Day: August 12, 2019

Yeah. There is a right way and a wrong way to cook marshmallows. And here, my friend is how you learn to do it right. Of course, I was never properly instructed in the art of proper marshmallow cooking, but I learned my technique in the school of “Hard Knocks”. Yes, as a tender child of seven, I did learn how to cook marshmallows, and it is my pleasure to teach you the reader, my technique.

Now, let it be well understood that this the last post in my enormous post of fun and excitement in Asia. It is quite fitting, you see, as campfires and spending togetherness with friends is one of the core and most critical fundamentals of living in Asia, especially in China.

Technique

I am not going to lie to the reader about this. It is all in the technique. You need to carefully select the marshmallow out of the proper bag. Then you need to push it onto a nice and carefully constructed stick (green and moist if possible). Then you need to hold the marshmallow inside the campfire…

This assumes that you would build a campfire to roast the marshmallows. Certainly, omitting the campfire would be problematic.

Then you allow, now don’t be timid, allow the marshmallow to get burned. Let it get blackened and shriveled. Let it get hot and toasty. This this perhaps the most important part of toasting a marshmallow. Let it get cooked.

Now, of course I know about those over protective parents out there. The fire is hot. It is frightening. The marshmallow is too soft, and it might hurt the child. The stick resembles a gun, and the noise of the cooking sounds like the torturing of children. Do not fear. The child will be just fine.

Take a chance. Let them play with the fire.

• Are burned marshmallows healthy? – SF Gate
• Charred, Browned, Blackened: The Dark Lure of Burned Food
• The Internet Has Feelings About What the Perfect Toasted
• The Seven Best Foods That Taste Better Burnt
• Why chefs are burning your food intentionally

The final product

Now, you make sure that you carefully remove the marshmallow from the fire. Slowly. Slowly. Slowly. Then you take the blacked mass and raise it up to your lips.

Charring, smoking, barbecuing, burning or otherwise cooking foods over  fire might make them taste great, but these cooking methods potentially  increase toxins in foods. These toxins include polycyclic aromatic  hydrocarbons, or PAHs, and advanced glycation end products, or AGEs. The  smoke from your campfire or barbecue contains PAHs, which end up  settling on your marshmallow when you burn it. Unlike PAHs, AGEs are a  natural product of food metabolism. According to a report published in  Food Chemistry in 2016, PAH levels in foods prepared in these methods  varies, depending on factors such as nearness to the heat source and how  long the food is cooked. So burned marshmallows are likely to contain  more PAHs and AGEs than their roasted, but not burned, counterparts. 

-SF Gate warns against eating marshmallows over a open fire.

Yes, you must slowly and carefully raise the dark, blackened marshmallow to your lips.

Wait!

Do not eat it!

No. No. No.

Blow on it. You know, to cool it down.

Let it cool.

Then. Carefully. Very carefully. Taste it.

Then you can eat it, and taste the wondrous soft and delicious morsel of a cooked marshmallow.

It’s one of the things that I love to do in China.

China?

Yup China. What? you thought that this activity was only limited to your own backyard and your county in the Untied States? Nope. It’s global. Everyone, all around the world, enjoys cooking marshmallows.

Which is why I put it here in this final section of “Fun videos of Asia during the Summer”, or something like that.

You see, life is meant to be lived, and you (as I am certain, you are a fine person; who else would try to Google cooking marshmallows on the internet? eh?) are one who wants to make the experience a positive one. I can’t blame you, and yes, I agree with your intention.

Let’s live life to it’s fullest.

Wine

Ah, not everyone enjoys wine like I do. In fact, I have some wonderful friends from the Sudan that do not drink wine. No worries. They are still some of the most wonderful folk that I have ever met in the world.

Now, I like wine. I like how it tastes. I like how it makes me talkative. And when I get talkative, I just want to spend hours (yes, hours) chatting up a storm with the pretty girls that surround me. Ah, they all are so interesting, and they have such meaningful insight into things… you know, people, relationships, life, and dreams.) It is so wonderful. So wine opens me up to other people and I am so pleased to be part of their thoughts and opinions.

