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The Malaysian Insider :: Food

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The Malaysian Insider :: Food

How to pair Chinese foods with wine during Golden Week

Posted: 05 Oct 2013 04:00 PM PDT

October 06, 2013

Chinese cuisine can present a challenge when it comes to food and wine pairings, given that proteins like beef and seafish in varying degrees of salty, sweet and spicy aromas arrive at the same time.

But with the national holiday, Golden Week, currently in full swing in a country where wine consumption is growing in explosive numbers, here's a primer on how to pair Chinese dishes with the right wine.

Unlike with Western fare in which dishes are served in a prescribed order, sitting down to a Chinese meal often means that dishes arrive all at once.

Though challenging, pairing wine with dishes infused with earthy, umami-laced soybean or black bean sauces, chili oils, ginger and sesame amounts to a question of balance and counterbalance.

On her site Asian Palate, wine expert Jeannie Cho Lee, who holds a Master of Wine, offers general guidelines on how to pair typical Chinese ingredients with the right wine profile.

For dishes based on soy or oyster sauce, shrimp or bean paste, for example, choose a white or red wine with soft tannins, crisp acidity and vibrant fruit, she advises. Otherwise, wines high in tannins risk exaggerating the dish's saltiness.

A typical dish of noodles with soybean sauce, for instance, would go well with a Chilean Merlot, Lee says, who recommends the Berrys' Chilean Merlot by Dona Javiera Estate, described as a rich wine with plummy fruit and hints of coffee.

Peking duck on the menu during the seven-day holiday? Opt for wines with strong flavor intensity such as a 2004 Domaine du Pegau, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, 1998 Domaine du Pegau, or a 2010 Gerard Bertrand - Chateau L'Hospitalet La Reserve.

Editor of China Luxury Xi Chen recommends a Pineau de la Loire for crispy duck, telling trade publication The Drinks Business that the crispy, fatty duck meat with sweet sauce, onions and cucumber make for a rich dish that requires a "lighter white wine with acidity and slightly sweet taste."

For kickier Szechuan dishes, the general consensus is to reach for a dry Alsace Riesling, which helps offset the heat with its fruity character. And when it comes to dim sum, experts recommend everything from Chablis to a flute of bubbly.

French sommelier Cedric Maupoint of the Michelin-starred Cantonese restaurant Shang Palace in Paris, for example, recommends either a dry white Riesling or Chablis, while Zach Yu of the Michelin-starred restaurant Ming Court in Hong Kong tells The Drinks Business that champagne's acidity and bubbles serve as an ideal accompaniment to dim sum.

"Champagne is always at home with delicate seafood dishes and with crisp, deep-fried foods. Therefore, it goes well with dim sums because they're a mixture of flavours and textures – some delicate and steamed (usually seafood), some more robust or fried (like pork buns)."

Golden Week, China's seven-day national holiday, wraps up tomorrow.– AFP/Relaxnews, October 6, 2013.

How to pair Chinese food with wine during Golden Week

Posted: 05 Oct 2013 04:00 PM PDT

October 06, 2013

Chinese cuisine can present a challenge when it comes to food and wine pairings, given that proteins like beef and seafish in varying degrees of salty, sweet and spicy aromas arrive at the same time.

Unlike with Western fare in which dishes are served in a prescribed order, sitting down to a Chinese meal often means that dishes arrive all at once.

Though challenging, pairing wine with dishes infused with earthy, umami-laced soybean or black bean sauces, chili oils, ginger and sesame amounts to a question of balance and counterbalance.

On her site Asian Palate, wine expert Jeannie Cho Lee, who holds a Master of Wine, offers general guidelines on how to pair typical Chinese ingredients with the right wine profile.

Golden Week, China's seven-day national holiday, wraps up tomorrow.– AFP/Relaxnews, October 6, 2013.

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The Malaysian Insider :: Sports

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The Malaysian Insider :: Sports

Spain defender Albiol out of World Cup qualifiers

Posted: 05 Oct 2013 08:57 AM PDT

October 05, 2013

Spain centre back Raul Albiol has been forced to withdraw from coach Vicente del Bosque's squad for the holders' final two World Cup 2014 qualifiers at home to Belarus and Georgia because of a muscle injury in his right leg.

"Once the results of the tests on the Napoli player Raul Albiol conducted by the medical services of his club had been received and evaluated, the medical department of the Spanish national team recommended he not join up with the squad," the Iberian nation's soccer federation (RFEF) said on Spain's official website (www.sefutbol.com) today.

Albiol's absence leaves Del Bosque with only two specialist central defenders in Gerard Pique and Sergio Ramos and the coach was quoted in local media as saying he would name a replacement later today.

Real Sociedad's Inigo Martinez or Real Madrid's Nacho Fernandez are among his options.

