Had some lady friends over the other evening and they are all “light” eaters. That afternoon, the pak-choi had smiled upon me as I was ambling through the Globus’s food stalls after a visit to my doctor. I’ve never cooked pak-choi before, but hey, lack of knowledge has never stopped me before! So nere goes, and very nice it was too:

Pak-Choi Stir-Fry

6-8 Pak-Choi, leaves  and stalks separated. Finely slice the stalks and chop the leaves, 2-3 green  chillies finely cut and deseeded, 6-8 scallions or spring onions chopped, 3  cloves garlic, chopped, 6 cm fresh ginger, peeled and grated, 1 tbsp Nuoc Mam Thai fish sauce (optional), coconut fat for frying, 2 tsp of roasted sesame  oil, salt to taste.

Heat the fat and the oil in a wok until  almost smoking. Add the garlic, the scallions, the green chillies and the fish  sauce. Cook for 1-2 minutes stirring constantly. Add the pak-choi stalks and  cook until they are tender crisp. Reduce the heat, add the pak-choi leaves,  mix well and cook covered for another 2-4 minutes until the laves have wilted.  Serve and enjoy. As a variation, you can add some toasted sesame seeds, soy sauce, a little honey and coat well before serving.

Coming up next:

• Starry Night – a dinner in Zurich’s most expensive restaurant
• MRI Results
• Tom’s Book Reviews (if I can be arsed)

Cheerio,
Tom

I saw this great movie last week, starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. Apparently some people got upset at the light-hearted way this story deals with cancer. Hey, get off it, it’s only the movies!

I really did enjoy it and it made me laugh out loud more than a few times. Here’s the original bucket list from the movie, as written down by Carter Chambers, Morgan Freeman’s character:

1. Witness something truly majestic
2. Help a complete stranger for a common good
3. Laugh till I cry
4. Drive a Shelby Mustang
5. Kiss the most beautiful girl in the world
6. Get a tattoo
7. Skydiving
8. See the pyramids
9. Get back in touch (previously “Hunt the big cat”)
10. See Rome

Not too bad, though I might skip on the tattoo and the Mustang. Here’s my own:

1. Witness something truly majestic check
2. Help a complete stranger for a common good
3. Laugh till I cry
4. Drive a 1930’s Bentley
5. Marry the most beautiful girl in the world check
6. Fly over the African savanna in a small plane
7. Dive in the Great Blue Hole in Belize
8. See the Taj Mahal and the palaces of Rajastan
9. Get back in touch
10. See Vietnam

Obviously, I’m missing a few, but I’m open to suggestions! Number two might just be a tough one.

Oh, the check on number one: the births of my beautiful daughters Laura and Stella!

I was feeling a bit down recently, when I read the following article:

Most Blues begin, “Woke up this morning…”

“I got a good woman” is a bad way to begin the Blues, unless you stick something nasty in the next line like, “I got a good woman, with the meanest face in town.”

The Blues is simple. After you get the first line right, repeat it. Then find something that rhymes… sort of: “Got a good woman with the meanest face in town. Yes, I got a good woman with the meanest face in town. Got teeth like Margaret Thatcher, and she weigh 500 pound.”

The Blues is not about choice. You stuck in a ditch, you stuck in a ditch – ain’t no way out.

Blues cars: Chevys, Fords, Cadillacs and broken-down trucks. Blues don’t travel in Volvos, BMWs, or Sport Utility Vehicles. Most Blues transportation is a Greyhound bus or a southbound train. Jet aircraft and company motor pools ain’t even in the running. Walkin’ plays a major part in the blues lifestyle. So does fixin’ to die.

Blues can take place in New York City but not in Hawaii or any place in Canada. Hard times in Minneapolis or Seattle is probably just clinical depression. Memphis, St. Louis, and Kansas City are still the best places to have the Blues. You cannot have the blues in any place that don’t get rain.

A man with male pattern baldness ain’t the Blues. A woman with male pattern baldness is. Breaking your leg ’cause you were skiing is not the Blues. Breaking your leg ’cause an alligator be chompin’ on it is.

You can’t have no Blues in a office or a shopping mall. The lighting is wrong. Go outside to the parking lot or sit by the dumpster.

Good places for the Blues:
a. Highway
b. Jailhouse
c. An empty bed
d. Bottom of a whiskey glass

Bad places for the Blues:
a. Nordstrom’s
b. Gallery openings
c. Ivy league institutions
d. Golf courses

No one will believe it’s the Blues if you wear a suit, ‘less you happen to be a old ethnic person, and you slept in it.

You have the right to sing the Blues if:
a. You older than dirt
b. You blind
c. You shot a man in Memphis
d. You can’t be satisfied

You don’t have the right to sing the Blues if:
a. You have all your teeth
b. You were once blind but now can see
c. The man in Memphis lived
d. You have a pension fund

Blues is not a matter of color. It’s a matter of bad luck. Tiger Woods cannot sing the blues. Sonny Liston could. Ugly white people also got a leg up on the blues.

If you ask for water and your darlin’ give you gasoline, it’s the Blues.

Other acceptable Blues beverages are:
a. Cheap wine
b. Whiskey or bourbon
c. Muddy water
d. Nasty black coffee

The following are NOT Blues beverages:
a. Perrier
b. Chardonnay
c. Snapple
d. Slim Fast

If death occurs in a cheap motel or a shotgun shack, it’s a Blues death. Stabbed in the back by a jealous lover is another Blues way to die. So is the electric chair, substance abuse and dying lonely on a broke-down cot. You can’t have a Blues death if you die during a tennis match or while getting liposuction.

Some Blues names for women:
a. Sadie
b. Big Mama
c. Bessie
d. Fat River Dumpling

Some Blues names for men:
a. Joe
b. Willie
c. Little Willie
d. Big Willie

Persons with names like Michelle, Amber, Debbie, and Heather can’t sing the Blues no matter how many men they shoot in Memphis.

Well, it looks like I ain’t got the Blues, ’cause I sure ain’t fixin’ to die yet!