Cooking Daikon ( Japanese / Chinese White Radish )
Daikon (大根 in Japanese) is a sister of Radish (yes, that red small one) or Swede and hey are all in the same Brassicaceae family, hence having the same four-petals flower like Rape flower (but Daikon’s flower is in pale violet to white = in fact pretty pretty, innocent looked flower 🙂 )
Despite it is one of the most common root vegetable in Japan (also in China = Japan is exporting its shredded and dried products to China hundreds of thousands of tons every year) when I came to England, it was not in greengrocer’s (yet, French calls it as Molly and eat a lots though, theirs having black skin and as big as Japanese one (up to 4″ or 10 cm diameter = hence, it resembles girl’s leg with black tights = so, to see it in the piled-up mountain in St’ Michelle market in Paris, it looked very sexy 😀 )
(In Japan, call a girl “Daikon ashi” (Daikon leg) is a worst insult 😉 )
Even though Daikon is so popular and ubiquitous though, you may not see them in a restaurant menu —– situation looked the same in French or Chinese, I don’t remember I ever seen this vegetable in their menu, except a very rustic or family kitchen style restaurant, otherwise as a small side-dish to drink Sake = such as I describe hereafter. 🙂
( If you ever seen disc-shaped yellow pickles = Takuan = it is one of the pickled style Daikon though, it may not in an expensive Japanese restaurant 🙂 )
—– So, how Japanese is cooking this vegetable in their kitchen ?
Daikon is very easy to cook vegetable as its own or with another materials —– It can be eaten even raw = grated ( the source to dip Tempra) or finely cut into thread (comes with Sashimi) and often boiled with Octopus or Squid because the Daikon is having a Digestive Enzyme which soften Octopus, on top of many nutrition and vitamins 🙂
The photo above is Furo-fuki Daikon ( 風呂吹大根 ) = Daikon was boiled with dashi, that’s all !
* Boil the Dashi = as the powder, or in a small packet, or use Dashi Kombu (Kelp sea weed) and a bit of Salt.
* Then put cut Daikon and boil — may be 60 min or so, until it was cooked soft (— it would be disintegrated if it was boiled too long —– still, it will make a nice soup. 🙂 )
Even simpler is Dengaku ( 田楽) = just boil Daikon in a plain water until it was cooked soft.
* And eat it with a Miso based source = Miso with small amount of Vinegar and a bit of Sugar, + small amount of Mirin (Japanese Cooking Sake or a bit of wine, White Rum can be used instead )
* For additional flavor — I add few drop of West-Indian Hot-chilly Source, or Wasabi, Mustard. — When I mixed with Thai Tom-yam-Ku paste = it wasn’t too bad —– any variation you can try and enjoy the taste. ( If it became too runny with vinegar etc, just add more Miso. 🙂 )
(For Dengaku, you can put many different materials too, such as Carrot, Cauliflower, Celery even Potato. — Japanese use Konnyaku (it’s a funny staff / Mannan product) as well. ) —– from here, another popular Japanese cooking called “Oden” is only a step away. Basically Oden is a cooking of the chopped Daikon and various fish cakes boiled together and pick up of those you like from the pan to your own small dish and eat. (normally with mustard = why mustard is, = since Daikon and Mustard belongs to the same botanical family, their taste mix well, = same as that, Tomato based cooking will mix well with chilli pepper, since they are in the same family)
—– Now you have seen the key of the Daikon cooking = main seasoning in Furofuki Daikon was in its Dashi, but the Dengaku, it was in the Source. Still in both cooking, the dominant taste is Daikon itself.
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When an Italian guy who seemed to have very good taste bud, first ever eat Daikon and he was very impressed and asked me how to make it. —– And he was even surprised, why Italian doesn’t have such cooking, despite it is very popular in France.