Spain and France, who are assured of at least a place in the playoffs, both have 14 points at the top of European qualification Group I though the French have played one more match than their southern neighbours.

Spain, the world and European champions, host Belarus in Palma de Mallorca on October 11 and meet Georgia in Albacete four days later, when France play Finland in Paris. – Reuters, October 5, 2013.

Injured Froome pulls out of Tour of Lombardy

Posted: 05 Oct 2013 08:43 AM PDT

October 05, 2013

Tour de France champion Chris Froome has pulled out of tomorrow's Tour of Lombardy because of a back injury, his Team Sky said today.

"A scan this week revealed that Chris is suffering from an inflamed sacroiliac joint. We are monitoring him as a team but unfortunately the injury means he will not be able to take part in the race this weekend," team doctor Alan Farrell said in a statement.

Froome, who won the Tour de France in July, abandoned last Sunday's world championship road race in soaking conditions along with his seven British team mates.

The Tour of Lombardy is the World Tour's (elite) penultimate race of the season.

Froome leads the World Tour standings with an 80-point advantage over Spain's Joaquim Rodriguez of the Katusha team. – Reuters, October 5, 2013.

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The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz

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The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz

Lesbian love movie opens amid sex scene row

Posted: 04 Oct 2013 09:22 PM PDT

October 05, 2013

A lesbian love movie that scooped best film at Cannes opens next week, but its Palme d'Or has been tarnished by a row between the director and his stars over the filming of its graphic sex scenes.

The three-hour-long "Blue is the Warmest Colour" caused a sensation at this year's Cannes film festival, making stars out of its two lead actresses, Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux.

The pair were all smiles on the French Riviera as they posed for photographs with the film's French-Tunisian director, Abdellatif Kechiche.

Chairman of the jury Steven Spielberg hailed it as a "profound love story", adding that the judges had been "absolutely spellbound" by the brilliance of the women's performances and "the way the director... let the characters breathe".

But fast forward several months and the mood surrounding the film has soured, with bitter complaints from both actresses about Kechiche's working methods.

In an interview published on September 1 by US website The Daily Beast, Exarchopoulos said that she had been unprepared for the extent to which Kechiche required her to immerse herself in the role.

"Once we were on the shoot, I realised that he really wanted us to give him everything. Most people don't even dare to ask the things that he did, and they're more respectful," she said.

Seydoux complained that a 10-minute sex scene in the film took a full "10 days to shoot".

And both women complained about a fight scene.

"It was horrible. She (Seydoux) was hitting me so many times and (Kechiche) was screaming 'Hit her! Hit her again!'," Exarchopoulos said.

With the film due for release in France next week, the pair again aired their complaints, with Seydoux telling TV magazine Telerama that filming was "horrible" and that she did not think the film should be released.

'He loves his actresses to let go'

"For me, this film should not come out, it has been sullied too much. The Palme d'Or was only a brief moment of happiness, afterward I felt humiliated and dishonoured, I felt a rejection of my person, (and) that I live like a curse," she said.

Exarchopoulos, meanwhile, told French television that Kechiche was a "tortured genius" but that his demands had harmed both of them.

"He made us ill psychologically at times because he loves his actresses to let go and it's hard to do," she said.

For his part, Kechiche has responded by saying he believes the comments show "a lack of respect for a metier that I regard as sacred".

And French actress Hafsia Herzi, who has worked with Kechiche, launched a defence of the director.

He is a "very humane man who gives a chance to people even when they don't have experience", Herzi said in French film magazine So Film.

Critic and film historian Jean-Michel Frodon said Kechiche's film would join the ranks of movies that have seen well-publicised difficulties between directors and their stars.

Such tensions often came about when actors felt they were giving things to the camera "having exhausted their defences or self-control", he said.

Cannes film festival artistic director Thierry Fremaux, meanwhile, recalled that when "The Shining" came out audiences were unaware of the on-set problems between Jack Nicholson and Stanley Kubrick.

"Jack Nicholson today, like Malcolm McDowell in (Kubrick's) 'A Clockwork Orange', says that shooting was awful but that they are grateful to Kubrick for everything that the films brought them," he said.

"Blue is the Warmest Colour" opens in France and Belgium on October 9, followed by other European countries between October 10 and 25.

It will have a limited release in the United States from October 25, as well as slots at four film festivals this month, including Chicago and New York. – AFP, October 5, 2013.

Madonna reveals rape at knifepoint when young

Posted: 04 Oct 2013 08:10 PM PDT

October 05, 2013

US pop icon Madonna was raped at knifepoint when she was a young struggling artist in New York, she revealed in an article published Friday.

The 55-year-old also recalled being held up at gunpoint and having her seedy apartment burgled three times, saying she was "scared shitless" at times before she started making it as a singer and dancer.

