THE JOY OF SOY MILK

There have been many attempts to come up with the perfect soymilk maker and it looks like a company called Sanlinx perfected so much that you can make fresh soymilk in 20 minutes and a quicker clean up.  Soyajoy G4 is the product. 

Previously Soyajoy G3 was great.  However, this one has a larger capacity (to make 7 cups), an all stainless steel cooking and grinding chamber and filter-less bottom heating.  As the website says, “Each has a microprocessor, temperature sensor, water level sensor, boil-over sensor and advanced solid-state control technology to continuously monitor control heating power and blending sequence for maximum heating without burning the milk at bottom. The G4's Perfect Grind™ technology combines the blade design and grinding chamber geometry to constantly stir up and draw the largest pieces to the blades for better grinding, overcoming the weakness of most other filter-less makers.” In other words, a one-piece construction with the blade attached.

Although the machine has the capacity to grind beans that are not soaked, soaking provides you with less time to process.  There are five pre-programed buttons (soaked beans, dry beans, raw juice, grains, porridge ) on top as the Soyajoy can also be used to make milk from other grains and seeds as well as porridge.  Perhaps you love the taste of almond milk or up for making a delicious pea soup.  A sixth button is a “keep warm”.   

How to you make the soy milk? You will find two packages of what are called Laura beans, a soy bean product that they say are the best for both taste and “whiteness” of the milk.  A video on their website shows someone using one and half cups (plastic cup provided) of which is first washes and soaked for “6 to 16 hours” or “overnight”.  Fill the chamber of the Soyajoy with water to lines that show min./max and then add the soaked beans.  Add beans into chamber and place the head atop.  Plug in the machine and press the button for “soaked beans”.  You will hear a “beep” and 20 minutes later hear another signally its completion.  Remove the head and rinse it off immediately to make it easier to clean.  You don’t necessarily have to watch a video as instructions are provided.

There is a pitcher and wire mesh calendar provided with the kit.  This way you can strain the milk using a spatula to press down and catching what is called “okara” or pulp.  3/4 of a tps of sea salt and about 4 tablespoons of sugar are added and stirred.  That’s it.  Place in a container…preferably one made of glass and let it cool before refrigerating.  Check out recipes to see how to flavor the milk in case you want chocolate or vanilla.

Soyajoy’s website allows you to purchase products needed to make tofu.  Nigari, for instance, is a coagulator that breaks the soymilk into curds and whey as the curds, after being pressed, turn into a cake of tofu. 

Cost wise?  Probably cheaper than what you might think and a lot less than the price of buying store bought soymilk or other non-dairy milk products.  As a dairy milk person, for me there is no substitute.  However, my palate was quite satisfied and did not seem as “watery” as some store bought that I have tasted.  I was, as they said, quite easy to make.  I will be experimenting for tofu and the attempt to make bean curd skin.  Check it out on www.soymilkmaker.com 

Come to the Secret Theatre old chum

Over the years, the Kander and Ebbs’ musical “Cabaret” about 1930s Berlin has been a feast for local theatre groups since its Broadway premiere in 1966, and the story of artistic escapism in a time of creeping fascism feels especially poignant today.

Long Island City’s Secret Theatre offers a fresh treatment by director Hunter Bird with a more raucous and risqué script, and the immersive and intimate theater-in-the-round performance brings the heart of the sleazy Kit Kat Klub directly to the audience.

Larry Owens portrays the iconic emcee as a stereotypical drag queen inviting the audience to take a break from the swirling news cycle with the opening. “Willkommen! Bienvenue! Welcome! Leave your troubles outside. So life is disappointing, forget it! In here, life is beautiful!”

He introduces the lasciviously dressed girls, and then the boys — some of whom are also lasciviously dressed as girls — and even the boys in pants are adorned in black leather and lipstick, giving the 1930s German hotspot a sense that “anything goes.”

Cliff Bradshaw, a writer, (Jesse Weil) and Ernst Ludwig (Jeff Hathcoat) meet aboard a train to Berlin where Cliff is looking to teach English in order to make enough money to stay. On Ernst’s advice, Cliff takes a room at the home of Fraulein Schneider (Sue Lynn Yu), a high-spirited 60-year-old.

Cliff meets Sally Bowles (Natalie Walker), an English woman who performs and hosts at the Kit Kat Klub where she sings, “Mein Herr” and “Don’t Tell Mama.” Sally moves in with Cliff — despite being uninvited — eventually leading to thoughts of marriage, made urgent when Sally discovers that she’s pregnant.

Fraulein Schneider gets involved with a Jewish green grocer, Herr Shultz (Mark Coffin) who gifts her with a pineapple as they sing “It Couldn’t Please Me More” (“A Pineapple for Me”), but the relationship becomes problematic as the Nazi party is about to take over.

Yu is the most polished performer in the cast, with both her vocals and characterization. Coffin, although he did sing well, lacked the sort of “miskite” character that backs up the song “Married”. Then again, Bird chose these characterizations.