( Only a small trouble with eating Daikon is, it could make you to produce strongest mankind ever know kind of fart, yet still, it was known to be not poisonous = hence, it makes short of health warning. 😀 )
—– Not because of its humble, Minimalistic Zen approach, but simply, it’s so tasty = So, this is my Festive time eating. (on top of Temaki-Sushi. 😀 )
If you haven’t tasted it yet, I strongly recommend you to try.
___/\___
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PS : I received an Email from my Chinese friend Sing Lee, the way how to cook it in Chinese style !
<<< (There was the Photos from him though, they have been disappeared — copyright issues ? —– I don’t know. What a shame.)
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Apocalypse ? —– What Apocalypse ?
According to a kind of interpretation of Mayan Calendar, last Saturday, 21st of December suppose
to be the end of the world ! —– How exciting ! If it happens, the most spectacular scene must be
seen on the landscape of sky-scrapers = so, I went to the City. In fact, I went there together with
another video artist, Funki Porcini and Tallbastard. —– Funki needed to shoot the night building
whether it is in ruin or collapsing on front of the eyes, otherwise just standing as usual 😀
And while he was shooting, I cricked few pictures.
The top photo, Snowdrops was the kind, I least expected to find here. —– But, expecting only to
see them in a kind of nature, might be just an arrogance of the mankind = for them, like a rocky
mountain and the thin soil on the rock = city-scape can be just another nature for them.
As I didn’t expected, likewise, people may not noticed this flower = hence never disturbed her =
being left her own, Snowdrops could thrive !!! ( This is what the Nature is. = It’s the Dharma )
—– It seems, the world has survived intact and the Xmas is coming yet again 😀
So, to everybody who is going to celebrate it, “Merry Xmas” 🙂
—– For me though, a matter, winter solstice has past, was much more significant, as
the sun is coming back ! = It’s getting brighter 🙂
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Video Geeks in Wireless Workshop
Wireless Workshop (SPC.org) is in the Greenwich former Town Hall. The members (?) are
meeting every week, generally for a talk shop. (some time to save broken computer !)
To create Video images, there are many approaches, from purely shooting real scene, or use real
image as a trigger or source of secondly image —– to Computer Graphics or Graphical animation
or Clay model animation etc etc ! —– Strangely you might think, there are many different kind
of Artists are visiting Wireless Workshop (some said Wireless Wednesday) —- So, last Wednesday
as video artists came, the meeting was held in their “Video lounge” = top of the building which
was the lighting and the Projector’s room of the former Greenwich theater. 🙂
Photo left is a Thermin (Electronic musical sound generator) and the right, there might be old
Super-8 Cine fanatics. = the trace of how this group is related to such as Exploding Cinema.
And as the Electronic Geeks network, it extends to continent too, and also overlapping with
Linux users groups (and Huckers as well 😀 )
Video lab, and the sound mixer —– even hand knitted small pouch (photo right) said to be a
” Testicle Warmer” and its rainbow color suggest “the Gay power movement” though, I have no
idea how it came here 😀
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Exploding Cinema at Goldsmith
Last Saturday evening, the Films and Art event / Exploding Cinema was held in a big church
building ( now it was converted to an art-space for the Goldsmith college / London University
of Art ) It seemed, it was one of the most successful evening of the Exploding Cinema’s history.
Impressive massive space though, as it has been converted = not purposely built = make use of
the space needed a lots of work especially running all together 100m of the electric extension
cables etc. —– while having time count ” One hour left” ” Another 15 minuets” — then over load
power cut etc. The DON / Facilitator of many art events / James Stevens had to work hard 🙂
( Photo right = Brian Steel’s sculpture / Dummy)
( Photo right = I brought my kinetic sculpture Virtual Woman with 3W LED light to project
a shadow of moving image on the wall. )
( Photo left = Jini Rawlings installing her video projection system with water reflection.
Photo middle = Matt Lloyd was setting up the AV system in the performance Room.
