the most popular street foods you.docx
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The Most Popular Street Foods You've Never Heard Of
Every morning, much of Penang sits down to a bowl of koay teow th'ng: wide rice
noodles in any combination of duck, pork or chicken broth with floating fish balls and
hunks of meat, all garnished with crispy browned garlic.
The dish, thought to be an iteration of a noodle soup introduced to the island by
Chaozhou immigrants, may well be the island's most popular. So ubiquitous is it
between 7 a.m. and noon that at least seven koay teow th'ng stalls operate
simultaneously within a three-block radius of my George Town home.
Yet I rarely see tourists among the throngs of eaters. Most visitors to Penang, even
those well versed in local street foods Malaysians and Singaporeans excepted seem
unaware that the dish exists.
It isn't the only Asian street food to be loved by locals but ignored by visitors. Tourists
pound Bangkok's pavements in search of the perfect pad thai but pass on koay teow lad
naa, flat rice noodles stir-fried with black soy and doused with mild gravy. Travellers to
Hanoi seek out pho, yet overlook northern Vietnam's bun ca, rice noodles in a
dill-fragrant tomato and seafood broth with fish. Perhaps the best example of a
hometown favorite unloved by (mostly Western) foreigners is congee in Hong Kong.
"I'm not flying all the way to Asia to eat rice porridge," an acquaintance responded
recently when I advised her to seek it out during her three-day stay in the SAR.
I've often wondered what makes some local specialties sing in the eyes of visitors while
others go neglected. Some suffer from the Plain Jane Syndrome: a combination of
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monochromatic appearance and deceptively simple preparation that reduces surface
appeal. To the uninitiated, congee appears to be little more than a creamy near-paste of
overcooked rice; it's only natural that many would pass it over in favor of golden egg
noodles garnished with succulent pork.
And then there is what Leela Punyaratabandhu, a food writer whose cookbook of classic
Thai dishes will be published next year, calls the Intimidation Factor. She observes that
just as many visitors to Penang shun koay teow th'ng stalls, so do tourists tend to avoid
Thai wet-dry noodle shops.
"If I were a foreign visitor to Thailand I wouldn't know how and what to order," she
says, noting that knowledge of how a bowl of noodles is composed and what ingredients
are commonly available are prerequisite to confidently customizing an order (sample
instructions: "fat cellophane noodles, dry, fish balls, no crispy wonton, no
beansprouts").
But maybe the biggest reason some dishes, no matter how well-loved on home turf,
never achieve global street-food fame is rooted in an imprecise alchemy of migration
and marketing. By all rights pho, a deceptively simple combination of broth, rice
noodles, meat and bean sprouts, should take a back seat to a dish like bun rieu, an
intoxicating crab and tomato soup featuring cloud-like "dumplings" of crab fat. But as
Australian food writer and street-food tour leader Mark Lowerson points out, the large
number of pho shops opened overseas by Vietnamese emigrants mean it's "rare for a
tourist to come to Vietnam not knowing or having tried it somewhere".
The dish's popularity overseas has even looped back to influence how Vietnamese at
home advise visitors. Proud of what Mr. Lowerson describes as "Vietnam's most
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renowned contribution to world cuisine," most are likely to name pho as the top
must-try dish.
There are lessons here for travelers in search of great, but underrated, street foods. First,
forget what you know of the local cuisine from restaurants at home. Second, don't be
daunted by the challenge of ordering with inadequate information. Finally, don't be
fooled by appearances they're not always an indicator of taste.
(Robyn writes about food and travel. She's lived in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Bangkok, Ho
Chi Minh City and Kuala Lumpur. Two years ago she moved to Penang for the hawker
food, of course.)
stall[st:l]
n. vi.
vt.
compose[km'puz]
vt.
vi.
migration[mai'rein]
n.
verse[v:s]
n.
turf[t:f]
n. vt.
crab [krb]
n.
vt. vi.
confidently ['knfdntli]
adv.
radius ['reidis]
n. []
hunk[hk]
n.
adj.
indicator ['indikeit]video
n. [] []
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There are some people that are content with their situation in life, but everyone h
Change A Little A Day: Start From Now
as something they want to excel in; something they want to be proud of. Unfortunately,
most people dont have the drive to do something about it. They waste away their time
and talents day dreaming of what could be instead of living the life they want.
