Essential in the Chinese kitchen. Three settings: cook, warm and unplugged. Easy to use: place rice and water in the black cooking bowl, put in rice cooker, put lid on, turn switch to cook. When the rice is either done or boiling over, turn switch to warm. Ours also has a steamer on top (not in this photo), for cooking dumplings and similar.
For those of you interested in how things work, it works by induction. Underneath the bowl that the rice goes in is an induction coil (separate picture on flickr). An electric current is passed through it, which generates a magnetic field, which generates an electric current in the cooking vessel, which then gets warm, which cooks the food. Very efficient - none of this heating something to heat something else to heat the food lark. Also doesn't generate much excess heat, useful in the stifling Chinese summer. The stove works the same way.
Wednesday, 9 February 2011
How we cook
How do people living in apartments without a separate kitchen cook? We have a rice cooker (see next post), and this stove. For equipment, we have one saucepan, one wok and a steamer that will go on the rice cooker. So, no pies, casseroles or roasted vegetables, just simple soups or stir-fries with rice or noodles. Although there’s only room for one thing at a time on the stove, as it works by induction (see post on rice cooker) it's very fast and efficient.
For flavourings we have sesame oil, rice vinegar, dark and light soy sauces, dried red chillis, ginger, garlic, sesame seeds, Szechuan peppercorns and ground cumin, plus chilli sauce. Chinese cooking doesn’t use a lot of spices, and we haven’t yet seen anything like coriander or turmeric for sale.
For flavourings we have sesame oil, rice vinegar, dark and light soy sauces, dried red chillis, ginger, garlic, sesame seeds, Szechuan peppercorns and ground cumin, plus chilli sauce. Chinese cooking doesn’t use a lot of spices, and we haven’t yet seen anything like coriander or turmeric for sale.
Monday, 7 February 2011
Officially experts!
One of the many essential pieces of paper involved in getting the Chinese residence permit is this Foreign Expert Certificate. "The bearer of the Certificate is a foreign expert" it says. Unfortunately we have to give the certificate back when we leave China, but until then it's rather good for the ego.
Chris Nedin: Yes, we agree, the reconstruction isn't scientifically rigorous, but it gets the general idea across to those people who haven't met anomalocaridids before. This is a problem with many reconstructions of fossils: they are done by artists, not palaeontologists.
Chris Nedin: Yes, we agree, the reconstruction isn't scientifically rigorous, but it gets the general idea across to those people who haven't met anomalocaridids before. This is a problem with many reconstructions of fossils: they are done by artists, not palaeontologists.
Saturday, 5 February 2011
Introducing the Chengjiang Biota
Nanjing is the centre of studies on the Chengjiang Biota. For most of you, that will probably mean nothing at all, so I suppose I'd best explain...
Way back in the Cambrian times (around 542-488 million years ago), recognisable animals appear in the fossil record. Not just one or two, but billions of them, representing most of the major groups (phyla) alive today. The record of trails and burrows also dramatically increases at the same time, which means it isn't entirely a question merely of the fossils being preserved for the first time (although there is probably an element of that too). We call this the Cambrian Explosion.
The reason we know so much is that just at this critical time is that we're lucky enough to have a whole host of exceptionally preserved fossil faunas. The most famous is the Burgess Shale from the Middle Cambrian of Canada, after which the Burgess Shale-type faunas in general are known. It has, however, been largely superceded by an earlier (Early Cambrian) and equally spectacular fauna from China: the Chengjiang Biota.
These faunas contain a wide range of creatures, and both fossils and reconstructions are on display in the Nanjing Museum of Palaeontology, at the Institute. The big beastie in this picture is an anomalocarid - probably the top predators of the time, and distantly related to modern crustaceans, spiders and their jointy-limbed families. At top right is an eldoniid - what that is, we have too many ideas and no consensus. The same goes for the vetulicolian in front of the anomalocaridid's grasping appandages, and it's a group that has been the source of many arguments in recent years. Arthropod, or fish-like creature? Despite exquisite detail, it's so different to anything alive now that it's hard to say.