In a piece for Harper's Bazaar, she also talked about her time living in Britain married to director Guy Ritchie, saying there is "nothing more beautiful than the English countryside," and revealed that she is now studying the Koran.

Describing her arrival in the Big Apple from the Midwest, where she grew up, she wrote: "New York wasn't everything I thought it would be. It did not welcome me with open arms," and described "paying my rent by posing nude for art classes, staring at people staring at me naked."

"The first year, I was held up at gunpoint. Raped on the roof of a building I was dragged up to with a knife in my back, and had my apartment broken into three times. I don't know why; I had nothing of value after they took my radio the first time.

"The tall buildings and the massive scale of New York took my breath away. The sizzling-hot sidewalks and the noise of the traffic and the electricity of the people rushing by me on the streets was a shock to my neurotransmitters," she added.

She continued: "I felt like I had plugged into another universe. I felt like a warrior plunging my way through the crowds to survive. Blood pumping through my veins, I was poised for survival.

"I felt alive.

"But I was also scared shitless and freaked out by the smell of piss and vomit everywhere, especially in the entryway of my third-floor walk-up."

The "Material Girl" singer, whose career has ranged from "Like a Virgin" to movie roles, the 1992 coffee table book "Sex" and who last toured in 2012, wrote the cover story to accompany a fashion photoshoot of her in typically provocative gear, including a bondage-style mask and a sword.

Moving on a decade a time, she recalled being a pop star in her 20s, embracing Kabbalah in her 30s, before marrying Ritchie and moving to Britain by the age of 45.

"I consider moving to a foreign country to be a very daring act. It wasn't easy for me .. I didn't understand pub culture. I didn't understand that being openly ambitious was frowned upon. Once again I felt alone.

"But I stuck it out and I found my way, and I grew to love English wit, Georgian architecture, sticky toffee pudding, and the English countryside. There is nothing more beautiful than the English countryside."

Madonna and Ritchie were divorced in 2008, and a decade later she is back in New York.

"I have started making films, which is probably the most challenging and rewarding thing I have ever done. I am building schools for girls in Islamic countries and studying the Koran. I think it is important to study all the holy books.

"As my friend Yaman always tells me, a good Muslim is a good Jew, and a good Jew is a good Christian, and so forth. I couldn't agree more." – AFP, October 5, 2013.

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The Malaysian Insider :: Features

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The Malaysian Insider :: Features

The Malaysian quandary

Posted: 04 Oct 2013 09:41 PM PDT

BY PAULIUS KUNCINAS
October 05, 2013

The Malaysian economy can no longer rely on government sector for growth, a central theme of the Najib government's Economic Transformation Plan. – The Malaysian Insider pic, October 5, 2013.Malaysia continues to inspire other nations seeking to avoid the so-called "Resource Curse". Yet the country that managed to circumnavigate "the Paradox of Plenty" struggles to reach escape velocity to break free from the much cited "Middle Income Trap".

To be sure, the "top down" policy cure that has been administered over the last five years has helped to deliver respectable GDP numbers. However, there is no running away from the fact that at this rate of expansion, the 2020 targets will likely be missed.

The risks are currently concentrated on the downside.

It seems that structural domestic factors rather than external constraints account for this relative underperfomance. Rather than facing a popular "Middle Income Trap" paradigm, Malaysia may be in fact experiencing another form of "Resource Curse".

Still rich in natural resources, Malaysia relies substantially on manufacturing and legacy low-cost advantages at a time when increase in productivity ought to be the dominant engine of growth.

The shift in productivity is taking place but very slowly. At around 4.55% a year, it is behind benchmark countries such as China that regularly posts productivity growth of above 8%.

Nowhere else is this more manifest than in the service sector statistics. Although services attracted the largest volume of approved investments back in 2011, it continues to account for just 54.6% of GDP compared to 70% and above common in advanced economies.

Service sector contribution would need to grow at least three times faster to reach the 70% benchmark by 2020.

The structure of services at a more granular level reveals a structural vulnerability. Some 50% of investment in Malaysia's service sector in 2012 came from the real estate compared to 0.3% in health services and 0.8% in education services.

In a country where already 73% of the population live in urban areas compared to 34.4% in Thailand, this could be seen as putting a lot of eggs in one basket.

Some analysts would argue that a great deal of new real estate stock is catering for growing foreign demand in retail and hospitality. However a run-up in household debt recently suggests another real estate bubble could be in the works.

Magic ingredient missing

To keep things in perspective compared to majority of Asean countries, Malaysia has run a tight macroeconomic ship with lower inflation and relatively stable sovereign and corporate balance sheets over the last five years.

It has done more to liberalise its transport, telecommunications and financial services sectors punching above its weight in FDI dollars. However the magic ingredient that will propel Malaysia to a higher income status still seems to be missing.