Fraulein Kost (Alexa Polla), another renter at Schneider’s, plays a significant role in “Cabaret” as she consistently spends her nights with sailors. Fraulein Schneider objects, saying, “Don’t let me catch you.” Kost tells her that she needs the money to pay her rent, and Schneider is “trying to overlook it.” The next time that Schneider catches her is also when Kost sees Schneider with Schultz in close communication, already knowing that her being with a Jew is unwise for the times. When Schneider and Schultz sing “Married,” Kost solos the song with German lyrics, perhaps to prepare us for what is to come.

As Act I ends, Kost begins to sing, “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” as many characters reveal their patriotism toward Nazi Germany, including one who removes his shirt as we see a swastika tattoo on his arm. Bird chose the shorter version omitting, “Oh Fatherland, Fatherland / Show us the sign / Your children have waited to see / The morning will come / When the world is mine. / Tomorrow belongs to me!” which may have especially resonated in the present situation.

But Bird did include one of the most controversial elements of the show. The rendition of “If You Could See Her Through My Eyes” uses a gorilla mask and includes the original ending, “But if you could see her through my eyes, she wouldn’t look Jewish at all,” a lyric which was changed when the show was on Broadway after a backlash.

The height of Owens’ vocals actually comes near the end when he sings “I Don’t Care Much.” The final song, “Cabaret” starts out strong but gets lost as the ensemble seems to take over, with Walker lacking a microphone. She gives us a “Liza Minelli style” in her speaking voice, and most of the time her vocals are clear and precise.

Set in the round, members of the band, piano, bass and drums are placed in different areas of the audience, and may even be beside you.

The floor is used for the full stage with front and side areas depicting an apartment, rooming house, dressing room and off stage section of the Kit Kat Klub, which is given a “main stage.” Kudos goes to musical director Dan Garmon and the rest of the cast and crew.

Although they advertise that one needs to be 13 years of age to view the show, I think that the teen would be quite embarrassed to see this with his or her parents. One of the props that gets more than enough attention is a blow up male doll which is anatomically correct. I was surprised it didn’t get a blurb in the bio portion of the program, which also lacked a list of songs and the characters who sing them.

Cabaret continues to perform from Thursday, Feb. 9 to Sunday, February 19. You can reach the box office by calling 718-392-0722.

Posted 12:00 am, February 9, 2017

PREVIEWING LUNAR NEW YEAR AT GOLDEN PALACE GOURMET

January 28 marks Lunar New Year Day with the Year of the Rooster, a day to share with family, friends and lots of traditional food.  Why wait until then to dine at yet another Chinese restaurant.  This time it was Golden Palace Gourmet that serves “authentic Northern Chinese food, handmade noodle and dumplings”.  Not all Chinese restaurants are of the same cuisine as years ago we had gotten used to the basic Cantonese style or the spicier Szechuan.   I don’t eat alone as I venture into Asian restaurants with Taiwanese-American Luchia Meihua Lee and her husband Ken Howell, who does not either understand or speak Chinese.  

 

Guan Jing is the owner of Golden Palace, located at 140-09 Cherry Avenue in downtown Flushing.  Ms. Jing owns a few other restaurants that are located in Manhattan.  The cuisine represents a city in China, Liaoning, located in the Northeast near North Korea.  That may be the reason that Kimchi and another spicy appetizer of shredded potato in hot sauce was automatically brought to the table.  I requested a small glass of milk just in case.   As it turned out, the potato appetizer seemed spicier than the kimchi.  Now you get that I don’t necessarily enjoy hot spicy foods.   Luchia had no difficulty.   

Ken is a vegetarian.  I am not and it is always interesting being able to taste vegetarian dishes.  Yes, we pigged out as we usually do and then take home the leftovers.   The Crispy Lamb with Chili Pepper sounded pretty good to me now that I gained a bit more tolerance to the “hot”.  I think that seeing the red and green hot peppers should have alerted me but my problem is that I didn’t realize that cumin was a main spice.  I don’t favor the taste of cumin and am a bit allergic to it.  Luchia thought it was delicious.  

One of Ken’s choices was the sautéed Potato, Green Pepper and Eggplant that was in a vegetarian brown sauce.  I was able to taste this one.  Great alternative to other proteins, I truly loved the flavors.  

Although I was skipping beef for a while, I noticed a photo of Fried Beef with Scallions.  The chunks of beef were on bones.  I love eating food on bones…so much juicier.   The brown sauce made the dish even more savory.  

Another vegetable dish. Not sure of the name of this one made with bean curd skins sliced up to look like a semi-wide noodle.  These are just one of many handmade noodles created on the premises.  The dish contained green beans, mung bean noodles and scallions.   I probably would have enjoyed it more if I hadn’t eaten the saucy or spicy foods prior as in comparison, it tasted bland.   That’s not to say that Ken didn’t appreciate it.   Personally I think the sauce used for the sautéed potato dish would have added a greater flavor.  

Guan Jing stopped over many times to inquire about our enjoyment of the food.  That is when I heard about the dumplings made on the premises and then looked at the menu.  Ms. Jing does understand and speak English but it was a lot easier to have Luchia speaking with her and translating to me with any questions that I had.  

