#Mushroom Lam Mee

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Hong Kong Protests: How Does This End? https://nyti.ms/2rSYDLn

Hong Kong Protests: How Does This End?

A bill before Congress would put the United States squarely on the side of the protesters, even as the demonstrations seem to spin out of control.

By The Editorial Board | Published Nov. 16, 2019 | New York Times | Posted November 17, 2019 |

After nearly six months of escalating protests, Hong Kong is a mess, its reputation for efficiency in tatters, its economy in recession, its roads and rails often blocked. And there is no end in sight.

That poses a quandary for those who admire and support the protest movement, but who recoil at the notion of such a unique and vibrant enclave self-destructing. The difficulty is compounded by the fact that the movement has no leadership, no coordinating committee to advise, to cheer or to warn.

In the end, however, there is no choice for those who cherish freedom but to support the protests, as a bill pending in the United States Congress does. The protests may be counterproductive, destructive, leaderless and even futile, but for these same reasons they are an altruistic, self-sacrificing and genuine demonstration that people who have known freedom, even in a limited form, refuse to surrender it.

It is doubtful that Xi Jinping, the authoritarian Chinese leader, understands the resistance or the longing. Those who rise to the pinnacle of a secretive, authoritarian, coercive system like China’s are molded to believe that you can control all the people all the time, if you can only find the right combination of sticks, carrots, lies and information filters. To them, any dissent must be a political plot hatched in dark foreign corners.

What Mr. Xi does instinctively understand is the threat posed by Hong Kong while he is waging a global propaganda offensive, backed by the lure of China’s enormous market. A Tiananmen-style crackdown, he knows, would be disastrous for China’s standing and image. But letting the protesters have their way, he believes, would show weakness and potentially encourage repressed minorities in China, such as the Uighurs, Kazakhs or Tibetans, to push for their rights.

Lacking any means for winning the Hong Kongers’ hearts or minds and unable to give in to their demands, leaders in Beijing and their loyalists in Hong Kong, including the administration led by Carrie Lam, see no alternative to exerting ever greater police force. And that serves only to further inflame the demonstrators.

Foreign governments, too, confront a dilemma. On the commercial side, overt support for the protests could lead to a loss of Chinese business. President Trump, for one, has stayed largely silent on the latest protests, even while grappling with Mr. Xi on trade, evidently seeking not to trammel the chance of a deal. There is also the problem of supporting demonstrations in which protesters have sometimes resorted to violence, even if police violence has been far greater and more systematic. Nothing justifies setting an opponent on fire, as one protester apparently did.

These incidents of violence must be noted and condemned. But they are inevitable in confrontations with police that have been escalating over many weeks. One thing remains incontestable: In this protracted and painful confrontation, the people of Hong Kong hold the moral high ground in their determination to decide their own fate and to reject the animal farm that China would put them in even before the transition to full Chinese control in 2047, the date established in the agreement that ended Britain’s control over its former colony.

There is no way to predict how long the protests will continue, or what will be their outcome. But the people of Hong Kong deserve support, and Mr. Xi should be left with no doubt that violent intervention will carry an immediate and heavy price.

The bill before Congress, the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which accuses the Chinese government of creating more chaos and warns of new sanctions, has the support of both parties, and should be brought to a vote without further delay. Painful as it is to observe, this is a struggle that the free world must support.

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Can Hong Kong’s Courts Save the City?

Don’t count on it.

By Audrey Eu Yuet-mee, Ms. Eu is a barrister and former legislator in Hong Kong. | Published Nov. 16, 2019 | New York Times | Posted Nov 17, 2019 |

HONG KONG — It both comforts and depresses me, as a lawyer who has practiced for four decades, that every day over the past few months I have been besieged on Facebook by anxious Hong Kongers urging me to take legal action to help protesters.

I have been asked to demand investigations into mysterious deaths, allegations that people have been raped while in police custody and claims that police officers have been impersonating protesters. Some people seek redress for police brutality. Others want to pre-empt the routine use of tear gas in crowded public transportation, old people’s homes, shopping malls, universities or the central business district.