There are various sponges, arthropods and so forth in the background - both the Burgess and Chengjiang have well over a hundred species known so far, and more still turning up. And in China, there are now a host of new deposits that look to rival Chengjiang - Guanshan, Kaili, Hetang, Zunyi... this is why palaeontologists worldwide are now looking to China with envy!*
* Well, the feathered dinosaurs help a bit. As do the Precambrian embryos, the dinosaur nests, the...
Way back in the Cambrian times (around 542-488 million years ago), recognisable animals appear in the fossil record. Not just one or two, but billions of them, representing most of the major groups (phyla) alive today. The record of trails and burrows also dramatically increases at the same time, which means it isn't entirely a question merely of the fossils being preserved for the first time (although there is probably an element of that too). We call this the Cambrian Explosion.
The reason we know so much is that just at this critical time is that we're lucky enough to have a whole host of exceptionally preserved fossil faunas. The most famous is the Burgess Shale from the Middle Cambrian of Canada, after which the Burgess Shale-type faunas in general are known. It has, however, been largely superceded by an earlier (Early Cambrian) and equally spectacular fauna from China: the Chengjiang Biota.
These faunas contain a wide range of creatures, and both fossils and reconstructions are on display in the Nanjing Museum of Palaeontology, at the Institute. The big beastie in this picture is an anomalocarid - probably the top predators of the time, and distantly related to modern crustaceans, spiders and their jointy-limbed families. At top right is an eldoniid - what that is, we have too many ideas and no consensus. The same goes for the vetulicolian in front of the anomalocaridid's grasping appandages, and it's a group that has been the source of many arguments in recent years. Arthropod, or fish-like creature? Despite exquisite detail, it's so different to anything alive now that it's hard to say.
There are various sponges, arthropods and so forth in the background - both the Burgess and Chengjiang have well over a hundred species known so far, and more still turning up. And in China, there are now a host of new deposits that look to rival Chengjiang - Guanshan, Kaili, Hetang, Zunyi... this is why palaeontologists worldwide are now looking to China with envy!*
* Well, the feathered dinosaurs help a bit. As do the Precambrian embryos, the dinosaur nests, the...
Friday, 4 February 2011
A promise of things to come...
For those of us who want to know, that is. This here is the last moult of a cicada, those wonderful, noisy (and gigantic) relatives of leafhoppers and greenfly. The summer around here is positively buzzing with the racket of cicadas in the treetops. There are quite a few Chinese species, and they're unavoidable enough to feature quite widely in traditional folklore.
Now, I realise there are some among you, dear readers, whose reaction to this might differ to mine. "Yuk!" and "Eurghhh" spring to mind. Well, you're going to have to get use to it, because there will be lots more where this comes from, and with any luck over the coming months I'll manage to persuade you about how gorgeous these little bugs and beasties really are.
Cicadas are "true bugs" (order Hemiptera), as are aphids, shieldbugs and assassin bugs. Every entomologist has their favourite groups (simply because there are far too many to know about all of them!) and this one is mine. It was the amazing colouring and patterns on British leafhoppers that got me interested in the first place, and the Chinese ones should be just as spectacular, if not more so. Cicadas are among the largest of bugs, and are remarkable in spending almost their entire life (several years in many species) underground as nymphs, feeding on roots. The American periodic cicada stays underground for 17 years, before appearing, all at once, over the space of few days. How they co-ordinate this feat is one of those things that just needs to be admired and not worried about too much...
So that's how I know this was the last moult - if it wasn't, it would still be underground. I can't wait until the summer, when i can show you just how gorgeous the adults are. Assuming we can find them.
Now, I realise there are some among you, dear readers, whose reaction to this might differ to mine. "Yuk!" and "Eurghhh" spring to mind. Well, you're going to have to get use to it, because there will be lots more where this comes from, and with any luck over the coming months I'll manage to persuade you about how gorgeous these little bugs and beasties really are.