Now, of course, wine is not the ideal beverage to have marshmallows with. For when I was a kid, we drank bottles of coke and fresca. Never the less, other beverages of your preference make fine substitutions. For instance, icy cold beer. Or home-made lemonade or Southern style iced tea. To name just a few.

The idea is to have a ready beverage of cold drink to cool your throat after you eat that delicious toasty and roasted marshmallow.

Hotdogs

Historically, hotdogs would be the main meal in any camping and campfire experience. You would eat those delicious treats and then afterwards have a marshmallow. But you know, it doesn’t always work out that way.

A perfect camping food is hot dogs roasted over an open fire. Keep in  mind that if you are bringing hot dogs along for a camping excursion,  the meat needs to be kept cold until cooking time. You can use sticks to  hold the hot dogs in place; you can also bring skewers with you. To  avoid overcooking and to stay safe while preparing the hot dogs, keep  the meat a couple of inches away from the fire. 

-Our Everyday Life

When I was around seven years old, my parents paid for me to enjoy Summer Camp. This was in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and this story took place in the early half of the 1960’s. My folks paid the money for me and my sister to have the camping experience. And every day for two months a car would come and pick us up and we would spend the Summer day in the camp.

What my parents did not realize is that the camp was a scam.

All of us were placed under the authority of other children. Not under the authority of adults.

So, my parents thought that I would be under the care of teen-aged leaders, who reported to adults at the camp. In reality, we were set into groups of about ten kids per supervisor. The “supervisor” was a ten-year old girl or boy who hadn’t a clue as what to do.

We would arrive at the park.

Then, we would get into a group with our ten-year-old leader and then spend six to eight hours next to them doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. That’s right. There were paths that would open up into a clearing. Like a place to have a campfire. Except that there just wasn’t a fire. The ten year old children didn’t know how to make a fire. There were no seats either. No logs to sit down on. So we would spend about four hours just standing around in that tiny clearing.

They wouldn’t have a clue.

We wouldn’t have a clue.

We would wait there until a “leader: would come and tell us what to do. We would sit on the dirt floor in the clearing, and spend four hours doing absolutely nothing.

We would sit there and do nothing.

Now, in case I am not making myself clear; pay attention. We children would be under the are of another child, maybe three years older than us. They would be our “leader”. They would lead us into a clearing in the woods, and there we would sit without doing any activities at all, until it was time to go back home.

My parents paid “good money” for me to have this Summer Camping “Experience”.

Now for my narrative…

The Hotdog saga…

One day, we were told to ask our parents to provide us with hotdogs to cook over the fire. We were told specifically to ask for hotdogs and nothing else. We were told this numerous times. And it was made clear that we were to come to the camp the next day with HOTDOGS.

Well, my mother didn’t have hotdogs in the house. So she made up some hamburger patties and put them in aluminum foil and told me that “it would be all right“. The leader would know what to do.

It angers me to this day.

Nope.

My “leader” was a ten year old girl.

And, she hadn’t a clue as what to do. She told me that I could not eat because I did not follow the instructions. And as a result I did not eat.

Everyone ate their hotdogs. Me and anther fellow sat on the side hungry.

Yes, I know. You simply put the aluminum foil packet in the hot coals. But a ten year old child does not know that, and try explaining that to a seven year old child.

My raw hamburger was kept in the aluminum foil and left in the bag. I carried it home with me at the end of the day.

Yes, as an adult, I know that all she could of done was put the aluminum foil burger in the fire to cook. But she did not do that. She did not know that she could. She was young and hadn’t a clue.

And after the day, I went home famished. I mean, I was “starving”. I ate in big gulps and chewed down everything, everything even the peas.

I suppose that my mother and father called the “camp” and were assured that everything was fine and right.

Never the less, it still continued. All summer, I was a seven year old under the charge of ten year old children that only followed the instructions of their leaders.

Leaders. Yeah. Leaders, who were just raking in money left and right pretending to do things that they were not qualified to do.

What a racket.

People! Listen up! DO NOT DELEGATE YOUR PARENTING RESPONSIBILITIES TO SOMEONE ELSE. They only want your money and could care less about the well-being of your child.