That people come to me is comforting: It suggests that even though the government and the Legislative Council have failed us, Hong Kongers still believe in our judges. It is depressing because I fear that they will be disappointed.

Initiating litigation against the government, particularly in very political cases, is an uncertain and very expensive endeavor at any time. The government has unlimited money — the taxpayers’ money — to hire a large legal team, and so even if it loses a case in the first instance, it can appeal it all the way to the final court. You, the citizen, might have found lawyers to represent you for free, but should you lose, you may have to foot the government’s legal bill — in some cases, risking bankruptcy.

The odds are also stacked against you. Judges are conservative by nature and trained to give the establishment a wide margin of appreciation. They are not the ones fighting protesters on the streets; they are not the ones making the tough political decisions. They should be slow to criticize those in the hot seat for getting something wrong.

More ominous, in 2014, the Chinese State Council issued a white paper about governance in Hong Kong, which required, among other things, the city’s judges to be “patriots.” Way back in the summer of 2008, Xi Jinping — then China’s vice-president, now its president — called on the three branches of government in Hong Kong to “cooperate.”

For China’s leaders, law is a political weapon; they routinely refer to governing the nation “in accordance with the law.” This may sound like the same thing as “the rule of law,” but it is nothing like that: It merely justifies the rule of those in power and ensures that they are above the law.

If judges in Hong Kong issue a decision with political consequences that the Chinese authorities deem unwelcome, it can always be overruled by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, which is vested with the ultimate authority to interpret Hong Kong’s Basic Law, or mini-constitution. Let us not underestimate the tremendous pressure many of our judges have faced dealing with the highly sensitive and politically charged cases that have come to them in recent years.

Earlier this week, the police and anti-riot squads attacked the campus of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, firing hundreds of cans of tear gas and rubber bullets, and spraying parts of the campus with a toxic blue liquid. By Tuesday night, the university gym had been turned into a makeshift hospital, as though on a wartime battlefield. Joseph Sung Jao-yiu, a former vice chancellor of CUHK and a gastroenterologist, came with a team of doctors to help treat the injured — more than 110 people.

The police did have reason to take action that day: The CUHK campus is connected to a public footbridge that hangs over a major highway, and the footbridge was occupied by protesters who were throwing bricks and petrol bombs, blocking traffic and endangering the public.

Whatever the protesters were doing did not justify the authorities’ disproportionate response, however. Even CUHK’s current vice chancellor, Prof. Rocky Tuan, wasn’t spared being tear-gassed: He tried to defuse the situation with the police, but was told that he could not control his students and now was no time to negotiate. The clashes lasted for hours. Black mushroom clouds hung high above the campus and could be seen from a great distance.

Late Tuesday night, at the height of the confrontation, I was approached by Jacky So Tsun-fung, the president of the CUHK student union. He wanted to apply for an urgent injunction to stop the police from breaching the campus without a warrant and bar the use of crowd-control weapons without the assent of university authorities. Some students had become very emotional; word was circulating that one of them (and perhaps more) was considering suicide. But the judge declined to hear the application that night and wanted the police to be notified.

I met Mr. So the next morning. He has a shy, boyish face, delicate features and a mat of hair like a K-pop idol. The first thing I did was give him a big hug. His shoulders felt too small for the large burden he was carrying. I don’t mean just the burden of litigation; I mean the burden of being young in Hong Kong these days and daring to stand up or speak out. Young people are targeted, stalked and at risk of physical attack. Even secondary-school students in uniform have been stopped on their way to school, searched and harassed by the police.

There is no denying that violence has been committed by the protesters, too. But during our hearing on Wednesday, while the police’s lawyers wouldn’t tell the court how many tear-gas canisters officers had used at CUHK, they were quick to say how many petrol bombs had been thrown at them.

Never mind, apparently, my argument that at times as difficult as these, there is all the more reason to hold authorities accountable for any abuse of power. And that we, the public, are looking to the courts as our last safeguards. The judge dismissed our application.

