Friday, September 18, 2015
Rings from Pfalz (Germany) wine tasting
Jorg ans Wsana invited to a nice and informal German wine tasting. The very first 4 bottles in China (hand-carried) of Weingut Rings - the 200th and newest addition to VDP members - showed 4 rieslings from the same winery with very distinctive taste.
Since 1 June 2015, Weingut Rings in Freinsheim/Pfalz has been accepted as a new member of the VDP national association, the 200th estate to be ranked. The VDP.Pfalz now has a total of 26 member estates.
“In order to guarantee a constantly high level of top-quality products and estates, new members are only accepted after a stringent examination. Not only is continuous wine quality a decisive prerequisite for membership, but also a commitment to sustainable viticulture and the preservation of great sites.”
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Barolo Boys - The Story of a Revolution
“Barolo Boys - The Story of a Revolution” is a 2014 documentary film about the story of a group of young winemakers who in the 80’s and 90’s dramatically changed the world of Barolo wine, in the Langhe, north-western Italy.
After almost 30 years, what is left of that experience? As one of the film’s characters (Marc De Grazia) asks, “what revolution has ever been successful?”
Thanks to The Wine Guy for organizing the event: movie broadcast and Marchesi di Barolo wine tasting.
(Sep 15th, 2015 at YunCai Cafe on 260 ChangShou Rd, Shanghai)
Thursday, July 30, 2015
The world currently enjoys a two-billion-cup-a-day habit
How can we ensure that we get that caffeine fix in a turbulent climate?
Saturday, July 11, 2015
Understanding Cholesterol
Cholesterol is an organic molecule. It is a sterol (or modified steroid), a lipid molecule and is biosynthesized by all animal cells because it is an essential structural component of all animal (not plant or bacterial) cell membranes that is required to maintain both membrane structural integrity and fluidity. […] In addition to its importance within cells, cholesterol also serves as a precursor for the biosynthesis of steroid hormones, bile acids, and vitamin D.
[from Wikipedia]
What Is Cholesterol?
Cholesterol is a waxy, fat-like substance that is naturally present in cell walls or membranes everywhere in the body. The body uses cholesterol to produce many hormones, vitamin D, and bile acids that help to digest fat. Too much cholesterol in your bloodstream can lead to narrowing of arteries in the body that cause heart attacks, strokes, and peripheral artery disease.
[Read More…]
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
Test your website speed
How fast your website is in China?
There are plenty of online tools to test your website load time from USA, UK, India but very few have options to test your page load time from China. If you are running a business in China or expecting visitors and if your website hosted out of China then most probably your website load time would be poor.
Before you start optimizing you should check the page load time from multiple cities in China.
- Website Test behind the Great Firewall of China: Websitepulse
- Instantly test your website speed, in real browsers from 23 locations worldwide: Dotcom-tools
- Run a free website speed test from multiple locations around the globe using real browsers (IE and Chrome) and at real consumer connection speeds: Webpagetest
- Analyze your site’s speed and make it faster. GTmetrix gives you insight on how well your site loads and provides actionable recommendations on how to optimize it: Gtmetrix
- Web Site Performance Test: you can conduct a real-time Instant Test for an individual Web page to test its performance from an external node location: Gomeznetworks
- Full Web Page Test. Analyze web page and optimize website performance. Optimize website by checking impact of scripts, images and other resources loaded via sub-domains on this web page: Site24×7
- Pingdom Website Speed Test: enter a URL to test the load time of that page, analyze it and find bottlenecks: Pingdom
Monday, April 13, 2015
Pasta: Italy is worldwide market leader
With 26 kg consumption per capita per year - at least a daily portion of 70 gr - Italians are the biggest pasta lovers. Venezuela is second with 12,3 kg and Tunisia third with 11,7 kg.
Not only consumption, Italy is also leader in production figures with 3,3 millions of tons annualy, second is USA with 2 millions of toms and third place goes to Brazil with 1,1 million tons.
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Shanghai labor cost is increasing reflecting the cost of living
Shanghai has raised the monthly minimum wage for full-time employees in the city from 1.820 to 2.020 RMB. The hourly minimum wage for part-time employees increased from 17 to 18 RMB.
The minimum wage was first introduced in 1993 when it was just 210 RMB per month to ensure basic quality of life for citizen with low incomes.
Shanghai’s over 60’s reach 4.14 million
The number of Shanghai resident aged 60 or more reaches 4.14 millions, or 28.8% of the permanent population.
Friday, February 27, 2015
She made my day
Many many years ago I had big dreams, revolutionary dreams I would say. Later I still thought I could change the world and contribute to build a better world. On the second half of the journey I considerably lower the bar, struggling for a decent and honest survival. Have to admit that “legacy” have always obsessed me, an alone man living somewhere far.
