Where are these famous rice paddies? I wonder if the rice tastes as good as they look?

Update:

The winner is Caz…who guessed the Longshen Rice Terraces, also known as The Dragons Back Rice Terraces in China (OK she only said Longshen China).

Thanks again to Andrea and her educational travel blog.  Here is what makes these rice terraces so special to Andrea:

“It’s a special place because the terraces are stunning. They were mainly built during the Ming dynasty, so are about 500 years old. The lower terraces are at 380m, while the highest part is 880m, so there are 500 meters of stunning photographs at every turn. One of the best parts of Longshen are the female porters, who moonlight as manic pashmina sellers in the evenings. They have a wonderful humor that breaks through any language barriers. The family homes that are run as guesthouses also make it a special place to stay. Longshen is a wonderful break from the crowds and pollution of China. Although the hike can be done in a day, you can easily spend a week here.”

Caz gets the prize this week so please check and her husband Craig out over on y Travel Blog. It’s one of my favorites and I featured it  in my amazing travel bloggers list.

Welcome to Travel Photo Contest Friday, wow that’s a mouthful! If you’re new or never bothered to actually read what I write, each week I post a beautiful picture (at least I think so) from my travels (and sometimes from a featured guest…see below for details on how guest post) and you guess where it is.

This week’s photo comes from Andrea and her travel blog Travel Teach Travel. Andreas a woman after my own heart, working and traveling her way around the world. She’s a self professed horrible tourist (she doesn’t see the major sites! what did you think I meant???), and she injects a nice sense of humor and realism into the long term travel trade.

The first person to guess where this picture was taken (Country and Place Name) will win a link back to their blog with the anchor text of their choice in this post (keep it clean and relevant).

Leave your guess and recent post in the comment section below. Last week Norbert won in record time Berlin, Germany’s Holocaust Memorial. This week we are making it harder on all of you. So good luck and let the guessing begin!

I will also stumble and review the latest post of anyone who leaves a comment even if the winner has already been picked (up until next Thursday). Andrea will also join in on the stumble love as well! Yes, the prizes heavily favor the blogging and travel geeks amongst us. If you don’t have a website, then leave your favorite website or better yet a charity that deserves attention. Yes, I also get behind on my stumbling responsibilities, but they always get down and I love to stumble at once.

Good luck!

Guesses aside, all comments are welcome!

Be a Guest Photographer

If you’re looking to help increase the visibility of your blog, drive more traffic, or just share your pretty pictures then why not be a guest photographer for Photo Contest Friday on Todd’s Wanderings! This is no longer as new feature as we have had 5 weeks of guest posters and have the next 3 weeks filled already!

If you’re interested in having your photograph featured then send me an e-mail through my Todd’s Wanderings Contact Page with the Subject line: Photo Contest Friday. Don’t forget to tell me which site your coming from and I’ll be in touch and explain how to send the photo. Keep in mind that your photo should be awesome!

The photograph should be your own and should have a few small clues in the photo to help the reader out if they’ve never been there (no, I don’t follow this last rule myself all the time…but it’s my website). I’ll link to your page and talk you up as the guest poster. I can be very flattering when I want to be.

Oh, and it goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway. You should be an independent travel blogger. You big companies have more than enough SEO stored up to get you through the winter.

Rice Paddy Terraces: Travel Photo Contest Friday 28 is a post from: Todd's Wanderings

This post is by: Kay (my lovely wife and founder of K’s Kitchen!)

In Japan and some parts of Europe, this summer has been extremely hot and harsh. In Kosovo, we had some rather cool weeks in July, but it’s finally become hot in the past 2 weeks. Having spent several years in the tropics, I actually prefer a hot and sticky summer to a cool one….I love licking ice cream while complaining about the temperature and the humidity….I know I’m odd (at least my husband claims so)!

There are noodles under there, I promise!

When it’s hot, we lose our appetite and don’t know what to cook. A-ha! Here is a great menu for you! Hiyashi-chuka, which literally means Cold Chinese (or Ryan-Ban-Mien in Chinese). This dish is very popular among Japanese in the summer because the cold taste stimulates their appetite. The standard Hiyashi-chuka is with a soy and vinegar sauce, but I would like to introduce you to a Sesame Sauce this time, which is my favorite.

The beauty of this dish is that you can substitute the ingredients with different items that you have at home and also add or reduce according to what you have.

Ingredients (for 3 people)

Chinese noodles: 3 packs (If you can’t find them, you can simply use instant ramen noodles)

Chicken breast (or can be thigh): (150 g) – can be substituted with other ingredients such a cooked steak or ham.

