I feel depressed. The Vitamin C also make watermelon great for our body and skin.

Julie & Julia

"365 days, 524 recipes, 1 tiny apartment kitchen". This crazy project changed her life.
Julie believed Julia is someone she is going to learn and follow. Even they born in different times, live in different environments and do not know each other. Julia give Julie a great spiritual support throughout the movie. The greatest part of food is to change people's minds and altitudes toward life. The most important point of this movie is to show how Julie changed and became a beter woman just as Julia said "I want to change American's life" when she trying to publish her 'French Cooking Book'.
I remember how Julia started her cooking lesson from cutting onions and how Julie cook lobster and scared. Those parts really make people laugh. Cooking is not a easy thing, but it is a happy thing to do if you really love it.

Babette's Feast

      Reading the preparation of meal from the story is somewhat boring. However, watching the Babette's preparation from the movie is really enjoyable. This movie is very particular in the details of food culture, even in the tablecloth. There is a part that shows how Babette ironed the tablecloth again and again to give people a visual treat. Also different kinds of wines and cups. The most interesting part throughout the movie is people's expression during the dinner. People's conversation about the wonderful setting and food also make me understand the whole story better. And also the music throughout the movie.

How to make "Sweet Sago Cream with Coconut Milk"!!!

Today I am going to make a sweet drink (desert) "Sweet sago cream with coconut milk".

The following are steps showing how to make ""Sweet sago cream with coconut milk".

First, there are several material that we need to make this drink: sago cream ( also call "tapioca pearl", and you can easily find it in Chinese market), rock sugar, coconut milk, and sweet sticky coconut ball or taro. As shown in the picture below:

Second, soak the sago cream in water for half hour, for 5 person, we should talke 1/3 of the tapioca pearl packet. As shown in the picture below:

During this half hour, we can start boil water and prepare the taro, and all the material will be ready in half hour for cooking sago cream. 

So, I'm  going to peel off the skin of taro and chop it into small squares, and remember to make to squares as small as possible. As shown in the pictures below:

At this time, water is boiled, I am going to put rock sugar into the boiling water, for 5 persons we should put about half 1/3 to half of the rock sugar packet. (don't put all of them at one time, put them slowly and a little bit at one time, otherwise it would be too sweet, and you won't like it.) And we should stir it slowly. As shown in the picture below:

It's almost half hour and all the rock sugar melted in water already. Now we can start to put sago cream into the sweet water. IMPORTANT: we need to keep stirring the sago cream with sweet water softly and slowly, don't stop stirring it, otherwise it the sago cream will easily stick to the bottom of the pan!!!

Next, When the sago cream became clear, we can add coconut milk in the water now. For five persons,  we can no more than 1/3 of the coconut milk. And don't forget to keep stirring it!!! As shown in the pictures below:

After 3 mins, we can put taro in it. And keep stirring the whole thing for about half hour to 45mins. As shown in the pictures below:

Then, ....after 35mins, we are done!!!

It's "Sweet Sago Cream With Coconut Milk"! If you want it sweeter, you can add whole milk in it! Put it in the fridge, and taste better. Enjoy!

food for a week

The picture above shows some parts of food that my family consumes in a week. That's for a family of six. Our diets seems quiet healthy, the fruits always take a big proportion in our weekly food spending. Since I am in host family with another Chinese girl, rice is always one part of our spending and sometimes noodles. The following are the receipts of my family food expenditure for a week. My family does weekly food shopping and we mostly go to stop& shop, which is the nearest food stores from home. And we always do shopping separately. (Long receipts is for whole family and short one is my food shopping receipts) 

Total: about $200

Meat: about $20

Grain and starchy food: about $30

Fruit: about $80

Vegetable: about $30

Milk and juice: about $40

In my family, we eat together for about twice a week. We sometimes get take out (Chinese food or Mexican food) once a week. And we eat food outside mostly every Friday. The picture below shows a meal that we eat together. And Mrs. Ryan is the one who cooks if we eat together. For the rest of week that we don't eat together, we always cook our own meal separately.

And the following is the looks of our kitchen:

What the world eat

Country: Mali

How much spent for food per week: $26.39

Grain and other starchy food: $ 11.77

Diary: $0.3

Meat, fish and egg: $1.49

Fruit, vegetable and nuts: $6.5

Condiments: $6.03

Prepared food: $0.3

Homemade food: none

Beverage: water from community 

The weekly food expenditures of this 15-members family is only $26.39 in Kouakourou, Mali. It means there is only one quarter spend per person a day. And with the fact that 90% of the family in Mali living  on less than $2 a day. The population of Kouakourou village in Mali has only 2,200 approximately. And the population living below the poverty line in urban is 30% and 70 in rural area of Mali. There is big amount of population in Mali is farmers or fishermen (80%). And 10% of the population is nomadic. Only 1% of the household in rural area has electricity access.
The picture above indicates that the diet is not balance in this family. 154.4Ib of grain and starchy per week consumed in this family but only 4.4Ib of meat only. There is only 1.1 gal sour mild per week for 15 people in this family, which only o.o1gal per person a day. About 65% of land in Mali is desert or semidesert which could not grow grain well.