As Hong Kong gears up for the Mid Autumn Festival, the annual Mooncake madness has descended on to the city as bakeries strive to out do each other with the most delicious, most lavishly packed and, in recent years, most overpriced mooncake packages available.

If you’ve never heard of a Mooncake, let me fill you in. Only served during the Mid-Autumn Festival, these hockey puck shaped, pastry deserts are stuffed with salty egg yolk and sweet lotus paste. To put it more simply; they’re a cholesterol bomb. Tackle a whole pastry and you’ll need a new belt and a forklift to pull you home. That’s why, in recent years, chefs have been hitting the larder and stuffing the annual deserts with some more innovative, and lighter, fillings.

You can find Moon cakes made from ice cream, dipped in chocolate and even stuffed with cream cheese. See our Top Eight Modern Mooncake Flavours to see our favourites and save yourself having to buy new pants.

Source : http://gohongkong.about.com/b/2009/09/01/getting-creative-with-hong-kongs-mooncakes.htm

By: dilharasingh

Is Sex and the City one of your favorite serial TV?

It was never so cool and fashionable to download Sex and The City episodes and seasons.
Downloading is the latest trend on the World Wide Web and is generating a lot of buzz everywhere these days. From movies to videos, TV series, miniseries, games to music videos, so much is being downloaded at any point of time at various places on the Earth.

From my personal experiences I am writing down some things to be kept in mind while you download the famous, comedy drama Sex and the City or any other show as the process will obviously be the same for each one of them.

I single Sex and the City for its charm, the show all about four women, close friends owning very different personalities, their weird sex lives, as they go after their quest for that perfect love life as well as sex life. The show has been made on the famous book of Candace Bushnell of the same name. The women about whom we are talking about are: Carrie Bradshaw, a newspaper writer, Samantha, a PR lady, Miranda, solicitor by profession and Charlotte who works at an art gallery.

The themes covered on the show vary from sex, dating, friendships, love, multiple partners, society, one night stands, STD’s or sexually transmitted diseases, cancer etc, but all in a humorous way.

If you go surf through a good search engine like Yahoo, Google or AOL, you will find lot many sites that offer downloads of Sex and the City but in actuality very less of them are really good ones. You may ask your friends or cousins or colleagues but it is not necessary that what seems good to them fits your suitability criteria as well. Question, arises, how to make that choice. The one choice that offers minimum hassles and maximum entertainment to us. No one has enough time these days to waste upon and neither one like to waste money on useless pursuits.

If you just need to simply watch a particular episode of Sex and the City, the task is easy. Try a couple of sites and it is done with. Downloading is another game all together. More caution has to be observed and more procedures need to be followed.

There are some sites which will allow you download but will charge you on every video that you download. Now imagine that you need a complete season. That will mean that around fifteen episodes would have to be downloaded. Hence, for some downloads the idea is good but not for bulk videos.

All experts agree that the websites which are found to be the most genuine and legal ones, will always have a system of specialized memberships. Life time memberships ask you for one time payment for unlimited number of downloads for all your life. Other membership plans are for specific duration of time like say six months etc.

So go with them and have a great entertaining fun time.

Source : http://www.floweradvisor.com.sg/lifestyle/technology/television/130908/some_fundamental_ways_to_download_sex_and_the_city_episodes/

See Also : Mid autumn festival, Mooncake, Moon cakes

There are many beautiful legends about the moon in China. the most popular one tells how a goddess named Chang’e ascended to the moon.

A long, long time ago, a terrible drought plagued the earth. Ten suns burned fiercely in the sky like smoldering volcanoes. The trees and grass were scorched. The land was cracked and parched, and rivers ran dry. Many people died of hunger and thirst.

The King of Heaven sent Hou Yi down to the earth to help. When Hou Yi arrived, he took out his red bow and white arrows and shot down nine suns one after another. The weather immediately turned cooler. Heavy rains filled the rivers with fresh water and the grass and trees turned green. Life had been restored and humanity was saved.

One day, a charming young woman, Chang’e makes her way home from a stream, holding a bamboo contaiver, A young man comes forward, asking for a drink. When she sees the red bow and white arrows hanging from his belt, Chang’e tealizes that he is their savior, Hou Yi. Inviting him to drink, Chang’e plucks a beautiful flower and gives it to him as a token of respect. Hou Yi, in turn, selects a beautiful silver fox fur as his gift for her. This meeting kindles the spark of their love. And soon after that, they get married.

A mortal’s life is limited, of course. So in order to enjoy his happy life with Chang’e forever, Hou Yi decides to look for an elixir of life.He goes to the Kunlun Mountains where the Western Queen Mother lives.

Out of respect for the good deeds the has done, the Western Queen Mother rewards Hou Yi with elixir, a fine powder made from kerndls of fruit which grows on the tree of eternity. At the same time, she tells him:If you and your wife share the elixir, you will both enjoy eternal life. But if only one of you takes it,that one will ascend to Heaven and become immortal.

Hou Yi returns home and tells his wife all that has happened and they decide to drink the elixir together on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month when the moon is full and bright.

A wicked and merciless man named Feng Meng secretly hears about their plan.He wishes Hou Yi an early death so that he can drink the elixir himeslf and become immortal.His opportunity finally arrives. One day,when the full moon is rising, Hou Yi is on his way home from hunting. Feng Meng kills him. The murderer then runs to Hou Yi’s home and forces Chang’e to give him the elixir, Without hesitating, Chang’e picks up the elixir and drinks it all.

Overcome with grief, Chang’e rushes to her dead husband’s sied, weeping bitterly.Soon the elixir begins to have its effect and Chang’e feels herself being lifted towards Heaven.

Chang’e decides to live on the moon because it is nearest to the earth. There she lives a simple and contented life. Even though she is in Heaven, her heart remains in the world of mortals. Never does she forget the deep love she has for Hou Yi and the love she feels for the people who have shared their sadness and happiness.

Another legend explained the role of the Old Man on the Moon, the Divine Match-maker. The Chinese believed that marriages were made in Heaven but prepared on the moon. The Old Man on the Moon tied the feet of young men and women with red cords for marriage. Thus a maiden made offerings and prayed to him during the Mid-Autumn Festival, hoping that some day she would ride in the red bridal sedan chair.

Source : http://www.chinavoc.com/festivals/Midautumn.htm

See Also : Mid autumn festival, Mooncake, Moon cakes