And yet the Hong Kong courts have readily granted the police sweeping injunctions. There was one last month, cast in broad and vague terms, that barred anyone from “unlawfully and willfully” disclosing the personal information of police officers or their relatives. Naturally, no one was there to argue against the measure: Why did the court find it necessary to enjoin putative and nameless defendants from breaking the law?

Also last month, the government issued a regulation banning face masks at gatherings. Even as it insisted that Hong Kong was not in a state of emergency, the administration of Chief Executive Carrie Lam ordered the mask ban by invoking outdated, colonial-era emergency legislation — paving the way for more draconian measures in the future. Several legislators have challenged the regulation in court. A ruling is expected Monday.

Whatever the outcome of that case, it would be naïve at this stage to think that a few lawyers and judges can defend the rule of law in Hong Kong. Once the city’s pride, the rule of law cannot survive under the pressure of a government that does not respect fair play, freedom or democracy.

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Hong Kong Protests: Activists Clash With Police Near Besieged Campus

The multiday siege escalated on Sunday, a day after unarmed Chinese soldiers stirred fears by staging a choreographed photo op.

By Mike Ives, Tiffany May and Katherine LI | Published Nov. 17, 2019 Updated 9:50 a.m. ET | New York Times | Posted November 17, 2019 |

HONG KONG — The Hong Kong police on Sunday clashed for hours with antigovernment activists who were staging a siege-like occupation of a university campus and blocking an adjacent cross-harbor tunnel, the latest escalation in a monthslong crisis gripping the city.

The standoff on the fringes of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, in which a police officer was hit in his leg with an arrow, shattered a fragile calm that had returned to the Chinese territory after a workweek marred by severe transit disruptions and street violence.

Schools across Hong Kong were canceled for Monday. And on Sunday evening — after protesters set fire to two bridges near the harbor tunnel and police officers appeared to surround them — the force threatened to use “lethal force” to arrest those who did not surrender.

The Hong Kong protests began in June over legislation, since scrapped, that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, and have expanded to include a broad range of demands for police accountability and greater democracy.

Here’s the latest.

A FIERY CAMPUS STANDOFF

The police on Sunday fired gas and sprayed water cannons at young demonstrators who were continuing a multiday occupation of Hong Kong Polytechnic University and blockading an adjacent tunnel that connects Hong Kong Island with the Kowloon Peninsula.

Ensconced above the Kowloon streets in fort-like enclosures, some of the protesters spent hours throwing gasoline bombs, some from improvised catapults. Others were armed with bows and arrows, and the police said an officer had been hit in the calf with an arrow.

After nightfall, the protesters set fire to a flyover near the tunnel and a pedestrian bridge leading to the campus, forcing an armored police vehicle to retreat and setting another on fire. A riot police officer warned that protesters were surrounded and that the force would use lethal force against them if they did not surrender.

“Time is running out,” the officer said on a loudspeaker.

Dozens of hard-line protesters also clashed with riot police in Mong Kok, a working-class neighborhood, apparently to divert the force’s energies away from the campus.

The PolyU campus, which sits beside the harbor tunnel and a Chinese military barracks, is one of several that young protesters had occupied days earlier, turning them into quasi-militarized citadels. Most of the other sieges gradually tapered off.

The Sunday clash came on the heels of a particularly intense week of transit delays, street scuffles and flash-mob-style demonstrations across the city. The unrest was prompted in part by the police shooting of a young demonstrator at point-blank range. He survived.

A RARE PROPAGANDA STUNT

On Saturday, Chinese soldiers jogged out of their barracks near Hong Kong Baptist University and cleared bricks from streets that had been swarmed days earlier by young demonstrators.

The soldiers wore T-shirts and basketball jerseys, rather than military uniforms, and carried brooms instead of weapons. Their appearance threatened to inflame tensions in the semiautonomous Chinese territory, where many are deeply sensitive about what they see as Beijing’s growing influence over their lives.