1 Cucumber (or about 120g)

3 Eggs (with 3-4 teaspoons of sugar, a pinch of salt, and mix of 1 Tablespoon of cornstarch and 1 Tablespoon of water)

Bean sprouts: 100g (optional) boiled.

Shitake mushroom (optional)

Tomatoes or lettuce (optional)

(a) Sesame Sauce

Soy sauce: 80cc

Sugar: 40g

Rice Vinegar: 50cc

Chicken broth (you can also use the chicken cubes): 100cc

Sesame paste (you can also use tahini): 40g

(b) Sauce to cook Shitake mushroom

Soy sauce: 1.5 Tablespoons

Sugar: 1.5 Tablespoons

Water: 3 Tablespoons

How to cook (cooking/preparation time: 30 min)

(1)  Make the Sesame sauce and set aside

(2)  Season the chicken with a pinch of salt and steam it until it’s cooked (or you can wrap it and put it in a microwave, or even boil it if you prefer). Shred them into long pieces. You can also use any kind of meat (or none at all) if you don’t have chicken. For instance, ham is often used at the restaurant. You just need to cut them thinly. If you have steak, you can also thinly cut them and use as a substitute. I used cooked pork, as you can see in the photo!

(3)  Cut the cucumber thinly (3mm), about the length of a toothpick. If you decide to have lots of fresh vegetables, you can also cut tomatoes and lettuce in a similar shape and length.

(4)  Quickly boil the bean sprouts and pour sesame oil on to taste.

(5)  Cook the Shitake mushrooms with ingredients (b) until it is cooked. Add sesame oil to taste after cooking. Cut them thinly.

(6)  Beat eggs and add sugar, salt, and starch. Pour a small portion into the pan,  just enough to cover the pan as if you are making a crepe (see the photo). Make several sheets of crepe looking egg omelets. When you are finished, wrap them all together and cut them long and thin (3mm) from the side.

(7)  Boil hot water and cook the noodles. Please don’t cook too long!! Pour noodles into the strainer and wash them with cold and fresh water until they cool down. Drain the noodles.

(8)  Serve the noodles on a plate and put different kinds of ingredients on top of the noodles. Pour sesame sauce on top and the dish is ready!!

Moms Are Strict

As you have noticed, all the ingredients are supposed to be cut thinly. Since I was young, I was always told by my mom to cut the ingredients in a similar shape. If they are mostly long shaped, cut them thinly. If they are rounded, cut them in a round shape with the similar size. Japanese tend to be very particular about the shape of ingredients in general, but I think this principle also applies to many cultures including China….

Was that easy? Delicious? Tell us how tasty it was, or how it all went horribly, horribly wrong

Hiyashi-chuka (Ryan-Ban-Mien)- Chinese Cold Noodles for Summer is a post from: Todd's Wanderings

This post is by: Kay (my lovely wife and writer for K’s Kitchen!)

Is it only kids who love fried chicken? Nope! I still love fried chicken and this ‘Yu Lin Chi’ is even more special for adults because it goes well with chilled beer!! This dish is popular among EVERYONE-drinkers and non-drinkers, adults and children.

The ‘Yu Lin Chi’ recipe is also from my mom which I learned more than 13 years ago. Having lived outside Japan for 10 years, I’ve been absent from my mom’s cooking class (yes, she teaches cooking), but I still get her recipes from time to time and try out new dishes. It is not always easy to cook some dishes without the right ingredients but I’ve learned how to substitute some ingredients with other items by now! The beauty of this ‘Yu Lin Chi’ is that you can cook with generally available ingredients. OK. Here we go!

Ingredients (for 2 people)

Chicken thigh: 400g

Leak: 1/3 of a long leak (finely chopped)

Yummy, yummy Yu Lin Chi Special Chicken Sauce!

Ginger: 1/2 Tablespoon (finely chopped)

Lettuce 5-6 leaves

(a) Marinade for chicken

Salt:1/3 teaspoon

Soy sauce: 2 teaspoons

Sake: 1Tablespoon

Pepper to taste

(b) Special Sauce

Soy sauce: 3 Tablespoons

Vinegar: 2 Tablespoons

Sugar: 2.5 Tablespoons

Sesame oil: 1 teaspoon

Chicken broth (or clear soup with the stock): 1Tablespoon

How to cook (preparation time: 15 min; cooking time: 20 min)

(1)  Cut the chicken to open it up and keep the thickness even.

(2)  Marinade the meat with (a) for 5-10 minutes, just long enough to give it a nice coating.

(3)  Finely chop the leak and ginger, and tear the lettuce into pieces.

