spring rolls...

believe it or not, but one of my favourite foods that my mooma makes are her 'chun-guuns' (spring rolls)............... both her seafood and vegetable recipes will disappear quickly with me, and no matter how many i eat i always want more!!!............ (at this point i am foerever grateful for the invention of elasticated jeans!!!)..............................

(realisation that i know that alot of time has elapsed since i have been able to sit and write on here and to seamus..................... i hope that the wait for these recipes has been worth it!!!................)

okej to make the seafood spring rolls you will need:
1.prawns (shelled, gutted and minced up and yes you need to gut the prawns!!!
2.crabsticks/surimi sticks
3.fun-ci (mung bean threads that have been soaked)
4.mook-yi (wood fungus which needs soaking and expands alot!!!!)
5.beansprounts (chooped up)
6.onion (if you want finely chopped)

egg yolk to combine the mixture and salt and pepper for taste.......................
(and for meat eaters you can add pork to it as the traditional vietnamese method is but i don't eat meat so i leave it out)

and to make vegetarian springrolls you will need:
1.dong-gu (shitake mushrooms the darm brown ones that need soaking overnight)
2.nya-choi (beansprouts chopped up)
3.mai-tai (water chestnuts sliced up)
4.juk-sun (bamboo shoots shiced up)
5.cabbage (sliced up)
6.carrots (finely sliced)

all the ingredients need to be lightly fried with salt and pepper and a bit of fish sauce or soysauce for taste and then placed in a collinder to drain all the excess fluids.

when choosing a spring roll wrapping, there are two types that i like, the 'tyj' label that is made from wheatflour (you can buy it from most asian food shops in the freezer section............. the good thing about it is, ease of peeling and folding)............... and there is the tradtional 'rice-paper' wrapping that needs to be soaked since you buy it dry (this is a bit more fiddly to use since it can split if you soak it too long!!!)...........................

hmmmmmm i should also say that when making the spring rolls there is a method to how you should roll them up so as to not let the corners split, but its a bit difficult to explain without showing so errrrrrrr good luck in all your attempts................................ and once you have rolled it up you need a water-flour paste to just seal off the ends so that it doesn'y unravel..................................

when you have mananged to wrap them all up then you can deep fry them or put them into the freezer for storage........................ when deep-frying the spring rolls you need to make sure the oil is hot!!! (please be careful since oil burns are very nasty indeed!!!)........................ and they should be fried for about 10-15-20 mins depending on how big you made them !!!!................ the springrolls should be immersed in the oil to give even cooking and ocassionally should be turned................ (traditionally we use a wok to fry them in but it can a bit unsafe it you don't have a wok stand so i recommend using a deep-fat-fryer or deep saucepan if you got one????)

okej to serve the spring rolls you should have rice noodles and at least one salad ........
i know of three that are simple and nice...............
1.round lettuce leaves
2.koh-rabi and carrots finely sliced soaked in a vinegar dressing and served with crushed peanuts
3.sliced cucumber and carrots soaked in vinegar dressing

because the spring rolls are fried, traditionally we serve it with a sour dressing to help neutralise the greasiness so vinegar dressings, lemons and chillis are good................

to make my moomas dressing its just a combination of a little sugar, vinegar (put more or less depending how sour you want it), chopped up chillis, crushed garlic cloves, lemon juice and fish sauce and water to dilute to taste......................(or if you like sweet dressing then get one of those thai sweet chiili dipping sauces that you can get in all supermarkets............. cheaters!!! :-p)

and there we have the finished food blog about spring rolls !!!!
(so seamus your task now is to go out and find all the stuff you need and to report back to me on how you managed!!!! good luck and thanks for not nagging me to finish it XXX and happy belated birthday to you!!! i hope your trip to london was good and that you managed to write the codes to your music website!!!)