The Hong Kong garrison of the People’s Liberation Army is based in 19 sites once occupied by the British military before the former colony returned to Chinese control in 1997. But even though Chinese troops have been stationed in Hong Kong for years, it is highly unusual for them to venture into the city.

Hong Kong’s mini-Constitution says that P.L.A. forces “shall not interfere” in local affairs and that the local government may ask for the army’s assistance for disaster relief and maintaining public order. The Hong Kong government said in a statement on Saturday that the soldiers’ cleanup had been a self-initiated “community activity.”

The cleanup, which was lauded in China’s state-run news media, prompted a torrent of criticism from local residents. On Saturday, 24 lawmakers from Hong Kong’s pro-democracy legislative minority issued a joint statement saying that the local government and the P.L.A. had ignored restrictions imposed on the troops by local laws.

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https://ift.tt/2F9cikv Read on our visit to Chinese New Year Reunion Dinner Restaurant 2020 Part I by FoodGem

Chinese New Year is approaching and let’s find ways to usher luck into the New Year of the Rat. One of my favourite traditional practices of Yu Sheng or Lo Hei while saying and receiving auspicious well-wishes. And also spoilt for choices with so many variety and style of CNY Treasure Pots.

Hai Tien Lo at Pan Pacific Singapore

Abundance Wealth Yusheng is inspired by “Shan Shui” (Mountain Water). The inspiration comes from Chef Ben’s admiration of traditional Chinese painting featuring natural landscapes. Using shredded vegetables creating a stunning artful portraying a grand mountain overshadowing a group of little mountains, representing prospering growth. Each paper boat filled with deep-fried flour crisps symbolising an abundance of wealth in the new year. The other luxurious toppings on the yusheng including lobster, abalone and accented with Gold and Silver Flakes.

Backed by rich cultural traditions, Treasure Pot is a must to welcome the new year with abundance and good fortune. Hai Tien Lo’s signature Premium Wealth Treasure Pot is packed with 12 stellar ingredients of Whole Abalone, Fresh Lobster, Goose Web, Dried Oysters, Sea Cucumber, Fish Maw, Pork Knuckle, Roasted Duck, Bean Gluten, Chinese Mushrooms, Black Moss and White Radish. Amidst fastidious planning, strong culinary artfulness and long hours of cooking, this grand delicacy is flooded with hearty flavors and flawless taste.

Hai Tien Lo’s signature Premium Wealth Treasure Pot is available for both dine-in and takeaway from 9 January to 8 February 2020.

A series of auspiciously-named menus exhibit an astounding cluster of fresh ingredients highlighting Double-boiled Chicken Soup with Whole Abalone, Sea Conch and Korean Ginseng; Baked Fillet of Sea Perch in Champagne Sauce; and Double-boiled Bird’s Nest with Almond Cream served in Young Coconut. Double-boiled Chicken Soup with Whole Abalone, Sea Conch and Korean Ginseng is double boiled for three hours and left it overnight for the extra flavour. Strong flavours with a natural sweetness in the soup and the premium ingredients like abalone, sea conch and scallop are perfectly executed and tender to bite.

Baked Fillet of Sea Perch in Champagne Sauce made an impressive presentation. The gentle champagne sauce had a nice balance with the fresh sea perch. The baked sea perch was flaky with a nice juice oozing out. I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to ever get tired of this champagne sauce. The thin and shatters easily crisp cracker added another dimension to this dish.

Nothing beats a bowl of warm Double-boiled Bird’s Nest with Almond Cream served in Young Coconut after a meal. Smooth, with a slight creamy almond cream texture, and a generous serving of bird’s nest.

Chinese New Year Set Menu featuring finest Cantonese delicacies available from 9 January to 8 February 2020.

Hai Tien Lo at Pan Pacific Singapore

7 Raffles Boulevard, Marina Square Singapore 039595

Jiang-Nan Chun at Four Seasons Singapore

A series of celebratory menu crafted Executive Chinese Chef Tim Lam featuring impeccable dining in modern vibe at Jiang Nan Chun.