Photo right = I brought yet another piece / Hell Fire —– color changing
rotating LED with reflection ! )
Then the door open —– loads of audiences has come and enjoyed the evening with massive
amount of all sorts of moving images —– save the coldness of a winter night in the massive
stone building 😦 = though, the advantage was, we didn’t need to use Cloak-room 🙂
Other than individual set-up of video projection by each artists, the main screen
showed nearly 30 short videos —– some were pretty experimental 🙂
And the Performances ! ( Photo left = Blanca Regina performed her amazing singing
with her video image ! ( And I intruded with my dancing — seemed they liked it :-D)
Photo middle = Pete Gomes played his impressive Flute accompanying his 8mm cine
images shot in India. Photo right = Vicky Smith draw tyre track with her bicycle. )
Celina Leiesegang’s group performed their movements. ( Dance ? )
And it is, another fixture = Mould Wine ! Good for chilly night 🙂
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PS : Any participated Artist who want to have more photos in a bit larger size,
Please put a request as a comment saying Photo number / left or right or so =
Comment has your URL which enable me to send it by Email.
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Dorkboat on Stubnitz
Last night, there was a gathering of the Dorkbot London on the Ship Stubnitz moored
in the dock. I went there with James and John-san of SPC.org (Wireless Workshop).
—————————_||_||_||_
=====| ____[“””””””””””””””]____
=====| \ ” ”””””””””” \
======dorkboat~STUBNITZ~^~^~^~^~
Wednesday, this time aboard the amazing MS Stubnitz. One *important*
thing, if you want to come, just email invited@stubnitz.com for entry.
* Where: MS Stubnitz, Connaught Bridge Pier, London, E16 2BU
* Map: http://maps.google.co.uk/?q=loc%3A+n+51+30.34+e+0+02.2
– Chrisantha Fernando and Ed Burton presenting Darwinian Neurodynamic
Cognitive Architectures for Playful Robot Kittens.
– Ben Garrod working around and through and away-from technology’s
relationship with humanity.
– Alias Cummins opendorking on Open Source C++ Development with
Cinderblock SpriteSheet.
Presentation of Newrodynamic control (photo left) and Shauna Concannon’s Hacked
Human Orchestra (photo right = which demonstrated an electronic system to play the
sounds by the switches mounted on the various part of the body.)
And Ben Garrod (photo left) and Alias Cummins (photo right) showed their creativities.
And it’s always the case, nature of the gatherings —– what ever the excuse, meet the
friends and chat over the drinks 😀 —– And it is a well known fact, electronic geeks
are not necessary only talking about technology but quite often very
trivial silly things as well 😀
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PS : They are going to DO the same in the STUBNITZ.
Avast!
Back due to popular demand It’s….
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=====| ____[“””””””””””””””]____
=====| \ ” ”””””””””” \
====dorkboat~STUBNITZ~II~^~^~^
People seemed to like it last time (http://bit.ly/Uct5Du) – so come!
_____________________________________________________________________
|*NB* email invited@stubnitz.com to inform the crew you’ll be coming.|
|If you would like the Stubnitz to stay in London, you can also chip |
|in to their campaign funds by paypalling: http://bit.ly/VEozwQ |
———————————————————————
____________________________________________________________
dorkbotlondon #83When: 19:00-23:59, 19 December 2012
Where: MS Stubnitz, Connaught Bridge, E16 2BU (directions below)
____________________________________________________________
Featuring the bright and glittering…
————————————-
Liam Donovan: Two projects, maybe more
– a talking guitar and a barely working self-typing type-writer
Rachel Freire: Imogen Heap’s Musical Gloves
– think minority report for musicians brought to you by the DIY/maker
revolution.
Jokubas Dargis: Echo
– A game where you collect, recycle and destroy sounds on your way to
the king of space, and possibly other adventures.