The real concern in the medium term as echoed by the credit rating agencies such as Fitch recently is that the engine of government stimulus and spending is about to be tested.

With debt to GDP at 51.7% compared to 39.8% back in 2008, the public sector has some room for manoeuvre.

However if Malaysia continues to add sovereign debt at the same rate, it may end up at 80% by 2018 roughly where Spain was before the 2008 crisis.

Economists often point out that as a net surplus country with a relatively high savings rate of 35% between 2008-2015 Malaysia has sufficient access to domestic liquidity and therefore does not need to borrow abroad.

The reality is with Malaysia's population aging along with the rest of Asia, its pension liabilities are also growing. Credit analysts also point to another 15% of government contingent liabilities.

The bottom line is that the Malaysian economy can no longer rely on government sector for growth – a central theme of the Economic Transformation Plan (ETP).

In that sense the government is right to say it should not allow its debt to exceed 55% of GDP because this could undermine investor confidence.

To shift away from government driven growth the government should expand the share of government welfare services funded through a broader tax base funded by consumption taxes.

This is in contrast to previous model of government-led investment which was largely funded through royalties from the national resource company Petronas that still accounts for a staggering 40% of government's revenue.

But therein lies Malaysia's quandary. What happens when the music stops? What happens when the government leaves the arena and lets private sector fend for itself?

Few companies in the private sector are genuinely comfortable with this prospect, especially in the fragile economic recovery the world is still experiencing post-2008 debt crisis.

The imperative of giving a lead to the private sector in economic development was stated already by the 9th Malaysia Plan back in 2006. Yet despite a few temporary surges in private sector activity, the overall picture is still one of strong parent reluctant to allow their children to stand on their own feet.

Policy errors

The Malaysian private sector remains addicted to government stimulus while the Malaysian public institutions are deeply embedded in the field of running economic affairs.

Overarching Keynesianism as opposed to Adam Smith's invisible continues to run the Malaysian economy.

One of the most often cited policy errors has been an attempt to try and solve the lack of private sector participation by forcing innovation and entrepreneurship from above as opposed to nurturing through education and incentives at a grass root level.

Recent studies show that contrary to popular belief the government does have a big role to play in stimulating innovation by providing infrastructure, investment in education and seed capital.

However without institutional reforms that promote risk-reward, create appropriate incentives for entrepreneurship and encourage meritocracy, innovation rarely takes root.

It simply becomes another pillar of the command economy which lacks in vibrancy and in the long run stagnates when the state can no longer afford to subsidise it.

This is however not an argument for removing state support and grants for SMEs. As the Scandinavian experience suggests, a state has an important role to play in protecting the vulnerable and providing a safety net for those risk takers and innovators that it seeks to cultivate.

When a small and medium enterprise embarks on a new venture, its founders should feel relatively safe in the knowledge that their children will be able to have access to education and medical care should things not work out.

Despite its better rankings, Malaysia, like the rest of South East Asia, continues to spend a disproportionate amount on subsidies compared to its spending on a welfare state.

A removal of the subsidy as was shown recently in Indonesia is a matter of educating the public and offering targeted subsidies, however imperfect these may be in practice.

The biggest challenge for Malaysia going forward is not one of reaching the 2020 goals but one of renegotiating the fundamental social contract with all the members of its society in a peaceful manner.

Achieving advanced income status in a purely statistical sense will be a hollow victory if it only benefits the top 20% of Malaysia's population. Since 2004, Malaysia's Gini coefficient has deteriorated from 37.9 to 46.2. The cost of living has increased faster than wages in urban areas.

Supporters of affirmative action cite these facts as a basis for more positive action. However well-intended these policies, there seems to be little evidence that they have addressed the core issue of economic inequality in the past.

Brain drain

If anything, these policies seem to make people who are supposed to benefit even less productive, denying them access to better employment opportunities.

While equality of opportunity is a necessary condition for social cohesion, active redistribution of wealth by limiting human capacity has usually backfired.

At an aggregate level, such policies cause market inefficiencies, monopolistic behaviour and skewed financial incentives. At an individual level, it has been the main cause for young talent outflow from the country.

In its turn, brain drain and lack of skills have been cited by Malaysian executives as the single most important factor in weighing on Malaysia's competitiveness, hampering its ability to move faster up the value chain.

For all the determination in economic policy-making and detailed implementation targets, this may be the missing variable in the escape velocity calculation.

Finding itself at a tough juncture, Malaysia is by no means doomed to failure, and defeatism that so often pervades European nations is not part of its national character.

Ambitious in setting goals and self critical in assessing its performance, it still has the ability to take its critics by surprise as it has done several times before. - October 5, 2013

* Paulius Kuncinas is the Regional Editor, Asia at Oxford Business Group.