It’s just another scam.

Like how you need to pay a fee to fish. Pay a fee to add an addition onto your property, or pay for registration of your automobile. It is legislated bribery.

The last one hundred years in the United States has been nothing but law after law to extract money from YOU and your family.

• Water fountains replaced with (for profit) bottles of water.
• Local swimming pools filled in (for safety) and replaced with entry-fee pools.
• Fishing, hunting, and trapping replaced with the need to purchase permits and the associated fees.

Moving on…

Sorry for being such a cantankerous old fellow.

It’s an experience that I had and one that will be lost in time unless I relate it here. I do hope, somehow, that someone listens to my history and adjusts their life accordingly.

Do not outsource your parenting responsibilities to anyone other than yourselves. The mother must stay home and raise the children. You need to budget your finances and place an emphasis on family. Not on money.

My parents wanted the best for their children. Just like you do for your children or your grandchildren. So the rest of this post is for you; the people who care.

Now, all that being said, I would like to conclude my video excursion into Asia. (As this is the conclusion of a long series of posts regarding Asia. )

Girl Loves Boy

This video is from Thailand. It is a music video. It shows a girl musing and thinking about another boy…

This is from Cambodia…

This video is from Cambodia. I happen to really love it. It truly and really captures the rhythm and pace of life in Cambodia.

This is from China…

I’s a song about missing a person that you love.

These kids are in an Elementary school somewhere, either in Cambodia or Laos.

I like it. It’s so cute.

Finally – Be the Rufus.

Rufus was the name of the good Samaritan that helped Jesus carry his cross up the hill. In life, there comes, from time to time, an opportunity or a task that SCREAMS out YOUR name. You drop everything and you go out and help others.

Be the Rufus.

Like this man. He’s driving along the road on his way to work, when suddenly he sees a lost and terrified child in the middle of a busy intersection during rush hour. What would you do?

Watch what he does.

Your reality is all up to YOU.

Be the Rufus.

Ok, everyone. That’s about it.

I’ve decided to change the way I post and future posts will reflect this. For now, if somehow you ended up here, you are at the tail end of a train of posts related to videos of Asia. You can leave or start at the beginning. It’s all up to you.

If you want to go to the start of this series of posts, then please click HERE.

Thank you for visiting. I hope that you enjoyed this post and maybe learned something new in the process. Have a wonderful rest of the day!

And, may your days and nights be filled with happiness.

If you want to go to the start of this series of posts, then please click HERE.

Links about China

Here are some links about my observations on China. I think that you, the reader, might find them to be of interest. Please kindly enjoy.

China and America Comparisons

As an American, I cannot help but compare what my life was in the United States with what it is like living in China. Here we discuss that.

The Chinese Business KTV Experience

This is the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find in the British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American liberal press. This is the reality. Read or not.

Learning About China

Who doesn’t like to look at pretty girls? Ugly girls? Here we discuss what China is like by looking at videos of pretty girls doing things in China.

Contemporaneous Chinese Music

This is a series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music in China. It is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at that, all that I am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews. However, this series of posts should serve as a great starting place for investigation and enjoyment.

Parks in China

The parks in China are very unique. They are enormous and tend to be very mountainous. Here we take a look at this most interesting of subjects.

Really Strange China

Here are some posts that discuss a number of things about China that might seem odd, or strange to Westerners. Some of the things are everyday events, while others are just representative of the differences in culture.

What is China like?

The purpose of this post is to illustrate that the rest of the world, outside of America, has moved on with their lives. That while they might not be as great as America is, they are doing just fine thank you.

And while America has been squandering it’s money, decimating it’s resources, and just being cavalier with it’s military, the rest of the world has done the opposite. They have husbanded their day to day fortunes, and you can see this in their day-to-day lives.

Summer in Asia

Let’s take a moment to explore Asia. That includes China, but also includes such places as Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and others…

Some Fun Videos

Here’s a collection of some fun videos taken all over Asia. While there are many videos taken in China, we also have some taken in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea and Japan as well. It’s all in fun.

Articles & Links

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