Cicadas are "true bugs" (order Hemiptera), as are aphids, shieldbugs and assassin bugs. Every entomologist has their favourite groups (simply because there are far too many to know about all of them!) and this one is mine. It was the amazing colouring and patterns on British leafhoppers that got me interested in the first place, and the Chinese ones should be just as spectacular, if not more so. Cicadas are among the largest of bugs, and are remarkable in spending almost their entire life (several years in many species) underground as nymphs, feeding on roots. The American periodic cicada stays underground for 17 years, before appearing, all at once, over the space of few days. How they co-ordinate this feat is one of those things that just needs to be admired and not worried about too much...
So that's how I know this was the last moult - if it wasn't, it would still be underground. I can't wait until the summer, when i can show you just how gorgeous the adults are. Assuming we can find them.
Wednesday, 2 February 2011
Year of the rabbit
Happy New Year of the rabbit to everyone!
They like their fireworks here. All day yesterday people were letting off firecrackers in the street. These are long strings of fireworks wrapped in red paper. You put it on the pavement, light one or both ends, and stand back a bit. They make a loud bang but not much of a flash, so good for daylight.
There were a lot of fireworks around 8.30 p.m. - more firecrackers, but also rockets.
At midnight, the whole city let off fireworks simultaneously. The sky was so bright that it could have been daylight. I was particularly impressed by the person in the building opposite who had fire fountains coming out of their window. Someone had a whole line of rockets and firecrackers on the nearby pedestrian crossing - fortunately there wasn't much traffic at the time. There were rockets being set off from the pavement in front of our building, which were exploding in front of our window.
The firecrackers started up again about 7 a.m., and are still going.
They like their fireworks here. All day yesterday people were letting off firecrackers in the street. These are long strings of fireworks wrapped in red paper. You put it on the pavement, light one or both ends, and stand back a bit. They make a loud bang but not much of a flash, so good for daylight.
There were a lot of fireworks around 8.30 p.m. - more firecrackers, but also rockets.
At midnight, the whole city let off fireworks simultaneously. The sky was so bright that it could have been daylight. I was particularly impressed by the person in the building opposite who had fire fountains coming out of their window. Someone had a whole line of rockets and firecrackers on the nearby pedestrian crossing - fortunately there wasn't much traffic at the time. There were rockets being set off from the pavement in front of our building, which were exploding in front of our window.
The firecrackers started up again about 7 a.m., and are still going.
Tuesday, 1 February 2011
Wisteria
Just another little spot on the Xuanwu Lake islands... this was a long paved path with a roof of branches. I wanted to get a picture of the whole thing, but there a gaggle of cleaners in fluorescent jackets who kept getting in the way... and they weren't going anywhere, because there were a couple of foreigners to stare at! (We're getting lots and lots of curious looks generally, along with small children yelling "Hello!" as loudly as they can. Teenagers too, for that matter. It's one of the hazards of coming to somewhere like this, and we're still in the big city at the moment...)
Anyway, these trees were just too good to pass up. Although there were no leaves yet, we're pretty sure it's Wisteria. The Chinese species can have white or blue flowers as well as purple, and apparently they're very fragrant. Another place to go back to in the summer - we've looked up the flowering times, and mid-May should just about be perfect.
A bit of news - we've just heard I've got a grant from the Natural Sciences Foundation of China, which will cover the costs of fieldwork in the UK this summer. We've also just had our residence permit confirmed, which is a relief. That's the immediate essential paperwork sorted... :-)
Anyway, these trees were just too good to pass up. Although there were no leaves yet, we're pretty sure it's Wisteria. The Chinese species can have white or blue flowers as well as purple, and apparently they're very fragrant. Another place to go back to in the summer - we've looked up the flowering times, and mid-May should just about be perfect.
A bit of news - we've just heard I've got a grant from the Natural Sciences Foundation of China, which will cover the costs of fieldwork in the UK this summer. We've also just had our residence permit confirmed, which is a relief. That's the immediate essential paperwork sorted... :-)
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