Picture of the Day: Gingerbread Palace

Forbidden City made of gingerbread at the St. Regis Beijing

China may be the world's factory, pumping out clothes, toys, iPhones, and a zillion other things that people want for Christmas, but it is also getting into the holiday spirit -- with Chinese characteristics.

Exhibit A -- this Forbidden City made out of... gingerbread! This picture is from BBC correspondent Stephen McDonnell.

It's on show at The St. Regis Beijing, and includes the dragons in the centre panel, the stairs are dusted with sugar, though the golden roof is not.

Pretty impressive and kudos to the pastry team that must have spent weeks working on it! 

Anyone dare to take a bite?

The World's Thinnest Pasta

Very thin pasta called su filindeu or "threads of God"

Today I tried what might be the world's thinnest pasta at a small quaint Italian restaurant called Caffe La Tana on Commercial Drive.

From now until November 17, La Tana is offering this rare pasta called su filindeu for about CA$38, which comes in a flavourful lamb broth and bits of lamb that has been simmering for 24 hours, and topped with pecorino cheese and extra virgin olive oil.

Apparently only about 10 women know how to make this pasta called "threads of God" in Sardinia -- by hand.

It was served in a lamb broth and pecorino cheese

A story last year by the BBC interviewed one of the women who knows how to make su filindeu, and she made the dough every morning, pulling it into two, four, 16 noodles until she got 256 even threads that she places on a platter.

Chinese hand-pulled noodles come to mind, which is made in a similar way, but probably not hitting the dough on the table -- instead she dips it in either salt water or water to stretch it further. And she knows when the dough is ready to be stretched just by feeling it with her hands.

"Many people say that I have a secret I don't want to reveal," said Paola Abraini, smiling. "But the secret is right in front of you. It's my hands," she told the BBC.

The ingredients are only semolina wheat, water and salt.

In 2020 a team of engineers from pasta brand Barilla came to see if they could figure out how to make this thin pasta with a machine. They couldn't.

The summer of 2022 British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver came by to Abraini's to learn how to make this rarified pasta. After two hours, he gave up, saying, "I've been making pasta for 20 years and I've never seen anything like this."

Indeed! The pasta is even thinner than angel hair pasta, which probably explains why it needs a woman's touch to make it.

How does it taste? It was presented in a lattice shape (criss cross) and basically like very thin noodles in a heart-warming broth, the texture, as one of my dining companions said, like eating Chex cereal -- but much finer and smoother.

We were wondering perhaps a Chinese noodle expert could come to Sardinia to learn from Abraini... that would definitely push the evolution of Chinese noodles!

Caffe La Tana

635 Commercial Drive

Vancouver, BC

One City, Two Systems

Lee addresses over 200 financiers without a mask

The Global Financial Leaders' Investment Summit has kicked off just as Typhoon Nalgae approaches Hong Kong to cause the observatory to raise the T8 signal; all the top bankers are ensconced in the ballroom of the Four Seasons Hong Kong -- sans masks.

Practically no one attending the event is wearing a mask when anyone else outside the ballroom must wear one. And even Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu was maskless in the room. 

Fang says investors should not bet against China

Such is the double standard of the Hong Kong government in its desperate bid to tell the world the city is open for business.

"Don't bet against China," said Fang Xinghai, a vice chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission in a recorded message for more than 200 top financiers. 

"International investors [should] find out what is going on in China by themselves, and don't bet against China and Hong Kong."

Guess Fang couldn't make it in person to Hong Kong because it's so troublesome to return to the mainland? And how can foreigners go to China to see for themselves with such extreme Covid-19 measures? 

"As President Xi Jinping underscored during the 20th party congress, China's doors can only [open] bigger, and Hong Kong will play a very important role in the overall opening of China's economy and Chinese financial sector."

Only hotel staff wearing masks in the room

Also Fang's boast that China's doors can only open "bigger" going forward is akin to a pie in a sky, pigs can fly kind of notion. Xi did not mention anything about opening up anytime soon or focusing on the economy.

Fang even had the gall to say international media don't understand China very well so investors shouldn't read too much into it.

Wonder what the few foreign journalists left in China, like the BBC's Stephen McDonnell has to say about that.

Perhaps just as bad were some bankers lining up to prove they've drunk the Kool-aid.

UBS Group AG chairman Colm Kelleher was reported by Bloomberg as saying he doesn't read the American press and is "very pro-China." 

"We actually buy the story, but it's a bit waiting for Zero-Covid to open up in China," he said.

Kelleher claims to be "very pro-China"

He's insinuating they are literally waiting at China's doorstep for them to twist the door knob and open the door...

With China's economy floundering, and the banking and property sectors on shaky ground, foreign bankers are still bullish on China? Seriously?

Shows how much they love money more than anything else.

They may have to wait a while longer... possibly 2025?

Living in "Rotten-Tail" Buildings

Unfinished, and yet people live in buildings like this

There's a severe housing crisis in China -- millions of people have poured their hard-earned savings into apartments, hoping they can at least live in their biggest purchase, and that their property will appreciate in time.

But now developers have run out of cash to finish the buildings and their clients, the buyers, have run out of patience.

Some have staged protests at developers' or banks' offices, or refused to pay mortgages on their "rotten-tail buildings" -- or they have moved in.

People that McDonnell spoke to in Xi'an

The BBC's Stephen McDonnell went to visit some people who did just that in Xi'an.

It's a nondescript brown building with no windows, no electricity, no running water, and yet up to 200 people live there.

"We used up all our savings to buy our apartments," says one man. "It's been five years and we can't live in them. We can't bear it any longer."

He said it's been financially hard because of the Covid-19 pandemic, making it difficult to make money, and yet there are still car and mortgage payments that must be made.

"I feel helpless, I don't want to live this way, but we've no where to go," says a young man whose two young children, six and eight years old also live there. 

The residents get water in giant jugs from elsewhere, and cook in a communal kitchen. Periodically they can get a bit of electricity from solar panels. 

How will Xi solve this problem, Covid-19 related

One middle-aged woman told McDonnell that they cook whatever they are good at, or whatever they want to eat and share it with others. "We're like one big family," she says with a smile.

McDonnell wanted to ask them more, but then the police showed up and shooed him and his cameraman away.

There are so many more questions -- what do they do for toilets? Showers? How can they live with no windows and what about when winter sets in?

Apparently after McDonnell's visit, the residents were told construction would resume, but they were not convinced...