Day Trip: Philadelphia Chinatown

My Chinese History class went on a trip to Chinatown. I was very excited to hear that we would be doing something other than lectures (In college! How scandalous!) Our teacher gave us a tour and shared some of the history of Chinatown. It was very fun, Andy and I had never been there before.

The first thing you see in Chinatown is the Friendship Gate, built in 1984 to celebrate an agreement with Tianjin, a city in China, which is considered to be Chinatown's sister city.

There are a lot of street vendors and shops that sell traditional Chinese goods. We visited a fish market, where the fish were very fresh as well as a Chinese grocery store. Something that intrigued us was "Tea Eggs" sold on the street by a vendor. We were told that tea eggs are very popular in China and that they are sold by vendors as well as fast food chains there. They smelled very delicious and the marbling color of the eggs would make a very pretty party dish. A recipe can be found here: Asian-Fusion Recipes. I have yet to try one but they look great.

We saw lots of produce stands, many which included exotic fruits and vegetables including Durian, a spiky fruit that supposedly tastes delicious but smells really bad. It is also said to be the worlds most dangerous fruit. We also saw starfruit, which when you cut it open makes perfect star shaped fruit. This seems like it could have endless uses by a competent cook.    

 There were a lot of traditional Chinese restaurants, we ate Dim Sum, small portions of a lot of different kinds of food which you share with others, at a restaurant called Joy Tsin Lau ( Mansion of the Drunken Immortal.) Everything was very flavorful and the experience of everyone splitting all of the food and trying new things was fantastic. We even went to visit a Fortune Cookie Factory. (Those are boxes of fortunes in the picture.)


This plaque commemorates the beginning of Chinatown in 1845! It is still going strong after 165 years.

The trip was a very fun experience. I would recommend it. We took the train as it is chaotic and expensive to park in Philadelphia. If you do decide to go, be sure to take a map. It is very easy to get turned around and many of the interesting shops are down back alleys. It was a very fun trip.

Colonial Receipts : Desserts

I've been writing a lot about the Civil War Era and I felt a need to write a bit about my first love: the Colonial Era. The Colonial Era was over two hundred years ago, I have found that a lot of people just assume what was eaten back then instead of doing research. I try to shy away from the "old timey" recipes of which  no one knows their origin. I applaud the people I know who want to serve period correct meals instead of what is thought to just be "old fashioned." 

 A lot of "receipts" from the era have been attributed to a famous people but few are traceable to a direct source. In a rarer instant family receipt books have been preserved. This is the case in George Washington's family where two of Martha's Receipts can be read here and the rest of the book, Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery can be bought from Mount Vernon.

Another famous family who kept a receipt book was William Penn Jr's. His wife, Gulielma kept the book which has been published as "Penn Family Recipes," but is no longer in print, an excerpt from the receipt book and other period recipes can be read online at: Thirty-five receipts.

The receipts that I have included are from the second half of the 18th century. All of them look delicious. I am particularly anxious to try Lemon Honeycomb and Ice Cream in a mold. I am curious how different the ice cream will taste compared to modern ice cream. Apricot Ice Cream sounds delicious today, regardless. I might try it as it doesn't require any kind of cranking machine and is just made in buckets.

I am very interested in the whipped cream recipes, too. Today we would add some sugar and vanilla to make whipped cream. These recipes call for egg whites, sugar and sack (a strong dry wine.)The first receipt even suggests adding ambergris, an expensive commodity that would have been imported from the Nantucket area. Ambergris is created in the intestines of sperm whales, and can weigh up to 100 pounds. It is thought that the ambergris helps the whales digest sharp objects without getting cut up from the inside.  It was used in colonial times in expensive perfumes and food flavorings. It was thought to be an aphrodisiac. It is said to have a musky smell and is even  mentioned in Melville's Moby Dick. (What a desert topping! Sweets, dairy, alcohol and whale!) 

Fairy Butter is another (less frightening) topping for various cakes and puddings. It was popular in Virgina and was said to be brought to the White House by Dolly Madison. It seems like it would taste yummy with the White Cake receipt.

I hope to make some of these as period as possible just to see what the differences are between period and modern flavors. I am not anxious to try anything with ambergris but I love the flavors and smells of rose water and orange water which can be purchased very cheaply from Middle Eastern Markets or made at home from online recipes. I hope you enjoy!

The Ballad of Lady Margaret and William: A Short History with Song Lyrics

Many people have come to love the song Lady Margaret, most recently performed by Cassie Franklin. You might have heard it on the Cold Mountain CD. I absolutely love that version, even though it did not make it into the movie. The song originated in Scotland in the early 1600s. It later was taken to America where it, along with a lot of other songs, was sung in the Appalachian region. The songs were played in the region with very little outside influence until the songs morphed and changed with each performer until the original songs and the Appalachian songs shared only common themes. (If I was an anthropologist, I would call this: Parallel Evolution. :D)

The songs share similar lyrics and themes but most of them are different enough to warrant being completely different songs. The varieties are really interesting to follow and it’s neat because it’s as if the story never ends.
Some Good Versions and Variations of the story of Lady Margaret and Sweet William can be listened to below:

Lady Margaret (Ghost Story) is a good version similar to some of these.
Lady Margaret by Buffy Sainte-Marie, This one is similar to the Cassie Franklin Version, this was recorded in 1966. 
Lady Margaret: by Trees from 1970
Lady Margaret and Sweet William by Shirley Collins
Fair Margaret and Sweet William by June Tabor in 2003

Sweet William's Ghost by Kate Rusby in 2003

Read the Lyrics of Fair Margaret and Sweet William which is most similar to the Cold Mountain Version. This is an excerpt from English and Scottish Ballads, read the rest here.

