Paintings

Oriental Chinese

Chinese Night at Home

A good and fun idea for family meal night is Chinese food. Yes, it's one of the few "ethnic" foods that's a little more expensive to make at home than to buy at the restaurant, but the price is well outweighed by the quality of the food at home, as well as the sense of pride that comes with making something at home.

Sweet and Sour Sauce
It's a dipper. It's a sauce. It's the most recognized condiment in the Asian food world. Use it for eggrolls or mix with virtually any meat for an entrée.

Ingredients
1/3 cup white vinegar
1 cup water
1/8 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/8 tsp Tabasco sauce
1/8 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp cornstarch
3 tbsp ketchup
1/2 tbsp minced ginger
1 tbsp olive oil

Directions
In a sauce pan, combine 2 cups of water, white vinegar, sugar, salt, white pepper and Tabasco sauce. Bring to a boil.

In a bowl, mix cornstarch, 2 tbsp water and Worcestershire sauce. Add to boiling mixture and stir constantly until thickened.

Remove from the stove and add ketchup, ginger, and olive oil. Mix well and refrigerate immediately.

Stir Fry
Stir fry has become more or less a catch-all for the American family. It's convenient and fast, so it's perfect for mom or dad on the go. With so many variations it's also easier to accommodate people's individual tastes.

Ingredients
1/3 cup soy sauce or favorite stir-fry sauce
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp garlic powder
vegetable oil
2 tsp dark sesame oil
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces
1 lb mixed vegetables to taste.

Directions
Combine stir-fry sauce, ginger, and garlic powder in a small bowl, se to the side. In a large nonstick skillet add oil, and place over medium-high heat until hot. Add chicken, and stir-fry until chicken is done. Once cooked, remove chicken from the skillet. Add vegetables to skillet and cook. Re-add the chicken and sauce mix. Cook over medium heat until everything is hot. Remove and serve over rice.

Chinese soups are a favorite anytime. Included to help round out your Chinese food night at home is an easy Chinese style soup: Bok Choy Chicken Soup.

Ingredients
10 thinly sliced of bok choy leaves (Chinese cabbage, regular cabbage will do in a pinch)
3 1/2 cups of chicken broth
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp of sesame oil
5-6 red pepper flakes
1 garlic clove well chopped

Directions
In a medium sauce pan, bring chicken broth to a boil. Add soy sauce, sesame oil, pepper flakes and garlic clove. Next add the leaves of bok choy or cabbage. Simmer until cabbage is tender. In the case of bok choy cabbage, it will turn a nice green when done. For regular cabbage cook al Dante.

Hopefully, you will have a fun and delicious Chinese food night in your home! So grab a nice movie and curl up on the couch and chow down.

About the Author

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In Civilization III, in the middle ages, there is an Oriental sounding song that sounds Chinese but is it?

really Japanese because someone said it was. What is the name of the song?

You have control over all of your music files. If you are using Microsoft Windows XP or Vista, click on the Start Icon in the bottom left corner of your screen. You will see the "Computer" option in the right hand column of your Start menu. Click on "Computer" to open your Windows Explorer file manager application. In the left hand column, you should see a "Folders" list. Click on the "Computer" folder, then click on the "C:" folder to open the directory for the C drive. Now click on the "Program Files" directory. Next, click on the "Firaxis Games" directory. Select the "Sid Meier's Civilization 4" subdirectory. Select the "Assets" subdirectory. From there, select the "Sounds" subdirectory. Here you should see nine additional subdirectories: Ambient, Buildings, Custom Music Files, Diplomacy, Resources and Improvements, Soundtrack, Tech, Tutorial, and Units. In each of these subdirectories, you should see files with the extensions .mp3 or .wav for Wave and MP3 type music files. Go to the Soundtrack subdirectory, where you should see five subdirectories: Classical, Industrial, Medieval, Modern, and Renaissance. If you are sure that the sound file that you are looking for appears during the Medieval era, then click on Medieval. There should be 20 mp3 files in this directory, all of which should have a Bit rate of 128 kbps.

If you have music software, such as Windows Media Player 11, you should be able to click on any MP3 or WAV file and listen to the file. You may need to play each of the files briefly, until you can recognize the music. I am not sure which file corresponds to what you are describing as an "Oriental sounding song that sounds Chinese." The most likely location for this file is in the Sounds>Diplomacy subdirectory. It could be one of the files named "Asoka..." (of which there are 6 mp3 files), "GenghisKhan..." (of which there are 5 mp3 files), "Mao..." (of which there are 3 mp3 files), or "Tokugawa" (of which there are 4 mp3 files). There are other mp3 files in this subdirectory. Most of the files to which you are probably referring are labeled "Early" or "Middle." I would try playing each of these mp3 files until you find the one that you recognize as the "Oriental" or "Chinese" music that you are trying to find.

After listening to the music long enough (I have spent thousands of hours listening to these files), you may prefer listening to music of your own choice. When you are in Civ 4, click on "Esc" and open the "Options" menu, then select the "Audio" tab. You can specify the location of all of your favorite mp3 files in the "Custom Music Files" directory. Check this box, and specify its location by clicking on "Browse." See http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;... . You can place your favorite mp3 files in this "Custom Music Files" directory. Just copy your favorite music files to this subdirectory. In my case, the "Custom Music Files" subdirectory is located in the directory "C:Program FilesFiraxis GamesSid Meier's Civilization 4AssetsSoundsCustom Music Files," but you can specify any location of your choosing.

oriental chinese music

Tags: china, chinese, language, oriental chinese chicken salad, oriental chinese food, oriental chinese restaurant, oriental chinese restaurant woburn ma, oriental chinese salad, recipes, reference

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