People are constantly taking the easy road in life: its less risky, it doesnt involve a lot of
effort and its comfortable. Change requires you to step out of your comfort zone and
into the unknown. You have to change yourself, your surroundings even your habits.
Change is difficult. If it were easy, we would all be famous billionaires living in
mansions. The fact that its hard is what makes change and improvement so great.
Improving your life will result in several positive outcomes such as, giving you a better
sense of self, making you a better person, mother father, friend, etc. and youll find
yourself being happier in general. You need to understand that changing yourself for
the better wont take away challenges in your lifeit will just prepare you to be able to
face them.
If you have tried to change in the past and failed, dont quit. You can still change and
start making a difference in your life. The following tips will get you set on the path to
action. When you do these things, you are preparing yourself to do more than just
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dream about the life you want; you are getting yourself on the path to achieving it. Use
these tips as guidelines to make the changes in your life that you want to see.
1. The first step toward changing is knowing what you want to change and why.
Take the time to sit down and write down your goals. Also write down why you want to
change; make this as in-depth as you can because it will be a foundation for you. This is
something you will be able to go back to when you are feeling like its too hard or you
have forgotten why its important.
2. Tell people your goals.
It can be embarrassing for some people to share with others whats in their heart; but
its necessary. In order to change, you have to be held accountable. Letting someone
else know what you are trying to do will ensure that you have someone to answer to.
Make sure this person is someone who will continue to encourage you and isnt afraid to
ask how things are moving along.
3. Replace bad habits with good ones.
Stopping something cold turkey is hard, so its best to replace the unwanted habit with
something positive. If you have a major addiction, there are other steps you will have to
take. If its just a bad habit, such as looking at Facebook too much, replace that with
something like going for a walk around the block. If you are trying to stick within a
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budget, play a game with your family instead of going shopping. Find something
positive to do that will replace the negative things in your life.
4. Change is not easy, but its easier when you have someone to do it with.
Find a partner, coach, friend or family member who might be in the same situation as
you. If you want to start working out, set up times when the two of you can go exercise
together. If you want to get up earlier, call each other in the morning and encourage one
another to get up and get moving. Whatever changes you want to make, find a way to
include someone else in them. You will be each others support, can hold one another
accountable for what you do or dont do.
5. Get rid of distractions.
There are things everywhere in our houses, our workplaces, and even our schools that
can and will distract us from changing into the kind of people we want to be. Our
phones, computers, iPads, etc. are all wonderful tools that we have at our disposal, but
they can also hinder us. We spend so much time texting, emailing and checking various
social media platforms. That is time that could be used doing something productive.
Limit the amount of time you spend on the computer. Set an alarm and when it goes off,
youre done.
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youre doing those things. When you make a change, even if its something simple,
acknowledge it, dont brush it off like it doesn't mean anything. It means everything! It
means thatyoure actually doing it, youre changing.
entertain[,ent'tein]
vt. vi.
budget['bdit]
n. vt.
vi. adj.
distract[dis'trkt]
vt.
educational[,edju:'keinl]
adj.
embarrass[im'brs]
vt.
couch[kaut]
n. vi.
vt.
risky ['riski]
adj.
mansion['mnn]
n.
accountable['kauntbl]
adj.
productive[pru'dktiv]adj.
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How To Be An Irresistible Leader
What is it exactly that makes some people command far more respect and attention,
even devotion, than their peers? And if you're not born with the kind of magnetism that
compels people to admire and follow you, can you acquire it? "Charisma" comes from a
Greek word that means "gift from the gods," which may explain why most of us assume
you've either got it or you don't.