Today I received a lovely email form a girlfriend I had in the years 2002-2003. We both were younger, our lifes were lighter. Every time we met was no longer than 6 or 7 days at a time; despite of that still have great memories of these days and I still think she was one of the best women I have met.
More than 10 years are passed: we live in different cities from then, she had a lovely baby girl, and somehow we managed to keep in touch time to time.
Knowing that I meant something in her life makes me happy and fulfilled. I reckon this is the kind of legacy I aspire.
Friday, January 23, 2015
Bella Ciao
Today I have read a nice article on La Repubblica newspaper about Bella Ciao song, which makes me search about it.
The song Bella Ciao was sung by the anti-fascist resistance movement active in Italy between 1943 and 1945. It is worldwide used as a hymn of freedom and resistance.
The author of the lyrics is unknown. A version of this song was recorded for music researchers by Italian folk singer Giovanna Daffini in 1962.There are versions by Yves Montand, Giorgio Gaber, Renato Carosone, but they lack the last part which say ”this is the flower of a partisan dead for the freedom”.
Bella Ciao (by The Black Cat Orchestra)
Bella Ciao (by Manu Chao)
Una mattina mi son svegliato,
o bella, ciao! bella, ciao! bella, ciao, ciao, ciao!
Una mattina mi son svegliato
e ho trovato l’invasor.
O partigiano, portami via,
o bella, ciao! bella, ciao! bella, ciao, ciao, ciao!
O partigiano, portami via,
ché mi sento di morir.
E se io muoio da partigiano,
o bella, ciao! bella, ciao! bella, ciao, ciao, ciao!
E se io muoio da partigiano,
tu mi devi seppellir.
Mi seppellirai lassù in montagna,
o bella, ciao! bella, ciao! bella, ciao, ciao, ciao!
Mi seppellirai lassù in montagna
all’ombra di un bel fior.
E le genti che passeranno
o bella, ciao! bella, ciao! bella, ciao, ciao, ciao!
E le genti che passeranno
Ti diranno «Che bel fior!»
«È questo il fiore del partigiano»,
o bella, ciao! bella, ciao! bella, ciao, ciao, ciao!
«È questo il fiore del partigiano
morto per la libertà!»
Saturday, December 20, 2014
TBC 8 years later …..
TBC was my first employer in Shanghai, the excuse i had to come back in China. I have been working there for little less than 1 year and I remember it as one of the best working environment ever, mostly due to the laid back boss. More than 8 years after my departure I was invited to have an holiday lunch with the old team. Happy to see again some of old friends :-)
Monday, October 20, 2014
Citronette
- 1 cucchiaio di succo di limone
- 4 cucchiai di olio extravergine di oliva
- sale
- pepe
PROCEDIMENTO
In una ciotola unite il succo di limone, il sale e il pepe e mescolate accuratamente per sciogliere gli ingredienti.
Continuando a sbattere costantemente e in modo delicato, incorporate l’olio fino a ottenere un’emulsione: in questo modo la salsa diventerà più densa e omogenea.
TRUCCHI E CONSIGLI
Prestate attenzione affinché il sale si sciolga totalmente nel limone; in caso contrario, una volta versato l’olio rimarrà granuloso. Se le proporzioni di olio e limone non sono perfettamente bilanciate, la salsa non si addensa e tende a non omogeneizzarsi; in questo caso, provate ad aggiungere qualche goccia di uno dei due liquidi.
Dal momento che questa salsa non è un’emulsione stabile – poiché manca un emulsionante, come il tuorlo nella maionese – dopo poco tempo potrete notare la separazione dei due liquidi, olio e limone: con una semplice sbattitura sarete in grado di riformare l’emulsione.
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Crema Pasticcera (cookaround)
- 250 ml latte
- 2 tuorli
- 2 cucchiao di zucchero
- 20 gr maizena
- vaniglai o scorza limone
Besciamella di mamma
Latte in un pentolino a bollire con un cucchiao di burro, un pizzico di sale e noce moscata.
A parte si mescola il restante latte con la farina setacciata, circa 40 gr, un cucchiao e mezzo, si mischia bene.
Quando il latte bolle si aggiunge il mix (farina e latte)
Latte: circa 500 ml
==
2021 09 26
circa il 10% di burro e 10% farina … pero secondo me si puo stare un po sotto
quondi in teoria 1 lt latte 100 gr burro e 100 gr farina … ma io consiglierei di stare sotto
Friday, September 5, 2014
This is how it always ends. With death. But first there was life.
“This is how it always ends. With death. But first there was life, hidden beneath the blah, blah, blah… It’s all settled beneath the chitter chatter and the noise, silence and sentiment, emotion and fear. … Therefore… let this novel begin. After all… it’s just a trick. Yes, it’s just a trick.”
monologue from last scene of the movie “The Great Beauty” (2013)