(4)  Put the ingredients for sauce together in a small bowl.

(5)  Heat oil, enough to cover the chicken, up to 160 C (315 F) and throw in the chicken (well don’t throw or you’ll get burned by the oil!). Keep the flame of the stove in the middle range until the center of the chicken is cooked fully.

(6)  Turn up the heat for a minute to make the chicken crispy.

(7)  Put the chicken on top of a bed of lettuce on the plate. Pour on the sauce. That’s all!

If you like to eat with rice, please check how to cook rice in the recipe for Nishoku Gohan.

Was that easy? Delicious? Tell us how tasty it was, or how it all went horribly, horribly wrong

This post is part of the Lonely Planet BlogSherpa Travel Blog Carnival hosted this time by Kat over at Tie Dye Travels on Food Around the World. The Carnival is hosted every two weeks by a BlogSherpa member. The topic this time is Food Around the World. I hosted one here earlier on Todd’s Wanderings about Travel Safety.

Chinese Fried Chicken with special sauce- Yu Lin Chi is a post from: Todd's Wanderings

The finished dish, yum!

I’d like to introduce you to one of my favorite Chinese Dishes, Mapo Dofu. This recipe is from my Mom who learned it from a Chinese chef over 30 years ago. Over the years she has made a few changes here and there. The process is not that complicated, but this dish requires some specific Chinese ingredients and spices. But don’t worry. You can buy most of them at an Asian grocery store, or even in a big grocery store in the US or in some countries in Europe. I also tried to put suggestions for substitutes for some ingredients. I’ve lived in countries where these ingredients are not always available and I’ve learned to improvise and be a bit flexible when I cook.

Tricky ingredients (left to right): Doubanjiang, Chinese Sweet Bean Sauce, sake, soy sauce, and chicken stock (front)

Some ingredients may seem unfamiliar at first but I’ll be introducing more recipes that use the same ingredients in the future. Before you know it you’ll have Chinese chili paste in your fridge all the time

One tip before we start! This dish can be a Donburi Menu Part 2, if you put Mapo Doufu on top of a bed of rice in a bowl. In Japan, we call it Mabo Don (shortened from Donburi). You can serve as a regular dish or make it as Mabo Don as you like! Let’s get started!

Ingredients (for 2 people)

• Tofu (firm): 1 pack
• Minced pork: 100g
• Leak or French onion (finely chopped: 3 Tablespoons)
• Ginger (finely chopped: 1 Tablespoon)
• Garlic (finely chopped: 1 teaspoon)
• Chicken broth 250cc

Spices

• Doubanjiang or chili paste (Chinese spicy and salty paste made of fermented beans) More Info: 1 Tablespoon (or more if you like a super spicy dish)
• Chinese Sweet Bean Sauce, More Info: 2 teaspoons
• Douchi (Chinese fermented black beans) More Info: 2 teaspoons- if it’s not available, you can live without it!

This is what those strange sounding fermented beans look like!

• Soy sauce: 1 Tablespoon
• Shaoxing wine, More Info (or Japanese sake): 1 Tablespoon – if it’s not available, you can live without it!
• Starch: 2 Tablespoons mixed with 4 Tablespoons of water
• Chili oil (or Rayu) More Info: to taste, more if you like it spicy
• Shichuan pepper, More Info (or ground pepper)

How to cook (cooking time: 20-25 min)

Squeezing the liquid out of tofu

(1)   Finely chop Leak (or French onion), ginger, and garlic. Rinse and finely chop Douchi.

(2)   Wrap tofu with a dish cloth and put some kind of weight on top to get rid of the moist of the tofu. Cut into 2cm cubes.

(3)   Heat the wok (you can use a deep fry pan if it’s all you have), put in 2 Tablespoons of oil, and fry garlic, leak, and ginger slowly with a medium heat.

(4)   Add minced meat and cook them together on high. Once the meat turns whitish, add Doubanjiang and mix it into the meat. Add Douchi and Chinese sweet bean sauce and continue mixing.

(5)   Add soy sauce, shaoxing wine (or sake), and chicken broth and cook until the sauce starts boiling. Add Tofu and continue cooking on low heat for 5 min or so.

(6)   Add the starch mixed with water into the wok to thicken the sauce.

(7)   Add Chili oil and Shichuan pepper (ground pepper) and serve on a plate.

Yup, just that simple. It's all ready, enjoy.

Eat with rice and enjoy!

Did you like this recipe? Leave a comment and let others know how it turned out.

Mapo Doufu Recipe, Spicy Tofu and Pork (in Japan, commonly called Mabo Doufu) is a post from: Todd's Wanderings