FB...

hmmmm now everyone knows this terminology...............
FB stands for 'friends with benefits'
or in its lesser term 'fook buddies'
the swedes also have this term but they call it KK............ 'knolla kompis'...............

now i need to write something about his because i have too many KK's :-p.................det var skamt!!!! skamt!!!!

no seriously i need to write something about FB's and cross border-rules because after spedning a couple of days with johan, mauel and mats and everyone else that has 'yellow fever' or just so called 'etchi' men.................. you get to think like them and in the words of jakob i need to either write it down so that everyone can be familiar with such terms ansd rules or i can forget about it............

being blessed with a good memory means i find it hard to forget things and so i need to do the other............. write about it!!! sometimes i miss the whole sparta living and gossip but in alot of ways i am sooooooooo happy that i am an outsider looking in and not involved in any scandals that happen around "the flat that everyone has stayed in"............................really i like being a regular that just comes round every so often rather than a regular that is part of the 'family of incestuous relationships' (don't ask, really don't)...................

cross border rule: according to the deviuos ones that are trying to bed the exchange students (no names in particular because its all of them), its okay to see other ppl outside of the country even if you are in a long term relationship................... so for instance if you have a boyfriend in china and you go to sweden then its okay to mess about with swedish men because "what happens there, stays there" and the only way your BF will find out is if you tell him....................... hence cross-border rule is once you cross the geographical line of marking then you can do what you want with whom.............................. (NO i haven't succumbed to this rule yet!!!)

the pentagon rule: if you decide to go for relationships in different countries or in different cities or towns or halls of residence then there is the other rule that says you can only have a limit of up to FIVE.................. this is because they all need to be a 'member of he pentagon' so to speak.............. so if you have 5 already and you meet another one then you need to make one of the pentagon retire so that they can be replaced or you go onto the nx level.................. (this rule does appeal to me so if anyone is interested in being part of 'my pentagon team' pls send applications to................. skamt skamt!!!)

united nation rule: the nx level from 'the pentagon' is the 'united nations' rule where you are uniting ppl through you!!! and you have a lot of dealings with 'international relations'!!! and strive to allow everyone to join without force or prejudice!!! (i know its sick!!!)...................it seems this is a good rule if you are undecided on your 5 or one since there is no limit to how many you wish to make as part of your united nations, but errrrrrrrrrr your community is your own problem and keeping it all under control without any revolt or retaliation will be on your own shoulders and believe me it can be nasty (was a witness to two girls meeting to see their errrrr 'BF' that was the same guy.................need i say more, oh yeah then the third came along............you get the picture.......)

hmmmmmmm oh there is another good term that i learnt while there and its 'hester full' which means 'really ugly' and its used more often for when ppl go 'maulk' in a nite club...................... 'maulk' roughly translated means 'deep sea underwater fishing' and if you have ever seen some of those beauties that live down there then you will find them quite hester full........................... in normal language its when a person gets really drunk and they go to a club where they know the music is bad and the light is low and that they know its full of not too attractive ppl BUT still they go to just get some action............. so the term 'maulk' is used..........................(damn you manuel and kei and mats for telling me stuff..................but it is funny........... i have a sick sense of humour!!!).....................

just to finish this blog off i think its a good time to write some of the new swedish phrases that i picked while there............ i need to point out that whereas most ppl learn the polite stuff first, i am working my way from the other end of the scale................. going from rude and making my way towards being civilised.....................(in ten years ui will be a native speaker......... of utter krapp)

attans!
du ar sit kissare och sto skittare och blood fissare............
din mama ar sa tjock
jag vill bissa pa din sang
din mama tankte din foddelse ar ett skamt
mama rotare mig
vad skaffas dig om
biss-kaka
du ar ful som ar agg
du ar inte sa snygg
hall kaften nu
dra att helvete/ skogen
va fan glo du pa
va fan sager du
va fan gjord du
sluta nu
fy dig
javla skit
ar du berg

okay some of these phrases are quite old but quite useful to say to some drunk ppl that are trying to hit on you at a corri-party and you want them to leave you alone.............. although be warned............. if you are a' for-ren-ger', then it can have the opposite effect, where guys think its really cute that you can curse in their own language to them and then they keep coming back for more abuse because they find it a turn on???? i need to start learning the polite stuff soon since maybe that will work better than being rude???

hmmm okej there is one last term that ppl should know about......... its the pH scale.......... and i don't mean neutrality of alkalines and acids.................... pH is an acronym for 'Potential Husbands'................... so we will simply classify men as pH1, pH2, pH3 and so forth and numbers have no ranking, if we think you will make a good husband then we will simply stick pHsomething onto you!!!................ women are funny but you know you can't live without us!!!! hahahahahaha