This luxurious Abundance Lobster, Abalone and Salmon Yu Sheng combines the use of ingredients that represent prosperity, abundance and good fortune. I’m impressed with the freshness of daily sourced lobster, abalone and salmon alongside with hand-shredded seasonal vegetables, healthy crunch including pumpkin seeds, melon seeds and sunflower seeds, and homemade condiments and sauces. This yusheng comes with the right amount of sauce with a nice balance of sweetness and nuttiness.

Double-boiled Bird’s Nest Soup is served with generous servings of bird nest strips, whole dried scallops and sea whelk. The sea whelk and scallops are soaked in the sweetness of chicken soup immediately awakens up your appetite!

Jiang Nan Chun Signature Roasted Duck had tender and juicy meat, crispy skin, and it’s roasted leaving a hint of smokiness. The fats layer beneath the duck skin must have melted and marbled into the meat as the skin can be easily lifted from the surface.

Fish is a must eat during the Chinese New Year because fish in Chinese (鱼) sounds the same as in Chinese (余). Simple dish of steamed star garoupa uses very few ingredients to bring out the good flavour and bouncy texture of fresh fish. The superior soy sauce a bit of sweet and savoury umami to this dish.

Chilled Coral Seaweed with Peach Resin as I like the crunch adding to this dessert as finale.

Festive Dining at Jiang-Nan Chun starting from 6 January to 8 February 2020.

Jiang-Nan Chun at Four Seasons Singapore

190 Orchard Blvd, Singapore 248646

Yan Restaurant

Yans celebrates the joyful arrival of spring once again with a new 6 course menu curated by Head Chef Ng Sen Tio. Enjoy its classic Cantonese fare of elegance as the restaurant offers a range of flexible seating arrangements from plush booth seats to larger tables and private dining rooms.

 As depicted by the auspicious phrase 步步高升, Yan rendition of its savoury Shunde-style yusheng not only features a mountain of crispy vermicelli adorned with shreds of vegetables, it was also topped with crunchy mee pok, you tiao and gold flakes.

Steamed Star Grouper with Yunnan Preserved Vegetables and Cordyceps Flower not only brims with auspiciousness but also with deliciousness. The head and tail of the fish is said to be arranged in the shape of a dragon that symbolises power, strength and good luck. The fish was indeed rather fresh and had an excellent texture.

Finally, savour the Yàn Harvest Pen Cai, a grand claypot of a total of 18 different ingredients such as abalones, whole conpoy, roast pork, fish maw, sea moss, sea cucumber, scallops and more. Each Pen Cai is individually prepared before being combined and simmered with flavourful braised duck gravy.

I typically get excited when it comes to desserts, especially unique ones such as this large bowl of Hot Purple Sweet Potato Cream with Bird’s Nest, Ginkgo and Mini Glutinous Rice Balls. Besides loving the lovely colour, I also enjoy the taste and the sweetness level is just right for me. I could feel the strands on bird’s nest as I ate and I was just hoping the Mini Glutinous Rice Balls weren’t that soft and had some bite to it.

Do note that Festive set menus are available from 1 January 2020 – 8 February 2020.

Lunar New Year ala carte menu is available from 25 January 2020 – 8 February 2020.

Yan is reviewed by Alvin.

Yan Restaurant

#05-02 National Gallery Singapore 1 St Andrew’s Road Singapore 178957

The post Chinese New Year Reunion Dinner Restaurant 2020 Part I appeared first on foodgem: Food & Travel.

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https://ift.tt/2YcWOal Read on our visit to Jiang-Nan Chun | Flavours of Summer at Michelin-Starred Restaurant & Mooncake Collection With Tropical Twist by FoodGem

Media Tasting at Jiang Nan Chun at Four Seasons Hotel Singapore

Michelin-starred Cantonese restaurant Jiang-Nan Chun, housed within Four Seasons Hotel has recently launched a 6-course Summer menu. This menu designed by Executive Chinese Chef Tim Lam with the intention of nourishment and aiding of wellness during this insanely hot and humid season.