And open dorks from:
Tim Monsees Stubnitz Projections
– the experience and challenges of a multi-projector setup on a ship
(work in progress)
Maybe you? If you have a 5-10 minute opendork/performance, bring it on
the night! Let us know if you want us to list you on the site:
dorkbotlondon@dorkbot.org
_______________________________________________________
Location
——–
MS Stubnitz,
Connaught Bridge
E16 2BU
map link: http://maps.google.co.uk/?q=loc%3A+n+51+30.34+e+0+02.2
The Motorship Stubnitz is an 80 meters long ex East German fishing
vessel transformed in 1992 into a moving platform for cultural research
and exchange.
Nearest public transport Pontoon Dock DLR.
Turn right out of the station and walk to the next roundabout, take
first exit. Walk to second roundabout (with sculpture of giant woman)
first exit of that roundabout is the gates to the mooring.
_____________________________________________________
Photos
——-
To add your photos here, upload them to flickr.com with the tag
“dorkbotlondon83”.
—
sub/unsub yourself here:
http://music.columbia.edu/mailman/listinfo/dorkbotlondon-announce
………………………………………………………………
………dorkbot: people doing strange things with electricity……….
……………………..http://dorkbot.org.………………………
………………………………………………………………
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Clean the DUST on the Image-Sensor
In the time of Film Photography, a trouble of DUST was mostly on the film when we
need to make a print. Other than that, the dust on the lens or in the camera body
doesn’t necessary appeared on the photo. (May increase the halation. And in a rare case,
dust on a film might appeared as a dot or two).
But in the Digital Photography, DUST on the image sensor is a very visible
serious trouble —– and quite often happening.
On the moment of changing the Lens, a DSLR body’s sensitive part is completely open
and exposed = hence, a DUST can get into at any moment.
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A user of Compact Digital Camera may think their camera is perfectly sealed and safe
against the dust though, strangely, the dust can find the way into image sensor =
collapsed lens or Zoom lens are acting as an air-pomp to suck-in the air and the dust.
Once it is in, the dust can only be cleaned by the service engineer, with prohibitively
expensive charge. (Those small cameras were not designed to disassemble and to repair
= as they were assembled by snap fit without using screw = once fit together they are
very difficult to separate without cracking the plastic
= better forget the Dust = take a dust-mark as your own water-mark, otherwise
retouch one by one until you buy new camera 😀 ).
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Having exposed internal guts, DSLR (and the Interchangeable-lens Compact Camera)
can easily get dust on the image-sensor though, as it is open, it is also
possible to clean DIY.
—– When my picture started to have a dark spot, which was found to be
persistent, same position, same shape in all the pictures, it only means
a dust is on the image sensor, I asked the Boss of Canon what should I do, he said
“Bring it to us” though, their office is bloody far out of London and I’m not an owner
driver. —– I decided to clean it myself.
(Its the same principle = If Canon can, I can do too 😀 )
——- (The dust on the image showed, Ultra-sonic Dust-off system is not very effective. Anyhow,
——- even if the Dust was shaken off from the sensor, it stays there unremoved 😀 )
If it was ordinary air-born dust, it can be just blown away.
But if it was water-born, such as the VERY moment when you had removed a lens
“a rain drop got inside” or “you dropped your sliver” —– you may need to take
a measure with a possibility to write-off the camera in the worst case.
** To blow off the DUST, the best I found is to use
an ordinary rubber blower
and a high-quality nylon oil-painting blush.
(such as, Windsor-Newton or Daler kind and
NOT made in China)
(The quality of a blush, came with rubber blower is
pretty bad and it’s hair will fall off then it became yet
another troublesome dust).
** I don’t like Canned Air —– (1) Often its air
pressure is too high.
(2) And with its design, we tend to use its nozzle too close.
(3) The metal nozzle itself could make a scratch. —– After I have accidentally blown
the shutter blades off the slit with those Canned Air blower, I decided to use only rubber
blower to clean the delicate part of the camera, together with paint blush.