Those strategies are spelled out in Compelling People: The Hidden Qualities That Make
Us Influential. The book, which includes some material the authors have already taught
as lecturers at a few top B-schools, is now required reading at Harvard, Columbia, and
the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown.
KNP
Communications
Compelling People: The
Hidden Qualities That Make Us Influential
Harward
ColumbiaMcDonough School of Business
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It turns out that the ineffable thing we call charisma has two primary elements, strength
and warmth. Strength, by the authors' lights, is "a person's capacity to make things
happen," while warmth is "the sense that a person shares our feelings, interests, and
view of the world." Getting elected to public office usually takes both. For instance, the
authors note, "George W. Bush ran in 2000 as a compassionate (warm) conservative
(strong)."
2000W
Sounds good, but there's a catch: Balancing the two qualities, which are fundamentally
different or even opposed, is tricky. Warmth -- including friendliness, openness, and a
disarmingly self-deprecating sense of humor -- may make you likeable, but it doesn't
necessarily command respect, while strength alone can come across as icy or even scary.
What we call charisma, magnetism, or executive presence is the knack of projecting
both at once -- an ability, the authors observe, that is "so rare that we celebrate, elevate,
and envy those who manage it."
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Not to worry. Compelling People goes into exhaustive detail about how to be -- or seem
-- strong and warm at the same time, addressing everything from how and when to
smile, to how to modulate your voice in given kinds of situations, to the specific
eyelid-tensing technique behind Clint Eastwood's famous power stare.
If you've never given much thought to basics like simply shaking hands, the book
suggests you start. The key, apparently, is applying "conscious focus" to preparing the
flexors and extensors in your fingers: "It is important that your handshake match that
of the person you are greeting," whether it's bone-crushing or dead-fish, so "keep those
hand muscles flexed as you go in, and you'll be ready for any grip strength you come
across."
Naturally for a couple of communications coaches, the authors offer remedies for habits
of speech that undermine people's influence at work. One of these is "uptalk," that
annoying Valley-girl intonation that makes every sentence turn up at the end like a
question. It's a verbal tic that inadvertently signals "submissive approval seeking" and
"creates the impression the speaker is uncertain about things that should not be in
doubt" -- neither of which conveys strength (or warmth either, for that matter).
Unfortunately, uptalk can be a tough habit to break. If you suspect it's holding you back,
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the authors recommend recording yourself and "forcing yourself to endure listening" to
how uninspiring you sound.
Although Compelling People aims to show you how to be your own charisma coach, the
authors are careful to avoid leaving the impression that, once you've mastered all of
their tricks, you're done. Cultivating one's own personal magnetism is a process that
never ends, it seems.
"Ronald Reagan had decades of professional acting experience before he brought his
grandfatherly cowboy persona to the national stage," the book points out. "Even after
years as a successful politician, Bill Clinton sought out every expert he could find to
learn how to connect with people better. The best communicators are the ones who
realize how much room they still have for improvement."
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Even President Obama, generally considered to score pretty high on charisma, could
tweak a few of his mannerisms, according to the authors -- for example, a habit of
speaking with his chin raised so that he is literally looking down his nose at his
audience: "[Obama] has been guilty of wearing this expression on many occasions and,
when he does, his demeanor goes from cool to cold." The takeaway: Unless you happen
to already hold the most powerful job in the free world, try to keep your chin level while
you're talking.
Twitter
magnetism['mnitizm]
n.
compel[km'pel]
vt.
charisma[k'rizm]
n.
ineffable[in'efbl]
adj.
disarmingly[dis'a:mili]
adv.
self-deprecating[,self'deprikeitivideo
adj. self-deprecatory
modulate ['mdjuleit, -du-]
vt. vi.
flexor['fleks]
n. []
tweak[twi:k]
n. vt.
demeanor[di'mi:n]
n.