Use Travel to Make You Happy

Lifestyle Strategies 12 Responses »
Aug 192010

Henro climbing stairs in ShikokuI know, it seems rather intuitive and obvious. On the surface it may be. After all why would we do things that don’t make us happy. But I meet a surprising number of people who aren’t happy. Some people think that travel is the answer to their happiness. Other people think settling down, having a steady job and a house will make them happy. Others think making an extra $1,000 USD a month will allow them breathing room to feel happy. If you are already happy with your life this post may not be for you. Then again you will be happy enough to continue reading as well ;)

Last week a collective atomic bomb was dropped on the travel blogging and lifestyle design community. I consider myself a part of both, and yes there really is a Lifetyle Design sector (although I use Lifestyle Strategies). The bomb was released by Gadling in this post On long-term travel, snobbery & judgmental blogging. It was amazing to see the swaths of destructive energy that rampaged from over 90 comments to this not so innocent post. What was even more surprising was from whom the comments originated…cool, enlightened travelers from both side of alleged divide (long term travelers vs everyone else). At issue was basically sensitivity around perceived judgments of any one particular lifestyle choice and what travel means in each context. Yup,you guessed it, that old fight and snobbery over “traveler vs tourist” just on a cracked out Blogging level.

The bickering, attacks, childishness and some very well reasoned calls for tolerance, made me think about how I express my life here on Todd’s Wanderings. And in particular, a recent interview I gave on Andy Hayes’ site Sharing Travel Experiences. In fact the interview was published the same day the atomic bomb exploded over at Gadling. If not for the timing I’m sure my interview would have gone viral, but as we know contentious issues trump cute puppies any day (tongue in cheek, please put the pitch forks down, I don’t really think I am as cute as a puppy).

Andy picked up on one of my themes in the interview and called it Organize Your Life in a Way that Makes You Happy. Putting two and two together I started to think about travel and happiness, having a ton of free time on my hands besides work, two book projects, running a blog and pretending to be a good guy. Sometimes we attach too much emphasis to this magical word “travel”. Travel is all about adventure, new experiences, meeting new and exciting people, expanding our minds and tolerance through practical experiences.  But, travel is also real life and has its fair share of disasters, flat tires, lack of water, getting lost, feeling lonely, and being miserable. Travel is fun. Sometimes travel blows.

Travel is a tool. And like most tools it up to us how we will use it. It gives us a chance to step outside of our daily lives and examine what is and is not important. If we hate our jobs, travel is not going to cure it if our lives are organized in a way where we return eventually to the job we hate. Likewise, if we are not satisfied with our lives, escaping on vacation is just that, a temporary escape. If we are happy with our lives, travel, work etc becomes an expression of that happiness. A necessary part of what makes us happy throughout our lives.

Before you ascribe some magical meaning and power to “travel” I would suggest you look at why you want to travel. How do you want to organize your life so that you are happy, content, and excited about what you are doing. If travel is a part of that, or the freedom to travel, then it won’t matter how you travel, long-term, short-term,  Solo Travel, backpacking, flashpacking, whatever. You will be happy with your choices, and be able to change things when you are no longer happy with them. Of course sometimes it takes travel, and the new experiences it brings to make us realize we need a systematic change in our lives. This is what happened with me, but I would never presume that others need to follow exactly what I did to discover what makes them happy. But some people may benefit and I firmly believe that travel can help in discovering what makes one happy. But I could care less about defining what “travel” is besides going out your front door.

So, to sum up. Do what you love, and love what you do. I believe travel is a powerful tool to figuring out exactly what you love to do, but “travel” does not have to be the end result. More later on how I figured my own happiness out and the planning tool that got me started.

What do you think? Was Gadling spot on, am I full of it? Share your thoughts, ideas, criticisms, and praises below!

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Hiyashi-chuka (Ryan-Ban-Mien)- Chinese Cold Noodles for Summer

Asian Food, K's Kitchen 6 Responses »
Aug 092010

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)!

Hiyashi ChukaThere 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.

Flat Eggs in Japanese and Chinese Cooking(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 :)

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Chinese Fried Chicken with special sauce- Yu Lin Chi

Asian Food, K's Kitchen 4 Responses »
Jul 262010

This post is by: Kay (my lovely wife and founder of 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.

Chinese Yu Lin Chi Chicken

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)

Yu Lin Chi Sauce

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 :)

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