The choices of dumplings were longer than any other restaurant I’ve been to.  I’ll just list: Seafood dumpling with pork, egg and chives (This is the one that I ordered); Seafood Dumpling with pork; Sour Cabbage Dumpling; Leek Dumpling with pork; Tomato Egg Dumpling (sounded like a good one for breakfast); Fish Celery Dumplings; Radish Beef Dumplings; Fennel Dumplings; Green Dumpling – spinach, scrambled egg and vermicelli ; Lamb Dumpling.  What I mostly treasured about these dumplings was that they were not only packed with the ingredients but were comparatively thin skinned to most that I have eaten.  It allows me to enjoy the steamed dumpling without the heavy amount of flour.  You can buy the dumplings wholesale frozen with a price range from $15 to $22 dollars for 50 pieces depending upon your choice.

 

Since Golden Palace is authentic, you won’t be able to get ice cream for dessert.  There are “Sweet Dishes” one of which is Pumpkin Rice Cakes.  The rice gives glutinous texture vs. the chew of rice and not overly sweet.   I just think we should all have a sweet new year.  Gong Xi Fa Cai.

Golden Palace is open 7 days a week from noon until midnight (718-886-4383).

Peace Table

CRYSTAL PARK WILL REFLECT ARTIST RETREAT

Thomas Chen is president of the manufacturing firm Crystal Window & Door Systems based in Flushing. He came to the United States from his native Taiwan in 1982 at the age of 27. After working for several years for others and learning English at night, he started a small manufacturing business in Queens. In 1990, Mr. Chen launched Crystal Window & Door Systems. The company is now one of the top 40 fenestration manufacturers in North America with additional production facilities in Chicago, St. Louis, Riverside, CA and soon to have a 226-acre plant in Benton, PA.  There is no branch in Holmes, NY.  Yet, he is creating a 200-acre space at this location and calling it Crystal Park, located 65 miles North of NYC.

Mr. Chen is a longtime patron of the arts, and established a corporate foundation in 2002 to advance and preserve Taiwanese art and culture. In fact, Thomas Chen is Vice President of the Taiwanese American Arts Council. For many years, an art gallery he created within the Queens factory building of Crystal Window and Door Systems exhibited the works of local artists. Mr. Chen has sponsored exhibits at Flushing Town Hall, the Queens Museum, and other locations around the New York metropolitan area.

I had the joyous opportunity to take a Thanksgiving Day road trip, along with TAAC Executive Director Luchia Meihua Lee, Ken Howell, Taiwanese artist Catherine Lan and journalist Emily Chang.  Prior to Crystal Park’s entrance an art piece resembling a car sits at the side of the road entitled “Sun in Action” by Lin Shih-Pao.   A logo of crystals designed by Chiehping Chen greets the main gate.  A house rests at the top of the hill, where we will later meet with his employee and their family.  Walking down to the first level, we are able to look out at only some of what is to come including another stone carving, a poem by Tingehiam Wang written in Chinese.

Luchia translated for me.

As long as

Snow has image, rain has trace,

Thunder has sound, water has pattern

There are poems.

If people no longer write poems,

Birds come to write,

Winds come to write,

Snails come to write.

Fish cannot take bait as food,

Flowers cannot choose vases as home.

A thinking reed

Is only a spine.

Under anger, no wisdom

Under jealously, no virtue.

We can view artistic wooden paths, a gazebo, hammock hung between two trees, and a distant chicken coop with the sound of a rooster crowing.  It is just perfect as this coming Lunar New Year marks the Year of the Rooster. 

Not being mobile enough I stayed in the house while the others explored the property.  Tom, meanwhile, continued working on the land digging on a fork lift. “I have watched this mountain land being transformed from a neglected rural setting towards a future multi-functional park and future artist village with art, recreation, farm and breath-taking landscape around the lake”, Luchia said. “I have arranged for many artists to visit since 2014 and were all met with a stunning experience of nature.” 

“Crystal Park carries the dream of Thomas Chen who was born and grew up in a beautiful southern village in Pingdong, Taiwan,” she continues. “If he had not been an entrepreneur, he would have been an artist. His Crystal Park will be a retreat for us to create, exhibit, enjoy and exercise; an artist village for not only Taiwanese Americans, but for all US artists that have the spirit and need the space to gain energy.”

Catherine Lan grew up in Australia where she learned her art forms and focus on nature. “It’s another world from New York City”, she commented about Crystal Park, “where you can get away for the weekend or a one-day trip.  I am really excited that I will be able to go to the park when it is completed, although it is open for visits.  I love the fresh air and even more the inspiration that it will provide me for some of my future works”.

“With such a large area, there are many places to hike”, Tom said.  “It is a great way for me to teach my international employees about American outdoor culture.” Future plans for this “artist colony” include gardens, farming areas, artist studio spaces, an art museum and the commission of outdoor sculptures by Taiwanese and international artists.

Incidentally, Crystal Window and Door Systems is open to the public but only sells to contractors.  Tom said that he welcomes people to come in and learn about the types of products that would suit them best for their home.  The company is located at 31-10 Whitestone Expressway.  781-961-7300. You can view more about Crystal Park at www.crystalpark.org.