I hope this song and the stories pull you in as they have me. It is a very grisly-sweet story, a dark romantic one , it has the same kind of feel as Wuthering Heights. I was surprised to see how many newer versions of the song there was. There seemed to be a revival of the song in the 1970s as well as another in 2003 (when Cold Mountain was released.) I'm glad this song has stood the test of time--It has been performed for over 400 years! I hope people continue to record new versions. Are there any other historical songs that entrap you like this one?  

19th Century Wash Cloths

There is a lot of curiosity about what types of rags were used to clean dishes and wash faces. The difference between wash-cloths and wash-rags in period writing is that wash rags were not finished while wash-cloths were hemmed.Wash-rags were often just scraps from left over cloth and were not meant to last as long as wash-cloths. Wash-cloths were frequently knitted or crocheted for better cleaning quality and for longevity. Many 19th century books mention cotton as the best material to use for wash-cloths but there is mention of using coarse hemp and even candle wicking for cloths used to scrub dishes and exfoliate the face.

In the South during the Civil War, the blockade prevented the South from getting many daily essentials. Yarn was hard to get during the war because although the South grew a lot of cotton, it sold it to the north and to Europe where it was carded and spun and then sold back to the South as a finished product. The Southern women were said to be and proved very frugal and innovative. The lack of yarn was so huge that a knitted wash-cloth in the South would most likely have been unraveled and knitted into clothing. As nasty as this seems today, it was probably a lot more gross because the South also had a severe shortage of grease and soap. Could you imagine wearing old unraveled dish rags?

This brings to mind the classic scene in Gone With the Wind, when Scarlett parades up to Rhett in her dress made out of curtains. While the dresses in the movie are generally incorrect, many women were noted to have dresses during the war that used to be curtains. It is very grim but some of the ladies recorded in their diaries that they had been okay with the shortages as being innovative and creative gave them no time to brood.

I love being creative, I am not sure how I would fare if I had to be creative. I would probably brood and complain. I look up to those women who had to "make do or do without."  I think about this every time I want a new reenacting dress. They are expensive and I feel most reenactors have a wardrobe unheard of during the war. But with all of those pretty clothes, it is easy to understand why we all have so much. I try to reason with myself that no matter how much I am sick of the dress I have now, they had to wear clothes they were sick of for years. So I am going to wait a while and when I get a new dress, I will appriciate it that much more. Perhaps I will even unravel a worn out dish rags and make trim for it. I wonder if anyone would notice?  :D

Qingming Festival (清明节): Chinese Grave Sweeping

Today was the Qingming Festival in China. The Qingming Festival roughly translates as "The Clear and Bright Festival." As the Chinese use a different calendar than we do in the U.S., the festival is always on the 104th day after the Winter Solstice. During this festival many Chinese to pack a picnic lunch, including sweets, and hold a picnic on the graves of their ancestors. They then clean the graves which usually become overgrown during the rest of the year and offer special food to their ancestors. The festival dates back to 732 B.C.E. to stop the practice of wealthy families honoring their ancestors with frequent, extravagant rituals.             

            Many Chinese believe that in the afterlife, their ancestors have 'live' again but  in a new place. They also believe that their ancestors have the ability to interfere in the affairs of the living. To aid their ancestors in their new 'life' and to give their ancestors things that the families feel that they would want in the afterlife, the families burn Joss Paper which originally was money printed especially for the dead and has no value on Earth. Many Joss Paper bank notes are known as Hell Bank Notes—which sounds really funny to us.
            During the 1840s, Christian missionaries in China told the Chinese that non-Christians go to hell. The Chinese misunderstood the missionaries and thought that "hell" meant the neutral afterlife, which is typical of the Chinese beliefs. The money is only good for the dead at the "Bank of Hell." The practice of burning paper goods has grown enormously and now families can burn not only fake paper money but paper checks, paper mache models of sports cars, ipods, credit cards, and an array of modern things. It is considered very unlucky to keep a Joss Paper item in your house.
            It was a homework assignment for me to go home and burn a Joss Note. My sister graciously helped me with the burning of it in the back yard (water standing by.)




           It is an interesting festival. I do like the concept behind the festival: If you do not honor your parents, your children will not honor you. It is one of the most important holidays in China. I think my sister had a lot of fun. I originally wasn't going to burn the Joss Note as it was a neat keepsake to have, but my professor really stressed how disrespectful and vile it is in the Chinese culture to keep it. I hope you enjoyed reading about this unique festival.