Shortly after the amuse bouche, the first dish of Deep fried Cod Fillet with Rose Wine Sauce, together with Chilled Sliced Whole Abalone seen with its shell on a bed of crushed ice arrived. The cod was lightly fried, retaining its moisture, tender and fragrant from the rose wine sauce. The abalone was marinated, sliced bite-size and thankfully not excessively chewy.

Being a soup person, I did enjoy the nourishing Double boiled Pork Shoulder Soup with Cordyceps flower and Figs. With both the tender pork shoulder and fig contributing huge part of their sweetness to the soup, it must have been boiled for a prolonged period of time. I basically finished everything in the bowl.

Steamed Crab Claw with Egg White and Chinese Wine was the only seafood dish from this 6 course Summer meal. Since it was steamed, the dish was rather light and it highlights the crustacean’s taste, rather than concealing it beneath sauce. Egg white was like chawanmushi, probably steamed with Chinese wine instead of dashi broth.    

Cabbage Roll with Winter Melon, Kombu Seaweed and Mushrooms was another dish that highlights the natural flavors of the ingredients used without excessive sauces. Neatly wrapped cabbage roll had a really thin layer of winter melon on top, giving this dish a natural ‘shine’. What lies inside would mix a mixture of crunchiness from the vegetables.

Braised Flat Noodles with Pork Collar was actually one of my favourite dish that night. The ‘mee pok’ was really springy and had that perfect bite to it. The pork collar (char siew) had no form of excessive artificial colouring and I was hoping to have more than 2 slices of them. The Char Siew is said to be Jiang Nan Chun 2nd speciality, right behind its signature peking duck.

Both ladies and guys were beaming when the Chilled Coconut Pudding with Bird’s Nest was served. Generous serving of bird’s nest nestled on top of the creamy and rich coconut pudding. A great dessert to end the meal with!

As Mid Autumn Festival would be arriving in less than 2 months time, Four Seasons Hotel Singapore has unveiled its collection of traditional and snowskin mooncakes by Michelin starred Jiang Nan Chun.

New on its menu from the snowskin collection would be the tropical Passion Fruit with Dried Mango that is refreshingly tangy with a hint of sweetness. It could be a difficult choice to make between all 4 flavors as I loved them all.

Hazelnut Royaltine Chocolate S$80

Mao Shan Wang Durian S$98

Bird’s Nest With Custard S$80

Passion Fruit with Dried Mango S$80

Jiang-Nan Chun Medley S$88

Check out the following baked skin mooncake options they carry:

Silver Lotus Paste with Double Yolk S$80

Silver Lotus Paste with Single Yolk S$78

Silver Lotus Paste with Melon Seed S$78

Smoked Duck with Assorted Nuts S$78

Four Seasons Medley S$82

Four Seasons Hotel Singapore mooncakes are encased in an elegant looking deep teal silk fabric enveloped 4-drawers jewellery box, inspired by the botanics that infuse the ambience and cuisine at Four Seasons Hotel Singapore. Available for order until 13 September. 

Its rose gold floral design would definitely impress your friends or family members who would receive it as a gift as well.

*Service charge(10%) and GST(7%) applicable.

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How to go Jiang-Nan Chun

Operating Hours

Daily 11:30AM–10:30PM

Address and Contact

190 Orchard Blvd, Singapore 248646

Contact: +65 6831 7220

Restaurant: jnc.sin@fourseasons.com

Mooncake order: festiveseason.sin@fourseasons.com

Reservation allowed.

Travel and Parking

Parking available at Four Seasons Hotel Singapore.

Travel via public transport.

From Orchard Mrt Station (North-South Line)

Exit E; Walk 416 m to Four Seasons Hotel.

The post Jiang-Nan Chun | Flavours of Summer at Michelin-Starred Restaurant & Mooncake Collection With Tropical Twist appeared first on foodgem: Food & Travel.