(Those Canned Air can blow off the grease on the gear = and the grease may stack
somewhere, always most unwanted place = it’s a Murphy’s law. 😀 )
Those oil-painting blush was designed to withstand against sticky oil paint and to
repeated cleaning in a solvent = they are the best cleaning blush fit for dust-off business,
—– provided if it was washed clean in a pure solvent time to time.
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** Before clean the image sensor, you have to start clean around the lens mount,
even inside of a lens-cap = it got to be through, otherwise dust will come back.
(ideally use another blush) = then, blush inside of mirror box and blow the air around.
(But better not touch the mirror, unless you have a confidence of cleanness of blush)
—> then, set the Shutter to [B] and press the release button to rise the mirror and
open the shutter. = you will see somewhat shiny green image sensor !
(but you may not to see the Dust itself ) —> then, blow the air toward the sensor
( DON’T blush it on this moment yet = if you can get rid of the Dust without touching
the sensor, it is far better) —> while holding camera body downward, blow the air
toward the inside (hoping the Dust to fall off ) —> then finger off the button.
** Put a lens and set the camera to an Auto-mode and click the shutter while
aiming it to white wall or paper (manual set the lens to off focus)
—> then check the image (not over-exposed = a bit grayish white)
= if there is no dark spot = the dust has cleared 🙂
** But IF the DUST is still in the same place, repeat the cleaning above
again but this time gently sweep the sensor with blush.
—> Then examine the picture again.
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IF the dark spot is still there = there could be a possibility of it is not caused by
a dust BUT the aria of the sensor might have become defective =
it is the time to send the camera to proper service though, mind you, to change the
sensor may cost half the camera price, it might be better to keep retouching the photos
until you buy new camera.
—– So, if you clean the sensor by yourself, be patient and pay good attention.
There is nothing you can’t do = have a confidence. (And good luck. 😀 )
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Life-Form ???
Chinese name of this, is Sea-zi or Shi-zi. And it has glorious Latin name Diospyros.
So, how you guess what are they ?
(This time, they are not plastic, in fact, they are pretty god to eat as well 😀 )
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Impressionist photo of Autumn
They are utterly vague fuzzy images though, strangely we can see enough information,
or we feel enough of what is going on there. And it is enough to carry on our life.
( The detail of Concentric Double-density Pinhole can be found in this post (link))
Some one said, ” To know the name of Plant is the start to respect and love the Nature”
Is it ? —– I think, ” To realize, How little I know, lead me to just accept what’s there,
regardless any name or details, —– This must be the Truth to be there”.
= Therefore, see nothing is what clear eyes can see at it’s best ! Ha ha ha 😀 😀
So, those fuzzy images may be what our eyes are actually seeing. And so-called sharp
photographic images were, the results of the heavy manipulation in the brain.
( Do remember, our eyes never able to see a straight line, as the Retina is not flat =
impression of straight line was created in the brain ! = so did any images. The facts
in the Argumented Reality showed, our vision is very very flexible. 😀 )
They looks like just common tall grass though, this one is the Japanese Susuki Grass.
And I’m very very attached to it.
So, this is it. It was my Autumn moment of this year. 🙂
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Not so sharp Fall — (Since, it’s done by Pinhole)
It’s a middle of November, fully qualified Autumn. And rather murky light
invites yet another murky image. Double-density pinhole photo again.
In last moment, for short time, the nature gives bright flash —– like their last gasp ?
( No no, it’s a too humanized dramatization. Nature is not making any fire-work.
Simply, as green-colored Chlorophyll has vanished, orange or red colored Carotene
which had been masked by the green become more visible. = that’s all.
—– m m m ? Am I spoiling your game ? 😉 )
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Blue Wall — (By Pinhole and Normal Lens)
This photo above was taken by the Double-density Pinhole.
But those photos were taken by normal 100mm lens.
What for ? —– don’t ask. They are just photos.
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